saturday april 14

THE SOMETIMES HILARIOUS PAIN OF WRITING FUNNY

Program runs 90 min.

In partnership with The Writers Guild Foundation, we're delighted to present a lively discussion with a talented group of comedy writers whose collective experiences cover writing and directing for film, TV, and theater. Taking great pride in following in the footsteps of masters like Aristophanes, Shakespeare, Oscar Wilde, Billy Wilder, and Woody Allen, these writers share something critical-they all take very seriously their job of making people laugh. Here, they'll reveal how they do that job, from creating story ideas to crafting jokes-dozens of them-for each script that features their name.

Award-winning comedy writer Elias Davis will moderate a conversation with Shauna Cross, Alexander Payne, Mike Reiss, and Robert Weide.* A sampling of their credits include The Descendants, "The Simpsons," "It's Garry Shandling's Show," "Charles in Charge," "American Masters" featuring Woody Allen and Mort Sahl, Lenny Bruce: Swear to Tell the Truth, "Curb Your Enthusiasm," Sideways, Whip It, What to Expect When You're Expecting, "M*A*S*H," "Frasier," "Cheers," and "The Mary Tyler Moore Show." Collectively, they have won Oscars, Emmys, the Humanitas Prize, Peabody Awards, and awards from the Writers Guild of America, the Directors Guild of America and the National Stuttering Association.

(Please see below for Panelist Biographies.)

According to a well-known writers' adage: "If it's not on the page, it's not on the stage." Join us for what's sure to be a spirited conversation on how those pages get made.

*Panelists confirmed at press time. Check www.aspenfilm.org for updates.

90 min. followed by filmmaker Q&A.
Program play order to be announced.
Filmmaker guests expected.

Even Gods
Large-hearted Hughie has acclimated to life in a homeless shelter. But when his estranged daughter comes to visit, the boundaries of his seemingly solid situation begin to slip as he find himself circling a life he thought lost forever. (Phil Harrison, UK/Ireland, 18 min., F)

Eyes on the Stars
A young boy in the 1950s dreams of going into space. Part of the StoryCorps oral history project. (The Rauch Brothers, USA, 3 min., A)

Installation
Workers assembling an immense Richard Serra sculpture experience their own moments of artistic grace. (Laura Green, USA, 7 min., D)

L Train
Sunny, a self-absorbed teen slogging her way through an inner-city blizzard, is given the chance to perform an altruistic act. (Anna Musso, USA, 11 min., F)

Lunch Date
Getting dumped always hurts. Especially when your soon-to-be-ex sends his 14-year-old brother to break the news. (Sasha Collington, UK, 11 min., F)

The Op Shop
A mysterious donation sends the sales clerks at a suburban thrift store on a journey of self-discovery. (Lee Rogers, Australia, 7 min., F)

Out Living It
One of the most celebrated adventure filmmakers follows a group of young-adult cancer fighters and survivors as they raft and climb beyond their diagnosis, defying illness and reclaiming their lives. The result? Epic magic. (Michael Brown, USA, 39 min., D)

90 min. followed by filmmaker Q&A.
Program play order to be announced.
Filmmaker guests expected.

The Arm
This darkly comic look at modern-day peer pressure exposes the shortcomings of communicating through technology. (Brie Larson/Sarah Ramos/Jessie Ennis, USA, 9 min., F)

Felix
Every action provokes a reaction, at any age. (Anselm Belser, Germany, 1 min., F)

The Heist
Three enthusiastic but hilariously inept bank robbers review the big plan. It's a complicated business. (Thomas Hefferon, UK/Ireland, 9 min., F)

The House
In this colorfully imagined tale, a little girl and her pet fish tend to her grandmother, dodging the unhelpful antics of her eccentric family as the days-and house-spin round. (David Buob, Germany, 7 min., A)

The North London Book of the Dead
W (Ed Gaughan) struggles to accept the death of his domineering mother (Gwen Taylor), only to discover that she's happily spending her afterlife in a London suburb. A comic tale of loss and acceptance based on a Will Self short story. (Jake Lushington, UK, 15 min., F)

Out of Erasers
In this eerily evocative film noir, a young woman flees across a strange city, trying to evade the mysterious malady gradually transforming her world. (Erik Rosenlund, Denmark/Sweden, 15 min., F)

The Voorman Problem
An enigmatic prisoner (Tom Hollander) makes an outrageous claim, and it's up to Dr. Williams (Martin Freeman) to assess its validity in this darkly amusing thought-provoker. (Mark Gill, UK, 12 min., F)

When You Cross the Line (Gil Gutlick)
From Home Front, a series of mini-portraits of Palestinians and Israelis involved in nonviolent protest in an East Jerusalem neighborhood, comes the personal story of Gil, a former Israeli soldier who takes on a surprising role. (Rebekah Wingert-Jabi, Israel/USA, 8 min., D)

**LATE ADDITION**
Jaso
A young girl, born in Liberia, and her adoptive Colorado parents discuss helping her overcome her health challenges. This year's winner of the Basalt High School's student-run Rocky Mountain Student Filmfest. Presented as part of our education outreach program. (Cal Barr, USA, 10 min., D)

comedy screenwriting panelists

SHAUNA CROSS
Shauna Cross is a former roller derby athlete and screenwriter from Austin, Texas. Her 2009 debut film Whip It was an adaptation of her novel Derby Girl. Her comedy What To Expect When You're Expecting (an adaptation of the best-selling pregnancy manual) opens on May 25. Continuing her run at adapting books with catchy titles and no story, she is currently working on the screenplay for Go The Fuck To Sleep for Fox 2000, which will be followed by an original comedy, Rumspringa, set in the Amish world. She is also busy scheming her directorial debut.

In 2008, Cross was named one of Variety's Top Ten Screenwriters to Watch. She happily bounces between writing indie and commercial comedies and refuses to be jaded by the business. For Cross, making movies is best gig in the world; every time you start a new project, you get to live a whole new life.

ELIAS DAVIS
Comedy writer Elias Davis's first job in the entertainment business was as an usher at CBS Television City in Hollywood. It was there that he found a writing partner, David Pollock, with whom he created most of his scripts. Davis has written countless TV variety and situation comedies including The Carol Burnett Show, Mary Tyler Moore, Chico and the Man, Growing Pains, M*A*S*H, Cheers, and Frasier. His film work includes contributing to movies, both produced (Bad Boys, Toy Story 2) and never made.

Davis has served on the board and as an officer of the Writer's Guild of America West. Though a UCLA graduate, he hid that fact during the years he taught writing at USC Film School. He is a recipient of the WGA, the Emmy, the Peabody and the Humanitas awards. Davis currently serves as an officer of the Writer's Guild Foundation and as chair of Aspen Film's Entertainment Advisory council.

ALEXANDER PAYNE
Originally from Omaha, Nebraska, Alexander Payne earned his MFA in Film at UCLA. He made his feature film debut with Citizen Ruth (1996) and followed up with Election (1999), which won Best Screenplay from the Writers' Guild of America and the New York Film Critics Circle, as well as an Oscar nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay. About Schmidt (2002), premiered in competition at the Cannes Film Festival and opened the New York Film Festival. Both Sideways (2004) and his latest film, The Descendants (2011), won Oscars for Best Adapted Screenplay and were nominated for four others, including Best Picture and Best Director.

MIKE REISS
Mike Reiss has won four Emmys and a Peabody Award during his twenty-one years writing for The Simpsons. He ran the show in Season 4, which Entertainment Weekly called "the greatest season of the greatest show in history." In 2006, Reiss received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Animation Writers Caucus.

Reiss co-created the animated series The Critic and created two long-running series of cartoon shorts for Icebox.com: Hard Drinkin' Lincoln and Queer Duck (about a gay duck). Queer Duck was named one of "The 100 Greatest Cartoons of All Time" by the BBC. Queer Duck: The Movie was released to rave reviews in July 2006, winning awards in New York, Chicago, San Diego, Sweden, Germany and Wales.

Reiss is also an award-winning mystery writer and has produced seventeen children's books (but no children).

ROBERT WEIDE
Robert Weide's documentary films, chronicling iconic American comedians, include The Marx Brothers in a Nutshell, the Emmy-winning W.C. Fields Straight Up, Mort Sahl: The Loyal Opposition, and Lenny Bruce: Swear to Tell the Truth (another Emmy winner and Oscar nominee for Best Feature Documentary). In 1996, Weide wrote and produced the feature film Mother Night, based on the Kurt Vonnegut novel.

In 1999, Weide produced and directed the HBO comedy special, Larry David: Curb Your Enthusiasm, which would serve as the springboard for the Golden Globe-winning series, Curb Your Enthusiasm, for which Weide served as principal director and Executive Producer for the first five seasons. He was Emmy-nominated for Outstanding Comedy Series and Outstanding Comedy Directing for four years running, winning the directing award during the third season. He returned to the series last year to direct the much talked-about episode, Palestinian Chicken, which earned him the prestigious DGA Award for comedy direction.

2008 saw the release of Weide's feature directorial debut, How To Lose Friends & Alienate People, a British production starring Simon Pegg, Kirsten Dunst, Jeff Bridges, and Megan Fox.

In 2011, Weide returned to his documentary roots with the 3 1/2 hour special, Woody Allen: A Documentary, which aired on the PBS series American Masters. Made with the full cooperation of the iconic and elusive filmmaker, the film met with glowing reviews and stands as the definitive biography on its subject.

The official website for his Whyaduck Productions can be found at www.duckprods.com.