Entries tagged with “Pittsburgh” from In The News

Steeltown Entertainment Project is pleased to announce the addition of three panelists for the event on November 7th which will kick off the Film Factory!

Announced just this week as guests for the opening night of the Three Rivers Film Festival on November 6th are Pittsburgh native and co-star of the new movie “Precious” Xosha Roquemore, and screenwriter of “Precious” Geoffrey Fletcher.

Despite fits and starts and many changes along the way (and then changes to those changes), CBS’s “Three Rivers” is fine.

It’s not great, it’s not awful. It’s an adequate, conventional CBS-y medical drama about transplant surgeons set at Pittsburgh’s fictional Three Rivers Regional Medical Center.

What makes it CBS-y? “Three Rivers” (9 p.m. Sunday, KDKA) is a procedural medical drama, which means character development comes second to plots-of-the-week. It’s also a very safe show that’s generally uplifting with characters that evince a bland camaraderie.

This Sunday I will be heading to Milwaukee, Wisconsin where our film, “My Tale of Two Cities” will be shown at a keynote session of the 55th Annual Convention of the International Downtown Association, representing over 650 downtown organizations from around the world.

While Philadelphia and Pittsburgh have hosted frequent big-budget film productions within the last few years, Harrisburg is starting to get similar opportunities.

As the state budget is being reviewed, it looks as if arts funding might see enormous cuts this year, and may be completely eliminated in the 2010 fiscal year.

As the state budget is being reviewed, it looks as if arts funding might see enormous cuts this year, and may be completely eliminated in the 2010 fiscal year.

Short films will have top billing at the fourth annual Johnstown Film and Wine Festival.

The festival will be held at 6:30 p.m. July 8-10 at the Johnstown Flood Museum, 304 Washington St. in downtown Johnstown, and at 7:30 p.m. July 11 at the Heritage Discovery Center, 201 Sixth Ave. in the Cambria City section of Johnstown.

Shelley Johansson, director of communications and marketing at Johnstown Area Heritage Association, which sponsors the festival, is seeing more entries every year.

From The Tribune-Review

Carl Kurlander is a Hollywood screenwriter (“St. Elmo’s Fire”), a TV writer-producer (“Saved By the Bell”) and a visiting senior lecturer at the University of Pittsburgh. He recently produced and directed “My Tale of Two Cities,” a funny and heartfelt comeback story starring the City of Pittsburgh that sold out the Byham Theater in November at its Pittsburgh premiere.

Kurlander currently is working on a documentary about how Dr. Jonas Salk and his team at the University of Pittsburgh conquered the most feared disease of the last century, polio. For more information about “My Tale of Two Cities,” check out www.mytaleoftwocities.com.

This fall as part of Pittsburgh 250, a 90 minute film titled, "Greetings From Pittsburgh: Neighborhood Narratives" will showcase some of Pittsburgh's most recognizable neighborhoods such as Bloomfield, the Strip District, Oakland, Regent Square, and Homestead.

Eutechnyx, a British software developer, best known for designing games such as "Big Mutha Truckers," and "The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift" has its sights set on Pittsburgh as its US headquarters.

The Pittsburgh Film Office has announced that principal photography has begun on a new comedy being shot in the city.

In many American cities, transience in one's 20s and 30s is an accepted part of modern life, but Pittsburghers, unaccustomed to young people leaving town during the city's manufacturing heyday, continue to wring their hands over such departures.

The theme of Pittsburgher's coming together played a prominent role during the events surrounding the premiere of Carl Kurlander's documentary "My Tale of Two Cities" at last week's Sonoma Valley Film Festival.

Once a Pittsburgher, always a Pittsburgher.

Carl Kurlander proved that theorem during the Sonoma Valley Film Festival, which attracted a 93-year-old woman from Mountain View, Calif., who left Pittsburgh in 1954 but still considers the place home.

She saw Kurlander’s “My Tale of Two Cities” during the festival, which also honored actor-turned-director Michael Keaton, earlier this month.

To read the full article click here

If movies are your thing, Pittsburgh’s a pretty great place to be. No, seriously.

For a small city in the hinterlands, far from the coastal cultural capitals, we have an embarrassment of cinematic riches that we really shouldn’t take for granted.

To read the full article, click here

This year's Sonoma Valley Film Festival, which runs from April 9-13, will have a distinctly Pittsburgh feel n'at as native son's Michael Keaton and Carl Kurlander will be featured prominently in festival festivities.

Monday, March 3, 2008

This article was published in the March 2008 issue of the North Hills Monthly Magazine which is available for free at local area establishments.

According to Pittsburgh Councilman Bill Peduto, creator of the council on the arts in Pittsburgh, "The arts revitalize neighborhoods better than bringing in Walgreen's to street corners." As part of this credo, Peduto presented a city council proclamation at the Women in Film and Media's first Annual Opal Awards late last year. Women in Film and Media is an international organization with 47 chapters worldwide. The organization focuses on everything from education, mentoring, and resources for those involved in television, radio, video, film, videographers, and actors. WIFM has a very active chapter in Western Pennsylvania.

From Family Communications Inc.

(Pittsburgh) - Since 1968, when Mister Rogers' Neighborhood made its national public television debut, Fred Rogers began each episode with his simple signature question in song: "Won't You Be My Neighbor?"
In honor of what would have been Mister Rogers' 80th birthday on March 20, fans of his show are being asked to wear a sweater, as Fred did on each show.

Originally published in the Blog, Burgh Diaspora
Wednesday, February 20, 2008

I'm blogging from a hospital in Boulder, Colorado. Yesterday at 3pm local time, my wife gave birth to a healthy baby girl. Pittsburgh's global extended family is now one member stronger. The Front Range may be my place of current residence, but it will never be home. The demands of economic globalization does scatter the members of a community, but these forces also have the ironic effect of strengthening our ties to one location.