I always love the case study they do each year. This year's was on Broken English, written and directed by Zoe Cassavettes (yes, John and Geena's daughter) and starring the always interesting Parker Posey. I haven't seen the film yet, but I'm going to try to get in later in the week. On the basis of her first film, a short, shown six years ago at Sundance, Zoe got an agent. The agent found Zoe scripts to direct, but she wasn't interested in them and realized she didn't want to direct someone else's script.

Six years later, she's finally got her first feature completed. Andrew Fierberg, the contrary producer I liked from the panel the other day, teamed up with Mark Cuban's HDNet, which has $2 million budgets for its films. They did just a 20-day shoot, had rain most of the time (it's supposed to take place during the summer), and had plenty of other obstacles. But Zoe and her team are impressively easygoing. I really like her straightforwardness. She's very down-to-earth.

Checked out a couple shorts at the Film Music Festival. Goalkeepers is a sweet film about Israeli and Palestinian boys brought together to play soccer (coached, at least a bit ironically, by a young German man). Sustainable Table shows the horrors of pesticides and mass-produced livestock. The film comes from Chapman (my film school). Nobody but a couple of the festival staff came to these films. I've got my work cut out for me getting people to my screening Friday night.

Back on the Sundance side of the street, I saw Ezra, about a child soldier recounting his experience before a truth and reconciliation commission. His testimony turns into a kind of trial. The film was not obvious or sentimental. There are some 300,000 child soldiers in the world today.