Georgians work to be screened at 2006 Sundance Film Festival
ATLANTA, January 20, 2006 – Two Georgia filmmakers' works will be screened at this month's 2006 Sundance Film Festival. The world premieres of feature films by Georgian screenwriters/directors Hadjii and James Ponsoldt are scheduled during the festival that runs through January 29 in Park City, Utah. Somebodies, by Brunswick screenwriter and director Hadjii, was one of 16 films selected from 1,004 submissions to screen in Sundance's American Dramatic Independent Feature Film Competition. Shot in Athens, Georgia, Somebodies is the story of a black college student stumbling along the path to responsible adulthood while surrounded by eccentric relatives, prankster classmates and somewhat-rehabilitated ex-cons. The cast includes Hadjii, Kaira Whitehead, Pat Brown, Tyler Craig, Carlos Davis, Nard Houston, Nick Lewis and Iron E Singleton. The screening of director/screenwriter James Ponsoldt's Off the Black is presented as part of the Spectrum program. New to the festival, the Spectrum program presents 24 out-of-competition dramatic and documentary works by some of the most promising new independent filmmakers from the U.S. and abroad. Spectrum films are eligible for the Audience Award at the 2006 Sundance Film Festival. In Off the Black, an unusual friendship develops between an aging high school baseball umpire and a teenage pitcher after the young player vandalizes the older man's house. Both James Ponsoldt and Hadjii (winner and finalist respectively) have been honored in the Atlanta Film Festival's Perfect Pitch Competition, which is sponsored by the Georgia Film, Video & Music Office, a division of the Georgia Department of Economic Development. Perfect Pitch is in its sixth year and held during the Atlanta Film Festival to give screen writers the chance to compete for the chance to pitch their scripts to Hollywood. Perfect Pitch contestants submit a one-page synopsis of a script, with only three minutes to pitch their work to a panel of film producers. The winner is awarded an all-expenses-paid trip to Los Angeles that coincides with 'Georgia Night in L.A.,' hosted by GDEcD's Film, Video and Music Office. Pondsoldt was the Perfect Pitch winner two years ago while Hadjii was a Perfect Pitch finalist last year. The Georgia Department of Economic Development (GDEcD) is the state's sales and marketing arm, the lead agency for attracting new business investment, encouraging the expansion of existing industry and small businesses, locating new markets for Georgia products, attracting tourists to Georgia, and promoting the state as a location for film, video and music projects, as well as planning and mobilizing state resources for economic development. For more information, visit www.georgia.org.