Independent Film

PITTSBURGH - FrackNation is a new documentary that attacks opponents of fracking for oil and gas, but it also raises a bigger question: Is it possible to criticize environmentalists without being a tool for big industry? Fracking - or hydraulic fracturing - is a method of stimulating oil and gas from deep underground that has led to a historic boom in U.S. production while also stoking controversy over its possible impact on the environment and human health. FrackNation , an independent documentary produced by Los Angeles-based filmmakers Phelim McAleer and Ann McElhinney, addresses the issue from an unusual perspective.

Fargo, the dark, comic film about a bungled kidnapping in the Midwest, won six Independent Spirit Awards Saturday at a ceremony honoring independent film in Santa Monica, Calif. The Gramercy Pictures film, up for seven Academy Awards tonight, won for best feature film, director Joel Coen, actress Frances McDormand, actor William H. Macy, screenplay and cinematography. Another Oscar contender, actor-director Billy Bob Thornton, took the best-first-feature award for Sling Blade.

You know Danny Glover has muscle, both box-office and biological. What you don't know until you see all 6-foot-4 of him crammed into a T-shirt and dungarees is that his forearms bulge larger than Schwarzenegger's thighs. Little wonder that Glover stars in the forthcoming Predator 2, sequel to Arnold's 1987 action picture. Admittedly, Glover is prouder of his starring role in Mandela, the 1987 anti-apartheid HBO movie, than he is of playing the leader of a SWAT team fighting an alien life force.

Her dream is to row in the Olympics. Twice she has come so close - only to be named an alternate. She has invested eight years of her life in this quest. Now she is 30, a high school crew coach working for her ex-boyfriend. Sparks still fly between them, yet the Olympic flame still flickers. What now? Such is the predicament of Abi Brooks, the protagonist in Backwards , an independent film being shot in and around Philadelphia, especially Boathouse Row, the epicenter of the city's rowing culture.

Age: 50 Education: Bachelor's degree from Yale, where she studied theater and art history. Job: Co-owner of the Philadelphia Eagles. President of Eagles Youth Partnership, the team's charitable arm. Cofounder of Vox3 Films, an independent film company in New York. Previous jobs: Developed a side company producing films for Ron Moler in Hollywood; associate produced the 1990 film I Love You To Death . Family: Lives in Wynnewood with husband Jeffrey and their teenage daughter and son.

Every major studio now has a "boutique" label, from Universal Focus to Paramount Classics, threatening to make the Independent Film just another cog in the corporate machine. This week sees two films from different channels trying to steer clear of the mainstream. IFC Films has made a name for itself releasing the biggest independent film of all, "My Big Fat Greek Wedding. " As worthwhile is its deft handling of "Y Tu Mama Tambien" (VHS: priced for rental; DVD: $26.99), a sexually frank coming-of-age tale from Mexico.

One of highlights of the U.S. Film Festival, which concluded last weekend in Park City, Utah, was the look on director Jim McBride's face after the premiere of his New Orleans police thriller, The Big Easy. "They like it," he said with a grin. The Kings Road production, starring Dennis Quaid and Ellen Barkin, was rejected by the major studios but will be released by new distributor New Century/Vista this month. And the buzz from the festival (led by Columbia chief David Puttnam)

Speculation that Robert Redford would open one of his first Sundance Cinemas on the University of Pennsylvania campus gained momentum yesterday with school sources reporting the actor himself was here in town. Redford, who wants to build a national chain of independent film houses with General Cinema Corp., was reportedly scouting a University-owned site at the corner of 40th and Walnut - now a parking lot - for an eight-screen hall. The deal is still not confirmed, and there's no announcement just yet about specifics.

Max Irons and Jake Abel are chasing each other up and down a hallway at the Ritz-Carlton in Center City while Stephenie Meyer looks on with a maternal smile. They're blowing off steam after a solid block of media appearances to promote their new film, The Host , an adaptation of Meyer's 2008 best-seller. The film, Meyer's follow-up to the blockbuster Twilight series, opens Friday. The actors - either of whom could give Robert Pattinson a run for his money as a movie heartthrob - form two sides of a very peculiar love triangle (or perhaps more accurately a love rectangle)

Gil Friesen, 75, who achieved success in films and television but was best known for helping to establish A&M Records as an artists' haven for an eclectic stable of performers that included Carole King, the Police, Barry White, and the Carpenters, died Dec. 13 at his home in Los Angeles. The cause was complications of leukemia, said Herb Alpert, the trumpeter and band leader who cofounded A&M Records with the music promoter Jerry Moss in 1962 and hired Mr. Friesen as one of its first employees.

Max Irons and Jake Abel are chasing each other up and down a hallway at the Ritz-Carlton in Center City while Stephenie Meyer looks on with a maternal smile. They're blowing off steam after a solid block of media appearances to promote their new film, The Host , an adaptation of Meyer's 2008 best-seller. The film, Meyer's follow-up to the blockbuster Twilight series, opens Friday. The actors - either of whom could give Robert Pattinson a run for his money as a movie heartthrob - form two sides of a very peculiar love triangle (or perhaps more accurately a love rectangle)

PITTSBURGH - FrackNation is a new documentary that attacks opponents of fracking for oil and gas, but it also raises a bigger question: Is it possible to criticize environmentalists without being a tool for big industry? Fracking - or hydraulic fracturing - is a method of stimulating oil and gas from deep underground that has led to a historic boom in U.S. production while also stoking controversy over its possible impact on the environment and human health. FrackNation , an independent documentary produced by Los Angeles-based filmmakers Phelim McAleer and Ann McElhinney, addresses the issue from an unusual perspective.

Gil Friesen, 75, who achieved success in films and television but was best known for helping to establish A&M Records as an artists' haven for an eclectic stable of performers that included Carole King, the Police, Barry White, and the Carpenters, died Dec. 13 at his home in Los Angeles. The cause was complications of leukemia, said Herb Alpert, the trumpeter and band leader who cofounded A&M Records with the music promoter Jerry Moss in 1962 and hired Mr. Friesen as one of its first employees.

"KEEP THE LIGHTS On" is such an honest and intimate depiction of a troubled relationship, the audience can't help but feel like a pack of voyeurs. The award-winning independent film, featured at this year's Frameline film festival in San Francisco, is a powerfully poignant account of a gay couple dealing with one partner's drug addiction. Writer/director Ira Sachs ("The Delta") based the story partly on his own experience of loving an addict, and every situation resonates with a been-through-it-all realness.

The murder of U.S. ambassador to Libya John Christopher Stevens was made more tragic by the irony that he was one of that country's biggest fans, and thoroughly committed to helping its democracy blossom. Initially, the attack Tuesday on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, which left Stevens and three other Americans dead, was believed to be a spontaneous response by Muslims to an independent film made in America that depicts the prophet Muhammad as a sexual deviate. That film was also blamed for a similar attack on the U.S. embassy in Cairo; no one died in the Egyptian incident.

Queer cinema finally has come into its own, says Ray Murray, cofounder of Philadelphia QFest, the region's leading festival of gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender films, which opens Thursday night with director Terracino's romantic dramedy Elliot Loves.   "There are only a few films this year about coming out" of the closet, says Murray. "Those films have almost been retired, whereas 15 years ago they were the staple. " Adds Murray, "That is one of the greatest changes" since QFest was founded 18 years ago, "and it marks real progress.

PHILADELPHIA NATIVE Rel Dowdell had a fairy-tale baptism in the world of independent film. While at film school at Boston University, Dowdell pitched his idea for a student short film to Esther Rolle, expanded that to a feature called "Train Ride," released it on DVD and saw it heralded as one of the top 10 titles of the year for 2000. That's the good news. The bad news: Dowdell had exhausted his lifetime supply of good news. He was about to discover firsthand just how hard it is to make and distribute a truly independent movie.

A DYING ARTIST, a crooked cop in search of his kidnapped son, a murdered civil-rights pioneer and a woman in love with a mechanical man are taking the Bolt Bus down from New York for a two-night stand in Philly. Four films that premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival, the film fete co-founded by Robert De Niro, will play for free at the Trocadero Theatre courtesy of the Awesome Fest. "Our goal from day one has been to bring the best of the best [of independent film] through this city," said Josh Goldbloom, founder of the Awesome Fest.

CAN THE HOODIE be rehabilitated? I ask that because, in the wake of the tragedy and furor surrounding the shooting death of Trayvon Martin by George Zimmerman, in Florida, the hoodie has been used as a symbol by those rallying for the arrest of Zimmerman. There have been million-hoodie marches in New York, Miami and two in Philadelphia. In the middle of this hoodie discussion rides Geraldo Rivera, Fox News host, who has said, "I believe George Zimmerman, the overzealous watch captain, should be investigated to the fullest extent of the law, and if he is criminally liable, he should be prosecuted.

NOT SO LONG ago Dan Lindsay was a guy who'd played a waiter on "Entourage," and the director of an unreleased documentary about beer pong. Now, he and buddy T.J. Martin are newly minted Oscar winners, the kind of guys who lunch at the home of Sean "Diddy" Combs, hang out with Michael Moore. They are the co-directors of "Undefeated," an Oscar-winning, emotionally-charged sports documentary about a Memphis, Tenn., businessman who turns around a hard-luck high school football team and the lives of some of its players.