YoungFilmmakers Launches At SXSW: First Films, Screening Cities, And Web Resources Announced

Online, March 15, 2013 (Newswire.com) - WHO: Copyright Alliance and NewFilmmakers
WHAT: YoungFilmmakers Launches at South by Southwest: A Screening Series for High School & College Filmmakers
WEB: www.copyrightalliance.org + @copyright4u
www.newfilmmakers.com @NewFilmmakersNY
MEDIA: Contact David Wyatt at [email protected] or 512/450.4395
**Access to the March 13th launch event at SXSW limited - contact David for media access**

NewFilmmakers, in association with Copyright Alliance, today announces details of YoungFilmmakers - a new initiative designed to highlight young, emerging talent in film.

At the 2013 South By Southwest Conference & Festival in Austin, Texas, the organizations will this evening officially launch the project at the Copyright Alliance's Make Your Mark party downtown in the heart of the festival.

The YoungFilmmakers Series will screen new films and videos from high school and college filmmakers monthly at theaters in New York and Los Angeles. Screenings in New York will begin in May 2013 and soon after in Los Angeles.

Films will include documentaries, short films, and feature presentations and represent the best creative work of the next generation of filmmakers.

YoungFilmmakers will give young filmmakers not only the opportunity to show their films to audiences and critics but will give them the chance to network with each other at the live screenings and online. Maxxie Tayson will host YoungFilmmakers live shows and will interview filmmakers for an online series about their work.

The first four YoungFilmmakers film announced will preview at the Make Your Mark event: Joseph Pera's THE KNIGHTS OF DEATH METAL, Julia Jones' FOREVER SAM, Chad Scheifele's NATURAL SELECTION, and Davron Mananov's ZOO WEATHER.

These films deal with issues young people face growing up in America. The Copyright Alliance will also screen an interview with one of the young filmmakers in America, fourth grader Zackart Maxwell, whose documentary on school lunch exposed the poor quality of food in New York City schools.

"The Copyright Alliance is dedicated to promoting the efforts of the most creative Americans, and emphasizing the importance of creative works to our culture and society," said Sandra Aistars, Executive Director of the Copyright Alliance. "The YoungFilmmakers collaboration is an exciting way for us to encourage the next generation of creators."

Also announced today, the in-development YoungFilmmakers website will allow filmmakers to find cast and crew in their area and to build audiences for their work.

It will also have special offers for filmmaking equipment and services as well as information about film schools and educational programs and information about other festivals that screen young filmmaker's work.

YoungFilmmakers started as a Student Screening Series at NewFilmmakers. The Series presented screening from many high school and college filmmakers as well as programs from leading film schools.

NewFilmmakers itself was started by NYU students fifteen years ago at Anthology Film Archives and has become one of America's leading indie film screening series with programs in New York and in Los Angeles.

At the South By Southwest "Make Your Mark" event, YoungFilmmakers will show a small sampling of films that will later screen in New York when the series begins in May. These include Joseph Pera's THE KNIGHTS OF DEATH METAL, Julia Jones' FOREVER SAM, Chad Scheifele's NATURAL SELECTION, and Davron Mananov's ZOO WEATHER.

These films deal with issues young people face growing up in America. The Copyright Alliance will also screen an interview with one of the young filmmakers in America, fourth grader Zackart Maxwell, whose documentary on school lunch exposed the poor quality of food in New York City schools.

Joseph Pera's THE KNIGHTS OF DEATH METAL is about Noah, a young boy whose dreams inexplicably turn into reality, and Dylan, his increasingly estranged teenage brother who anxiously awaits moving out of their shared bedroom. However, moving out is a bit tougher than it seems when Noah's greatest nightmares begin to come to life.

Julia Jones' FOREVER SAM is about Sam, your average, teenage girl with average, teenage pressures and an average, teenage crush on the class heart throb, Andy. But when her love for Andy starts to become an obsession, she decides to write him a complete confession with disastrous results.

Chad Scheifele's NATURAL SELECTION is about Tyler, a young man who desperately seeks for direction in a world that seems to have abandoned him. But his friend Indrid seems to have it all figured out and when Tyler looks to him for answers he gets caught up in something he might not be able to change.

Chad L. Scheifele is now in the early stages of preproduction for a full feature length version of NATURAL SELECTION. Filming for the feature is planned for late 2013.

And in Davron Mananov's ZOO WEATHER it is the coldest day of the year. George's mother has left his father. George's girlfriend has left George. And old friends are calling him a clappyhead.
Updated information about YoungFilmmakers and our filmmaker schedule
will be available at youngfilmmakers.com or call 323-302-5426

ABOUT THE COPYRIGHT ALLIANCE
The Copyright Alliance is a non-profit, non-partisan public interest and educational organization representing artists and creators across the spectrum of copyright disciplines, including more than 40 trade associations, companies and guilds, and 8,000 individual artists and creators. For more information, please visit www.copyrightalliance.org.