Visiting Filmmakers Series at Mason: Patti Cake$ with producer Michael Gottwald
Monday, October 7, 2019 4:30 PM to 7:00 PM EDT
Johnson Center, Cinema
Patti Cake$
Monday Oct 7 4:30pm
Johnson Center Cinema on Fairfax Campus, George Mason University
Film screening followed by a conversation with producer Michael Gottwald and Lisa Thrasher, Film and Video Studies Concentration Head of Producing and Business.
In a coming-of-age story straight out of Jersey, an unlikely rapper finds her voice as a one-of-a-kind hip-hop legend in the making in Patti Cake$, the first feature film from acclaimed commercial and music-video director Geremy Jasper. Set in gritty strip-mall suburbia,Patti Cake$ chronicles an underdog’s quest for fame and glory with humor, raw energy and some unforgettable beats.
Patti Cake$ premiered in U.S. Dramatic Competition at the Sundance Film Festival in 2017, and subsequently, it was the closing night film of Cannes Directors’ Fortnight.
Originally from Richmond, Virginia, Michael Gottwald was one of the producers of Beasts of the Southern Wild, directed by Benh Zeitlin. Beasts won the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance in January 2012 and the Camera d’Or at Cannes in May 2012.
Beasts of the Southern Wild was nominated for four Academy Awards – Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actress, and Best Adapted Screenplay.
Michael has produced episodes of “High Maintenance,” Michael Tully’s film Ping Pong Summer (Sundance 2014), and collaborated with acclaimed documentary filmmakers, the Ross Brothers since their second feature, Tchoupitoulas, which premiered at South by Southwest in March 2012 and was distributed by Oscilloscope Laboratories, in addition to Bill and Turner Ross' third feature, Western, which premiered in U.S. Documentary Competition at Sundance Film Festival in 2015, where it won a Special Jury Prize. Their fourth film together is Contemporary Color, a concert film collaboration with David Byrne.
Michael is a founding member of the Department of Motion Pictures, which has produced fiction work such as Monsters and Men, and non-fiction work with and about Kerry Walsh Jennings, Laurie Anderson, and John Daly. Michael also worked for the Barack Obama campaign in 2008 as a Field Organizer during the primaries, as Ohio New Media Director during the general election, and returned to work on the re-election campaign in 2011 as a Digital Program Manager in the Chicago headquarters.
YouTube Interview: Michael Gottwald speaking with Virginia Film Production
Our screening of Patti Cake$ will be followed by a conversation between Michael Gottwald and Film and Video Studies Professor Lisa Thrasher, and audience Q&A.
Our event is sponsored by the Virginia Film Office, Film and Video Studies, Film and Media Studies, Global Affairs and Global Programs, University Life, History and Art History, DKA at GMU, the Interdisciplinary Curriculum Committee, University Life, and Women and Gender Studies.
For more information:
Cynthia Fuchs cfuchs@gmu.edu
