Tax day can be stressful -- trust me, I feel your pain -- so Indie Roundup is here to make you feel better with soothing news of the adventurous indie film community.

Touring. Rachel Goslins' acclaimed doc 'Bama Girl got underway on its so-called "Southern Circuit Tour" this week, barnstorming across the South at a variety of venues through April 24. The doc revolves around a woman who wants to become the first African-American Homecoming Queen at her university, despite the nefarious efforts of a secret society determined to keep the crown lily white. Jette Kernion called it "one of the most entertaining movies" she saw at SXSW last year. More information is available at the official site; Ms. Goslins is also blogging about her adventures.

Box Office. Over the weekend, two docs outdrew Hannah Montana on a per-screen basis. Mark Cowen's Magnificent Desolation: Walking on the Moon 3D, re-released in four IMAX theatres, took in $15,845 per screen, per Box Office Mojo. Produced and narrated by Tom Hanks, the 40-minute film was originally released in 2005. Sacha Gervasi's Cinematical-approved heavy metal doc Anvil! The Story of Anvil, pulled in $11,550 per-screen at three severely-rocking cinemas. The never-say-die original band members are terribly appealing; check out the trailer embedded below for evidence.

Deals. Two films have been acquired for distribution today, according to indieWIRE. Regent Releasing and Here Media picked up Robert Young's docudrama Eichmann and will release it theatrically in October. The film stars the generally terrific Thomas Kretschmann in the title role and Franka Potente as the wife of Eichmann's interrogator after Hitler's architect of "the final solution" was captured in Argentina.

After the jump: Today's other deal -- for The Horse Boy; plus news on the Atlanta and New York film fests.

Continue reading Indie Roundup: 'Bama Girl,' Moon Walking, 'Anvil,' 'Eichmann'

"Darren did not put a strip pole in his office." -- Marisa Tomei.

Does the New York Film Festival still matter? The 46th edition opened last Friday, and while the fest may not have the celebrity cachet and discovery intent of Sundance and Cannes, or the welcoming populist mentality of Toronto, it stubbornly insists on being recognized as the gatekeeper for all that is worthwhile in world cinema.

Nonetheless, press conferences with a big-name American director and a resurrected American star (and his fetching, Academy Award-winning co-star) have stolen the spotlight during the first week of the festival. Looking somewhat like a guerilla himself, Steven Soderbergh arrived to promote his four-hour epic Che, starring Benicio del Toro as the revolutionary leader. According to the director, "There are a million Ches -- he means something different to everyone."

That attitude has irked some critics; Karina Longworth at Spout felt that Soderbergh's "unwillingness to make a statement may be a major part of the problem." On the other hand, Glenn Kenny of Some Came Running opined: "Silly me, I imagined that such an approach constituted a statement sufficient unto itself, but apparently not." The film will get a rare "roadshow" treatment when it opens in December: trotted around in its four-hour entirety to selected cities for one week only by IFC Films in December, complete with elevated ticket prices and a fancy giveaway program of some sort. Dreamgirls for the intelligentsia?

After the jump: The Wrestler and two fresh new films about those darn kids.

Continue reading What's the Buzz: New York Film Festival

As we've started to get our fair share of trailers for the coming prestige projects -- Frost/Nixon, The Soloist, Zack and Miri Make a Porno -- I was curious as to why we'd yet to get one for Clint Eastwood's period drama, Changeling, if it were set to open by the end of next month. Particularly after Kim's Cannes review, I wanted to get a proper glimpse beyond a brief clip...

Perhaps hearing my prayers or just tiring of my complaints, Yahoo! Movies saw fit to post the trailer (watch it after the jump as well), in which a young mother (Angelina Jolie) in 1928 Los Angeles finds herself standing up against a corrupt police department when her missing son is returned, or rather replaced by a different child altogether.

Even if the same piece of score hadn't been used in both of their trailers, I'd still have felt a need to draw a correlation between this and last October's missing-kids-and-corrupt-cops powerhouse, Gone Baby Gone (of course, it doesn't hurt that Amy Ryan shows up in both of them). From Eastwood's end comes a particular tinge of Mystic River, and so far as I'm concerned, all of those signs point to something substantial waiting for us when Changeling opens in limited release on October 31.

Continue reading Angelina Jolie Wants Her Kid in 'Changeling' Trailer