One of the leading voices of speciality cinema, Nancy Savoca hit a home run with her first film, True Love, in 1989 when it won at the Sundance Film Festival. Since then her character-driven films have earned critical acclaim and respect for bringing working women and ethnic diversity to the forefront of cinematic representation.
Character Driven: Exploring the Career and Archives of Nancy Savoca symposium was held from Friday, May 10 to Sunday, May 12, 2019, and included panels of noted film scholars, producers, actors, and industry professionals; screenings of a selection of Savoca's films (as part of the Cinetopia Film Festival); an official opening of the Nancy Savoca Archive in the Special Collections Library; and an opening of the exhibit, True to Life: Film Director Nancy Savoca's Quest for Authenticity, curated by FTVM 335: Authorship and the Archive.
Sponsored by Cinetopia International Film Festival, U-M Library and the U-M Department of
Film, Television, and Media
Symposium
Welcome & Remarks
(At left, below) Film Studies Librarian and Screen Arts Mavericks & Makers Collection Curator Phil Hallman welcomes symposium attendees. (At right) Professor Giorgio Bertellini introduces the symposium, Character Driven: Exploring the Career and Archives of Nancy Savoca.
Panel Discussion
How She Got It Made: The Challenges of Financing Specialty Films & Indie Productions
Noted film experts discuss the unique challenges facing indie films in the panel discussion, How She Got It Made: The Challenges of Financing Specialty Films & Indie Productions.
Panelists
Susan Bodine – Entertainment Lawyer, Cowan, DeBaets, Abrahams & Sheppard and Adjunct Professor, New York University
Jerry Carlson – Professor, Media Communication Arts, The City College of New York and Producer
Ira Deutchman – Professor, Columbia University, and Producer and Co-Founder of Emerging Pictures
Richard Guay – Producer and Screenwriter
Justin Wyatt – Assistant Professor and Associate Director, Harrington School of Communication and Media, University of Rhode Island
True Love and Household Miracles: A Conversation with Director Nancy Savoca
Associate Professor Matthew Solomon conducts an extended interview with Director Nancy Savoca about her past, present, and future.
Ribbon Cutting & Exhibit Opening Reception
Symposium participants and friends celebrate the opening of indie film director Nancy Savoca's archive as part of the library's Screen Arts Mavericks & Makers collection as Savoca enlists the help of her granddaughter (at right) to cut the ribbon.
Exhibit
True to Life: Film Director Nancy Savoca's Quest for Authenticity
Filmmaker Nancy Savoca aims to be as authentic as possible. Her films are brilliant, intimate portraits that explore the weight of social institutions and social injustice placed upon the shoulders of her characters. Her lead characters, typically women, must balance their needs with those of others in order to find their true voice. This U-M student-curated exhibit is the result of the semester-long course devoted to her films and career, FTVM 335-Authorship and the Archive (students pictured in group below, bottom right).
