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‘Anger’ Issues Did Charlie Sheen force co-star Selma Blair out of his FX sitcom? 27
Broadcast Muse
SARAH L. VOSIN (THE WASHINGTON POST)
CBS
For more about the films playing AFI Docs, see page E5.
Domeland CBS’ creepy miniseries “Under the Dome,” based on Stephen King’s novel, arrives at 10 p.m. Monday. The premise: An invisible dome seals a seemingly wholesome Maine town off from the world. In episode one, characters ask lots of questions. I’ve done my best to give answers. “Whaaaat happened?” CBS wants to shake up its “geriatric” image with a “True Blood” vibe. People die in yucky ways! People have sex on camBy Marc era (though private Silver parts are not shown)! There’s a secret stash of propane and we don’t know why! And actress Dale Raoul, the fabulously frumpy Mrs. Fortenberry in HBO’s vamp series, has a cameo as a nosy townie! “Where the hell did it come from?” From aliens or from Bjork, because the town radio station picks up an odd broadcast that sounds like a mixtape of aliens talking and Bjork singing. “What is it?” It’s SYMBOLISM. King has famously said, “The fact is we all live under the dome.” “You think we might be stuck in here a while?” Yeah, for 13 episodes. “Is everyone all right?” A character notes: “Nothing about this is all right.” Especially for the cow that got sliced in half when the dome descended. Read Marc’s previous columns at: readexpress.com/muse
AFI Docs festival director Sky Sitney joined what was then the AFI-Discovery Channel Silverdocs festival eight years ago.
A Transitional Lens AFI Docs’ Sky Sitney is a calm presence in the midst of the festival’s big changes Film Since arriving in Washington to program the AFI-Discovery Channel Silverdocs Documentary Film Festival eight years ago, Sky Sitney says she’s found herself talking as much about issues and impact as more esoteric filmmaking concerns. “It’s definitely been a huge evolution for me,” Sitney says. “It’s a whole other world that has turned out to intersect much more spectacularly with film and with doc-
umentary in particular than I ever would have imagined.” Politics has taken on even higher stakes this year, both as subject matter and subtext. With the festival’s Policy Engagement Program, for example, documentary filmmakers will be invited to discuss the subjects of their films with lawmakers, political appointees and organizations. And a pilot project will offer five filmmakers one-on-one meetings with congressional staffers. The festival is “about identifying films that can change the dialogue around an issue, as well as films of the kind of quality we want to be connected with at the festival,” Sitney says. Just two months ago, the Amer-
ican Film Institute announced that Discovery Channel had dropped out as the sponsor of Silverdocs. Now called AFI Docs and presented by Audi, the festival — running
“I love the idea of it growing, but I also hope to preserve the accomplishments that we’ve had.” through Sunday — will expand this year from its hub at AFI’s Silver Theatre in Silver Spring to downtown Washington. A pared-down slate of 53 nonfiction films will play at the
Goethe Institut, the National Museum of American History, the National Portrait Gallery, the National Archives and the Newseum. At the center of it all is the festival’s director, Sitney, who at 42 exudes the openness and enthusiasm of someone half her age even as she juggles new programs and venues, disgruntled Silverdocs fans, stepped-up involvement by AFI’s home office in Los Angeles, and her own roiling anxiety and excitement. “We’re executing a much more ambitious event … in half the time,” she says. “It’s been very reassuring to receive the enthusiastic response from one of the constituents I care about the most, which is the filmmaking community.” That Sitney is getting support from filmmakers should come as no surprise to anyone familiar with her tenure at Silverdocs, during which she has become one of the most beloved and respected figures on the festival circuit. Lauded as much for her aesthetic judgment as for her even-keeled temperament, Sitney earns near-universal praise for turning what might have been a diverting but inessential suburban festival into a crucial destination on the documentary circuit. “The timing of [Silverdocs] was always so bad,” says director A.J. Schnack, whose films “We Always Lie to Strangers” and “Caucus” will be at AFI Docs this year. “It was after Cannes and it overlapped with the big documentary festival in Sheffield. But the big thing the festival always had going for it was Sky.” ANN HORNADAY (THE WASHINGTON POST )
Higher Calling: Warner Bros. enlisted Christian-focused firm Grace Hill Media to promote “Man of Steel” to faith-based groups by inviting them to early screenings and creating trailers that highlight the film’s religious themes. They also enlisted Craig Detweiler, author of “Into the Dark: Seeing the Sacred in the Top Films of the 21st Century,” to create a Superman-centric sermon outline for pastors titled “Jesus: The Original Superhero.” (AP)