JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2010
The New Year is off to a busy start. Diane is currently post-producing a short film she directed, entitled SKATE, starring Toni Sirico. Meanwhile our film THE HUNGRY GHOSTS, written and directed by Michael Imperioli, will have its US festival premiere at the 2010 Santa Barbara Int'l Film Festival. Also on that front, a North American distribution deal is in the final stages of being inked - more on that soon.
Out on the Valley Isle of Maui, Stefan is busy working on several screenplays that shoot this year in Europe, developing an original web series with producer Jon Stern, and prepping a feature film that shoots in New York this summer. He will be traveling to the Berlin Film Festival in February for many a meeting with co-writer Chris Silber.
Speaking of Chris, check out his film NORTH FACE, which is in theaters nationwide as of January 29th.
NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2009
Activity on multiple fronts these days. At New York headquarters, Diane has been busy directing/producing a series of web commercials for Marriott Hotels, and serving as a media consultant on Anna Deveare Smith's Broadway show, "Let Me Down Easy".
Meanwhile Stefan was out in LA for meetings during the American Film Market with co-writer Chris Silber. They're currently rewriting their horror/thriller project for XYZ Films, and developing a second film for producer Nico Hofmann.
Other films moving toward production include WINNIE, a drama/comedy developed with Bumbershoot Productions, with Shirley MacLaine attached to star; FIRST LADY, written by Stefan and Chris, which shoots in April with Ursual Karven in the lead; and GET A JOB, which shoots on Maui in early 2010.
Hitting theatres and DVD in December is LOOT, an amazing documentary by our good friend and collaborator Darius Marder. If you didn't see it during it's HBO premiere, go see it now!
Finally, THE HUNGRY GHOSTS, which Diane and Stefan produced for Michael Imperioli, will be having its North American festival premiere at ... can't say yet, please check back soon.
THE HUNGRY GHOSTS
Five New Yorkers - of different ages, races, backgrounds - hunger for sensual, emotional and spiritual fulfillment. Their intersecting and colliding paths reflect the zeitgeist of our times, in which the desperation of the West smacks up against the religious teachings of the East.
Official Site
ARRANGED
Two young women — one an Orthodox Jew, the other Muslim — meet and become friends as first-year teachers at a public school in Brooklyn.
Buy | Netflix | Blockbuster
CONTESTED STREETS
New York City prides itself as the world's most vibrant and dynamic metropolis. Unfortunately, it is also plagued by gridlock, noise, and exhaust-filled air. The film examines the city's past to reveal how this came to pass, and offers contrasting lessons from three European cities - Paris, London and Copenhagen.
Buy | Netflix
THE AMAZING TRUTH ABOUT QUEEN RAQUELA
Raquela, a transsexual from the Philippines, dreams of escaping the streets of Cebu City for a fairy tale life in Paris.
Buy | Netflix
THE HIGHER FORCE
Set in Reykjavik, Iceland, a low-life debt collector becomes the main man of his gang by pretending to have the inside info on a rival crime boss.
Buy
CONFESS
A political thriller that charts the exploits of a disillusioned ex-hacker who captures compromising footage of CEOs, politicians, and members of the power elite. Soon his every action is front-page news, law enforcement has labeled him a new breed of terrorist, and the movement he spawned is spiraling out of control.
Buy | Netflix | Blockbuster
Cicala Filmworks is a full-service film, video, and new-media production company. Headquartered in New York City, the company produces content as varied as documentary programming, industrial videos, TV commercials, web content, and short and feature films.
STEFAN SCHAEFER
A co-founder of the production company Cicala Filmworks, Stefan has worked in independent film for over 12 years. Credits as a writer, director and/or producer include The Hungry Ghosts (2009), The Higher Force (2008), The Amazing Truth About Queen Raquela (2008), Arranged (2007), Contested Streets (2006) and Confess (2005).
Awards include: the Teddy Award for Best Feature Film at the Berlin Int'l Film Festival (2008), Best Film at the Brooklyn Int'l Film Festival (2007), Best Screenwriter at the Hamptons Film Festival (2005), Grand Prize in Digital Filmmaking from Panasonic (2004), and the New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship in Screenwriting (2003).
DIANE CRESPO
Diane and Stefan met working in off-off Broadway theatre, where she directed and produced a series of one-act plays he had written. They went on to form the production company Cicala Filmworks, where their initial focus was creating documentaries for clients such as the Guggenheim Museum, the NYC Department of Education, and Roundabout Theatre. As the company grew, she also produced and directed numerous music videos and commercials for clients such as Ben Folds Five, 1-800 Flowers, and 97.9 La Mega.
Recent film credits include producing the documentary Contested Streets (2006), directing/producing the award-winning feature Arranged (2007), and producing a TV pilot entitled Circledrawers (2009) for Icelandic filmmaker Olaf de Fleur Johannesson.