Fog City Pictures

“Moonlight Sonata”, our third independent feature film at Fog City Pictures, has wrapped its principal photography on October 31st, after 5 weeks of shooting in the Bay Area. After completing a few pickup scenes, the film will be edited for submission to prestigious film festivals and will be prepared for wide theatrical release. Celik Kayalar, PhD, renown Bay Area acting teacher, wrote, directed and executive-produced the psychological thriller. The producers were Jeremiah Birnbaum, the founder of Fog City Pictures, and Milena Grozeva-Levy, filmmaking teacher and previously editor of our first feature, Presque Isle.
“Moonlight Sonata” is the story of a privileged San Francisco family, the difficult moral choices its members make and the consequences they have to face, told in the genre of a modern psychological thriller with surprising twists and turns along the way, all culminating in a cliff-hanger climax.
The production boasted a large and highly talented and accomplished cast and crew from San Francisco, Los Angeles and New York. Sam Chase was the master cinematographer on the set, visiting from New York. Cast members included distinguished Los Angeles actors M.J. Karmi and Irena A. Hoffman as the female-leads, and Sita Young, P. David Miller, Nate Reese and Ann-Marie Jolly featured in major supporting-roles.
The esteemed San Francisco actor & director Warren David Keith was cast as the male-lead.
Twenty-four other local actors were among the cast members of “Moonlight Sonata” (all speaking-parts). Several of the 24 were major supporting-roles that took many days to shoot. Here are their names:
Celia Shuman, Brian D. Scott, Taren Howes, Edith Reiner, Maggie Grant, Kay Ewing, Aimee McCrary, Jinnifer Jacobs, Goldie Chan, Joan Laqui, Hueiyen Tsai, Ashley Allen, Katrina Gimenez, June Barnard, Sarah Leight, Daniel Will-Harris, Micci Toliver, Tony Williams, Marshell Harwell, Roy Hylton, Vincent Leddy, Brendan Sweeney, Nate Duncan and Johann Schiffer.

Our third independent feature film, MOONLIGHT SONATA, is currently in preproduction and will begin shooting on location in the San Francisco Bay Area on October, 1. Celik Kayalar, renown acting teacher and theater director, wrote the psychological thriller and will be directing his screenplay. The film, which is set in various locations in and around the Bay Area, is being produced by Fog City Pictures Founder, Jeremiah Birnbaum and Producer Milena Grozeva-Levy.

The film boasts a great cast and crew from the San Francisco Bay Area, Los Angeles and New York. M.J. Karmi is cast as lead character “Alice”, Irena Hoffman as another lead, “Vicky”, and Sita Young in the supporting role of “Lisa”. Some of Celik’s students are being cast in this production as well. Look for updates on MOONLIGHT SONATA on our website.

We are proud to announce that the World Premiere of PRESQUE ISLE, our first feature film, has been given a prime time Friday night slot at the Cine Arts Sequoia Theatre in Mill Valley. Rob Nilsson’s long time association with the festival began in 1979 when, NORTHERN LIGHTS which had just won the Camera d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival, had it’s North American Premiere at Mill Valley. Since that time Mill Valley has featured all of Nilsson’s films including his nine feature film 9 @ Night Film Cycle, produced with the Tenderloin Group his ensemble of street players and professional actors from the San Francisco Tenderloin.

Also featured at Mill Valley this year are World Premieres of the last two of Nilsson’s 9 @ Night Films, USED and GO TOGETHER. The completed series will now go on to play at the Harvard Film Archive, Nov. 17-19. This will be the first time that all nine films will play together in their intended order, three films a night for three nights, a total of 14 hours of film. Following that the films will open in the Bay Area at the Christopher B. Smith Rafael Film Center and other selected cinemas.

After the PRESQUE ISLE World Premiere event on Friday, Oct. 5, 7:15, at the Cine Arts Sequoia Theatre, there will be a Premiere Party at the Masonic Event Center down the street. We invite all friends and supporters of Fog City Pictures to attend. This will be an historic night for PRESQUE ISLE and a kick- off for an upcoming distribution campaign which we hope will reach all corners of the world. We’ll see you there.

Premiere of PRESQUE ISLE at the Mill Valley Film Festival
Friday, October 5 at 7:15 pm
Cine Arts Sequoia Theatre (415) 388-4862
25 Throckmorton Ave., Mill Valley, CA 94941

Fog City pictures second independent feature film, AROUND JUNE, starring Hollywood actors Samaire Armstrong (Entourage, The O.C.), Brad William Henke (World Trade Center, Sherrybaby), Jon Gries (Napoleon Dynamite, Real Genius) and introducing Oscar Guerrero, is currently in post-production.

Around June is a love story in the vein of a classic fairy tale set near the shipyards of San Francisco. June (Armstrong), is a young woman trapped in a life caught between her crippled, abusive father (Gries) and mentally challenged uncle (Henke), whose adoration of her offers little solace. One day, through a poetic twist of fate, June meets a penniless immigrant, Juan Diego (played but newcomer Oscar Guerrero), whose love empowers her to finally break free and realize her dreams.

Jeremiah Birnbaum, co-founder of Fog City Pictures, and producer of Around June was impressed with the script handed to him by James Savoca. “I read James’ script and loved it so much we decided that it would be perfect for our second feature film project,” says Birnbaum.

Produced by Jeremiah Birnbaum, Ralph King, and James Savoca and executive produced by Greg Corbin of the L.A. based production company caviar Films and L.A. based Alyssa Weisberg of Alyssa Weisberg Casting, Around June was entirely shot in hi-definition digital video.

CAST

Japan-born Samaire Armstrong didn’t pursue acting professionally until a few years ago. She was first cast in a recurring role on the critically acclaimed NBC series, “Freaks and Geeks.” That role was followed shortly thereafter by guest-starring roles on, “Judging Amy,” “Party of Five,” “That’s Life, “ER,” and pivotal role in a particularly creepy episode of the “X-Files.” She is best known for starring as Emily, Ari Gold’s assistant and Eric’s love-interest, on “Entourage” for HBO, and she was recently seen co-starring on the hit Fox series, “The O.C.”

Brad William Henke is quickly making a name for himself as one of the busiest actors in Hollywood. During the last two years he has appeared in such acclaimed projects as Me You and Everyone We Know, North Country, Oliver Stone’s World Trade Center, Sherrybaby co-starring Maggie Gyllenhaal., and Hollywoodland opposite Adrien Brody. Brad will next be seen co-starring in the ABC mid-season drama “October Road.”

Jon Gries has appeared in more than 30 feature films. He recently wrapped production on “The Astronaut Farmer” with Billy Bob Thornton and Virginia Madsen for the Polish Brothers and Warner Brothers and starred opposite Jon Voigt and Terence Stamp in the feature film, “September Dawn.” Gries has also completed starring roles in the Trigger Street production of “The Sasquatch Dumpling Gang” and in the independent feature films “Frank”, “Elsewhere”, “South of Heaven,” “Waterborne,” “Sledge: The Untold Story,” “Car Babes” and “Bar Starz.” He is also appearing in Fox Atomic’s “The Comebacks.” Last year, Jon received the prestigious 2005 IFP Spirit Award Nomination for Best Supporting Acting for his role as Uncle Rico in the multiple-award-winning Fox Searchlight smash hit “Napoleon Dynamite.”

PRODUCTION

James Savoca - Writer/Director. A New York native, James got his start in the theatre. His feature film directorial debut was “Sleepwalk,” starring Drea de Matteo (The Sopranos), which had its broadcast premiere on IFC. His second feature, “The Crooked Corner,” was recently completed and is in the beginning stages of the festival circuit. James’ short film, “Revelation”, starring Kevin Corrigan, aired on The Sundance Channel. Before directing his first feature, James assembled two successful theatre groups where he wrote and directed four plays on off-Broadway’s downtown theatres.

Ralph King ­ Producer: Ralph co-produced Presque Isle and directed 5 short films. Prior to filmmaking, he worked as a journalist for 25, primarily writing for the Wall Street Journal and was twice nominated for a Pulitzer Prize.

Jeremiah Birnbaum - Producer: Jeremiah is the Co-Founder and CEO of Fog City Pictures. A native New Yorker, he has worked as a producer, editor, director and educator in film and video for over seventeen years.

Greg Corbin- Producer: Originally from Southampton, NY, Greg started his career in the film industry by producing his first short film in 2000 called Mid-Summer Life Crisis, which was filmed in New York City and directed by James Savoca. Since joining Caviar Films, Greg has put together a slate of over 20 projects that are in various stages of development. Some of the projects include: Senor Vasquez and the Holy with Alfred Molina, Goldenbones, an outrageous teen comedy, written by Allan Aaron Katz (Diamonds), and The Lieber & Stoller story, based on the life of the famous rock and roll songwriting duo.

Caviar los angeles is a Los Angeles-based production company, founded in 2002 by Michael Sagol and Tom Weissferdt. Initially called Atomik Pictures, in 2004 the company partnered with Belgian production company caviar to begin representing European directors for the American television market with offices in L.A. and Cape Town, South Africa.

Alyssa Weisberg - Executive Producer/Casting Director: Alyssa has been casting for the past 14 years in film, television and theater. Her film credits include studio films such as Mission Impossible III, The Long Kiss Goodnight, U-Turn and Booty Call; she’s also worked extensively on the independent scene on such projects as The House of Usher, Telling You, Freeway and The House Of Yes. Alyssa recently won an Emmy Award for casting the pilot of ABC’s Lost, which has gone on to international acclaim.

Fog City Pictures is currently in post-production on its first feature-length motion picture, Presque Isle. Written and directed by Bay Area independent filmmaker Rob Nilsson, Presque Isle was crewed by a experienced group of Bay Area movie professionals. Many actors of Presque Isle are also based in the Bay Area. The film was shot using the latest HD digital filmmaking equipment. About the collaboration Nilsson says, “I like to take artistic risks and Fog City Pictures is promoting visions and verges or they wouldn’t be working with me. I also like doing better than talking. This is a hands-on action oriented production group.”

This website will keep you up to date on Fog City Pictures and the movies we are producing. Please come back often and feel free to comment on any of the postings.
Co-Founder Jeremiah Birnbaum