On Saturday, September 10, 2022 at 9:30 PM, The North Park Theater, on Hertel Avenue in North Buffalo. in conjunction with the Department of Media Study, University at Buffalo will sponsor a benefit screening of award-winning director Robert Lieberman’s cult classic, Fire in the Sky. It is based on Travis Walton’s book The Walton Experience,[4] which describes an extraterrestrial abduction. The film stars D. B. Sweeney as Walton, and Robert Patrick as his best friend and future brother-in-law, Mike Rogers. James Garner, Craig Sheffer, Scott MacDonald, Henry Thomas and Peter Berg also star.
Lieberman, a Buffalo native and alumnus of Riverside High School and The University at Buffalo, where he received the first degree in film ever to be given by that lauded local school.
Lieberman, “This brings me full circle. It is the theater where I saw my very first movie when I was six-years-old and where the dream of my fifty year career as a successful Hollwood director was birthed and nurtured.” It will benefit the Buffalo non-profit organization Squeaky Wheel Film and Media Arts Center, an organization that aids filmmakers in getting their first short films made.
The director will be in attendance to do Q&A directly following the screening. In addition, the director will be guest lecturing and screening additional film material at his alma mater on Monday, September 12th.
ABOUT ROB LIEBERMAN
Robert Lieberman, born and raised in North Buffalo, attended PS #81, Riverside High School and was the first to graduate with a B.A. specializing in film studies from the State University of New York at Buffalo. Over the past fifty years he has been a prominent, award winning director in film, television and commercials. A highlight from his expansive career in television was directing the pilot and Executive Producing the CBS series Gabriel’s Fire, which starred James Earl Jones and garnered three Emmy Awards. In addition to Gabriel’s Fire, he directed the pilot and Executive Produced The Dead Zone (which ran for seven seasons on USA), and Strong Medicine (which ran for six seasons on Lifetime). He was also brought on as a Co-Executive Producer on Ascension for Syfy. In all, he has directed nineteen pilots, sixteen of which were ordered to series.
In recent years Mr. Lieberman’s television directing assignments have included multiple episodes of The Expanse, Eyewitness, Art of More, Rogue, Criminal Minds, Dexter, The X-Files, Brothers & Sisters and eight episodes of Haven. In long form television he directed Tom Clancy’s Netforce with Kris Kristofferson and Scott Bakula (ABC), which he also wrote, the miniseries Titanic, starring Catherine Zeta-Jones and George C. Scott for CBS, Earthsea with Isabella Rossallini and Danny Glover and for TNT he directed the original movie Second String with Jon Voight.
Mr. Lieberman also co-created and Executive Produced the daytime talk show Marilu with his then wife Marilu Henner and the Fox reality show The Casino, which he co-developed with Mark Burnett.
In the feature world, Mr. Lieberman directed the cult thriller Fire in the Sky for Paramount. Other feature films include Breakaway, Canada’s highest grossing film, in 2011; D3:The Mighty Ducks, Jon Voight in Table For Five, and All I Want For Christmas with Thora Birch, Leslie Nielson and Lauren Bacall.
A graduate of the University at Buffalo with a B.A. in Film, he did his graduate work at Loyola Marymount. Mr. Lieberman has directed over a thousand commercials for “A” list clients garnering him 29 Clios, the first Director’s Guild of America’s award for Best Commercial Director (he was nominated three more times and winning it a second time), Commercial of The Year from the industry magazine Ad Age and the Gold and Silver Lions for commercials from the Cannes Film Festival.
Most recently Mr. Lieberman has been nominated for The Directors Guild of Canada’s esteemed award for Outstanding Achievement in the Direction of a Dramatic Series for his work on The Expanse.
He is currently writing two screenplays, one in the horror genre and the other a personal independent film. He is in the process of launching his new food blog, Rob’s Little Kitchen and plans to direct a short film he authored, Suerte (Lucky) in Mexico this year. It tells the poignant story of an eight-year-old Guatemalan boy who is separated from his mother and caged by US Immigration at the border.
Guns of Eden, an action movie written and directed by Buffalo-based filmmaker Gregory Lamberson, will have its World Premiere at Buffalo Dreams Fantastic Film Festival this Friday, August 19th at 7:00 pm, with an encore screening Sunday, August 21st at 4:30 pm. The Friday premiere is already sold out. Buffalo Dreams runs Friday, August 19th – Thursday, August 25th at Dipson Theatres Eastern Hills Cinema. Lamberson programs the festival with Chris Scioli.
Guns of Eden was conceived as an action epic in the “Rambo” mold, with a female lead. New York City actress Alexandra Faye Sadeghian and B-movie icon Lynn Lowry star, with local actors Bill Kennedy, Peter “Trazz” Johnson, Nicole Colon, and Dominic Luongo in key supporting roles.
Writer Director Greg Lamberson (Right) on set with actor Bill Brown (Left).
Lamberson wrote the screenplay in 1996, but put it in a drawer because the action was too ambitious to pull off on a low budget.
“The film has scores of characters, gunfire, fights, a car chase, and a helicopter,” Lamberson says. “But 90% of the story takes place outside, so suddenly, during the pandemic, the most challenging screenplay I was sitting on became the most practical to produce.”
Lamberson produced the movie with his wife Tamar, cinematographer Chris Cosgrave, and Keith Lukowski. Executive producers include Erin Elizabeth Heald, Kim Piazza, Armand Petri, Brooke Lewis Bellas, and Marc J. Makowski. Lamberson and his team raised $100,000 on the crowdfunding platform Indiegogo to make the film, which they shot last summer, primarily in downtown Buffalo, Chestnut Ridge Park, Clarence Nature Center, Akron Falls Park, and Little Rock City.
After Buffalo Dreams, Guns of Eden will screen at two out of state film festivals yet to be announced, and will be released commercially before the end of the year.
Buffalo Dreams Fantastic Film will honor Jerry Stoeffhaas with its Local Service Award, in recognition of his significant contributions to the Western New York film industry. Past recipients include Buffalo Niagara Film Commissioner Tim Clark, Buffalo Niagara Film Office Director of Operations Rich Wall, City of Buffalo Mayor Byron W. Brown, Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz, New York State Film Commissioner Pat Kaufman, and WBBZ TV station manager/Off Beat Cinema producer John Di Sciullo. Buffalo Dreams’ ninth season runs August 19th – 25th at Dipson Theaters’ Eastern Hills Cinema, and Stoeffaas will receive his award at the Dreamer Awards presentation on Sunday the 21st.
Stoeffhaas served as the Deputy Director of the New York State Governor’s Office for Motion Picture & Television Development for over 20 years before retiring last year, working with film and TV productions across the state and helping launch the state’s highly successful Film Production Tax Credits, and continues to serve as Senior Advisor. Prior to that he was the founder and Director of the Rochester/Finger Lakes Film and Video Office, the first dedicated film office in Upstate New York.
With his creative partner Jeff Ureles, Stoeffhaas co-wrote, produced and directed the feature film Cheap Shots, filmed in Batavia, which had a limited US theatrical run via Hemdale and played at festivals around the world, including Sundance, London, Tel Aviv, and Tokyo. After receiving his MFA in Film from Syracuse University he worked as an independent Location Manager covering Central and Western New York.
Stoeffhaas is a member of the Writers Guild of America, East since 1980 and has taught screenwriting, film production and criticism at various Upstate institutions including Syracuse University, Writers & Books and Rochester Institute of Technology.
Filmed entirely in Western New York in the Spring of 2019, Addison Henderson’s “G.O.D.” (Givers of Death) is in theatres now including the North Park Theatre, 1428 Hertel Avenue in North Buffalo. It is also available streaming on Apple TV.
“G.O.D.” (Givers of Death) is an apocalyptic sci-fi tale of redemption. It is the journey of a man, a detective, and an entire city’s quest for peace. The man seeks peace through atonement, the detective through revenge and the city through resolution. The film explores whether peace can be attained when one exists in constant chaos – be it in reality, or in the mind. Henderson stars in and directs “G.O.D.” along with a cast that features Louis Lombardi, J.J. Alfieri, Jonathan Sterritt, Jason Delane and others.
Buffalo, New York – Buffalo Dreams Fantastic Film Festival announces its first wave of feature film premieres screening during its ninth season, August 19th – 25th at Dipson Theatres’ Eastern Hills Cinema in Williamsville. Buffalo Dreams is a seven-day celebration of independently produced action, animation, comedy, horror, and science fiction films from around the world. Submissions are open via FilmFreeway.com until July 24th.
Chicken Ranch
Among the initial round of Official Selections is the highly anticipated New York Premiere of Bashira, a stunning “J-horror” film directed by special visual effects artist Nickson Fong at various Buffalo locations including the Buffalo Filmworks soundstage. Chicken Ranch, an offbeat comedy from Oklahoma City writer-director-actor Cate Jones, will also have its New York Premiere at the fest. Jones first came to the attention of Buffalo Dreams when she played Priscilla Presley in Mickey Reece’s Alien, and last year made a splash with her directorial debut, She’s the Eldest.
Galaxy Warriors
Exclusive World Premieres include Galaxy Warriors, Canadian filmmaker Brett Kelly’s loving homage to campy sci-fi flicks from the 1980s; Mask of the Devil, UK director Richard Rowntree’s retro horror film about supernatural mayhem on the set of a porn film; and Pact of Vengeance, an action film from Pennsylvania filmmaker Len Kabasinski, starring Leo Fong and Jon Mikl Thor.
Guns of Eden
Buffalo Dreams will host the World Premieres of two non-competition features: festival director Gregory Lamberson’s Guns of Eden, an action movie in the vein of First Blood, filmed in and around Buffalo and starring Alexandra Faye Sadeghian and Lynn Lowry; and Showdown in Yesteryear, a fantasy western starring Jeff Grennell as a contemporary ranch hand who travels through time to the wild west. Showdown was produced by Tim O’Hearn, directed by Aaron Bratcher, and co-stars Vernon Wells and Debra Lamb.
Lamberson and festival co-founder Chris Scioli will present the Lois Weber Award, named after the iconic silent era director, to Anne-Marie Frigon from Ottawa, Canada for her contributions to the medium. Frigon produced Galaxy Warriors, as well as 20 other features and many shorts, and has worked in numerous areas of production.
Western New Yorker Terry Kimmel, president of Buffalo Movie-Video Makers, will receive the festival’s Local Hero Award for his longtime contributions to the Buffalo film community. BMVM is the oldest film club in the country.
Additional Special Awards and Official Selections, including shorts and yet to be produced screenplays, will be announced July 25th. Buffalo Dreams only holds in-person screenings, frequently with filmmaker Q&As.
Cindy Abbott Letro interviews producer Justin Martell who is currently in Buffalo producing his latest feature the paranormal thriller “Let It Lie” which will be available this fall on the Shutter streaming service. This is the third feature Justin has brought to Western NY along side “The Alcoholist” and “Return to the Class of Nukem’ High” directed by Lloyd Kaufman.
On Saturday, September 10, 2022 at 9:30 PM, The North Park Theater, on Hertel Avenue in North Buffalo. in conjunction with the Department of Media Study, University at Buffalo will sponsor a benefit screening of award-winning director Robert Lieberman’s cult classic, Fire in the Sky. It is based on Travis Walton’s book The Walton Experience,[4] which describes an extraterrestrial abduction. The film stars D. B. Sweeney as Walton, and Robert Patrick as his best friend and future brother-in-law, Mike Rogers. James Garner, Craig Sheffer, Scott MacDonald, Henry Thomas and Peter Berg also star.
