People: Filmmakers on the Road to Venice

Legendary director/actor/composer Woody Allen's current film The Curse of the Jade Scorpion is on the 2001 festival circuit from Hollywood to Venice. In a recent interview, he spoke of the beginning of his career, casting Scorpion, acting in his own films and how he uses music in his work.

Young director Akihiko Shiota's third film, Gips (meaning "plaster cast"), was first shown at Tokyo Filmex 2000 and then screened in the Video Competition of Locarno 2001; Shiota's new film, Harmful Insect, will compete for a Lion at Venice 2001.

Philippine filmmaker Jeffrey Jeturian's Fetch a Pail of Water, bagged the Gold Prize at Worldfest-Houston 2000 and a NETPAC Jury Prize at the Cinemanila 2000. His third film, Tuhog/Larger Than Life, competes at Venice 2001 in the Cinema del Presente section. Filmfestivals.com caught up with the promising Jeturian at Udine 2001.

Long banned from making movies in his own country, Romanian director Lucian Pintilie came back with a sweet vengeance in 1998 when his beautiful Terminus Paradis landed a Grand Special Jury Prize at the Venice Film Festival. The pugnacious and spirited director, whose talent covers a wide artistic range, is competing again at Venice this year with L'Apres Midi d'un Tortionnaire, the chilling story of a father killer who was recruited by the communists in the 50's to torture political prisoners.