Hollywood Exclusive by Marilyn Beck & Stacy Jenel Smith

Remarkable Gathering of Femme Filmmakers To Be Film Itself/Alec Baldwin Likely Relieved To Be Out of Troubled 'MIB III'

A remarkable gathering of female filmmakers from the Muslim world that took place in Los Angeles last week may have concluded, but its impact is bound to live on. Not only was the event itself filmed, reports Women's Voices Now Short-Film Festival Executive Director Catinca Tabacaru. There was also a film team on hand at the house where 10 of the international women auteurs stayed together, documenting their interactions, their trips out to Rodeo Drive and Hollywood, their appearances at parties and panels, and their personal accounts.

Sounds like a reality show, except meaningful.

"These filmmakers had never met before," Tabacaru notes of the directors, who came from Lebanon, Iran, Qatar, Egypt, Afghanistan, Iraq, Yemen, Pakistan and other far-flung locales. "There was always a little group of people at the end of the night, hanging out, talking about their experiences and their films. We had very different people with very different ideas talking to one another. So many times, you have right-wingers doing their thing and left-wingers doing theirs, and they don't have these kinds of exchanges," she observes. In fact, the week was not without its arguments.

"Between Two Worlds: My Life and Captivity in Iran" author Roxana Saberi, the American journalist imprisoned in Iran for four months in 2009 on espionage charges, was among the event's honorees. (Actress Shohreh Agdashloo and CBS correspondent Lara Logan, along with the Egyptian women who intervened to rescue her when she was being assaulted by a mob in Cairo, were honored as well. So was Iranian political martyr Neda Agha-Soltan, whose death was seen around the world via Twitter when she was shot amid protests following that country's disputed 2009 election.)

Saberi was one of the festival judges, and says she found viewing films from other countries enlightening and inspiring. (The films can be viewed at http://womensvoicesnow.org.)

"My time in prison was very difficult, but I also see so many who have suffered as much or more," she tells us.

Yet Saberi is optimistic. Despite such severe limitations as their courtroom testimony being considered worth half that of a man's, she says, "Women have made a lot of progress in Iran's society. They were more involved in the 2009 political campaigns."

And the subsequent protests. "Sometimes it was the women in the front lines, encouraging the less-courageous men on," she observes. "Even though women face a lot of obstacles in Iran, there is great potential for change and democracy.

Sixty-five percent of entrants into university are women. They get exposed to new ideas, technology, travel outside their world and learn about things like universal human rights."

THE BIG-SCREEN SCENE: "Men in Black III," continuing on its journey to screen in fits and starts, is ramping up to get back into production with some additional casting on the flick. You may recall that present-day portions of the third installment of the Will Smith-Tommy Lee Jones franchise were shot late last year. Then the company shuttered production while script rewrites were done on the time-travel-back-to-the-1960s portion — with the expectation that filming would resume in February. It didn't.

Reports of more delays and other strife filtered out from the production, which also stars Josh Brolin and Emma Thompson. And last week, Alec Baldwin, who had been expected to join the film, confirmed that he'd dropped out due to scheduling problems. Baldwin is obviously very busy, what with "30 Rock" and Adam Shankman's "Rock of Ages" movie adaptation with Tom Cruise — but chances are he's also downright relieved to be getting away from the troubled threequel.

SWINGIN' JOB: Joseph Lyle Taylor, known to fans of the FX drama "Justified" as small-town bad guy Doyle Bennett, shows quite a different set of capabilities in the upcoming "Seven Days in Utopia" with Robert Duvall, Lucas Black and Melissa Leo. As Black's father, he's seen coaching the character in golf from age 11 into adulthood — a role that required him to age over 15 years.

Being a golfer not only made the role easier to get into for Taylor — it made it possible.

"In fact, it came down to my swing whether I got the job or not," he admits. "I had to be OK'd by this PGA group that put in money."

Being paid to golf, he can now legitimately say he's a professional golfer. "Except my handicap is still a little high for professional golf," he says with a laugh.

The actor reports the "Justified" troupe, led by Tim Olyphant, is just about to wrap production for its second season. Taylor couldn't be happier to be a part of the gritty, acclaimed series — not only because he's tremendously proud of it, but because it's generating heat on his career. Last week, in fact, he got the call that no less than Christopher Nolan wants him for a role in his new "Batman" feature. Nice.

ANOTHER GENERATION HEARD FROM: Gil Cates Jr. is getting ready to direct his feature comedy "Drunk Dial" about a good-natured teen who gets himself into major problems by making phone calls to the wrong people while inebriated. Cates' credits include directing "The Mesmerist" and the Colin Hanks-Jeffrey Tambor indie comedy "Lucky." You know his father's name from filmmaking and television producing credits including the Academy Awards.

To find out more about Marilyn Beck and Stacy Jenel Smith and read their past columns, visit the Creators Syndicate Web page at www.creators.com. COPYRIGHT 2011 MARILYN BECK AND STACY JENEL SMITH

DISTRIBUTED BY CREATORS.COM