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| Also Known As: | James Allan Schamus | Died: | |
| Born: | September 7, 1959 | Cause of Death: | |
| Birth Place: | Detroit, Michigan, USA | Profession: | executive, screenwriter, producer, film theory professor |
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One of the major players of the American independent film scene in the early 1990s, James Schamus has gradually been moving toward the mainstream through a series of collaborations with Taiwanese director Ang Lee. The California native, who is on faculty at Columbia University, entered the films as a producer on Raul Ruiz's short "The Golden Boat" (1990). He became involved with Apparatus, a production company founded by indie filmmakers Christine Vachon, Todd Haynes and Barry Elsworth and served as executive producer of Haynes' acclaimed "Poison" (1991). He and Vachon have collaborated on several acclaimed films including Tom Kalin's "Swoon" (1992), a retelling of the Leopold-Loeb murders, Haynes' "Safe" (1995). about a woman with allergic reactions to her environment, and "Office Killer" (1997), photographer Cindy Sherman's feature directorial debut.
One of the major players of the American independent film scene in the early 1990s, James Schamus has gradually been moving toward the mainstream through a series of collaborations with Taiwanese director Ang Lee. The California native, who is on faculty at Columbia University, entered the films as a producer on Raul Ruiz's short "The Golden Boat" (1990). He became involved with Apparatus, a production company founded by indie filmmakers Christine Vachon, Todd Haynes and Barry Elsworth and served as executive producer of Haynes' acclaimed "Poison" (1991). He and Vachon have collaborated on several acclaimed films including Tom Kalin's "Swoon" (1992), a retelling of the Leopold-Loeb murders, Haynes' "Safe" (1995). about a woman with allergic reactions to her environment, and "Office Killer" (1997), photographer Cindy Sherman's feature directorial debut.
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Notes
On working in independent films: "For people like me, as long as you've got a day job and you're already broke, it's not that risky. But I tell potential investors that they're out of their minds for even talking to me, because they probably won't get their money back." --James Schamus quoted in "A Film Scholar Conjures Up a Hit Machine" in THE NEW YORK TIMES, February 29, 1994
"When you get right down to it, producers like myself and the filmmakers I work with are essentially parasites--and I use that word lovingly, in the best biological sense. We are able to do what we do because Hollywood throws away more food at lunch than we can possibly eat at dinner. So we're able to pick up the leftovers, whether they be physical, like equipment and labs, or personnel, like creative young talent that wants to get into the system and can't. We use the system much the way any sockless, ponytailed cellular-phone-waving junior executive in Hollywood does." --Schamus in NEW YORK NEWSDAY, May 19, 1994
"I try to teach as little practical stuff as possible. My feeling is, if you're going to get anything valuable out of an education, it better be something unvaluable in the real world, something that gives you access to a point of view on your life and what you're going to do." --Schamus to NEW YORK NEWSDAY, May 19, 1994
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