Filmmaker's look at upcoming DVD releases.

HEAVY METAL IN BAGHDAD

BELLA

WHO IS HENRY JAGLOM?

LANCE HAMMER TRIES SELF DISTRIBUTION

Scott Macaulay
Over at Indiewire Anthony Kaufman writes about Ballast director Lance Hammer's decision to withdraw from a planned distribution deal with IFC to self-distribute via his own Alluvial Film Company along with Required Viewing. From the piece: "IFC is a really good company," Hammer told indieWIRE last week. "The problem is the larger issue that's plaguing every filmmaker right now: The [continue]

48 HOURS ONLY!

Scott Macaulay
You may have noticed that there hasn’t been a ton of blogging here lately, and that’s because we’ve been working hard on the Summer issue of Filmmaker. It’s our “25 New Faces” issue, and the workload on that one is particularly heavy because we look at a ton of work before making our selections. Anyway, the issue shipped to the printer today, so we’ll try to get back into the [continue]

RAY-BAN AD BLOCKERS

Scott Macaulay
Remember that Phil Dick-ian John Carpenter movie, They Live? In it, a special pair of sunglasses allows you to see the world as it really is, with all of the government's subliminal messages exposed. I thought of that film while reading this blog post at Seeking Alpha entitled "How Video is Going to Take Over the World." It summarizes a Forrester research reporter claiming that we are entering [continue]

POINTS OF IMPACT

Scott Macaulay
I've posted before about Hammer to Nail, the website launched this year in which Michael Tully, Mike Ryan and others are posting opinionated, passionate and politically informed reviews and commentary on independent films and the indie film scene. Today I received an email from producer Ted Hope, who announces more content at Hammer to Nail, where he, Ryan, Tully and Corbin Day will try to make [continue]

DAY OF THE LOCUSTS

Scott Macaulay
Ted Hope tipped me to this article in the Philadelphia Inquirer on this summer's empty arthouses. Several of the usual suspects are interviewed in a piece that talks about the high cost of marketing, the internet, downloads, the production glut and marketplace churn -- the practice of shuffling new titles out of theaters when they don't immediately click. Again, no magic solutions here, just [continue]

GEORGE CARLIN, R.I.P.

Scott Macaulay

SCOTT PRENDERGAST, KABLUEY

Nick Dawson
Like his much buzzed shorts, Scott Prendergast's debut feature brings to the screen his poignant outsider's perspective and talent for creating vivid comic characters. Born in Galveston, Texas but raised in Portland, Oregon, Prendergast attended Columbia University and then pursued a career as a [continue]

CATHERINE BREILLAT, THE LAST MISTRESS

Nick Dawson
Hated and loved in equal measure, Catherine Breillat is a filmmaker who could never be accused of being boring. The French writer director seems courting controversy since the beginning of her career: she was a literary sensation at the age of 17 when she published her first novel, L'homme Facile [continue]

MORAL BURDENS
By Ray Pride

Turkish-German filmmaker Fatih Akin's The Edge of Heaven is a fierce, generous melodrama of boundaries and passions, of blood and yearning, the second of a trilogy about émigré culture patterned after Fassbinder's "BRD Trilogy" (The Marriage of Maria Braun, Lola, Veronika Voss) of post World [continue]

OUTRAGE THE ROOSTER!: WORDS ABOUT THIS FILM
By David Gordon Green

The following essay by David Gordon Green on Todd Rohal’s The Guatemalan Handshake accompanies the film's DVD release from Benten Films out today. I am plagued by two mothers of frustration: 1. POWER PROBLEMS: Who controls the switches? Who pushes the buttons? How do I get to be large and [continue]

GEN ART FILM FESTIVAL
By Alicia Van Couvering

To enter Gen Art, your name must be on a clipboard manned by a shining, feverish lady in black. If it is you feel lucky, chosen, special, because then you are permitted to taste what life should be like EVERY DAY: lo, there is free beer, free wine, free cookies and free popcorn. You eat, you [continue]

INDUSTRY BEAT

American indies face the increasingly challenging international marketplace. By Anthony Kaufman

GAMING

In search of the indie game. By Heather Chaplin

CUT SHORT

We've once again asked Jamie Stuart to cover the Sundance Film Festival with his unique brand of filmmaking and create a short that encompasses the people he meets, his creative eye and basically whatever pops up in his head. This year's film includes George A. Romero, Ellen Kuras, Stacy Peralta and strange text messages.