MERYL STREEP IN DIRECTOR JOHN WALTER’S DOCUMENTARY THEATER OF WAR. COURTESY WHITE BUFFALO ENTERTAINMENT. In the field of documentary, John Walter has emerged as the medium’s most eloquent and entertaining cultural historian. The Detroit-born director, who is also an unpublished poet, began his career in the film industry as a boom operator and worked in that capacity on Sam Raimi’s Evil Dead II. In the mid 90s, he became an editor, beginning with Norman Reedus’ Messenger (1994), and in 1995 he directed Edison’s Miracle of Light, an episode of PBS’ television series The American Experience. In 2002, Walter made his […]
by Nick Dawson on Dec 24, 2008Here’s the next in our Filmmaker contributor ’08 wrap-ups, from James Ponsoldt. So…I don’t like “Best of” lists, or even the idea of “best” being used in regards to films (or any art). I mean, let’s be honest–there’s one reason why we have “Best of” lists: we like to argue. And that’s cool. Arguing is great. But isn’t “favorite” more appropriate than “best”? I think so. Does that sound precious? Eh, I don’t care. These are some of my favorite films, performances, and film moments of 2008. Favorite Film: MilkFavorite Documentary Film (Tie): South Main, Encounters at the End of […]
by Scott Macaulay on Dec 23, 2008Sundance has just released the remaining titles for this year’s festival. There are a lot of movies I’m excited to see on the list. I’ll write more about them in the next few days, but, for now, here’s the official spam: PREMIERES500 Days of Summer / USA. (Director: Marc Webb; Screenwriters: Scott Neustadter, Michael H. Weber)—When an unlucky greeting card copywriter is dumped by his girlfriend, the hopeless romantic shifts back and forth through various periods of their 500 days ‘together’ in hopes of figuring out where things went wrong. Cast: Zooey Deschanel, Joseph Gordon-Levitt. World Premiere Adventureland / USA […]
by Scott Macaulay on Dec 4, 2008Moments ago the Sundance Institute announced the lineup of films screening in the competition categories for the 2009 Sundance Film Festival, which will take place Jan. 15-25 in Park City, Utah and neighboring regions. Some of the titles that jump out for us are Joe Berlinger‘s Crude, R.J. Cutler‘s The September Issue, Ondi Timoner‘s We Live in Public and Tom DiCillo‘s When You’re Strange on the doc side and Cary Fukunaga‘s Sin Nombre, Lee Daniels‘s Push and Ross Katz‘s Taking Chance on the dramatic side. Descriptions of these titles and all the others selected are below. The films screening in […]
by Jason Guerrasio on Dec 3, 2008Ballast, Frozen River and Rachel Getting Married lead in nominations for this year’s Film Independent Spirit Awards with six apiece. The awards will be handed out Feb. 23. BEST FEATURE Rachel Getting Married The Wrestler Wendy and Lucy Ballast Frozen River BEST DIRECTOR Tom McCarthy, The Visitor Jonathan Demme, Rachel Getting Married Courtney Hunt, Frozen River Ramin Bahrani, Chop Shop Lance Hammer, Ballast BEST FIRST FEATURE Afterschool Medicine for Melancholy Synecdoche, New York Sleep Dealer Sangre De Mi Sangre JOHN CASSAVETES AWARD Prince of Broadway Take Out The Signal Turn the River In Search of a Midnight Kiss BEST SCREENPLAY […]
by Jason Guerrasio on Dec 2, 2008The first wave of Sundance selections has just been announced by the festival with this list of filmmakers who will appear in the fest’s New Frontier program. (Congrats to Filmmaker contributor Mike Plante, whose Lunchfilm series made the cut!) Said Sundance programmer Shari Frilot, “New Frontier is best understood both as a physical space and a metaphor for discovery. It is a convergence of art, film, and technology where creative alliances are formed around innovative methods of cinematic storytelling, and where audiences are drawn in to a story through visual, aural, and tactile stimuli.” This year’s films and filmmakers are […]
by Scott Macaulay on Dec 1, 2008Expertly timed to premiere today, on so-called “Black Friday” when many parents rush to the stores to buy the latest must-have gifts for their sons and daughters is Lauren Greenfield‘s documentary Kids + Money. Greenfield is the photograher and author of the seminal Girl Culture, a book chronicling the reality of being a teenage girl in America today. Visit any filmmaker, screenwriter, production designer, of costume designer who has worked on a teen film and you’ll find this book on their shelf of reference materials. Next Greenfield made Thin, a photo essay and also documentary film about girls with eating […]
by Scott Macaulay on Nov 28, 2008ANIA BUKSTEIN AND MICHAL SHTAMLER IN DIRECTOR AVI NESHER’S THE SECRETS. COURTESY MONTEREY MEDIA. Avi Nesher seems to have had two careers as a filmmaker rather than just one. Nesher’s dual identity partly stems from the fact that the Israeli writer-director spent most of his childhood and teenage years in New York and only returned to the country of his birth after attending Columbia University. Once back, Nesher wasted little time in establishing himself as one of the brightest young figures in Israeli cinema with hits like The Troupe and Dizengoff 99 (both 1979). In 1985, Rage and Glory, Nesher’s […]
by Nick Dawson on Nov 26, 2008THAVISOUK PHRASAVATH AND ORADY PHRASAVATH IN DIRECTOR ELLEN KURAS’ THE BETRAYAL (NERAKHOON). COURTESY CINEMA GUILD. Since she first came to prominence almost twenty years ago, Ellen Kuras has established herself as one of the most talented directors of photography working today. Film was not Kuras’ primary focus when she was younger; the New Jersey native initially attended Brown to study anthropology but became interested in photography after taking a class at the nearby Rhode Island School of Design. Though she won a Fulbright Scholarship to go to the esteemed Lodz Film Academy, Kuras instead began working in film, taking numerous […]
by Nick Dawson on Nov 21, 2008Taylor Greeson’s Meadowlark was a happy discovery for me while sitting on this year’s “Best Film Not Playing at a Theater Near You” Gotham Award panel. I didn’t know Greeson and hadn’t heard of his film. But I, along with the panel, responded to his formally ambitious mixture of crime-reconstruction film and personal documentary. Here’s the program note. “When I was twelve years old, my brother was murdered, I lost my virginity to a twenty-year-old man, and I was ordained with the priesthood in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.” So begins Meadowlark, Taylor Greeson’s quietly devastating […]
by Scott Macaulay on Nov 20, 2008