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“Stay Open to the Moose Head on the Table”: Director Lesli Linka Glatter on Homeland, Learning from Lynch and Spielberg, and Resuming Production
Lesli Linka Glatter on the set of Homeland
Lesli Linka Glatter began her career in the arts as a choreographer and dancer, and this early experience clearly informs her work as a director. On shows as varied in genre and style as Twin Peaks, NYPD Blue, True Blood and Mad Men, one thing remains consistent when Glatter is at the helm: an astute attention to the dramatic rhythms that are created by finding the precise visual corollary for whatever is going on emotionally in a scene. Hers is a cinema of extreme precision, defined by clear, bold choices when it comes to her compositions and rigorous control over light and color; it’s no surprise to learn that one of her mentors was Steven Spielberg. Yet as Glatter notes… Read more
IFP Week 2020 Will Go Virtual
Independent Filmmaker Project (IFP, and Filmmaker's publisher) announced today that the 2020 edition of its long-running signature program, IFP Week, will be virtual. The program, which has drawn thousands of directors, producers, screenwriters, financiers and executives to panels, workshops and one-on-one meeting events in IFP's Brooklyn home, will, this September 20 - 25, take place through digital platforms. The announcement today makes IFP one of the first film organizations to announce a virtual Fall event in response to the novel coronavirus pandemic. “Given the ever-changing landscape of today’s world we have decided to host IFP Week virtually this year to provide a safe and creative vision for the event, while also providing an opportunity for us to expand our reach to… Read more
Back to One, Episode 109: Brian Cox
He was an acting legend before Succession, but Brian Cox’s brilliant portrayal of Logan Roy on the smash hit HBO series just might put him in the pantheon. He gets deep into the psychology of that iconic character on this episode and takes us back to his early days of discovering Shakespeare, creating the role of Hannibal Lecter in Manhunter, learning the importance of cultivating mystery in a character, freeing himself in the work, and not taking his characters home with him. Plus much more! Back To One can be found wherever you get your podcasts, including Apple Podcasts, Google Play, and Stitcher. And if you're enjoying what you are hearing, please subscribe and rate us! Follow Back To One on… Read more
The Great Escape, “Tell Me” on Criterion Channel, and More: Jim Hemphill’s Home Video Recommendations
Growing Up Female
The Great Escape was a dream project for director John Sturges for years before the success of The Magnificent Seven finally enabled him to make it in 1962, and the countless hours he spent thinking about and planning the WWII epic are evident in every flawless shot. The true story of a group of Allied officers who plan and execute a daring escape from a Nazi POW camp, The Great Escape is an exhilarating celebration of ingenuity and skill by a director who honors his characters with some awfully impressive skill of his own. The movie is 172 minutes but never lags or feels ponderous or self-important; it’s long because Sturges needs that amount of time to properly define and… Read more
“Should You Give the Person a Hug, or Should You Continue Filming?”: Benjamin Ree on His Art World Crime Doc The Painter and the Thief
The Painter and the Thief
The following interview with director Benjamin Ree about his documentary The Painter and the Thief was published during the 2020 Sundance Film Festival. It's being rerun now to coincide with the virtual cinema and VOD release of the film from NEON. Spectacularly cinematic and employing a risk-taking structure that keeps the viewer as off-balance as the film’s emotionally fragile protagonists, The Painter and the Thief is the second feature-length doc from Norwegian director Benjamin Ree. (Ree’s prior film Magnus, a coming-of-age tale about the chess prodigy Magnus Carlsen, premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival in 2016.) The film follows the stranger-than-fiction story of Barbora Kysilkova and Karl-Bertil Nordland, the former a Czech naturalist painter living in Oslo, the latter a Norwegian ex-con struggling with drug… Read more
Director Michael Jacobs on Making the Basketball Doc Blackballed for Quibi’s Mobile, Dual Aspect-Ratio Platform
Doc Rivers in Blackballed
Long regarded as the worst-run franchise in the National Basketball Association, the Los Angeles Clippers have (after brief stints in Buffalo and San Diego) called the “City of Angels” their home since the summer of 1984. Purchased for a cool $12.5 million in 1981 by real estate tycoon Donald Sterling, the Clippers’ relocation to LA was seen as a move that would hopefully rival its “big brother” franchise led by Magic Johnson and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, the Los Angeles Lakers. That ultimately wasn’t meant to be: the Lakers, long a shining example of the league, continued its successful run atop the Western Conference while the Clippers carved out a spot at the bottom, where they would rest comfortably for several decades. Mismanaged… Read more
IFP Announces 26 Projects Selected for 2020 Documentary, Narrative and Episodic Labs
Silent Beauty
The Independent Filmmaker Project (IFP) announced today twenty-six feature projects and series selected to participate across three labs over the next month: The IFP Filmmaker Labs’ Documentary Lab (currently running through May 22) and Narrative Lab (running June 15 – 19) for feature films by directors currently in post-production on their debut features; and the IFP Episodic Lab (running June 1 – 5), for outstanding series projects in development for TV and digital platforms from breakthrough creators. In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, all labs will take place virtually. The IFP Filmmaker Labs support first-time feature filmmakers through the completion, marketing, and distribution of their debut features, providing support from IFP Staff and mentorship from leading industry members and filmmakers.… Read more
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