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Sundance Festival Director Tabitha Jackson Announces Details of 2022 Event; Vaccinations Required for In-Person Utah Events
Festival director Tabitha Jackson announced today details of the upcoming Sundance Film Festival, which will take place in Park City, Utah and across various Satellite Screen venues January 20 - 30, 2022. Most significantly, after 2021's virtual edition, Sundance 2022 will be an in-person event. The festival will require attendees of events in Utah to be fully vaccinated, with further details about health precautions and mask-wearing to be issued in the coming months. The festival will also be larger than last year's scaled-down edition but still smaller than the pre-pandemic 2020 festival. For further details, read the complete letter from Jackson below. *** Dear Friends, This time last year, I wrote to share some early thoughts about how we were approaching my first… Read more
Back to One, Episode 163: Jess Weixler
Teeth, Somebody Up There Likes Me, Chained For Life, The Good Wife, are just a few of the great Jess Weixler’s credits. Ten years ago she co-stared in The Lie with Joshua Leonard. They played a couple with a baby and one big problem. He directed. Most of the dialogue came out of improvisation. Now they’ve done it again with Fully Realized Humans. They again play a couple. This time the baby is in utero and the laughs are bigger, the situations more absurd yet also more thought-provoking. Weixler is credited as co-writer. In this episode she details the improv method they used to build the dialogue out of the circumstances in the scene. We try to figure out what… Read more
“It’s My Job to Make Sure That the Viewer Looks at the Right Thing”: DP Autumn Durald Arkapaw on Loki
Autumn Durald Arkapaw on the set of Loki
With two dozen films since 2008 and 60-odd years of comics, there’s a nearly infinite amount of source material to pull inspiration from when embarking on a new endeavor in the Marvel Universe. But what makes the new Disney+ series Loki such a visual delight is how it derives inspiration from beyond the bounds of that universe. Melding classic sci-fi and midcentury modern design, Loki is “Blade Runner meets Mad Men,” embedding the titular God of Mischief into a dystopian bureaucracy bent to the aesthetic peculiarities of Gilliam, Kubrick and Fincher. With the show’s entire first season now available on Disney+, cinematographer Autumn Durald Arkapaw spoke to Filmmaker about her compulsion for symmetry, the delicate math of a balanced frame and… Read more
“Directors are Not Born Being Blockbuster Filmmakers”: Producers John Davis and John Fox on Jungle Cruise
Dwayne Johnson director Jaume Collet-Serra on the set of Jungle Cruise (photo by Frank Masi)
With all the changes that have been taking place in the film industry over the last few years, I’m always fascinated by the filmmakers who seem consistently able to adapt to the shifting landscape while still remaining true to their own tastes and sensibilities—the producers and directors whose careers span decades and show no sign of decline. The release of Disney’s new adventure film Jungle Cruise gave me the opportunity to talk with two such filmmakers, producers John Davis and John Fox. Davis has produced over a hundred movies and TV shows going back to the 1980s and early ’90s, when he made his name with films such as Predator and The Firm (as well as one of my personal… Read more
The Gotham Announces the 135 Projects Comprising Its Upcoming Gotham Week Project Market
The Gotham Film & Media Institute (formerly IFP, and Filmmaker's publisher) today announced the 135 fiction and non-fiction projects, series and audio podcasts, that will comprise the upcoming Gotham Week Project Market. To be held virtually September 19-24, 2001, the Project Market connects projects in development and production with financiers, producers, distributors and other partners. “We are proud to announce the extraordinary line up of new projects at this year’s Project Market – all of which feature distinctive and original voices. Our virtual format will again provide an exciting opportunity for independent artists to engage with a broader set of industry professionals and participants who can help support these new works,” said Jeffrey Sharp, The Gotham’s Executive Director, in a press… Read more
Trailer Watch: Paul Schrader’s The Card Counter
The first trailer for The Card Counter, Paul Schrader’s keenly anticipated follow-up to First Reformed, has arrived. The premise is straightforward: sentenced to ten years in prison, fall guy Oscar Isaac learns how to count cards. The tone here is intriguingly all over the place, including Isaac’ flirtatious casino floor meeting with dealer Tiffany Haddish, promises of cold-blooded revenge and at least one shot directly quoting, per Schrader’s usual reference point, Pickpocket. (It’s the hands reaching towards each other through a prison visiting room’s glass pane.) The Card Counter premieres at this year’s Venice Film Festival before entering release on September 10 from Focus Features.
Take Two: A Movie About Heartbreak, Helping and Vulnerability
Linas Phillips (photo by Jonny Look)
After the spiritual teacher Ram Dass suffered a stroke in 1997, he said, “Up until now my life has been dedicated to helping people. I even wrote a book called How Can I Help?, but now I’m confined to a wheelchair and my life is filled with people taking care of me. If I wrote it now it would have to be called, How Can You Help Me?” I love Ram Dass for his brilliance and vulnerability. His teachings on acceptance and loving awareness have been a lifesaver for me and so many. But in the wake of his stroke, it was hard to accept this new state. I’m going through a similar change of identity. I didn’t have a stroke. But four… Read more
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