Dead Man
The following interview of Jim Jarmusch about Dead Man was published originally in Filmmaker‘s Spring, 1996 issue. It is appearing online for the first time. Dead Man was reissued last year by and is now available from Criterion. In Jim Jarmusch’s new Dead Man, Johnny Depp plays William Blake, a mild-mannered accountant who travels by train across the frontier West to work in a bookkeeping firm run by a crazed, gun-toting Robert Mitchum. When, as in a Kafka novel, the job vanishes before it’s even begun, Blake finds himself a hunted man, pursued for a murder he didn’t commit while his life force ebbs away through a bullet wound in his chest. With its fixation on morality and transcendence, Dead… Read more
By Scott Macaulay
Jawline
“I’m telling you guys,” says 16-year-old Austyn Tester, sitting in a leather computer chair and speaking into his Macbook’s webcam. The otherwise bleak, wood-panelled room he sits in is completely taken over by soft lighting equipment; the camera pans from his perfectly coiffed hair down to his dirty socks and stained carpet. “If you’ve got a dream, you’ve got to chase it. Don’t let anyone’s opinions affect you.” In director Liza Mandelup’s feature doc debut, Jawline, Austyn speaks to himself as much as he does to the gaggle of teen girls that are watching him live-stream his motivational speech. He desperately wishes to leave his home in rural Tennessee and ascend to social media stardom by doing little else than… Read more
By Natalia Keogan
Samara Weaving in Ready or Not
Opening with a wedding and concluding with some kind of funeral, the horror-comedy Ready or Not is a welcomed late summer season addition. Grace (Samara Weaving) and Alex (Mark O’Brien) are married at the Le Domas family mansion. After the ceremony, the family announces that, as is tradition, they will promptly play a children’s game with (or more accurately, against) the bride, as she is the newest member of the Le Domas family and thus must pass a test. The game is Hide and Seek, and if Grace can make it to morning, she lives. If the Le Domas family finds and murders her before the sun rises, an ancient family pact is retained and Alex can hop back on… Read more
By Erik Luers
Hatidze Muratova in Honeyland (courtesy of NEON)
The award-winning documentary Honeyland marks the second collaboration between directors Ljubomir Stefanov and Tamara Kotevska. Set in Bekirlijia, a rural village in Macedonia, it focuses on Hatidze Muratova, who follows ancient beekeeping traditions while caring for her ailing mother Nazife. Despite her efforts to be self-sufficient, political and economic decisions have a profound effect on Hatidze and her ability to survive. Synopses of Honeyland can make it seem like a dull, self-righteous nature documentary. Instead, it’s a film filled with contradictions and narrative reversals. Characters make self-destructive, at times inexplicable choices, often under the guise of kindness and generosity. Hatidze Muratova, ostensibly a woman living on the edge of society, possesses a strong set of survivor skills and a wily… Read more
By Daniel Eagan
Mads Brügger in Cold Case Hammarskjöld (Photo by Tore Vollan, courtesy of Magnolia Pictures)
A conspiracy theory is meant to provide just enough information to send you tumbling down multiple dead ends, desperate for a branch of legitimacy to grasp onto. It must begin with an undoubtable event (say, the death of a famous figure) that lacks concrete evidence as to how it took place. There must be several figures who go on the record and offer conflicting reports (or provoke the sense that they’re hiding something more sinister). There must be multiple probable reasons for this event to have taken place (the famous figure had it coming, the famous figure experienced bad luck). In the end, you should be left with several possible outcomes that, if your life depended on it, you wouldn’t… Read more
By Erik Luers
The Independent Filmmaker Project (IFP), Filmmaker‘s parent organization, announced today its public program during the 41st IFP Week, including a series of over 40 panel conversations, informative workshops and screenings. IFP Week, one of IFP’s signature annual events, will take place in Brooklyn, New York from Sunday, September 15 to Thursday, September 19. The week kicks off on Sunday, September 15th with a series of panel conversations with filmmakers at BRIC, including: Keynote Presentation by Tyler Mitchell, Head of Impact at Imagine Impact “An Exciting Time” – a conversation with the creative visionaries behind TIME Studios, the recently formed premium content division of TIME “Politically Charged” – directors Rachel Lears and Alison Klayman discussing the impact of their politically charged documentary… Read more
By Filmmaker Staff
The Kingmaker (Photo: Lauren Greenfield)
The Camden International Film Festival (CIFF) announced today the 38 features, 51 short films, and 17 virtual reality and immersive experiences that comprise its 15th edition, taking place September 12-15, 2019 throughout Camden, Rockport and Rockland, Maine. “Story and Power” is the theme of sorts for this year’s festival, which aims to prompt industry-wide conversations that examine “the ways in which power structures deeply embedded in society have continued to shape the documentary field, including which stories are told, by whom and for whom.” “Our 2019 slate celebrates documentary as a reimagining of the ways we engage with stories from both near and far,” says Ben Fowlie, Executive and Artistic Director of the Points North Institute, and Founder of the… Read more
By Scott Macaulay
What You Gonna Do When The World's On Fire
Since moving to the United States in 2000, Italian-born director Roberto Minervini has become one of the foremost documentarians of the American South. His fifth feature, What You Gonna Do When the World’s On Fire?, marks a departure in focusing, for the first time, on African-American lives in the region. Shot between Mississippi and Louisiana, the film weaves together three parallel threads: a pair of young brothers, Ronaldo King and Titus Turner, whose fierce bond is evident from the jump; a musician/singer/bar owner named Judy Hill, who conducts community meetings aimed at consciousness-raising; and members of the New Black Panther Party, seen agitating against the killing of Alton Sterling. Interspersed throughout the film, shot in black-and-white (a first for Minervini), are sequences… Read more
By Lawrence Garcia
Scarlett Johansson and Adam Driver in Marriage Story
Robin Weigert as Calamity Jane -Photo: Warrick Page/HBO
Being John Malkovitch
“‘I Have My Real-life Self and My Online-Self, Just Like Everybody Else'”: Liza Mandelup on Teenage Social Media Stars and Her Hulu-Premiering Doc, Jawline
Aug 23, 2019
“Is That a Little Too Much Like Scooby-Doo?” Radio Silence on Ready or Not
Aug 22, 2019
“It’s a Choice: To Be a Filmmaker or a Human”: Ljubomir Stefanov and Tamara Kotevska on Honeyland
Aug 22, 2019
Back to One, Episode 71: Jake Lacy
Aug 20, 2019
“The American President is a Conspiracy Theorist”: Mads Brügger on Cold Case Hammarskjöld
Aug 19, 2019
IFP Announces Public Programming for 41st Annual IFP Week
Aug 19, 2019
With a Focus on “Story and Power,” Camden International Film Festival Announces Its 2019 Program
Aug 19, 2019
“Move Behind the Fence or You’ll Be Arrested”: Roberto Minervini on What You Gonna Do When the World’s On Fire?
Aug 16, 2019
Back to One, Episode 70: Greg Kinnear
Aug 13, 2019
Back To One Ep. 69: Ruben Santiago-Hudson
Capturing Social Change through Clothing: Once Upon a Time…in Hollywood Costume Designer Arianne Phillips on Dressing Quentin Tarantino’s Latest
Watch: Not Getting Stoned with Caveh: Rick Alverson
Watch: Guts, Noah Hutton and Taylor Hess’s Short Doc on the Feminist, Anti-Colonial Environmental Lab, CLEAR
Watch: “Thirst,” Gaspar Noe’s Sebastian Music Video
