Authors — Nick Dawson
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Mark Rappaport Fires Back at Ray Carney
So, it took Ray Carney 11 months to respond to Mark Rappaport’s allegations (we published parts of Carney’s open letter earlier this week), but no time at all for Rappaport to fire back at the Boston University professor. Here’s what Rappaport had to say: Everyone seems to be so concerned about Carney’s side of the story. All well and good. It took him over 11 months to come up with a letter filled more with hot air than with information—mostly about how everyone is treating him badly, and especially me, who has unfairly, it seems, spreading lies about him on […]
by Nick Dawson on Mar 20, 2013 -
Tribeca Announces New All Access Projects
The Tribeca Institute’s artist program Tribeca All Access, now 10 years old, today announced 11 new projects that it is supporting. Two of these are by 2012 “25 New Faces” alums: Long Year Begin, a doc project co-helmed by Malika Zouhali-Worrall (Call Me Kuchu), and Terence Nance’s political thriller The Lobbyists, a very intriguing follow-up to An Oversimplification of Her Beauty. Other promising projects already on my radar that TAA is funding include Roots & Webs, a mushroom-themed doc produced by Beasts of the Southern Wild‘s Josh Penn; Obvious Child, Gillian Robespierre’s edgy rom com; and Pilgrim Song director Martha Stevens’ third feature, Papaw Easy. Commenting on Tribeca All Access’ […]
by Nick Dawson on Mar 14, 2013 -
Trailer Watch: A Song Still Inside (Exclusive)
Last night, Gregory Collins’ debut feature A Song Still Inside was announced as part of the lineup of the 2013 Sarasota Film Festival, where it will have its world premiere playing in the Independent Visions competition. Via Collins, here is the film’s trailer. The synopsis of the film: A SONG STILL INSIDE follows Mike, a young, under-employed father struggling with fatherhood and with his wife’s success. As Maggie’s career flourishes, Mike finds himself spending more and more time at home caring for their 9-month old son. With his professional options dwindling, Mike takes matters into his own hands, endangering both […]
by Nick Dawson on Mar 14, 2013 -
Rambling On… and Lessons Learned From Your First Feature
On the latest episode of Rambling On…, host Russell Costanzo talks to directors Ry Russo-Young (Nobody Walks), Antonio Campos (Simon Killer), Alex Karpovsky (Red Flag) and Craig Zobel (Compliance) about the directing wisdom they’ve gained since making their debut movie. Check out a new episode of this great series every week on the Filmmaker site.
by Nick Dawson on Mar 14, 2013 -
Second Annual NYU Purple List Announced
Last year, in order to spotlight the talents emerging from NYU’s graduate film program, students Ash Bhalla and Shandor Garrison created the Purple List, the university’s answer to the Blacklist. The notable success of the 2012 Purple List was Shaka King’s stoner comedy Newlyweeds, which premiered this January at Sundance and was picked up for distribution by Phase 4 Films. The 2013 list was announced this morning, and was chosen by a panel of judges including Sundance Labs’ Rachel Chanoff, IFP’s Amy Dotson, actor Peter Dinklage, filmmaker Karyn Kusama and cinematographer Andrij Parekh. The scripts honored by the 2013 Purple […]
by Nick Dawson on Mar 14, 2013 -
Jillian Mayer and Lucas Leyva at SXSW
Jillian Lucas and Lucas Leyva, two of our “25 New Faces” from 2012, are back at SXSW with their new short #PostModem after making their name at the fest last year with the mind-blowing Life and Freaky Times of Uncle Luke. Here they talk with Romain Thomassin as part of the Motionmaker series of Young Guns interviews with emerging filmmakers.
by Nick Dawson on Mar 12, 2013 -
Tribeca Film Festival Shorts Programs Announced
The strong Tribeca lineup is bolstered by a very promising selection of shorts programs, which were announced today. While this year’s Sundance shorts slate was stacked with work by filmmakers who had features already under their belts, the TFF lineup does not include a lot of well-known names, which is always exciting. Among the shorts I’m particularly looking forward to are the non-fiction Wilt Chamberlain: Borscht Belt Bellhop, about an unchronicled part of the basketball icon’s life; Grandma’s Not a Toaster, written by Shawn Christensen, who just won Best Short at the Oscars for Curfew, a Tribeca favorite from last […]
by Nick Dawson on Mar 11, 2013 -
Five Questions with Medora Directors Andrew Cohn and Davy Rothbart
Andrew Cohn and Davy Rothbart have been friends since childhood, when they used to shoot hoops together in their hometown of Ann Arbor, Michigan. Since then, Rothbart has become a contributor to This American Life and an acclaimed writer of short fiction and personal essays, and also had his (Manti Te’o-esque) tale of a phone romance with someone who turned out to be a guy adapted into the 2009 film Easier with Practice. Rothbart and Cohn collaborated a few years ago on FOUND: People Find Stuff. Now It’s a Show, the off-Broadway show based on the magazine Rothbart started. Now they […]
by Nick Dawson on Mar 9, 2013 -
Five Questions with 12 O’Clock Boys Director Lotfy Nathan
Sometimes a story is too compelling not to tell, and that certainly was the case when first-time filmmaker Lotfy Nathan came across the 12 O’Clock Boys — a dirt bike street gang which terrorizes the police, who are forbidden to chase them — while a student in Baltimore. Immersing himself in the world of the riders, Nathan found a protagonist for his documentary in the precocious Pug, a 13-year-old self-professed “man” whose dearest dream is to become a member of the gang. Part coming-of-age movie, part gripping, real-life action film, Nathan’s debut — which went through the IFP Documentary Labs […]
by Nick Dawson on Mar 9, 2013 -
Five Questions with These Birds Walk Directors Omar Mullick and Bassam Tariq
Omar Mullick and Bassam Tariq are among a handful of directors selected for Filmmaker‘s “25 New Faces” in 2012 who are taking their debut features to this year’s SXSW Film Festival (alongside Penny Lane and Brian L. Frye’s Our Nixon, Ornana’s euphonia and Hannah Fidell’s A Teacher). Mullick and Tariq’s These Birds Walk, an alumni of the IFP Documentary Labs, is a moving and lyrical portrait of a home for young runaway boys and street children in Karachi, Pakistan, run by the humanitarian Abdul Sattar Edhi and his Edhi Foundation. The beautifully shot film (lensed by Mullick, a former photographer) was picked up by Oscilloscope prior to its […]
by Nick Dawson on Mar 8, 2013
