Authors — Nick Dawson
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The National Doc Mistaken For Strangers to Open Tribeca Film Festival
It was announced this afternoon that the 2013 Tribeca Film Festival will open on April 17 with Mistaken for Strangers, a documentary about Brooklyn indie heroes The National. The film, exec produced by Oscar-nominated documentarian Marshall Curry, is directed by Tom Berninger, the brother of The National’s lead singer Matt Berninger, who is a producer on the film along with his wife, Carin Besser, and Craig Charland. The film, which has previously had working titles including Summer Lovin’ Torture Party and For Those About to Weep, documents the band’s tour supporting their 2010 album High Violet. Its current title is taken from one […]
by Nick Dawson on Feb 28, 2013 -
Call for Entries: IFP Labs
If you are a first-time filmmaker and have a narrative or documentary project in the final stages of post-production, here’s a heads up that the deadline for submission to the Independent Filmmaker Labs is upcoming. Run by IFP, which publishes Filmmaker, the labs help movies with a budget under $1 million, providing each film’s team with in-depth assistance on everything from editing to marketing to festival strategy. The IFP Labs select 10 documentary and 10 narrative projects, assembling filmmakers for three separate sessions throughout the year, during which the individuals are helped to discern the best way for their movies to stand […]
by Nick Dawson on Feb 27, 2013 -
Saving Lincoln Director Salvador Litvak on CineCollage
The last nine months or so have seen the release of a number of films about Abraham Lincoln, the latest of which is the indie Saving Lincoln, currently in theaters. The movie is a unique visual experience as a result of its groundbreaking use of archival photographs and green screen. You can see in the video above how much of the movie’s world was created, while below Saving Lincoln‘s director, Salvador Litvak, shares how he came up with the film’s innovative process, CineCollage. My new film, Saving Lincoln, was made within photographs of the American Civil War. Combining elements of theater and […]
by Nick Dawson on Feb 26, 2013 -
Craig Zobel’s Iggy Pop Videos
Indie directors have to take on all kinds of soulless commercial work in order to pay the bills. But I suspect that Compliance writer/director Craig Zobel didn’t have too terrible a time making these videos for the upcoming release of Iggy and the Stooges’ new record, Ready to Die…
by Nick Dawson on Feb 26, 2013 -
TIZA’s DSLR Clapperboard App
I tend to be a little skeptical about all the apps out there that aren’t particularly useful and don’t really merit existence. But I must admit this clapperboard app from the British company TIZA does seem to pretty cool and should streamline workflow for shoots using a DSLR.
by Nick Dawson on Feb 26, 2013 -
Silver Linings Dominates Spirit Awards
In what may be an indicator of the direction tonight’s Oscars will take, David O. Russell’s Silver Linings Playbook dominated the proceedings at yesterday’s Independent Spirit Awards. The film, which was Filmmaker‘s cover movie for the magazine’s Fall 2012 issue, won big in the major categories, taking Best Feature, Best Director, Best Screenplay and Best Actress (for Jennifer Lawrence). The awards show was ultimately a rather curious affair. Best First Feature was won by Stephen Chbosky’s The Perks of Being a Wallflower, which is actually Chbosky’s second film as director. Derek Connolly, screenwriter of Safety Not Guaranteed, won Best First Screenplay and then proceeded to give an […]
by Nick Dawson on Feb 24, 2013 -
Snitch’s Ric Roman Waugh: From Stuntman to Writer/Director
There is no one set way to progress to the role of writer/director, but now — when all it takes to make your own movie is having a DSLR and a Kickstarter account — the story of Ric Roman Waugh’s rise stands out. The son of an old school Hollywood stuntman, Waugh took a path similar to those directors who emerged in Tinseltown’s golden age: learn a craft (writer, editor, production designer, etc.), and then move up through the ranks until you’ve earned the right to have your name on the back of that canvas chair. Waugh followed in his father’s […]
by Nick Dawson on Feb 22, 2013 -
“25 New Faces” Alums Our Nixon and Blue Caprice Bookend New Directors/New Films
The current class of “25 New Faces” continues to make headlines, this time bagging opening and closing night spots at the upcoming New Directors/New Films being works by 2012 alums. Penny Lane and Brian L. Frye‘s archival doc Our Nixon kicks off the MoMA/FSLC-housed festival, while Alexandre Moors‘ Beltway sniper drama Blue Caprice closes the event. Other U.S. indies at the 2013 edition of ND/NF include Joshua Oppenheimer’s buzz doc The Act of Killing, Shane Carruth’s Upstream Color and Shannon Plumb’s Towheads, while additional standouts include festival favorites like Tobias Lindholm’s A Hijacking and Sarah Polley’s Stories We Tell. The […]
by Nick Dawson on Feb 22, 2013 -
5 Broken Cameras Director Emad Burnat’s Statement on His LAX Detention
If you follow Michael Moore on Twitter, you’ll be aware that 5 Broken Cameras’ Palestinian director Emad Burnat was detained by immigration officers on his arrival at LAX airport. Burnat is in Los Angeles for Sunday’s Academy Awards, where the film he made with Israeli director Guy Davidi is nominated for Best Documentary. In response to this incident, Burnat just released the following statement through the film’s distributor, Kino Lorber: Last night, on my way from Turkey to Los Angeles, CA, my family and I were held at US immigration for about an hour and questioned about the purpose of […]
by Nick Dawson on Feb 20, 2013 -
Exclusive Behind-the-Scenes Featurette on David Riker’s The Girl
Fourteen years after making an impressive directorial debut with La Ciudad, David Riker is returning with his second feature, an unlikely border tale starring Abbie Cornish. In the following exclusive behind-the-scenes featurette, Riker discusses the research he did and reveals how he conceived the story of the film.
by Nick Dawson on Feb 19, 2013
