Authors — Nick Dawson
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“ALL IN – THE POKER MOVIE” DIRECTOR DOUG TIROLA ON DOCUMENTARY RELEVANCE, HIS MARKETING DILEMMA AND FIGHTING IMDB
Last week, I wrote on the Filmmaker blog about the dilemma faced by director Doug Tirola in the marketing of his new film, All In – The Poker Movie. As promised, Tirola has written an expansive first-person piece describing in more detail the situation he faced. All In – The Poker Movie opened at the Cinema Village on Friday March 23rd 2012 and is now rolling out to over 40 markets including Los Angeles and Chicago. The film was originally shown at a festival in 2009, but over the past three years has undergone some distinct and important changes. However, included in the marketing […]
by Nick Dawson on Mar 30, 2012 -
BAMCINEMAFEST ANNOUNCES INITIAL SLATE
Today the BAMcinemaFest unveiled a selection of the films that will play at Brooklyn’s BAM between June 20 and July 1. The slate is dominated by titles that premiered in at Sundance, although there are also films here that bowed at Toronto and Cannes last year. The vast majority of the films announced here are also made by New Yorkers — many of them Brooklynites — while Brian M. Cassidy & Melanie Shatzky (named in our 25 New Faces back in 2007) enjoy the rare coup of having two films in the fest: the narrative Francine and the doc The […]
by Nick Dawson on Mar 28, 2012 -
TRAILER WATCH: HARMONY KORINE’S “THE FOURTH DIMENSION”
An anthology film with bizarre “rules” that was produced by Vice Films and Grolsch FilmWorks and directed a trio of international auteurs including Harmony Korine, The Fourth Dimension was always destined to be decidedly odd. But, on the evidence of this newly released trailer, it looks like it could be pretty great too. Korine’s contribution to the film features Val Kilmer as a motivational speaker (called Val Kilmer!) trying to get people to harness their “awesome secrets,” while the rest of the film is comprised of segments from Russian director Alexey Fedorchenko and Poland’s Jan Kwiecinski about a time travel-obsessed scientist […]
by Nick Dawson on Mar 28, 2012 -
TRAILER WATCH: “DESPITE THE GODS”
On Facebook, Hammer to Nail’s Michael Tully describes this as “The Trailer of the Century!” And certainly Penny Vozniak‘s Despite the Gods — a doc about Jennifer Lynch making her third feature, Hisss, in India — looks incredibly compelling and entertaining. Judge for yourself below! The movie premieres at Hot Docs at the end of next month, and I’m looking forward to hopefully catching up with it shortly afterward.
by Nick Dawson on Mar 28, 2012 -
THE DILEMMA OF “ALL IN: THE POKER MOVIE”
In 2009, I attended the CineVegas Film Festival, where Doug Tirola’s documentary All In: The Poker Movie had its world premiere. While there, I briefly met the affable Tirola, and was pleased for him when, at the fest’s awards ceremony, the film was given the Best Documentary prize. However, a distribution deal — which seemed likely given the fact that poker’s popularity was at an all-time high in 2009 — did not materialize, and it has taken three years for All In to arrive in theaters, now released by Tirola’s company, 4th Row Films. When I saw All In on […]
by Nick Dawson on Mar 23, 2012 -
ALBERT MAYSLES, JORGEN LETH & BLONDE REDHEAD TEAM FOR KICKSTARTER PROJECT
Filmmaker has its own curated page on the Kickstarter site, spotlighting projects worthy of your attention (and financial assistance). But I thought it would be a good idea to also flag up The Commentator, which I had previously been unaware of and is fast approaching its fundraising deadline. (At the time of writing, it has just under two days to reach its target but is still less than 50% funded). Here’s the description of the film from its Kickstarter page: In 1976 Danish filmmaker Jorgen Leth made the legendary sports and cycling film, A Sunday in Hell, about the Paris Roubaix cycling […]
by Nick Dawson on Mar 21, 2012 -
TOP 10 PITCHING TIPS FROM SCRIPT TO SCREEN
Following on from the Top 10 Screenwriting Tips from Script to Screen post, I thought I’d write a companion piece on pitching, as Saturday’s Script to Screen conference also featured “Pitch Intermission” sessions in which a panel of experts fielded pitches and then offered advice on how the screenwriters could hone their spiel. The industry figures giving their insider expertise were: Ron Simons, the producer of Gun Hill Road and Night Catches Us; Dana O’Keefe, a sales agent at Cinetic; Dia Sokol, a producer of both MTV reality shows and Mumblecore movies; and David Young, head writer at CollegeHumor.com. Below are […]
by Nick Dawson on Mar 19, 2012 -
Top 10 Screenwriting Tips From Script To Screen
Yesterday IFP’s Script to Screen conference took place at the 92YTribeca in New York City, and I was lucky enough to be there. During the “Writers’ Roundtable” panel, which featured the writer-directors Leslye Headland (Bachelorette), Liza Johnson (Return), Madeleine Olnek (Codependent Lesbian Space Alien Seeks Same), and Ry Russo Young (You Won’t Miss Me; Nobody Walks), I took copious notes. I was also busily typing away as novelist and Bored to Death creator Jonathan Ames, The Believer‘s writer-director Henry Bean, and Late Night with Jimmy Fallon writer Jen Statsky discussed screenwriting after playing the “Exquisite Corpse” writing game. Many sage […]
by Nick Dawson on Mar 18, 2012 -
SXSW INTERACTIVE: RAIN, SPEED EDITING AND COOLHUNTING BY SARA KIENER
Just hours before the SXSW Interactive Festival began, I found myself stuck in the rain 6 blocks east of the Austin Convention Center in search of Austin’s finest breakfast taco, wearing 3 layers of wet clothing, lugging my laptop on my back, and toting an umbrella that wasn’t doing me any good. As I finally and begrudgingly ate an empanada, because that was all I could find in the midst of a torrential downpour, the restaurant ceiling began to leak and a massive water drop fell on my head, forcing me to rethink everything I’ve ever thought about Austin weather. […]
by Nick Dawson on Mar 13, 2012 -
MUSIC BOX PICKS UP IRA SACHS’ KEEP THE LIGHTS ON
Arthouse distrib Music Box Films today announced that they will handle the U.S. and Canadian release of writer-director Ira Sachs’ semi-autobiographical relationship drama Keep the Lights On, which premiered at Sundance back in January and won the Teddy award (for best LGBT film) last month at Berlin. Sachs — best known for his films Forty Shades of Blue, the 2005 Sundance Grand Jury Prize winner, and The Delta — made headlines when he raised the final $25,000 of his budget for Lights through Kickstarter. Announcing the acquisition of Sachs’ film, Ed Arentz, the Managing Director of Music Box Films, said, […]
by Nick Dawson on Mar 12, 2012
