Authors — Jane Schoenbrun
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Physical Media Isn’t Dead! (or, Why We’re Throwing a Film Fair This September)
The following is a guest post from Dan Schoenbrun of The Eyeslicer about what should be an exciting day devoted to independent film physical media occurring in New York on September 15. — Editor Every year a group of independent artists and publishers host Comic Arts Brooklyn, a daylong fair for graphic novelists, zine-makers, and small publishers. It’s an event I always look forward to: I love meeting artists in person who I’ve long admired, or browsing and discovering new work, chatting with people about what they make and what they’re reading, and doing all that surrounded by other like-minded […]
by Jane Schoenbrun on Aug 5, 2019 -
The 50 Most Anticipated American Films of 2019
Hello! Happy New Year! The fine folks at Filmmaker have invited me back to put together my (now) annual list of the 50 most anticipated American films of the year. I thought about making the list shorter this time around (because 50 blurbs is really a lot), but believe it or not I had a tough time narrowing things down even to this number. Before we get started, I want to share some quick clarifications and warnings: First and foremost, this list represents my opinions alone, and in case you got here via Google you should know that my taste […]
by Jane Schoenbrun on Jan 7, 2019 -
Why I Spent Months Making An Archival Documentary about The Slenderman
When I was thirteen years old I spent a good deal of my free time posting on an online message board dedicated to Wes Craven’s Scream film series. I was a nerdy, creative kid stuck in suburbia, and I’d stay up late on my parents’ basement desktop computer writing long, elaborate, I’m-sure-illegible fan fiction stories to post on the message board. This was a subculture on the forum: users would regularly post their own fictional horror stories (some inspired by the Scream movies, some original). The stories would often feature the characters from Scream mixed with new characters inspired by […]
by Jane Schoenbrun on Jun 19, 2018 -
Notes from Inside a Film Canon
About a year and a half ago I made the wise decision to stop watching so much mediocre television and start immersing myself obsessively in film history. I wasn’t a total beginner: I had a video store growing up and a traditional film school education — Battleship Potemkin, The Searchers, all that good stuff. Plus I was armed with a near-encyclopedic knowledge of contemporary cinema, spurred on by my work as a festival programmer over the years. But I had (and indeed, still have) countless blind spots. I resolved to fill in as many as possible with the help of a […]
by Jane Schoenbrun on Mar 29, 2018 -
The 50 Most Anticipated American Films of 2018
Last year I put together a list of my 50 most anticipated American films of 2017, and this year the fine folks at Filmmaker invited me back for a new edition. Before we get started, I’ll share some quick notes about methodology. First, this list is entirely the work of one person. It’s not aggregated through dozens of industry insiders or compiled via ballots or anything fancy like that. As a result, I’m sure it’s woefully incomplete. I have no doubt that there are still a bunch of American films out there waiting to be discovered that will bowl me […]
by Jane Schoenbrun on Jan 9, 2018 -
Should Filmmakers Tour Their Work Like Bands Tour Their Albums?
Since I started working in film ten years ago I’ve been fascinated by the creative possibilities of distribution. Filmmakers tend to think of releasing their film primarily as homework: the creative work is over and now the boring part begins: booking theaters, organizing print traffic, getting your film onto the right platforms online, generating press, and perhaps toughest of all — convincing anyone out there to actually care about what you made. It can be a boatload of labor, and a lot of it is administrative and connection-based. It’s no wonder that most filmmakers prefer to outsource distribution to companies […]
by Jane Schoenbrun on Sep 13, 2017 -
Art and Commerce Are Stuck in An Abusive Relationship
Is there such a thing as a moral or “best” way to finance a movie in this country? Should filmmakers and artists be allowed to earn a living without having to worry about making their work commercial? What and where is the line when “art” becomes “entertainment”? And when “entertainment” becomes pure “product”? With the Trump administration’s proposed gutting of federal funding for the arts, these are some of the questions that have been rattling around my mind lately. I find them more difficult than ever to untangle. Questions about the relationship between art and commerce are exceedingly complex, not to mention […]
by Jane Schoenbrun on Mar 21, 2017 -
20 Honest Observations from the Sundance Film Festival
Twenty — It’s the first Friday of the Sundance Film Festival and I’m sitting in the lobby of the Park City Marriott. I’m making small talk with some friends about the festival and the election and the films we’re excited to see. There’s a TV mounted on the wall behind me live broadcasting Trump’s inaugural address. Someone makes a joke about how he’s doing everything he can to avoid looking up at the screen. I do the same, pivoting my body and adjusting my eyeline so as to avoid catching a glimpse of our new President’s grinning face. By being here, […]
by Jane Schoenbrun on Feb 3, 2017 -
Sundance: The Narrative Radicalism of Dee Rees’ Mudbound
I implore you to go into Dee Rees’ wonderful Mudbound with an open mind. Here’s a warning to help you do so: this film is more narratively radical than you might imagine. It starts quietly. It’s patient, a true slow burn. It’s well-aware of this fact, even proud of it. At times you might perceive the film to be unfocused or fractured. You might be put off by some of the narrative techniques on display — for instance, the film’s heavy reliance on expositional voice-over. Or its overabundance of subplots (many of which remain unrelated to the central story). Or the fact that […]
by Jane Schoenbrun on Jan 26, 2017 -
Sundance: David Lowery’s A Ghost Story is a Major Achievement and A Curious NEXT Entry
It’s a rare privilege to see a contemporary American film as ambitious, emotionally honest, and just-plain-breathtaking as David Lowery’s Sundance entry A Ghost Story. Even from his microbudget beginnings, Lowery’s work has displayed a consistent fascination with American folklore and mythmaking. His films, whether big-budget Disney blockbusters like last year’s Pete’s Dragon, 2013’s love story Ain’t Them Bodies Saints, or his masterful 2011 short Pioneer, concern themselves with the notion of storytelling, its allure and its limitations. With A Ghost Story, Lowery continues to explore this fascination, now through the lens of the haunting genre, a tradition that stretches from […]
by Jane Schoenbrun on Jan 24, 2017
