Authors — Jane Schoenbrun
-
Five Questions with Booster Director Matt Ruskin
Too often contemporary crime dramas binge on the crime and skimp on the drama. This is not the case with Booster, director Matt Ruskin’s debut narrative feature, and his followup to Sundance Channel documentary The Hip Hop Project. The story of Simon, a Boston-based petty thief forced to turn to serious robbery after his brother is arrested, Booster features stellar performances from a handful of Boston natives, as well as veteran character actor Seymour Cassel. Ruskin’s film wrestles with provocative moral issues, taking care to imbue even its most externally-loathsome characters with life and heart. Premiering in Narrative Competition today, […]
by Jane Schoenbrun on Mar 12, 2012 -
Five Questions with Gregory Crewdson: Brief Encounters Director Ben Shapiro
Photographer Gregory Crewdson is renowned for his elaborately-staged photographs, huge in scope, size, and ambition. So filmmaker Benjamin Shapiro had his work cut out for him when he set out nearly a decade ago to follow Crewdson and demystify the artist’s process. But the biggest surprise of Shapiro’s long-awaited film is just how open, eloquent, and down-to-earth Crewdson is when discussing his art. Crewdson allows the audience unrestricted access to his shoots (not to mention his personal life), even taking us along as he searches for locations, subjects, and inspiration. Gregory Crewdson: Brief Encounters is a refreshingly frank look at […]
by Jane Schoenbrun on Mar 11, 2012 -
Five Questions with The Sheik and I Director Caveh Zahedi
Caveh Zahedi is no stranger to boundary pushing. His filmography, a blend of narrative and documentary, has covered everything from drug tripping to sex addiction, all from a decidedly first-person perspective. But Zahedi’s latest, the bitterly-titled The Sheik and I, is perhaps his most flagrantly subversive (not to mention personal) work yet. Banned by the very government body that commissioned it, The Sheik and I finds Zahedi let loose on the Middle East. As he pushes boundaries in his attempt to “make a film about trying to make a film,” the resulting work, premiering at SXSW, promises to call into […]
by Jane Schoenbrun on Mar 11, 2012 -
Five Questions with Frankie Go Boomi> Director Jordan Roberts
On paper, Jordan Roberts’ frankie go boom certainly stands out as one of SXSW’s boldest offerings. From the film’s profanity-laden ‘official’ premise (quoted below) to its star-studded cast and strange teasers disseminated across the internet, Roberts is building quite a mythology for the project. Starring Sons of Anarchy’s Charlie Hunnam and Bridesmaid’s Chris O’Dowd as warring brothers, and Lizzy Caplan as the girl caught in the middle, the film premieres tonight as part of SXSW’s Narrative Spotlight section. Filmmaker: Let’s start with the film’s official description – “a flik by bruce about his little brother frank who’s a crybaby fuck […]
by Jane Schoenbrun on Mar 10, 2012 -
Five Questions with La Camioneta — The Journey of One American Schoolbus Director Mark Kendall
Director Mark Kendall carries a spirit of adventurous, a keen eye for character, and a wellspring of ambition into his first documentary feature, La Camioneta: The Journey of One American School Bus. Starting out at an auction in rural Pennsylvania for decommissioned school-buses, Kendall boards one of the buses sold and accompanies the driver on the perilous journey to the vehicle’s new home – Guatemala. The road to Guatemala is fraught with corruption and violence, with local gangs demanding bribes from drivers to ensure their safety. Since 2006, nearly 1,000 bus drivers have been killed along the route, and Kendall […]
by Jane Schoenbrun on Mar 10, 2012 -
Five Questions with Welcome to the Machine Director Avi Zev Weider
The process of making your first documentary – overseeing all of the moving parts, researching and scheduling interviews, shaping raw footage into a compelling, complete whole – this is undeniably a daunting process. Now imagine doing the same while caring for newborn triplets. When filmmaker Avi Zev Weider and his wife turned to in-vitro fertilization after having trouble conceiving, they never expected triplets. But this is indeed what they got – three underweight infants who spent the first several months of their lives in the hospital’s high-tech neo-natal intensive care unit. Weider was already fascinated with the topic of humankind’s […]
by Jane Schoenbrun on Mar 10, 2012 -
Five Questions with Daylight Savings Director Dave Boyle
The indie film world doesn’t commonly produce sequels (Linklater and Solondz being the obvious exceptions), and it’s even rarer to see one come as quickly as Daylight Savings does. Returning to the characters he first explored in last year’s Surrogate Valentine, namely singer-songwriter Goh Nakamura, playing a fictionalized version of himself here, Savings premieres tonight in SXSW’s 24 Beats Per Second section. Valentine made waves at Southby last year, and paired with Boyle’s still-fresh 2009 offering White on Rice, the young director is quickly establishing himself as a prolific and exciting voice. Filmmaker: What inspired you to follow-up Surrogate Valentine […]
by Jane Schoenbrun on Mar 10, 2012 -
Five Questions with Beware of Mr. Baker Director Jay Bulger
Early in Beware of Mr. Baker, director Jay Bulger admits that he was initially shocked to discover that his subject, legendary rock and roll drummer Ginger Baker, was still alive. With a resume that includes stints with Cream, Blind Faith, and Public Image Ltd, and a reputation for drug-addled excess, Baker seems both a relic of a bygone era and a likely candidate for ‘rock and roll casualty’ status. And yet Bulger does track Baker down, finding him living the life of an ex-pat in South Africa. Baker has grown from a difficult, curmudgeon of a youth into an even […]
by Jane Schoenbrun on Mar 10, 2012 -
5 Questions with Fat Kid Rules the World Director Matthew Lillard
For many of us children of the 90s, Matthew Lillard occupies a special place in our pop-culture hearts. He’s the emblem of a particular film movement, woven nostalgically into us like Molly Ringwald and Judd Nelson were for those who came of age a decade earlier. He’s the star of Hackers, She’s All That, SLC Punk – the killer in Scream! And his reasoned, career-rejuvenating turn last year in Alexander Payne’s The Descendents reestablished him as a unique on-screen presence. So it’s interesting to find Lillard moving behind the camera at this juncture in his career. But somehow, Lillard’s first […]
by Jane Schoenbrun on Mar 9, 2012 -
Five Questions with Pavilion Director Tim Sutton
Filmmaker has written about Pavilion before, whether to praise its beautiful website or to highlight an interesting merchandising strategy that director Tim Sutton discussed at last year’s IFP Narrative Labs. But what of the film itself – a meditative, ethereal blend of documentary and narrative, united around the theme of youth in transition. Indeed, Pavilion, which premieres tonight in SXSW’s Emerging Visions section, should speak for itself. The film almost feels like a National Geographic or Planet Earth-style glimpse into the secret lives of teenagers; into those quiet, unseen moments so difficult to capture – or for many of us […]
by Jane Schoenbrun on Mar 9, 2012
