Authors — Filmmaker Staff
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SXSW BLOG: “YELLING TO THE SKY” PRODUCER BILLY MULLIGAN, PT. 2
The below post was written by Billy Mulligan, producer of the SXSW film, Yelling to the Sky. Six days of nonstop on-the-go hustle, with a few moments of pause for food coma recovery. That’s my SXSW in a nutshell. As a SXSW first-timer, I had heard countless times that it’s important to take the time to appreciate the Austin foodscape. After finally experiencing some of the culinary delights myself, it can’t be stressed enough that the Trailer Food culture that is ingrained into every fiber of the city is enough of a reason for any man, woman or child to […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Mar 17, 2011 -
“YELLING TO THE SKY” PRODUCER BILLY MULLIGAN, PART ONE
Producer Billy Mulligan, who is attending SXSW with Victoria Mahoney’s Yelling to the Sky, is filing a series of guest blog posts. Here’s the first. I’ve just touched down on Texas soil, a first for this pale-skinned, mid-winter-hibernating New Yorker. It’s a truly wonderful thing to be here conveying my experiences promoting a film I produced that is extremely close to my heart. The film is Yelling to the Sky, a narrative feature born from the rib of debut writer/director/producer, Victoria Mahoney. The occasion is our North American premiere this weekend in the Spotlight section of SXSW. We have flown […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Mar 12, 2011 -
THE WAY WE WERE: DEREK CIANFRANCE’S “BLUE VALENTINE”
Here Oscar-winner Robert Benton interviews Derek Cianfrance. The piece was originally printed in the Fall 2010 issue. Blue Valentine is nominated for Best Actress (Michelle Williams). As a child, Derek Cianfrance always worried his parents would divorce. When he was 20 his fears were realized. Both upset as well as curious about his own emotional antennae — how he somehow sensed discord in his parents’ relationship — Cianfrance decided to tackle the subject head-on with a movie. After gaining notice in the indie community with his debut feature, Brother Tied, in 1998, Cianfrance got to work on Blue Valentine, a […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Feb 24, 2011 -
“THE SON OF NO ONE” | writer-director, Dito Montiel
[PREMIERE SCREENING: Friday, Jan. 28, 6:15 pm — Eccles Theatre] So we’re filming in the Queensbridge Projects — the place I spent a million teenage days rehearsing with my hardcore band in Johnny Waste’s apartment (actually Ravenswood Projects). Back then it was the murder capital of New York. Still pretty rough though. I’m standing next to Al Pacino and we’re getting ready for a scene where he’ll talk with a little boy about two murders. He takes a minute to look at all the kids out playing in the big center playground. (We had a lot of extras all dressed […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Jan 28, 2011 -
“MAGIC TRIP” | director, Alex Gibney & Alison Ellwood
[PREMIERE SCREENING: Friday, Jan. 28, 3:00 pm — Temple Theatre] We initially thought that the film would be more conventional — the usual talking heads reflecting on the past. However, there was something so magical about the footage that cutting away from it to interviews of distant memories seemed wrong. Better, we discovered, to create a kind of archival immersion experience in which the footage would either live on its own or be commented upon by audio-tape recordings of Ken Kesey and the Merry Pranksters themselves. Many of these recordings were made closer to the time of the actual bus […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Jan 28, 2011 -
“I MELT WITH YOU” | director, Mark Pellington
[PREMIERE SCREENING: Wednesday, Jan. 26, 9:30 pm — Eccles Theatre] The biggest surprise was that I could pull it off, spend some of my own cash, raise the rest and fucking do it — under a million, 18 days, no compromise. I’ve never been happier.
by Filmmaker Staff on Jan 26, 2011 -
“ALL YOUR DEAD ONES” | co-writer-director, Carlos Moreno
[PREMIERE SCREENING: Tuesday, Jan. 25, 3:00 pm — Egyptian Theatre] I believe that All Your Dead Ones is actually built upon surprise. It is a project that we decided to undertake with a very reduced production team and that meant that surprises would abound and appear around every corner: for instance, the weather conditions are very variable in the region where we shot the movie and this complicated even further our challenge of using only natural light right at the moment were the sun is completely perpendicular. Every day we were forced to expect the climatic surprise of the day, […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Jan 25, 2011 -
“THE CONVINCER” | co-writer-director, Jill Sprecher
[PREMIERE SCREENING: Tuesday, Jan. 25, 6:15 pm — Eccles Theatre] I was surprised at how often life imitated art on The Convincer. Starting with my own behavior, which mimicked that of the main character, who is a salesman who uses any tactic he can to get others to do what he wants them to do. I had to convince people to work on a low-budget movie in the middle of winter. I’m from the Midwest; I know what it’s like. We had actors on a frozen lake at 3 a.m. in street clothes, and doing their own stunt driving on […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Jan 25, 2011 -
“A FEW DAYS OF RESPITE” | writer-director, Amor Hakkar
[PREMIERE SCREENING: Tuesday, Jan. 25, 6:00 pm — Egyptian Theatre] We had decided to shoot in a small town located in the Jura (a mountainous area), which would generate lodging problems for the technical team and for actors. The town hall and the inhabitants were really eager to welcome this shooting and had done everything to make our arrival possible. We found ourselves lodged in the former premises of a prestigious French bank, disused but yet sumptuous. We had at our disposal a significant place which allowed the technical and arts teams to live together during the four-week shoot. Villagers […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Jan 25, 2011 -
“GRANITO” | co-writer-director, Pamela Yates
[PREMIERE SCREENING: Tuesday, Jan. 25, 12:00 pm — Temple Theatre] Destiny never fails to astonish me. In this case, a story told long ago comes back and speaks to us in a surprising way in the present. When I went to Guatemala in 1982, the sole genocide of the 20th century in the Americas was unfolding and I was shooting my first feature-length documentary there called When the Mountains Tremble. More than 25 years later that film and all the filmic outtakes are being used as forensic evidence in a genocide case against two of the generals in my original […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Jan 25, 2011
