Authors — Filmmaker Staff
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A Need to Focus: Guy Maddin Interviews Kelly Reichardt About Showing Up
Talking to The Guardian’s Xan Brooks in 2014, Kelly Reichardt reflected on the students she’s taught in her teaching position as an artist in residence at Bard. “The kids I know, I love them, but they’re not mad the way we used to be,” she noted. “They seem so unafraid and so un-angry. It makes them very nice people. It doesn’t make for great art. I ask them all the time: ‘Aren’t you mad at anything?’ They look at me like I’m off my rocker.” That sense of simmering discontent percolates through Michelle Williams’s performance as Lizzy, a ceramics sculptor […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Mar 16, 2023 -
One Step Ahead: Chinonye Chukwu Interviews A.V. Rockwell on A Thousand and One
The ever-changing landscape of New York City is the captivating, challenging backdrop of A Thousand and One, writer-director A.V. Rockwell’s feature debut. Chronicling a mother and son’s loving yet fraught relationship from 1993 through 2005, the film incorporates speeches and news reports detailing specific policies of mayors Rudy Giuliani and Michael Bloomberg across two decades, a device that serves as a concrete reminder of time passing and stakes rising for the film’s protagonists. Strict jaywalking laws, the advent of stop-and-frisk and increased gentrification initiatives become tangible perils that the Harlem-based characters must navigate, lest they lose the freedom they’ve worked […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Mar 16, 2023 -
Watch: A24 Is Bringing Jonathan Demme’s Stop Making Sense Back to Theaters in 4K
With the 40th anniversary of Jonathan Demme’s impeccable Talking Heads concert film Stop Making Sense on the horizon, A24 has announced a worldwide theatrical re-release of the film, which has been remastered in 4K. While dates have yet to be announced, it’s likely that the restoration’s theatrical run will tie into the band’s forthcoming deluxe vinyl reissue of the soundtrack, which will hit shelves on August 18. Notably, the vinyl reissue will also feature two previously unreleased tracks: “Cities” and “Big Business/I Zimbra.” Tied into the announcement is a brief teaser that depicts David Byrne picking up his iconic “big suit” […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Mar 16, 2023 -
Metrograph Announces Inge de Leeuw as Director of Programming
Today, Metrograph announces Inge de Leeuw as their newly appointed Director of Programming, who joins the New York-based company after working as a programmer of English-language titles at International Film Festival Rotterdam for over a decade, where she introduced European audiences to filmmakers like Kogonada, Terence Nance and Eliza Hitman. (Notably, the aforementioned filmmakers each previously appeared on our 25 New Faces of Independent Film list). “Metrograph is a family built around film curation—daring, inspiring, personal programs that have driven our growth since we opened in 2016,” said Alexander Olch, Metrograph’s Founder, via a press release. “These countless detailed choices […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Mar 15, 2023 -
Trailer Watch: Matt Johnson’s BlackBerry
Following his 2016 feature Operation Avalanche and re-launching Nirvana the Band the Show in 2016, director Matt Johnson returns with BlackBerry. The film, co-written by Johnson and longtime producing partner Matthew Miller, was adapted from the book Losing the Signal: The Untold Story Behind the Extraordinary Rise and Spectacular Fall of BlackBerry by Jacquie McNish and Sean Silcoff. The film’s short synopsis reads: BlackBerry tells the story of Mike Lazaridis and Jim Balsillie, the two men that charted the course of the spectacular rise and catastrophic demise of the world’s first smartphone. Jay Baruchel and Glenn Howerton star as Lazaridis and […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Mar 15, 2023 -
15 Films We’re Anticipating at the 2023 SXSW Film and TV Festival
The SXSW Film and TV Festival is officially underway, and this year marks quite a few significant milestones for the organization. For one, this is the event’s 30th iteration, and the first one that Claudette Godfrey oversees in her brand new role as Festival Director, taking over the position that Janet Pierson occupied for 15 years. (Natalia Keogan interviewed Godfrey shortly before the fest kicked off, which you can read here.) This also feels like SXSW’s ostensible “comeback” since COVID, with the festival implementing a concerted focus on reconvening on-site in Austin, Texas. This year’s lineup certainly reflects a return […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Mar 10, 2023 -
Filmmakers Explore the Intersection of Arts and Social Justice at VCFA (Sponsored Post)
Students and alumnx of the Vermont College of Fine Arts MFA in Film have been honored by the Center for Arts + Social Justice (CASJ) with fellowships in support of their groundbreaking activism and award-winning work, which brings social issues to a global audience. CASJ recognizes projects that show an indelible commitment to social justice, and creators who seek to inspire community-based change through the arts. Jen Gilomen ’23: Maternal health advocate investigating systemic injustices Brought about by Gilomen’s own birth experience, Delivering Justice explores maternal mortality and the maternal healthcare crisis in the United States, which disproportionately affects women of […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Mar 10, 2023 -
Trailer Watch: MoMI’s First Look 2023
Watch the trailer for the Museum of the Moving Image’s annual First Look showcase, which will run from March 15-19 in Queens, New York City. The 38-film lineup features 25 New Faces of Film alums Artemis Shaw and Prashanth Kamalakanthan‘s New Strains, which recently won a Special Jury Prize at IFFR as well as Kevin Jerome Everson‘s short Gospel Hill, on which he collaborated with Claudrena N. Harold. Other notable titles include Argentine filmmaker Lucrecia Martel‘s short film Maid, which will be shown ahead of the Dardenne brothers’ Tori and Lokita. We’ve also covered several First Look films during their premieres at other festivals, including […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Mar 9, 2023 -
Watch: The Jane Schoenbrun-Directed Music Video for Lucy Dacus’s “Night Shift”
Five years after the release of her sophomore album Historian, musician Lucy Dacus shares the music video for the album’s emotionally-charged single “Night Shift” directed by Jane Schoenbrun. The filmmaker (and former Filmmaker contributor) behind We’re All Going to the World’s Fair and the forthcoming A24 project I Saw the TV Glow depicts a romance-fueled The Wizard of Oz theme party. Dacus stars in the music video alongside actors E.R. Fightmaster, Eva Victor and Jasmin Savoy Brown of Yellowjackets and the latest Scream reboots, fellow musicians Phoebe Bridgers (Dacus’s boygenius bandmate and co-star of TV Glow), Hop Along‘s Frances Quinlan, […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Mar 8, 2023 -
Trailer Watch: Ian Cheney’s The Arc of Oblivion
Ahead of its world premiere at SXSW, a trailer has been released for documentarian Ian Cheney‘s latest film The Arc of Oblivion. Executive produced by Werner Herzog and Sandbox Films (which was recently nominated for an Academy Award for Sara Dosa’s Fire of Love), the film will have its inaugural screening at the festival on March 10. The film’s official synopsis reads: The Arc of Oblivion explores a quirk of humankind: in a universe that erases its tracks, we humans are hellbent on leaving a trace. Set against the backdrop of the filmmaker’s quixotic quest to build an ark in […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Mar 6, 2023
