Authors — Jason Guerrasio

SUNDANCE ANNOUNCES 2009 COMPETITION LINEUP

Moments ago the Sundance Institute announced the lineup of films screening in the competition categories for the 2009 Sundance Film Festival, which will take place Jan. 15-25 in Park City, Utah and neighboring regions. Some of the titles that jump out for us are Joe Berlinger‘s Crude, R.J. Cutler‘s The September Issue, Ondi Timoner‘s We Live in Public and Tom DiCillo‘s When You’re Strange on the doc side and Cary Fukunaga‘s Sin Nombre, Lee Daniels‘s Push and Ross Katz‘s Taking Chance on the dramatic side. Descriptions of these titles and all the others selected are below. The films screening in […]
by Jason Guerrasio on Dec 3, 2008
SPIRIT AWARD NOMINEES ANNOUNCED

Ballast, Frozen River and Rachel Getting Married lead in nominations for this year’s Film Independent Spirit Awards with six apiece. The awards will be handed out Feb. 23. BEST FEATURE Rachel Getting Married The Wrestler Wendy and Lucy Ballast Frozen River BEST DIRECTOR Tom McCarthy, The Visitor Jonathan Demme, Rachel Getting Married Courtney Hunt, Frozen River Ramin Bahrani, Chop Shop Lance Hammer, Ballast BEST FIRST FEATURE Afterschool Medicine for Melancholy Synecdoche, New York Sleep Dealer Sangre De Mi Sangre JOHN CASSAVETES AWARD Prince of Broadway Take Out The Signal Turn the River In Search of a Midnight Kiss BEST SCREENPLAY […]
by Jason Guerrasio on Dec 2, 2008
GOTHAMS GO MOBILE

Can’t get to the Gotham Independent Film Awards tomorrow night? IFP has put together a fun way to keep you connected to what’s going on throughout the evening. Go to http://Twitter.com/GothamAwards to get updates on everything from the red carpet entrances to the announcement of the evening’s winners, receive text updates and go “behind the scenes” with photos and gossip from the show’s insiders.– Already have a Twitter account? Text “FOLLOW GothamAwards” to your Twitter number to follow along on your mobile.– Go behind the scenes with online gossip & photos from our Indie Ambassadors at http://gotham.ifp.org or on your […]
by Jason Guerrasio on Dec 1, 2008
The Flaming Lips’ Christmas On Mars

How couldn’t you be existential in space? Cut off from Mother Earth, becoming a machine of sorts with only memories of holidays to pass the time? In the lovably lo-fi sci-fi Christmas On Mars, psych rock band The Flaming Lips have invented a straight-to-DVD film that could be a lost cousin to 2001, but born on the other end of the budget universe. Stuck on Mars with the gravity control device and the oxygen supply failing, a group of young colonists try to fix their space home, while battling hallucinations of babies. Part of the space colony also houses a […]
by Jason Guerrasio on Dec 1, 2008
“GONZO”

On Feb. 20, 2005 the grandfather of Gonzo journalism, Dr. Hunter S. Thompson, was walking around his snow covered compound in Woody Creek, Colorado when he decided to point the gun he was carrying to his head and pull the trigger. For a man who lived his life with a glass of Wild Turkey in one hand and a hand gun in the other it was a fitting end. Now doc filmmaker Alex Gibney recounts Thompson’s roller-coaster life and how his intoxicating prose changed journalism forever with Gonzo: The Life and Work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson. Blessed with volumes […]
by Jason Guerrasio on Nov 30, 2008
Director Randall Sharp on Henry May Long

The Talented Mr. Ripley by way of Somerset Maugham, Henry May Long is a drama about two men, Henry May and Henry Long, set in the upper crust and under belly of 1887 New York City. Long is obsessed with the golden child May, and via constant surveillance has come to know his secret debt and drug addiction. He convinces May to care for him for three months, as an illness takes his toll, in exchange for money to repay May’s debts. Hiding out, along together, their friendship expands and May begins to find meaning in his own limited life […]
by Jason Guerrasio on Nov 24, 2008
Director Catherine Hardwicke on Twilight

All of Catherine Hardwicke’s four feature films – Thirteen, The Lords of Dogtown, The Nativity Story and now Twilight – have been about teenagers. They have also all been about real people, and all but Thirteen cover stories and characters already known to the public. Twilight is a teen vampire love story based faithfully on the Stephanie Meyer’s book trilogy, starring Kristen Stewart as the human Bella and Robert Pattison as the “vegetarian” vampire Edward Cullen who loves her too much to bite her. The books are coveted and obsessed over by young girls across this country, who are assembling in […]
by Jason Guerrasio on Nov 21, 2008
SHOOTING PEOPLE TURNS 10

Celebrating their 10th anniversary this weekend, the filmmaking network site Shooting People is currently doing a discounted membership deal if you sign up before Dec. 10. More here: All independent filmmakers get a present from Shooting People between November 10 and December 10: anyone who joins will receive a bonus ten weeks Membership, 62 weeks for the price of 52. One member a day will receive a birthday present from Shooting People, which range from a AVID training package and a Short Film Training weekend from Met Film School, to film magazine subscriptions, and DVDs of independent feature films. Shooting […]
by Jason Guerrasio on Nov 20, 2008
SUNDANCE ’09 OPENS WITH MARY and MAX

The Sundance Institute announced today that they will be opening the 25th Sundance Film Festival with the world premiere of the clay animation film, Mary and Max. Directed by Academy Award-winning short filmmakers Adam Elliot and producer Melanie Coombs (Harvie Krumpet), actors Philip Seymour Hoffman and Toni Collette lend their voices to the film and is narrated by Barry Humphries. From the press release: Mary and Max is the tale of two unlikely pen pals: Mary, a lonely, eight-year-old girl living in the suburbs of Melbourne, and Max, a forty-four-year old, severely obese man living in New York. The story […]
by Jason Guerrasio on Nov 19, 2008
SHORTLIST FOR BEST DOC

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced the 15 titles on the shortlist for Best Documentary feature for the Academy Awards (airing Feb. 22). They are: At the Death House DoorThe Betrayal (Nerakhoon)Blessed Is the Match: The Life and Death of Hannah SeneshEncounters at the End of the WorldFuelThe GardenGlass: A Portrait of Philip in Twelve PartsI.O.U.S.A.In a DreamMade in AmericaMan on WirePray the Devil Back to HellStandard Operating ProcedureThey Killed Sister DorothyTrouble the Water I’m pleasantly surprised to see Ellen Kuras‘s The Betrayal made the cut (I really didn’t think the Academy had it in them) but […]
by Jason Guerrasio on Nov 18, 2008

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