Authors — Lauren Wissot
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PREVIEWING DOC NYC
Since I’ve never attended the Toronto International Film Festival, or the long-running doc series Stranger Than Fiction, I was shamefully late to discover the curatorial wizard behind-the-curtain by the name of Thom Powers. But ever since Powers’s programming became, for me, the highlight of this year’s Miami International Film Festival he’s been firmly on my cine-radar. So when I noticed he’d be returning as artistic director of DOC NYC (which runs Nov. 2-10) I thought, “Oh, no.” I didn’t have time to cover DOC NYC right before I flew to Amsterdam to tackle the mother of all nonfiction fests IDFA! […]
by Lauren Wissot on Nov 2, 2011 -
THE SANTA FE INDEPENDENT FILM FESTIVAL
Back when I fled Colorado for NYC it was the rebellious thing for an artist to do. Now two decades later it’s the opposite as young bohemians across the nation are radically giving the finger to both coasts, forcing the arts culture to come to them. Case in point, the Santa Fe Independent Film Festival, which was originally launched just three years ago as a Slamdance-style antidote to the more established Santa Fe Film Festival, and is made up of folks who want to play in their own backyard – and spruce it up locally. This year the two festivals’ […]
by Lauren Wissot on Oct 28, 2011 -
Director Jeremiah Zagar on Starved For Attention
It’s been awhile since I sat down to chat with director Jeremiah Zagar, one half of Brooklyn-based Herzliya Films, which he runs with his producer Jeremy Yaches, so I was pretty excited to hear about their latest venture, Starved For Attention. A short film series created at the behest of Doctors Without Borders and VII Photo designed to highlight childhood malnutrition around the world Starved For Attention also seems to be the rarest of public service announcements, doubling as works of cinematic art. I spoke briefly with Zagar as he was preparing for the release of the eighth doc in […]
by Lauren Wissot on Oct 21, 2011 -
Wladimir Klitschko on Klitschko
Vitali and Wladimir Klitschko, the 6’6″ Heavyweight Boxing Champion of the World subjects of Sebastian Dehnhardt’s Klitschko, are to pugilism what the Williams sisters are to tennis. But unlike Venus and Serena, these chess-playing siblings, who became the first brothers to hold world titles at the same time, also hold PhDs and are fluent in four languages. Coming of age behind the Iron Curtain, the Ukrainian brothers’ psyches were shaped both by black- market Bruce Lee movies and the Chernobyl disaster (their military dad was a first responder). So when I heard that current champ Wladimir (pictured above) was available […]
by Lauren Wissot on Oct 20, 2011 -
THE ARIZONA UNDERGROUND FILM FESTIVAL 2011
It’s surprising that the Arizona Underground Film Festival is only in its fourth year since it’s got the vision and confidence of fests that have been around a lot longer. The brainchild of founder/director David Pike, who handles acquisitions for locally based BrinkDVD, AZUFF seems to have a strong sense of film camaraderie and community on its side. (Indeed, stepping out of the hot Tucson sun and into the downtown art-house The Screening Room – one of the venues of the Arizona International Film Festival, which I covered back in April – to pick up my press pass, I was […]
by Lauren Wissot on Oct 8, 2011 -
THE 2011 MONTREAL WORLD FILM FESTIVAL
C’est dommage. Despite the fact that the summertime Montreal World Film Festival is 35 years old, it continues to be eclipsed by its (year) older, bigger and bolder Anglo relative’s annual gala in September. Nevertheless — and even if Catherine Deneuve hadn’t been honored with MWFF’s lifetime achievement award — the fest has much to buzz about. For one thing it’s headquartered at the Quartier des spectacles, right in the entertainment heart of a gorgeous Paris of the North (America) that made this bi-continental critic miss Europe a little bit less. Secondly, this UNESCO-appointed City of Design has a vibrant […]
by Lauren Wissot on Aug 29, 2011 -
FOREIGN CORRESPONDENT: AMSTERDAM’S PLUK DE NACHT
I first met Caspar Sonnen last November while covering the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam, where he serves as New Media Coordinator and launched IDFA DocLab three years ago. I was new in town and hadn’t heard about Pluk de Nacht, Amsterdam’s annual answer to NYC’s Rooftop Films, founded eight years ago by its current artistic directors Sonnen and Jurriaan Esmeijer, and its managing director Henne Verhoef. So when I returned to The Netherlands for the summer I decided to contact Sonnen to learn more. The indie spirit-driven curator was kind enough to take me to coffee, and then generously […]
by Lauren Wissot on Aug 3, 2011 -
Foreign Correspondent: Going Dutch
Lauren Wissot’s report on arthouse viewing in Amsterdam inaugurates a new occasional, rotating column, “Foreign Correspondent.” In this space find reports on film cultures around the world, covering everything from production to distribution to exhibition. Bookmark this first edition for your next trip to Amsterdam. — Editor Besides the Dutch no-nonsense approach to everything from healthcare to vice, what I find most impressive about this Venice of the North is that there’s an actual cinema culture here — which is not the case in my hometown NYC, where there are only a handful of repertory screening rooms to serve a […]
by Lauren Wissot on Jul 21, 2011 -
THE 2011 EDINBURGH FILM FESTIVAL
Spend even the shortest amount of time in the delightful and disturbing Scottish capital and you begin to read native Robert Louis Stevenson’s Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde as a metaphor for the city itself. Edinburgh boasts a warm and welcoming population residing in an atmosphere where an ever-present hint of menace hangs palpably in the air like its famous rainy mist. (This openness is evidenced by the fact that one early afternoon my sister and I were able to pretty much wander in to a Justice Committee hearing of Parliament debating that day’s front page news […]
by Lauren Wissot on Jun 28, 2011 -
TIM HETHERINGTON TRIBUTE AT HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH FESTIVAL
I didn’t know Tim Hetherington very well, but like everyone who had encountered the critically acclaimed photojournalist, either in person or through his incredible work, I was stunned when I heard about his death while covering the uprisings in Libya. Last summer I had the great privilege of interviewing Hetherington and his co-director Sebastian Junger for Filmmaker magazine prior to the release of their Academy Award-nominated Restrepo, and the two struck me as polar opposites. Whereas bestselling author and journalist Junger seemed cut from the same passionate, gung-ho cloth as many of the patriotic men and women who serve in […]
by Lauren Wissot on Jun 25, 2011
