Keynote speeches from IFP’s Filmmaker Conference–taking place during Independent Film Week–will be premiering on IFP’s new YouTube channel. The live video stream can be accessed here. Keynotes streamed live include: James Schamus (CEO of Focus Features) & Christine Vachon (Producer, Killer Films) – Sunday, September 16th @ 4PMET JC Chandor (Director, Margin Call) – Monday, September 17th @ 10AM ET Michel Reilhac (Transmedia Producer) – Wednesday, September 19th @ 10AM ET Orlando Bagwell (the Ford Foundation) – Thursday, September 20th @ 10AM ET To get reminders of these events, as well as new videos about filmmaking every Tuesday and Thursday, subscribe to IFP Digital.
by Filmmaker Staff on Sep 17, 2012Artistry, despair and rage — the New York City of the 1980s and ’90s was defined by its fusion of these elements as artists and activists became frontline soldiers in the fight against the health crisis of AIDS. “Silence = Death” was the slogan of activist group ACT UP, an admonishment to all those who’d deny the severity of the epidemic by not taking a position. And as ACT UP members took direct action against fearful politicians, a generation of artists incorporated the movement’s anger and social critique into their own passionate work. These New York years form the backdrop […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Jul 19, 2012You don’t have to be British royalty to find a cure for a speech impediment through film. High school senior Daniel Altman wrote the below account of his work on an independent feature as his college essay. It was subsequently published on the Stuttering Foundation website, where it has attracted thousands of hits, and Altman has been accepted at his top choice school for the Fall. We’re reprinting it, with permission, because it’s a great reminder that the practice of filmmaking brings many rewards, many of which often go unsung. — Editors I stutter. I stutter like Porky Pig. Sometimes […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Apr 26, 2012[PREMIERE SCREENING: Friday, January 27 6:30 pm –Eccles Theatre, Park City] There are so many reasons why we chose film as our medium to tell stories. The fact is we’re children of our culture (how could we not be?) a culture of the mash up: of so many forms of expression constantly mixing and intertwining in all of our daily lives. Well, film is the only medium where you get to combine so many of these forms of expression simultaneously: literature, music, photography, visual art and theater, all in your own unique way to create a singular vision that can […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Jan 27, 2012[PREMIERE SCREENING: Tuesday, January 24, 3:00 pm –Yarrow Hotel Theatre, Park City] I’m not an independent filmmaker; so-called independent filmmakers—all the more so documentarians—are some of the most dependent people around. We depend on funders and characters, on permission-givers and gatekeepers, on our own (free) will, determination and hubris—not to mention on the weather. A film teacher I once had gave me the one really truly valuable lesson in all my MFA: “You want to make a movie?” she asked us. Yes, we nodded. “Then go out and tell everyone you know that you’re going to make a movie.” Otherwise, she […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Jan 24, 2012[PREMIERE SCREENING: Monday, January 23 9:00 pm –Yarrow Hotel Theatre, Park City] Co-Director Emad Burnat: I been filming during the last 7 years so I sow many films been done about the wall and the occupation the conflict in palestine but most of these films by film makers or directories who came from out said palestine they didn’t live the experience so after more than 5 years of documenting and filming the struggle in my village bilin and the villages around I decided to make film from point of me because I live here and make this from my feeling […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Jan 23, 2012[PREMIERE SCREENING: Monday, January 23 Noon –Temple Theatre, Park City] I am a filmmaker because as a young man much of my time was spent watching a television show titled The Million Dollar Movie. It was broadcast on the local station WOR Channel 9. They happen to own the RKO Pictures film catalogue and they would show a film all week. The one film that I saw many times that had a tremendous impression on me was Orson Welles’ Citizen Kane. So watching that show every week and seeing that film and others such as Gunga Din, Fort Apache, His […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Jan 23, 2012[PREMIERE SCREENING: Monday, January 23, 9:00 pm –Egyptian Theatre] People want evidence. They want the truth. If it is a dream they want, then they want a dream; if it is a nightmare, then they ask for a nightmare. If it is a face they want, they insist on seeing one. In my opinion; you can only achieve this up to a limited point via other forms of art. Film is real! Film is an evidence! It’s the most terrific, and at the same time the most beautiful, secret that could be offered to someone. Whilst telling the story of […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Jan 23, 2012[PREMIERE SCREENING: Monday, January 23 2:30 pm –Prospector Square Theatre, Park City] Nathan and I have always wanted to study and work in film. To me it’s the ultimate art form, in that it has infinite possibilities and the unique ability to encompass and incorporate all other art forms. Even if all art is derivative, it’s that challenge: attempt to make something new in film that’s exciting to us. This was made clear to us as teenagers in the late ’80s when we were the personal videographers for Chuck Berry. Although known first and foremost as a rock-and-roll legend, he […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Jan 23, 2012[PREMIERE SCREENING: Sunday, January 22 8:00 pm –The MARC, Park City] I am as surprised as anyone that I have actually been able to raise a family by doing nonfiction work for the past 2 decades. In that time, I have witnessed a lot of change – in technology, in distribution, in audience appetites and in the maturation of nonfiction as an industry – and we can certainly have a healthy debate about whether it is easier or harder to make a living these days as a nonfiction film and television maker than it was 5, 10 or even 20 […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Jan 22, 2012