Authors — Paula Bernstein
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Short of the Week Selects Best Short Films of 2015
Earlier this year, Scott Macaulay interviewed Short of the Week founders Andrew S. Allen and Jason Sondhi about the site’s relaunch. Macaulay noted at the time that they “have done a top-to-bottom redesign — a clean look that also makes both searching and streaming easier. Indeed, the new Short of the Week acknowledges that a viewer today is as likely to watch a short on a large phone or streamed through a device like Chromecast to a television as on a laptop window.” Now, as the year comes to a close, the Short of the Week team reflects on the […]
by Paula Bernstein on Dec 15, 2015 -
Kickstarter Announces Sundance-Bound Projects
The countdown to Sundance 2016 has begun with a slew of recent announcements of film selections for the festival, which runs from January 21-31. Earlier this week, the crowdfunding platform unveiled the list of Kickstarter-funded works which made the cut for this year’s festival, including new documentary features from Dawn Porter (Trapped), Penny Lane (NUTS!) and Chris Hegedus and D.A. Pennebaker (Unlocking the Cage). Read the full blog post here and check out highlights below: This year at Sundance, we’ll be crossing our fingers for a great roster of docs and dramatic features in competition for major awards: NUTS!, Spa Night, Trapped, and When Two Worlds […]
by Paula Bernstein on Dec 15, 2015 -
Trailer Watch: Tim Blake Nelson’s Anesthesia
Tim Blake Nelson’s last film, Leaves of Grass, was released five years ago. Since then, the award-winning actor, writer and director has been busy acting in indies such as James Franco’s take on As I Lay Dying, big-budget films such as Steven Spielberg’s Lincoln and on Netflix with an ongoing role in Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt. Anesthesia, Blake Nelson’s latest film as writer-director, premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival earlier this year and was later picked up by IFC Films. The drama, starring Kristen Stewart and Sam Waterston, alongside Blake Nelson, Glenn Close, Gretchen Mol, Corey Stoll and Michael K. Williams, will hit theaters and on demand on January […]
by Paula Bernstein on Dec 14, 2015 -
TASER Tries to Discredit Killing Them Safely Documentary
It’s not unusual for filmmakers digging into difficult truths to face backlash or even retaliation. The Church of Scientology, for instance, launched a smear campaign against director Alex Gibney after his film Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief addressed some of the religion’s questionable practices. Now TASER International has tried to discredit the new documentary Killing Them Safely, which raises serious questions about the safety of TASER guns, by posting negative reviews on various web sites, including Amazon.com, iTunes and IMDB. Because TASER employees used their real names when posting these reviews, it’s been easy to spot these fake reviews (after Berardini shared […]
by Paula Bernstein on Dec 11, 2015 -
Stinking Heaven Filmmakers Create Limited Edition VHS
Stinking Heaven, Nathan Silver’s latest film, opens in select theaters this week and is available digitally at Fandor. But distributor Factory 25 is also making the new lo-fi rehab drama available in VHS. If any film deserves a VHS release, it’s Stinking Heaven, which is set in 1990, when VHS was still the norm, and was shot on Betacam video. Set at a communal home for former substance abusers, Silver’s fifth feature has a gritty, documentary feel to it which lends itself to the outmoded VHS format. Factory 25 founder Matt Grady explained the genesis of the VHS edition. “I’ve been […]
by Paula Bernstein on Dec 11, 2015 -
Rooftop Filmmakers Fund Grant Winners for 2015 Announced
Rooftop Films, which is heading into its 20th season, has awarded 13 cash and service grants to alumni filmmakers. The GarboNYC Feature Film Grants were awarded to directors Kitty Green and Sebastian Silva. Green will receive a monetary grant of $15,000 to help finish her new film, Casting JonBenet, and Silva will receive a $10,000 grant to support his film, Demon Me. Casting JonBenet, a documentary about the infamous murder of child model JonBenet Ramsey, marks Green’s second feature after her 2013 documentary debut Ukraine Is Not a Brothel. Among the films Silva has directed are Crystal Fairy & the Magical Cactus and Nasty […]
by Paula Bernstein on Dec 10, 2015 -
Recipients of 2015/2016 TFI New Media Fund Announced
Tribeca Film Institute (TFI), in partnership with Ford Foundation’s JustFilms initiative, has announced the grant recipients of the 2015/2016 TFI New Media Fund. Grantees were selected by an advisory board comprised of Just Vision’s Julia Bacha, director Malika Zouhali-Worrall (Call Me Kuchu), director-producer Sandi Dubowski (Trembling Before G-d), Google’s Lisa Steiman and Chicken & Egg Pictures’ Jenni Wolfson. The fund provides monetary grants and support to nonfiction, transmedia projects which tackle a social issue. Each of the three selected projects will receive $50,000 in funding as well as expert mentorship for producers to help them develop their projects and build engagement with audiences. You […]
by Paula Bernstein on Dec 10, 2015 -
American Movie to Receive Cinema Eye Honors 2016 Legacy Award
Cinema Eye, the nonfiction film organization behind the annual Cinema Eye Honors, will present the 2016 Legacy Award to American Movie, Chris Smith’s 1999 chronicle of an independent filmmaker pursuing his passion project. Smith will accept the award on behalf of the film at the Cinema Eye Honors Lunch, on Tuesday, January 12, 2016 in Manhattan. Award-winning documentary filmmaker Steve James (Hoop Dreams, The Interrupters, Life Itself) will serve as host and master of ceremonies for the 2016 Cinema Eye Honors, which will be held Wednesday, January 13, 2016 at the Museum of the Moving Image in Astoria, Queens. Meanwhile, today marks the second day of […]
by Paula Bernstein on Dec 10, 2015 -
Top Indies in the iTunes Store for 2015
As the year winds to an end, it seems everyone’s got a Top Ten list to share. In the case of iTunes, they’ve unleashed their Best of 2015 list, which is broken down into various lists, including the most downloaded films overall, the most downloaded independent films, the most downloaded documentaries, the most downloaded films that debuted at film festivals in 2015 as well as iTunes’ editorial picks. In other words, it’s a great place to start if you want to catch up on festival favorites or other indie hits that you may have missed so far. Interestingly, most of the […]
by Paula Bernstein on Dec 9, 2015 -
Support Tangerine’s Juice Fund to Boost Emerging Female Talent
You’ve seen the abysmal statistics about women filmmakers, yet they still manage to shock. According to a recent study by the Center for the Study of Women in Television and Film at San Diego State University, the number of women directing the top 250 grossing films declined by 2% over the past 17 years. And that’s just one measurement. In 2013, Amy Hobby and Anne Hubbell launched Tangerine Entertainment with the express purpose of giving voice to more female directors. Now they are raising funds on Seed&Spark to support The Juice Fund, an annual award which recognizes women directors who have […]
by Paula Bernstein on Dec 9, 2015
