Authors — Paula Bernstein
-
IFP Film Week: Lance Weiler on His Emergent Creative Process
In 1983, Lance Weiler’s van burst into flames during a family vacation. Eleven months later his house burnt to the ground. His latest project, “Where There’s Smoke,” mixes theater, film, gaming, and emergent technology story in an attempt to uncover the truth about those two incidents. On Sunday, September 18 as part of the IFP Film Week’s Screen Forward Conference, Weiler will discuss the creative process behind the immersive storytelling project and present hands-on opportunities for participants to experiment. Weiler has been the creative force behind some of the most innovative projects in the new immersive storytelling space. An alumni of the Sundance Screenwriters Lab, Weiler is […]
by Paula Bernstein on Sep 16, 2016 -
Cinema Eye Announces 2017 “Shorts List”
Cinema Eye today announced the ten nonfiction short films that have been named as semi-finalists for the 2017 Cinema Eye Honor for Nonfiction Short Film. The announcement of the annual Cinema Eye “Shorts List” was made on the eve of the 2016 Camden International Film Festival (CIFF), a key festival partner and sponsor of the Cinema Eye Honors. For the third year in a row, all ten films will screen this weekend at CIFF on the coast of Maine. “In the past few years, the short form has been one of documentary’s most exciting modes to engage subjects and stories,” […]
by Paula Bernstein on Sep 15, 2016 -
Trailer Watch: Rebecca Hall in Antonio Campos’ Christine
The story of Christine Chubbuck, the Florida news reporter who shot herself to death on live TV in 1974, was recounted in two separate films which premiered earlier this year at Sundance. Kate Plays Christine, the performative documentary from Robert Greene, was released last month and now Christine, Antonio Campos’ fictional version, has its first trailer. In addition to Rebecca Hall, who stars as the titular character, the dark drama features Michael C. Hall, Tracy Letts, Timothy Simons, J. Smith-Cameron, Maria Dizzia and John Cullum. The Orchard will release Christine on October 14.
by Paula Bernstein on Sep 15, 2016 -
IFP Film Week: Gabo Arora and the UN’s First Virtual Reality App
“We’re great with empathy, but we really want action because we’re the UN. We need to shift the needle on things,” said filmmaker and United Nations creative director Gabo Arora about the UN’s first virtual reality app, UNVR, which launches today. The app launches with four VR films, including Clouds Over Sidra, which was created by Arora and filmmaker Chris Milk as a collaboration between the UN Millennium Campaign and UNICEF Jordan. Shot at the Zaatari refugee camp, Clouds Over Sidra tells the story of life inside the camp through the eyes of a 12-year-old girl named Sidra. The Sidra Project, which uses the […]
by Paula Bernstein on Sep 15, 2016 -
Trailer Watch: Tom Ford’s Nocturnal Animals with Amy Adams and Jake Gyllenhaal
For his first film since his directorial debut A Single Man in 2009, Tom Ford has adapted Austin Wright’s 1993 novel “Tony and Susan.” The resulting thriller, Nocturnal Animals stars Amy Adams as Susan, an L.A. art-gallery owner whose ex-husband Edward (Jake Gyllenhaal) writes a violent novel (called “Nocturnal Animals”) based on their former relationship. “I did something horrible to him,” Susan confesses in the (above) trailer for the film, which also stars Armie Hammer, Michael Shannon, Isla Fisher, Laura Linney, and Aaron Taylor-Johnson. After winning the Grand Jury Prize at this year’s Venice Film Festival, and screening recently at the Toronto Film […]
by Paula Bernstein on Sep 15, 2016 -
Watch: Michel Gondry Directs The White Stripes’ City Lights Video
Filmmaker Michel Gondry recently surprised The White Stripes with the simple, but mesmerizing (above) video for “City Lights.” “On his own and without anyone’s knowledge, the legendary filmmaker shot a video for ‘City Lights,’ which he sent them the other night,” according to Third Man Records. The video marks Gondry’s fifth visual collaboration with The White Stripes.
by Paula Bernstein on Sep 12, 2016 -
Watch: Krzysztof Kieślowski’s Dekalog, Nine Cinematographers, One Vision
In honor of Janus Films’ new restoration of Krzysztof Kieślowski’s Dekalog, now playing in limited release, Fandor Keyframe shared this video essay about the ten hour-long films bound together by the Ten Commandments. Originally made for Polish television in 1988, the ten films focus on the residents of a housing complex in late-Communist Warsaw, Poland. Their lives intertwine as they face moral, ethical, and emotional dilemmas. Though the series was shot by nine different cinematographers, as the above essay shows, the overall vision was unified.
by Paula Bernstein on Sep 9, 2016 -
Watch: How the French New Wave Changed Cinema
The above video essay provides an excellent introduction to the French New Wave, which helped re-invigorate French cinema post-WWII. Spawned by Francois Truffaut, Jean-Luc Godard, Claude Chabrol, and other Cahiers du cinéma critics-turned-filmmakers, the film movement introduced the notion of the director as auteur. A collaboration by Press Play and No Film School, this video essay is the second in a series on film movements, their histories and their enduring influence. You can watch the first film in the series, on German Expressionism, here.
by Paula Bernstein on Sep 8, 2016 -
VR Creators Can Now Submit to Sundance New Frontier Story Lab
Calling all creators working at the intersection of film and technology: Sundance Institute is accepting applications for the next New Frontier Story Lab. Now in its tenth year, New Frontier at Sundance Institute provides support to artists working in Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality, and other new storytelling forms. The Labs and Residency programs at New Frontier work to identify and foster independent artists and creative technologists who are developing interactive, immersive or experimental projects that aim to create rich and resonant experiences for audiences. Past participants include Roger Ross Williams, Yung Jake, Chris Milk, Cory McAbee, Navid and Vassiliki Khonsari, Karim Ben Khelifa, […]
by Paula Bernstein on Sep 7, 2016 -
Attention, Young Filmmakers: This Could Be Your Chance to Go to Sundance
For the second year in a row, Adobe Project 1324 and Sundance Institute are teaming up for a short film challenge to find bold new voices in the next generation of filmmakers. If you’re a filmmaker between the ages of 18 and 24, you can create and submit an original one to eight minute film exploring the theme “What’s Next?” “We encourage you to respond as broadly or specifically to the prompt as possible,” advises the Adobe Project 1324 web site. According to the Sundance Institute, films will be evaluated for technical excellence, demonstration of an original voice, innovative storytelling and strong […]
by Paula Bernstein on Sep 7, 2016
