In our current print issue, Approaching the Elephant director Amanda Wilder interviews Crystal Moselle about her Sundance Grand Jury Prize winner The Wolfpack, and how she went about navigating the reclusive existence of the Lower East Side Angulo brothers. You can check out the first trailer, which displays a head-scratching R rating from the MPAA, above. Magnolia Pictures will release the film on June 12.
by Sarah Salovaara on May 13, 2015Early this morning, The New York Times ran an article that detailed the A.C.L.U’s investigation into Hollywood’s hiring practices and their demonstrable prejudices — given the statistics — against female directors. As spearheaded by Melissa Davidson, the director of the L.G.B.T, Gender and Reproductive Justice Project at the A.C.L.U of Southern California, The Times also ran her official letter to the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing and the Labor Department’s Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs that outlines the reasons behind her inquiry in full. Cara Buckley, author of The Times article, put forth the career trajectory of Godzilla helmer Gareth Edwards, who landed […]
by Sarah Salovaara on May 12, 2015ornana’s latest short form outing, All Your Favorite Shows, might just be my favorite yet. Length notwithstanding, it features some of the most exacting and exhilarating editing you’re likely to see anytime in the near future, as it seamlessly shifts from film clips to Danny Madden’s original animation in the blink of an eye. I asked Madden to elaborate on his collaboration with editor Mari Walker in designing the film and stringing together its “found imagery”: The clip selection began at the storyboards. I laid out these high energy action moments that followed as many modern film and television tropes as I could […]
by Sarah Salovaara on May 11, 2015The latest in Tony Zhou’s Every Frame a Painting series centers on a filmmaker who is relatively unscrutinized in the realm of the video essay: Lynne Ramsay. Though Ramsay’s films turn on watershed moments in the lives of her characters, she often chooses to relate their emotional impact through a string of details, rather than a single overblown reaction. Such a notion is the subject of Zhou’s essay, “The Poetry of Details,” wherein he dissects Ramsay’s use of framing and repetition.
by Sarah Salovaara on May 8, 2015A slew of festival favorites are set to make their New York premieres at the 2015 edition of BAMcinemaFest, which will open with James Ponsoldt’s The End of The Tour and close with Sean Baker’s Tangerine. Alex Ross Perry’s Berlinale premiere Queen of Earth will serve as Centerpiece at the festival, which runs from June 17 – 28 in Fort Greene. Aside from the Sundance and SXSW holdovers, notable selections include Jem Cohen’s Counting; Nathan Silver’s Stinking Heaven; Here Come the Videofreex, a documentary about a 1960s and 70s video collective; the world premiere of Jason and Shirley, a reimagining of Portrait of Jason; and Henry Gamble’s Birthday Party, Stephen Cone’s latest, […]
by Sarah Salovaara on May 6, 2015Rooftop Films, New York’s pre-eminent eventized screening series, has announced the first films from their 2015 Summer Series program. Set to open with a slew of shorts on May 29, including the excellent All Your Favorite Shows! and Actor Seeks Role from 25 New Faces Danny Madden and Michael Tyburski (respectively), the lineup includes festival favorites like The Wolfpack and Krisha, and some more relatively unseen titles like Bloomin’ Mud Shuffle, Spartacus & Cassandra, and Divine Location. Check out the films below and head to Rooftop’s Kickstarter to support the series in exchange for memberships. Friday, May 29, 2015 This is What We Mean by Short Films […]
by Sarah Salovaara on May 4, 2015If you’re an avid repertory filmgoer in New York City, chances are Screen Slate is your lifeline. A daily collation of the five boroughs’ rep, independent, arthouse and gallery screenings dispatched straight to your inbox, Screen Slate has sent over a million emails since its inception in mid-2010. Founder Jon Dieringer is now looking to take things to the next level with a Kickstarter campaign that would allow for several site advancements, including customized alerts; sorting by filmmaker, venue, format and series; calendar functions and much more. Filmmaker spoke with Dieringer about his own curatorial process and plans for the site’s relaunch. Be sure to […]
by Sarah Salovaara on May 1, 2015Sean Baker’s Tangerine went into Sundance with two secrets of sorts kept firmly under wraps. Festival materials noticeably left off that the film starred two transgender actresses and — the eventually headline grabbing news — that it was shot on an iPhone 5S. The first red band trailer gives you a square look at both starring components, as the added graphics and musical effects play its kitschy style to the hilt. An episodic comedy about a jilted prostitute on the hunt for her pimp, Tangerine is set for release by Magnolia on July 10.
by Sarah Salovaara on Apr 30, 2015A selection of this year’s Sundance and Tribeca Film Festivals, Reinaldo Marcus Green’s Stop is now available online, courtesy of Conde Nast’s steaming platform The Scene. As intimated by the title, Green’s short is a very topical examination of stop and frisk policies, told over the course of one evening as a pair of friends are intercepted by the police on their way home, in a display of economical and emotionally weighty filmmaking. Check it out above.
by Sarah Salovaara on Apr 29, 2015Before the advent of streaming platforms, the festival circuit was practically the only option for distributing short form content. You’d ship your finished film off to Sundance and pray for that acceptance letter — and maybe even a feature deal made at the festival. But while some of today’s filmmakers still hold tight to that romantic ideal, others are capitalizing on the visibility and fan cultivation teased by the online sphere. They argue against festival submission fees and pricey DCP shipments and for the simplicity of an online premiere on Vimeo, YouTube, NoBudge, Fandor or another platform where audiences are […]
by Sarah Salovaara on Apr 28, 2015