Authors — Sarah Salovaara
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Nandan Rao’s Second Feature Hawaiian Punch Available Online
Following in the footsteps of his debut The Men of Dodge City, Nandan Rao has released his second film Hawaiian Punch for free on Kentucker Audley’s No Budge site. (Just because Kentucker is no longer making independent films, doesn’t mean he can’t afford to support them.) The 66-minute tropical excursion tracks two Mormons (Nicholas Boissonneault, Tor Kristian Anestad) through quotidien, Minimalist circumstances. Though Rao runs Simple Machine, which connects filmmakers with theatrical screening opportunities, at least a fraction of his loyalties appear to lie online.
by Sarah Salovaara on Mar 4, 2014 -
Tribeca Film Festival Announces First Titles From Narrative, Documentary and Viewpoints Sections
On the heels of their Time Is Illmatic opening night announcement, Tribeca has released the first 47 of its 89 feature-length titles in the World Narrative and Documentary Competitions, as well as the non-competitive Viewpoints. Gabriel, the debut film from 25 New Face Lou Howe, which I can’t recommend enough, will open the Narrative section, with Dior and I and Onur Turkel’s Summer of Blood kicking off the Docs and Viewpoints, respectively. Other notable titles include Keith Miller’s latest, Five Star; Junebug scribe Angus MacLachlan’s directorial debut Goodbye to All That; d.p. Jody Lee Lipes’s Ballet 422; the Golden Bear-winning Black Coal, Thin Ice; Sundance hit The Overnighters and British prison drama Starred Up. Find the full list below. […]
by Sarah Salovaara on Mar 4, 2014 -
Wes Anderson Motifs in GIFs
Each and every frame of a Wes Anderson film is readily distinctive, and not just because of his anachronistic aspect ratios. In the lead-up to the Texan’s Berlinale-winning The Grand Budapest Hotel, an interior design company called Terrys Blinds has fashioned a series of GIFs that showcase six stylistic themes across the directors’ work. Among the GIFs are Anderson’s point of view shots — imbued with a childlike wonder; his use of isolation and contrasting side-by-side staging; and of course, his typefaces. Check them out at the link.
by Sarah Salovaara on Mar 3, 2014 -
2014 Academy Award Winners
By this point, you’re probably well aware of who has a new golden figurine on his/her most prized mantelpiece this morning, but here’s the full list. I found the show relatively painless — in large thanks to Ellen DeGeneres and the show-stopping Adele Dazeem — with the predictable loss of The Act of Killing and its fellow “issue” docs to 20 Feet From Stardom a cynic’s microcosm for the affair. More curious was the passive agressive beef between 12 Years a Slave’s John Ridley and Steve McQueen, who seemed to go out of their way not to acknowledge one another in their respective […]
by Sarah Salovaara on Mar 3, 2014 -
Farewell, Nick Dawson (and Cameron Crowe on Hal Ashby)
Once upon a time, every article I wrote for Filmmaker had to cross the virtual desk (email) of Managing Editor Nick Dawson. That day has since passed, which is how I am now able to write the following without Nick protesting in embarrassment or deleting my draft. That’s not to say Nick is ever one to tell someone what they can and can’t write. When an eager IFP intern (me) emailed to ask if she could contribute to Filmmaker — too shy to do so in person — Nick’s first response was “Sure,” his second, “Tell me what interests you.” […]
by Sarah Salovaara on Feb 28, 2014 -
On-Set Death of Sarah Jones Raises Awareness of Film Production Safety
The tragic death of Sarah Jones, a second assistant camerawoman who was struck by a train while shooting the Gregg Allman biopic Midnight Rider last Thursday, has sparked a necessary conversation over the issue of on-set safety. On the first day of production in Jessup, Georgia, the company was shooting a dream sequence with a hospital bed placed over the active train tracks. According to Variety, star William Hurt and director Randall Miller tried but were unable to remove the bed from the tracks as a train approached. Jones was then struck by a piece of flying debris and knocked into the […]
by Sarah Salovaara on Feb 28, 2014 -
Go Down Death Acquired by Factory 25
An IFP lab film from a couple years back, Go Down Death is having a rather busy week. The near-apocalyptic tale of a crumbling village, haunted by illnesses and the supernatural, was announced as the first (and only?) theatrical run at Williamsburg’s repertory Spectacle Theater, and, as of today, is yet another prime addition to Factory 25’s slate. I’ll have more on the film’s unique distribution path from writer-director Aaron Schimberg and Spectacle programmer Jon Dieringer when the time comes, but till then, the rest of the country can expect a July VOD and iTunes release, with a theatrical rollout to follow.
by Sarah Salovaara on Feb 27, 2014 -
Digital or Bust: The Brooklyn Heights Cinema’s Indiegogo Campaign
The phasing out of film prints by the Hollywood studio system is more than just a nightmare for the cinephile who disdains DCPs: it’s a living hell for the arthouse theater whose projection materials are suddenly obsolete, and its doors, in danger of closing. The Brooklyn Heights Cinema is one of those pleasurable, old timey theaters that still has a matinee ticket price, charm to spare, and just so happens to be dangerously close to becoming past-tense. Owner Kenn Lowy has started an Indiegogo campaign to raise the funds needed to convert his cinema to the digital age. Their prizes […]
by Sarah Salovaara on Feb 27, 2014 -
What Do You Want From Me? (I Asked You A Thousand Times)
Credited to a fellow by the name of Savage, What Do You Want From Me? (I Asked You A Thousand Times) gets at more than just the familiarity of that knee jerk line. Writes the maker of this clip collage: “Driven by a fascination into the cult of celebrity and the desire to be famous being a ubiquitous career aspiration in many, this collection of hundreds of film clips delivers an insistent, repetitive and seemingly pointless question that offers as much empty promise as the fame to which so many seek.” This grim probe, “perhaps a wider paradox to the […]
by Sarah Salovaara on Feb 27, 2014 -
Antonioni and Robbe-Grillet on Modernism, L’Avventura and Blow-Up
There’s a case to be made for viewing any old film in the theater, but few seem to demand the widescreen format like the work of Michelangelo Antonioni. Every frame of L’Avventura, the first entry in his monumental early 60s trilogy, is unusual and breathtaking in its construction. In the above video, fellow filmmaker Alain Robbe-Grillet (screenwriter of Last Year at Marienbad) discusses how Antonioni’s rejection of meaning and a closed-circuit narrative defined the Modernist aesthetic. Positioning him against the plot heavy Hitchcock, Robbe-Grillet notes the elusiveness of Antonioni’s intentions: “What you see is very clear, but the meaning of the images in constantly […]
by Sarah Salovaara on Feb 26, 2014
