Authors — Sarah Salovaara
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Shia LaBeouf’s Directorial Debut HowardCantour.com Now Online (Updated)
When one thinks of an insightful, sardonic examination into the world of online film criticism, Shia LaBeouf probably isn’t the first name to come to mind. And yet, the actor’s directorial debut, HowardCantour.com, is just that. Starring perennial familiar face Jim Gaffigan, the short film tracks the eponymous character through junkets, brushes with former colleagues, and fallen directors, as he evaluates his profession in this increasingly consumer-driven industry. After stops at Cannes and Aspen Shortsfest, HowardCantour.com is now available online, courtesy of Short of the Week. Update: It appears that LaBeouf may have adapted (perhaps a generous euphemism) HowardCantour.com from Daniel Clowes’ comic Justin M. Damiano, without […]
by Sarah Salovaara on Dec 16, 2013 -
Inside Michel Gondry’s Home Studio
Fans of Michel Gondry and his latest Is The Man Who Is Tall Happy? may enjoy this peak inside his home studio, courtesy of The Creators Project. From his cluttered Brooklyn brownstone, Gondry demonstrates his hand-drawn animation technique with Sharpies and a 16mm Arriflex, which allow him to create “a texture that [he] feels is cinematic.” It is a rather time-consuming, detail-oriented trade that Gondry admits to wielding during his casting courtship of Audrey Tautou for Mood Indigo. He also speaks about his creative decisions behind Is The Man Who Is Tall Happy?, and why animation was the necessary format for Noam Chomsky: “It was […]
by Sarah Salovaara on Dec 13, 2013 -
“The Line Blurs:” Morals of Filmmaking
“Anything that happens in front of the camera is some kind of performance,” said experimental filmmaker Lynne Sachs at the top of Tuesday’s “The Line Blurs: Shifting Narratives in Filmmaking” panel. Sachs, along with Caveh Zahedi, Josephine Decker, Keith Miller and moderator Nathan Silver, spent an hour debating the division between narrative and documentary forms at DCTV. The evening was chockfull of quotable quotes as the participants reflected on their own work with equal doses of humor and candor. Zahedi, for starters, admitted that he initially considered documentaries to be “the autistic younger brother of cinema,” and only labels his […]
by Sarah Salovaara on Dec 12, 2013 -
Leah Meyerhoff Receives IFP Labs Director’s Grant
IFP and the Adrienne Shelly Foundation announced yesterday that its 7th Annual IFP Labs Director’s Grant was awarded to Leah Meyerhoff and her film I Believe In Unicorns. The grant is open to female directors who are either alumni or current participants of the IFP Narrative Independent Filmmaker Lab. I Believe in Unicorns was a member of the 2012 edition, a recent finalist for the Gotham Awards Live the Dream Grant, as well as a selection in Tribeca’s All Access and the Film Society of Lincoln Center’s Emerging Visions programs. I Believe in Unicorns follows Davina (Natalia Dyer) who escapes her obligations to her […]
by Sarah Salovaara on Dec 11, 2013 -
Takeaways From Dogfish Accelerator’s Demo Day
Back in October, Filmmaker spoke with a few of the driving forces behind Dogfish Pictures’ Accelerator Program, which seeks to bring the start-up financing model to independent film production. I’m pleased to report that James Belfer and Company’s months of hard work culminated in a successful Demo Day at the Microsoft Technology Center in midtown Manhattan last Friday. For myself, and a few others in the audience who aren’t necessarily of the tech-ilk, it was our first brush with this sort of presentation marathon, where one or two representatives from each team take to the floor for with a Powerpoint pitch before […]
by Sarah Salovaara on Dec 10, 2013 -
Trailer Watch: Jason Bateman’s Bad Words
The first, red band trailer has been released for Jason Bateman’s directorial debut, Bad Words, which stars Bateman as loathsome, brash 40-year-old Guy Trilby, who gets his kicks by hijacking elementary-aged spelling bees. Bad Words premiered in September at the Toronto International Film Festival, where it was picked up by Focus Features, in one of James Schamus’s final acquisitions for the company he helped found. Co-starring Alison Janney and Kathryn Hahn, Bad Words is slated to hit theaters next March. View the NSFW trailer above.
by Sarah Salovaara on Dec 9, 2013 -
“The Line Blurs” at DCTV
Tomorrow evening at 7:30 pm, DCTV will be hosting “The Line Blurs: Shifting Narratives in Filmmaking,” a panel on the increasingly ambiguous division between fiction and nonfiction in filmmaking. It is a timely discussion, one that will probe questions as to whether or not a delineation between the two forms has ever existed, and why viewers and critics alike are bent on categorization. The panel will feature filmmakers Josephine Decker, Keith Miller, Lynne Sachs and Caveh Zahedi, with Nathan Silver in the moderator’s chair. Silver, director of Soft In The Head and Exit Elena, shoots without a script, mining the people […]
by Sarah Salovaara on Dec 9, 2013 -
Getting White Reindeer Off The Ground
Zach Clark’s White Reindeer is not your average Christmas tale. Flush with WASPy cheer, real estate agent Suzanne Barrington (the note-perfect Anna Margaret Hollyman) eagerly anticipates the holiday until her meteorologist husband Jeff is whacked in their suburban home. What follows is an earnest and surprising unravelling as Suzanne rides a second wave of grief upon the discovery of Jeff’s affair with a stripper. With a script both original and subversive, Clark and his producers Daryl Pittman and Melodie Sisk went out to finance White Reindeer as the debt crisis hit. Clark was kind enough to reflect upon the process […]
by Sarah Salovaara on Dec 6, 2013 -
Nymphomaniac Set for March and April US Release
The latest surprise twist in Nymphomaniac‘s marathon marketing campaign is not one of the visual variety. Well, not yet. Magnolia Pictures announced today its US theatrical and VOD release dates for Nymphomaniac: Part One and Nymphomaniac: Part Two. Forgoing the festival circuit, the first part of von Trier’s latest provocation will be available on demand March 6, 2014, and in theaters March 21, 2014, with Part Two released on VOD April 3, 2014, and theatrically, April 18, 2014. Nymphomaniac: Part One unfolds as Seligman (Stellan Skarsgård) discovers a beaten Joe (Charlotte Gainsbourg) in an alley way, and takes her into his home […]
by Sarah Salovaara on Dec 5, 2013 -
“I Can’t Hate Anyone Unless I Love Them:” Drew Tobia, Eleanore Pienta and Rachel Wolther on See You Next Tuesday
Once in a while, a film comes across your radar that plays so perfectly to your sensibilities, it seems someone handcrafted it with you in mind. These sorts of films are usually small, personal endeavors, that — preference-pending — are too niche for mass audiences, and struggle to find the complimentary festival or forum that will realize their loaded potential. Drew Tobia’s See You Next Tuesday is the lastest entry in this unjustly underground canon. A cult hit in the making if there ever was one, See You Next Tuesday concerns Mona, a pregnant, loudmouthed, lonesome and unhinged grocery store cashier, inhabited by the utterly uninhibited […]
by Sarah Salovaara on Dec 5, 2013
