Authors — Sarah Salovaara
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Gravity‘s Supplemental Short Aningaaq Now Online
If you were desperate to know who was on the other end of Dr. Ryan Stone’s radio as she said her final goodbyes in Gravity, your prayers have been answered. Jonas Cuarón, Alfonso’s son and Gravity‘s co-writer, cajoled Warner Home Video into financing a companion piece to one of the heralded blockbuster’s many climatic segments, a seven-minute short called Aningaaq. After playing a handful of film festivals — including Telluride, where it preceded not the obvious choice, but John Curran’s Tracks — Aningaaq has found its way online, in conjunction with Warner Brothers’ announcement that it will be a Live Action Short submission for the 2014 Oscars. […]
by Sarah Salovaara on Nov 20, 2013 -
Filmmaker Grace Lee and Activist Grace Lee Boggs on American Revolutionary: The Evolution of Grace Lee Boggs
“I feel so sorry for people who are not living in Detroit,” says activist icon Grace Lee Boggs, as she stands before a dilapidated cityscape in the opening sequence of American Revolutionary: The Evolution of Grace Lee Boggs. A Marxist and lifelong Hegel disciple, the Chinese-American Lee Boggs gained notoriety in the Civil Rights and Black Power movements, alongside her husband Jimmy Boggs, in the mid-20th Century. Today, she is still ardently devoted to her adopted hometown of more than half a century, galvanizing the local communities in her effort to revive the industrial wasteland that has become of Detroit. […]
by Sarah Salovaara on Nov 19, 2013 -
The Act of Killing Takes BRITDOC’s Puma Impact Award
Last night at the Times Centre in New York, BRITDOC’s Puma Impact Award was bestowed upon the visibly shell-shocked filmmakers behind the year’s most innovative film, The Act of Killing. Director Joshua Oppenheimer, co-director Christine Cynn, and producer Signe Byrge Sørensen assumed the stage to collect their iridescent trophy – and its accompanying 50,000 Euro prize, to be split between the team and their activist efforts – from jurors Susan Sarandon, Zadie Smith, and Ricken Patel. Absent were two members of the jury, Gael García Bernal and Eric Schlosser, but, perhaps more notably, The Act of Killing’s anonymous co-director and 60 crew […]
by Sarah Salovaara on Nov 14, 2013 -
Gotham Awards’ Bingham Ray Breakthrough Director Screening Series
In the lead-up to the Gotham Independent Film Awards on December 2nd, IFP announced it will hold a screening series to highlight the nominees of the Bingham Ray Breakthrough Director Award. From Thursday, November 21 through Saturday, November 23, the category’s five directorial debuts will screen at the new Made in NY Media Center by IFP in Dumbo. The films are Stacie Passon’s Concussion; Ryan Coogler’s Fruitvale Station; Adam Leon’s Gimme The Loot; Alexandre Moors’ Blue Caprice; and Amy Seimetz’s Sun Don’t Shine. Adam Leon, Alexandre Moors, and Sun Don’t Shine lead actors Kentucker Audley and Kate Lyn Sheil will be on hand for a Q&A following their respective screenings. […]
by Sarah Salovaara on Nov 13, 2013 -
Blackmagic Releases v1.5 with CinemaDNG RAW
Today, Blackmagic Design announced the release of the first and long-awaited software update for their Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera. The 1.5 upgrade adds a 12-bit Log CinemaDNG RAW recording file so users can capture extensive dynamic range — the brightest highlights and darkest shadows — in a single file. The new addition will allow for lossless quality when images are decompressed, and greater flexibility in the color grading process. Further, users can begin editing or color correcting directly from an SD card, which will facilitate the post-production workload. A nice function for a camera that runs under $1000. The Blackmagic […]
by Sarah Salovaara on Nov 12, 2013 -
Fifth Column Features Launch Pay-As-You-Wish Model
Filmmaker contributor John Yost recently joined forces with Alexander Berberich to launch Fifth Column Features (FCF), a boutique independent film studio and online distribution company. Though the concept may sound familiar, FCF boasts the industry’s first pay-as-you-wish content model, which Yost likens to a barometer for audience commitment. Filmmaker spoke with Yost about what FCF is doing differently, and how, as filmmakers themselves, they are able to prioritize their colleagues’ best interests. Filmmaker: Why do you feel the industry was lacking a pay-as-you-wish platform? Are you operating from a standpoint that audiences are the most valuable entity to an independent filmmaker? John Yost: Pay […]
by Sarah Salovaara on Nov 11, 2013 -
ScreenCraft’s Digital Discourse: Build Your Audience Now
“Distributing is easy, marketing is hard.” With that statement, moderator Ryan Koo kicked off the discussion at ScreenCraft’s recent Digital Discourse panel on the future of content creation and releasing. Nestled in the WGAE suite of a Tribeca high rise, the participating panelists included YouTube’s Amy Singer; Erica Anderson, Chief Marketing Director at Seed&Spark; Erick Opeka, SVP of Digital Distribution at Cinedigm; @radical.media’s Adam Neuhaus; and BOND 360 Founder and CEO, Marc Schiller. Chances are, you’ve heard it before: with so much of the independent film world unspooling in a viral sphere at a hair-raising pace, filmmakers must be prepared […]
by Sarah Salovaara on Nov 8, 2013 -
Five Questions with Go For Sisters Director John Sayles
Childhood friends Bernice (LisaGay Hamilton) and Fontayne (Yolanda Ross) have been out of touch for a few years. When they reconnect, during an early sequence in John Sayles’ 18th feature film Go For Sisters, it is over a desk. Bernice, a parole officer, sits before folders of rap sheets to one side; Fontayne, a former junkie and criminal, fidgets on the other. It doesn’t take long, however, for the circumstance to turn from professional to personal. When Bernice’s drug running son vanishes near the Mexican border, she calls on Fontayne to help track him down. The two women head South, […]
by Sarah Salovaara on Nov 8, 2013 -
“25 New Faces” Tour Kicks Off November 16
Following screenings in Tacoma, Portland, and New York, three of this year’s “25 New Faces” are hitting the road to showcase their short films. Joined by Filmmaker Managing Editor Nick Dawson, Scott Blake (Surveyor), Anahita Ghazvinizadeh (Needle) and Mohammad Gorjestani (Refuge) will travel from Madison to Nashville on a tour sponsored by Sony Creative Software and ARRI. The full stops, as well as descriptions of the films and filmmakers, are listed below. THE 25 NEW FACES OF INDEPENDENT FILM TOUR CALENDAR: Saturday, November 16, 2013 UW-Madison Cinematheque, Madison, WI 3pm (tickets) Sunday November 17, 2013 Cleveland Cinematheque, Cleveland, OH 8pm (tickets) Monday November 18, 2013 […]
by Sarah Salovaara on Nov 6, 2013 -
Indie Distributors Respond to Netflix on Issue of Day-and-Date
At the Film Independent Forum a couple weeks back, Netflix Chief Content Officer Ted Sarandos gave something of a provocative keynote in which he declared that theaters would “kill movies” if they continued to resist multi-platform, day-and-date distribution. Though Sarandos later backtracked, Indiewire picked up the ball and ran with it, soliciting responses from several independent distributors on the matter. Among the executives weighing in were Kino Lorber’s Richard Lorber, Emily Russo of Zeitgeist Films, and Matt Grady of Factory 25. Dylan Marchetti, President of Variance Films, raised an interesting point, noting that “[Sarandos] knows that any resistance here isn’t to […]
by Sarah Salovaara on Nov 6, 2013
