Authors — Sarah Salovaara
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OK, Enough, Goodbye To Be Released Via Vyer Films
Rania Attieh and Daniel Garcia, two of Filmmaker‘s 2011 “25 New Faces,” have found a home for their debut feature, OK, Enough, Goodbye, at Vyer Films. An unusual coming of age tale, Ok, Enough, Goodbye centers on a protagonist who is effectively old enough for a mid-life crisis. The aforementioned, nameless 40-year old man lives in Tripoli, Lebanon, with his mother, having long relinquished any prospects for independence. But when his mother abruptly leaves, the man is left with nothing but his surroundings. As he struggles to find his bearings adrift in the small city, he must keep his mother’s absence a […]
by Sarah Salovaara on Nov 6, 2013 -
Joshua Oppenheimer on How Limitations Shaped The Act of Killing
In light of The Act of Killing‘s upcoming screening in MoMA’s The Contenders series, I thought to share an interview in which Joshua Oppenheimer discusses how repression and restrictions shaped the evolution of the film’s groundbreaking narrative. Originally setting out to capture the Indonesian genocide from the survivors’ perspective, Oppenheimer quickly realized that constant military interference was throwing a wrench in his work. Drifting in and out of jail with his crew, Oppenheimer began to follow the victims’ suggestion that he film purported perpetrators, in the interest of obtaining information that may bring them closure. Within minutes of meeting the men in […]
by Sarah Salovaara on Nov 5, 2013 -
Spike Jonze and Greta Gerwig Team for YouTube’s Live Music Video Awards
In an effort to assure traditionalists that anything television can do the Internet can do better, YouTube got their first slice of the awards show pie last night with their inaugural YouTube Music Awards. In Saturday’s Times, Chris Milk — under the watchful eye of creative director Spike Jonze — revealed that each performance would be structured around a live music video, utilizing the platform to generate viral content in house. For the opener, Jonze enlisted one Greta Gerwig, replete with twinkle toes and jazz hands, to accompany Arcade Fire’s “Afterlife,” through forests, apartments, and a bearded man’s embrace. It […]
by Sarah Salovaara on Nov 4, 2013 -
Netflix Originals “Exclusively” Acquires The Square
When Netflix announced this past July that they wanted to expand their original programming beyond wildly successful TV serials to documentaries, I figured an Alex Gibney commission wasn’t far off. Instead, the Internet was met with the puzzling news earlier today that the streaming giant acquired the very much completed, newly edited, festival-circuit debutant The Square. “Original,” it seems, lends itself to a different definition when Netflix is doing the talking. Though The Square is currently making a self-financed, Oscar-qualifying theatrical run in New York and Los Angeles, Netflix said in a statement that they will exclusively “premiere” the documentary […]
by Sarah Salovaara on Nov 4, 2013 -
Following the Legacy’s Lead: Barbara Kopple on Running From Crazy
The name Hemingway carries a many numbered associations, “charmed” and “gifted” not least among them. But from the inside looking out, a far less sensationalized view slides into focus. Likening her namesake to Kennedy, Mariel Hemingway’s preferential description of her lineage can be summed up as “the other American family that had this horrible curse.” A curse — of suicide, depression, mental instabilities, drug and alcohol addiction — that is both respectfully and holistically probed in Barbara Kopple’s latest film, Running From Crazy. The youngest of Jack Hemingway’s three daughters, Mariel was often at odds with the free-spirited nature of […]
by Sarah Salovaara on Oct 31, 2013 -
Fractured Atlas’s Artful.ly Software to Streamline Outreach
Aiming to give independent artists and arts organizations the same marketing power as their bigwig counterparts, the non-profit Fractured Atlas recently unveiled Artful.ly, a web-based software system that streamlines audience interactions. Among the service’s offerings is a MailChimp integration that directly manages and catalogues email outreach, and a ticketing and fundraising apparatus that can be embedded onto websites. There are no sign-up fees or contracts, however, in the interest of an event, ticket buyers will be charged $2 per purchase in addition to credit card processing. Filmmaker spoke with Selena Juneau-Vogel, program director for Artful.ly, about how filmmakers can make […]
by Sarah Salovaara on Oct 29, 2013 -
John Sloss’ Crusade for Transparency
As the first in what is to become a weekly, unprecedented occurrence, Cinetic Media released the VOD and theatrical gross of Escape From Tomorrow over at its sister site, Film Buff. Utilizing the Producers Distribution Agency catalogue, John Sloss and company will post an aggregate number every Monday that represents revenues from the divergent platforms, before hopefully moving on to films outside their network. “We call upon those distributors who have been pioneers of the day-and-date evolution to supply Cinetic with their cable and broadband VOD gross numbers so we can post a comprehensive snapshot of the distribution industry each week,” Sloss said in a […]
by Sarah Salovaara on Oct 28, 2013 -
Click Here Lifts the Curtain on the Development Process
Any filmmaker knows that the script is but the first brick in a winding pathway to production. The feature documentary Click Here: Or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Making Movies takes this fact to heart, training the lens on the action that transpires before the camera even rolls. For Pete Chatmon and Candice Sanchez McFarlane, the development process effectively began at the 2008 Tribeca Film Festival, where their screenplay $FREE.99 debuted in competition, netting Chatmon TFI’s Creative Promise Narrative Award. While they found their fair share of industry champions, raising production funds proved to be another story altogether. Five years […]
by Sarah Salovaara on Oct 28, 2013 -
Team-Building, Data Science and the Business Plan: Dogfish Accelerator’s New Film Financing Model
Not long after he founded Dogfish Pictures in 2009, producer James Belfer sensed an industry-wide disconnect between content creation and return on investment. Filmmakers, he gleaned, were concerned with short-term assets, agreeing to sell their film to distributors for a fixed sum that was a mere fraction of the eventual profit. In order to capture the full value of their content, filmmakers would need a new set of marketing tools and a fair bit of elbow grease. Belfer felt that any of these strategies would not be found in the traditional film industry at all, but rather, in the tangential […]
by Sarah Salovaara on Oct 25, 2013 -
Blue Is The Warmest Color: Beyond the Media Circus
Enough ink has been spilled over the on- and off-screen controversies encumbering Blue Is The Warmest Color that any moviegoer should find herself beholden to a stance before the film even begins. Subconscious or otherwise, the effects of a months-long media onslaught are almost inescapable. As a woman, I’ve been instructed by some grandes dames of criticism that I ought to take issue with the fact that a man has made such a liberal exploration of female sexuality. As a consumer, I’ve learned that the man in question is tortured, torturous and arguably unhinged for threatening to sue one of […]
by Sarah Salovaara on Oct 25, 2013
