Authors — Sarah Salovaara
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Short Film: Mukunda Angulo’s Mirror Heart
Anyone who’s seen Crystal Moselle’s The Wolfpack knows that the Angulo brothers have a flair for costuming, and those talents are on full display in Mukunda Angulo’s Mirror Heart, a rather abstract short film made for Vice. Billed as “an imaginative tale about a cast of dreamlike characters who unify around the necessity to create,” Mirror Heart also employs the voice acting of a handful of the brothers as that nagging, negative portion of one’s creative conscience. Check out the short above and a making of video at the link.
by Sarah Salovaara on Jun 25, 2015 -
Jerzy Rose and Samy Burch on Casting Neighborhood Food Drive
Chicago filmmakers Jerzy Rose and Halle Butler are currently fundraising for their feature length satire Neighborhood Food Drive, about two egomaniacal restauranteurs and their unpaid intern as they throw a series of lavish and disastrous fundraisers. Below, Rose interviews his casting director Samy Burch about the process of pulling together both professional actors and otherwise for a cast headed up by Bruce Bundy and Lyra Hill.–SS Jerzy Rose: I have a vague memory of you telling me, after you’d seen Crimes Against Humanity, that you’d love to help me cast my next movie. I followed up one year later. I think I simply asked “How […]
by Sarah Salovaara on Jun 24, 2015 -
Exclusive: Sam Fleischner and Iva Gocheva’s Porcupine
Straight from BAMcinemaFest where it preceded Krisha last Friday is Sam Fleischner and Iva Gocheva‘s short film, Porcupine. A far cry from the subterranean world of Stand Clear of the Closing Doors, Porcupine features Gocheva as a woman holed up in her sun-drenched Brooklyn apartment, trying and failing to reconnect with her partner through a series of unanswered phone calls. Strung together, her voicemails intimate a relationship — and several household items — lost. Check it out above.
by Sarah Salovaara on Jun 22, 2015 -
Watch: The Life and Death of an iPhone, Shot and Edited on Vimeo’s Cameo App
In honor of Vimeo’s updated Cameo app, filmmaker Paul Trillo created a short film entirely shot and edited on an iPhone, appropriately titled “The Life and Death of an iPhone.” Trillo utilizes the phone’s POV to create the illusion of a constant “feed” between cuts, which he accomplished in camera: Believe it or not the transitions are deceptively simple like a slight of hand. At the end of each take, we just did a quick wipe into black. The key is to do these moves at the same speed each time and make sure you’re cutting on precisely the right frame. I found that […]
by Sarah Salovaara on Jun 19, 2015 -
Kickstart Frederick Wiseman’s In Jackson Heights
The great documentarian Frederick Wiseman has turned to Kickstarter to complete his latest sweeping portrait, this time of the titular Queens neighborhood, In Jackson Heights. Wiseman is currently whittling down 120 hours worth of rushes to complete the finished product, which is set for a fall festival debut and a 2016 PBS broadcast. Check out a teaser of the film above, and read a bit about Wiseman’s editing process below. My job as editor is to make the film as best I can from the rushes. What I think about the subject matter is what you see in the final film. At least […]
by Sarah Salovaara on Jun 18, 2015 -
Trailer Watch: Les Blank’s A Poem is a Naked Person
Receiving its theatrical release 41 years after its completion, Les Blank’s A Poem Is A Naked Person is set to open at New York’s Film Forum on July 1, following its bows at BAMcinemaFest and SXSW. A portrait of singer-songwriter Leon Russell shot between 1972 and 1974, the film was the result of considerable release delays as a result of music clearance issues and creative differences between Blank and Russell. Check out the trailer above.
by Sarah Salovaara on Jun 17, 2015 -
Sundance Institute Announces Eight Projects for Documentary Edit and Story Labs
The Sundance Institute has announced the eight projects that will take part in their Documentary Edit and Story lab at the Sundance Resort in June and July. All participating projects are in the advanced stages of post-production and will work on their rough cuts in the two-part lab. This year’s Creative Advisors include Marshall Curry (Point and Shoot), Geoffrey Richman (Racing Extinction), Kate Amend (The Case Against 8), Richard Hankin (God Loves Uganda), Victor Livingston (The Queen of Versailles) and more. The full list of projects and synopses is below. The Bad Kids Director: Keith Fulton & Lou Pepe Editor: Jacob Bricca At […]
by Sarah Salovaara on Jun 15, 2015 -
Watch: Jillian Mayer and Lucas Leyva’s No Seasons
MTV is now piling on the short form digital content game with the release of No Seasons under their MTV (other) brand. Created by Borscht Corp.’s Jillian Mayer and Lucas Leyva, the web series sees Miami-bred Julian Yuri Rodriguez (director of the very entertaining Lake Mahar) spinning stories about his life in the city. Fusing recollections with recreations, No Seasons functions as a gonzo porthole into Rodriguez’s life and relationships. Check out the first in eight episodes above.
by Sarah Salovaara on Jun 11, 2015 -
Watch: Laura Poitras’s The Art of Dissent
In her latest Op-Doc, Laura Poitras documents a meeting between the artist Ai Wei Wei and technologist Jacob Applebaum as they meet in Beijing to stuff toy pandas with shredded NSA documents that were given to Poitras and Glenn Greenwald by Edward Snowden in Hong Kong, some two years prior. As Poitras notes in her accompanying write-up in the Times, “During the encounter, Ai and Appelbaum continually filmed and photographed each other. Between their cameras and mine, we created a zone of hyper-surveillance.” Watch above.
by Sarah Salovaara on Jun 9, 2015 -
Five Picks for the 2015 Northside Film Festival
Clocking in at just three days, the Northside Film Festival still provides enough breadth in programming to rival an event three times its size. In addition to the centerpiece DIY Competition and short programs, the fest has added an episodics sidebar this year, featuring Doron Max Hagay’s Monica web series, among others. Due to pre-screener availability, the following recommendations are features only, but that scarcely means you shouldn’t keep any eye on the other sections. Northside runs from today through Wednesday at UnionDocs, Nitehawk, Videology and the Wythe Hotel. Tired Moonlight If you missed Britni West’s Slamdance Grand Jury Prize winner at New Directors/New Films, […]
by Sarah Salovaara on Jun 8, 2015
