Authors — Scott Macaulay
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Trailer Watch: David Simon’s “Show Me a Hero”
The Wire creator David Simon moves up the East Coast for his latest drama, Show Me a Hero, that’s set in Yonkers in the 1960s. Based on a true story, the six-part miniseries portrays a young mayor, played by Oscar Isaac, who, amidst the civil rights movements, fights local powers to build low-income housing in his borough. The cast is impressive and includes Alfred Molina, Bob Balaban and Winona Ryder. The series debuts August 16 on HBO.
by Scott Macaulay on Aug 3, 2015 -
Trailer Watch: Alex Ross Perry’s Queen of Earth
From the copyright notice to the ominous voiceover, the latest trailer for Alex Ross Perry’s Queen of Earth plunges us into the world of ’60s/’70s arthouse psychological horror — mid-period Bergman, Polanski and Allen’s Interiors, for example. Here, Elizabeth Moss (Mad Men, Top of the Lake) retreats to the lakeside home of her best friend, played by Katherine Waterston (Inherent Vice), to recuperate after twin emotional jolts. There’s history, however — the lingering after effects of another weekend at this house spent one year earlier. Wrote Scott Foundas in Variety: The flashbacks in Queen of Earthh are like little Proustian […]
by Scott Macaulay on Jul 30, 2015 -
Borscht Corp Retrospective This Week at the Made in New York Media Center
There are many places to find air conditioning in New York City this weekend, but, if you ask us, you should seek it at the Made in New York Media Center, where IFP’s Screen Forward is mounting a five-night Borscht Corporation retrospective. Borscht, if you don’t know, is the wildly creative, culturally prescient and litigation-inviting collective of Miami filmmakers (and their friends) who are behind some of today’s best short films and certainly one of our best film festivals. Headed by Lucas Leyva and Jillian Mayer, Borscht produces a semi-annual Miami festival centered around commissioned short films as well as […]
by Scott Macaulay on Jul 30, 2015 -
Editor’s Letter
“Call me crazy, but I don’t think distribution is the greatest problem facing independent cinema right now,” wrote producer Mike Ryan in these pages back in 2010. In an opinion piece titled “Straight Talk,” Ryan railed against what he saw as an overemphasis in our community on business plans and online marketing at the expense of innovative filmmaking. “Developing content and nurturing auteurs should be our top concern, not figuring out distribution models or revenue schemes,” he continued. “The whole purpose of independent film is to make films that aren’t pre-fabricated to hit a target audience of someone else’s devising. […]
by Scott Macaulay on Jul 23, 2015 -
Parting Shot
Kentucky-born Michael Shannon has been appearing regularly in television, independent film and studio pictures since the mid-’90s, but it was his Oscar-nominated turn as a bracingly honest, if perhaps mentally unstable, mathematician in Sam Mendes’s Revolutionary Road that made directors see him as a potential leading man. In the years since, Shannon has fulfilled that promise, most notably as another unbalanced seer in Jeff Nichols’s Take Shelter. But it’s in the next 12 months that Shannon will truly explode onscreen in a succession of notable lead and supporting parts. First up is his turn in theaters as a rapacious repo […]
by Scott Macaulay on Jul 23, 2015 -
“I’m Always Attracted to the ‘Mutt’ Aspect of Sets”: Production Designer Michael Shaw on Orange is the New Black
Michael Shaw has had an illustrious career as a production designer, moving from some of the most notable independent films of the 1990s (Heavy, Boys Don’t Cry, You Can Count on Me) to a string of this decade’s top television shows (The Big C, Orange is the New Black). On Saturday, July 25, he’ll be leading a production design masterclass focused on Orange is the New Black at the IFP’s Made in New York Media Center. Shaw kindly took time out from designing the Wall Street environs of Showtime’s upcoming Billions to speak about his career as a production designer, […]
by Scott Macaulay on Jul 23, 2015 -
Several Kind of Funny Reasons Why You Probably Shouldn’t Upgrade to Apple Music Yet
I have a lot of positive things to write about Apple Music, but in the interest of not burying the lede, I’ll write this first: If you have a large, well-tended and carefully created iTunes Music Library, do not upgrade to Apple Music. Do not install the latest 12.2 version of iTunes and, most importantly, do not turn on iCloud Music Library on any of your devices. Or, if you decide to ignore the above advice, make sure you have a Time Machine backup of your iTunes library before you go ahead and do so. Why the alarm, you ask? […]
by Scott Macaulay on Jul 6, 2015 -
“Just Say No to Poverty Porn”: Maggie Steber on She Does Podcast
Maggie Steber is a prolific documentary photographer who has worked in 65 countries around the world focusing on humanitarian, cultural, and social stories. For over three decades, Maggie has worked in Haiti, an experience that has impacted her emotionally and personally and led to her book “Dancing on Fire.” She has received the Leica Medal of Excellence, and recognition from World Press Photo Foundation, the Overseas Press Club, Pictures of the Year, and the Medal of Honor for Distinguished Service to Journalism from the University of Missouri. Her work has been featured in National Geographic Magazine, The New York Times […]
by Scott Macaulay on Jul 1, 2015 -
Five Questions for Sabrina Dridje about the Creative>>Founder Lab
The Creative>>Founder Lab is the newest offering from the Made in New York Media Center by IFP, a eight-week program intended to help creative professionals develop the business skills required to see their projects to fruition. Design thinking, monetization, rapid prototyping, how to speak with developers, gamification and systems thinking will all be taught by a team of leaders in their fields. (Note: IFP is Filmmaker‘s parent organization.) The fee for the program is $1,200, and only 20 spots are available. Deadline is June 18 at 11:59PM. More information can be found here at the link. Below, we ask Sabrina […]
by Scott Macaulay on Jun 3, 2015 -
The Safdies + Karl Ove Knausgaard on the Film Society’s Close-Up Podcast
Over the last several months, the Film Society of Lincoln Center has launched one of the better film podcasts out there, with guests including Paul Thomas Anderson, Olivier Assayas and David Cronenberg. (The podcast can be subscribed to on iTunes or listened to on Soundcloud.) But today’s doubleheader is particularly great and more than worthy of its own post. Sharing the episode are Josh and Benny Safdie, whose Heaven Knows What is this weekend’s must viewing, and Karl Ove Knausgaard, who has just released the fourth volume of his autobiographical magnum opus, My Struggle, here in the States and who […]
by Scott Macaulay on May 27, 2015
