Authors — Scott Macaulay
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SAG-AFTRA Votes to Strike, Shutting Down Film and Television Production
SAG-AFTRA is joining WGA on the Hollywood picket lines. Following the collapse Wednesday of its negotiations with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP), the union voted to strike, effective tonight at 12:01 AM. It’s the union’s first motion picture and television strike since 1980 and the first time since 1960 that both the actors’s and writers’ unions have concurrently struck. “We had no choice,” said SAG-AFTRA President Fran Drescher at a live-streamed news conference this afternoon. “We are the victims here. We are being victimized by a very greedy entity.” She continued, “I cannot believe it, quite […]
by Scott Macaulay on Jul 13, 2023 -
Kickstarter Watch: Charlotte Glynn’s The Gymnast
Pittsburg-based director Charlotte Glynn, who made Filmmaker‘s 25 New Faces in 2014, is now running a Kickstarter campaign to raise funds for her debut narrative feature, The Gymnast. The film, which was actually discussed at the end of Brandon Harris’s profile, is set in a former mill town and is about “a 14-year-old aspiring Olympic gymnast and her die-hard ‘gym dad’ [who] must reinvent themselves after a potentially career-ending injury.” Elaborates Glynn on the Kickstarter page: The Gymnast is a film about loss and perseverance in the face of extreme odds, and the making of the film has mirrored that […]
by Scott Macaulay on Jul 7, 2023 -
The ’80s NYC Art Scene, DIY Doc Filmmaking and the Hustle of Self-Promotion: Director Brian Vincent and Producer Heather Spore on Make Me Famous
There’s a moment early in director Brian Vincent and producer Heather Spore’s documentary Make Me Famous when the ’80s downtown New York artist Edward Brezinski is described by the late artist Duncan Hannah as the guy with the flyers. Brezinski would show up at openings, drink the cheap wine and press flyers for group shows at the Magic Gallery (his own barren apartment on East 3rd Street) into as many palms as possible. In a world where the most successful artists managed to self-promote while simultaneously adopting a pose of understated remove, Brezinski’s old-school hucksterism was memorably uncool. As the […]
by Scott Macaulay on Jul 6, 2023 -
Editor’s Letter
I can’t think of a better film to grace the cover of the final issue of Filmmaker’s 30th anniversary year than Savanah Leaf’s Earth Mama. From its opening scenes, it impresses as a work of classic independent cinema—social realism shot through with unexpected creative flourishes and informed by the personal life experience of its maker. A version of this film might have been made in each of Filmmaker’s three decades, but with different emphases, of course, and perhaps under very different circumstances. The story of this one—a U.K./U.S. production backed by Channel 4 and A24—was told last issue by Anthony […]
by Scott Macaulay on Jun 27, 2023 -
Trailer Watch: Brian Vincent’s ’80s NYC Art World Doc, Make Me Famous
Currently boasting 100% on Rotten Tomatoes and heading into its second weekend in New York theaters is Brian Vincent‘s Make Me Famous, a self-distributed documentary about the 1980s New York art world centered around painter Edward Brezinski. A notable figure from the era that spawned Nan Goldin, Jean-Michel Basquiat and David Wojnarowicz, he never attained their level of recognition and subsequently disappeared — a disappearance the filmmakers try to solve. From the press materials: A madcap romp through the 1980’s NYC art scene amid the colorful career of painter, Edward Brezinski, hell-bent on making it. What begins as an investigation […]
by Scott Macaulay on Jun 26, 2023 -
Some Thoughts on the Apple Vision Pro
Each Friday I write an original Editors Letter as part of the free Filmmaker newsletter. Always original and not usually archived on the site, the letters consist of essays, thoughts, recommendations and sometimes even early versions of pieces that appear later here. This week I wrote about the Apple Vision Pro and am reposting that piece in updated form here. To subscribe for free to the Filmmaker newsletter, click here. If you watched any of Apple’s WWDC keynote on Monday, or saw any of its videos, and thought that its new AR headset, the Apple Vision Pro, looked like science […]
by Scott Macaulay on Jun 10, 2023 -
“It is Like a Story From a Database That We Are All Implicated In”: Heather Dewey-Hagborg and Toshiaki Ozawa on Their DNA-Themed Short Film, T3511
Art and biology coexist in the work of artist Heather Dewey-Hagborg, who has created images — film, video, sculptural — as well as multimedia performance and process-oriented work that animate with emotional complexity increasingly urgent questions around identity and personal freedom. Much of her work uses DNA as both subject and artistic material, with the artist working herself with genome sequencing and DNA collection as well as exploring the implications of this same work being commodified at scale through consumer-facing companies like 23andMe. What’s particularly noteworthy are the emotional valences she brings to these questions. Neither a techno-thrillseeker or a […]
by Scott Macaulay on Jun 7, 2023 -
“I Wanted You To Feel Like These Kids Need a Tetanus Shot By the End of It”: Weston Razooli on His Cannes-Premiering Neo-Fairy-Tale Adventure, Riddle of Fire
Weston Razooli’s debut feature, Riddle of Fire, premiering in the Cannes Film Festival’s Director’s Fortnight, begins with a charming and clever premise. After we watch a trio of masked kid adventurers steal a video game console from a warehouse, escaping from the pursuing security guard on their dirt bikes, they’re unable to play it. One of their moms has placed a parental lock on the TV, and, recovering from an illness, she’ll only give them the password if they get her a blueberry pie — something her own mom used to give her when she was sick as a child. […]
by Scott Macaulay on May 26, 2023 -
13 Films to Anticipate at the 2023 Cannes Film Festival
With the Cannes Film Festival underway and Vadim Rizov and Blake Williams readying their first dispatches, here, from our team, are 13 films that we think should be on your radar here on the Croisette. Asteroid City. Following Moonrise Kingdom and The French Dispatch, Wes Anderson’s newest film is his third to premiere at Cannes. Asteroid City boasts a typically sprawling ensemble cast of both returning regulars (Jason Schwartzman, Adrien Brody, Willem Dafoe) and high-profile new additions (including Tom Hanks and Scarlett Johansson). While the thematic elements are familiar—dead and disappointing parents, extremely ambitious playwrights and a dedicated elementary school […]
by Scott Macaulay on May 17, 2023 -
New York State Budget Includes Expansion of Film and Television Tax Credits
New York state’s just-passed fiscal year 2024 budget includes an expansion of the New York Film Tax Credit, Governor Kathy Hochul announced yesterday. The amount allocated to the program has been raised substantially, from $420 million per year to $700 million. Additionally, the base credit, which was reduced to 25% in 2020, has been raised to its prior level of 30%. And within the details are other significant changes. For the first time, the New York credit will apply to above-the-line costs. Salaries of writers, directors, “specific producers,” actors, and composers will be eligible for the credit, capped at $500,000 […]
by Scott Macaulay on May 4, 2023
