Authors — Scott Macaulay
-
Five Chicago Doc Production Companies Launch The School Project
The School Project is a series of six, 10-minute documentary video pieces about the Chicago Public School system following the closure of 49 schools. It’s also an unprecedented collaboration between five of the city’s top documentary production companies. The first episode premiered today, and it can be watched above. Below is the statement from the five companies — Free Spirit Media, Media Process Group, Kartemquin Films, Kindling Group. and Siskel/Jacobs Productions — about their reasons for this collaboration. Statement on The School Project Collaboration The School Project is an unprecedented, collaborative, multiplatform documentary series on public education in Chicago. The […]
by Scott Macaulay on Oct 28, 2014 -
Trailer Watch: A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night
Here’s a high recommendation: A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night, the debut feature from 2014 25 New Face Ana Lily Amirpour. “A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night is an astonishing debut feature that contains the dark beauty of old-school vampire films, the cool rigor of the Iranian New Wave, and the culturally aware wit of someone with killer taste in music and movies,” is what I wrote in my profile of Amirpour this summer. Now, the film is set for release next month via VICE and Kino Lorber. And Amirpour has been nominated for the 2014 IFP Gotham […]
by Scott Macaulay on Oct 27, 2014 -
“You May Have Made the Most Amazing Film in the World, But You Have Zero Followers on Twitter”: VHX’s Jamie Wilkinson on Building Film Communities
Jamie Wilkinson, CEO of the direct-to-fan online video platform VHX, had some words to filmmakers on Peter Katz’s Hollywood 2.0 podcast. Specifically: amp up your social media game. In the conversation, which also discusses some of the platform’s early successes, the role of filters and gatekeepers, and VHX’s partnerships with distributors, he preaches the virtues of building an audience online. “How do we get people promoting each other’s works?” he asks. “You may have made the most amazing film in the world, but you have zero followers on Twitter. How are you going to get the word out? In the […]
by Scott Macaulay on Oct 26, 2014 -
James Schamus on Why Money is not “Money”
Producer and screenwriter James Schamus hardly needs another skill set to add to his CV, but let’s go ahead anyway and add “economic commentator” following the premiere of his engaging, witty and nicely analytical two-part, “That Film About Money,” for the 20-episode We the Economy series. Premiering this week online, We the Economy is a collaboration between Paul Allen’s Vulcan Productions and Morgan Spurlock’s Cinelan. (Disclosure: I’m on the Advisory Board of Cinelan.) The series features filmmakers — both documentarians and fiction directors — tackling, in bite-size form, questions surrounding the workings of our global economy and financial markets. For […]
by Scott Macaulay on Oct 25, 2014 -
Watch: Brando, Directed by Gisèle Vienne, Music by Scott Walker and Sunn O)))
Accompanying the first track of the anticipated collaboration, Soused, between avant-garde crooner Scott Walker and sludgy noisemeisters Sunn O))) is an arresting short film by French director and choreographer Gisèle Vienne. Walker’s music — with or without Sunn O))) — is the stuff of waking nightmares, and Vienne’s dream-like film matches it fuzzed-out chord by fuzzed-out chord. A house in the mountains, a blonde-tressed woman moving in slow-motion epilepsy; a teenage boy (her son?) locked in tremulous horror; a car crash?; and a sudden appearance by French novelist, theater artist and dominatrix Catherine Robbe-Grillet… it’s eerie, disquieting, and, with its […]
by Scott Macaulay on Oct 23, 2014 -
Short Film: Gooses, Directed by Shawn Sullivan and Joe Peeler
You know the best way to fall in love again with your city? Invite a friend to visit and see it anew through their eyes. Despite the truth of that statement, however, I can’t say that’s exactly what happens in Gooses, a lovely short film by directors Shawn Sullivan and Joe Peeler. Lucinella visits her “spirit animal” (actually, her sister Lore) in Los Angeles, and her trip is both an impressionistic journey through the sights of L.A. as well as a more nuanced tale of sibling rediscovery. Gooses, which premiered on NoBudge and stars Zena Gray and Katy Knowlton, is […]
by Scott Macaulay on Oct 23, 2014 -
Boyhood, Birdman, CITIZENFOUR, and More Receive 24th Annual Gotham Independent Film Awards
Nominees were announced this morning for the 24th Annual Gotham Independent Film Awards by IFP, with Richard Linklater’s Boyhood receiving the most nominations, including Best Picture. Birdman received two awards, including Best Director (for Alejandro G. Iñárritu) and Best Actor (Michael Keaton). The Best Picture nominations were rounded out by Ira Sachs’ Love is Strange, Wes Anderson’s The Grand Budapest Hotel and a left-field pick, Jonathan Glazer’s unsettling tale of alien visitation, Under the Skin. The Gothams are also awarding a Special Jury Award to the three lead actors of Foxcatcher: Steve Carell, Mark Ruffalo, and Channing Tatum. “Each year […]
by Scott Macaulay on Oct 23, 2014 -
Short Film: Bag Man, Directed by Jonathan & Josh Baker
The tropes of American independent filmmaking — in this cast, the tale of a latchkey child wandering the city — are a deceptive red herring in the surprising and rewarding short film Bag Man, by commercial directors Jonathan and Josh Baker. Currently making the online rounds, the film blends a sensitive, character-based tale of a Harlem youth left on his own with… well, I won’t spoil the surprise. The directors were interviewed over at Short of the Week: BAG MAN feels like it takes a narrative-first approach to filmmaking, serving up its audience an intriguing and well-considered storyline, how did […]
by Scott Macaulay on Oct 22, 2014 -
(New) Trailer Watch: Stanley Kubrick’s 2001
The match cut, “Also Sprach Zarathustra,” HAL — it’s all here, along with praise from Christopher Nolan and Alfonso Cuaron, in this brand new trailer for Stanley Kubrick’s classic 2001. Here’s the Hollywood Reporter: Ahead of the digitally restored film’s special limited U.K. release on Nov. 28 as part of the British Film Institute’s “Sci-Fi: Days of Fears and Wonder” season, a new trailer commission by the BFI and Warner Bros. has now been unveiled. Created by Ignition Creative London, the trailer is the first for this title in four decades, and uses Hal as the central figure to create […]
by Scott Macaulay on Oct 21, 2014 -
Five Questions for Humanity Creators Kerrin Sheldon and Gaston Blanchet
“An iPad app for explorers,” the just-launched Humanity dubs itself as a “new kind of travel show that places authenticity and storytelling above all else.” Notably, Humanity avoids star ratings, food porn and shopping tips in favor of immersive looks into the landscape and the people of a particular place of interest. From the press release: Humanity is an app that allows you to choose your own path. We don’t want you to check-off a country, we want you to live and breathe it, to explore its many offerings and expand your horizons. While quality storytelling will always be our […]
by Scott Macaulay on Oct 21, 2014
