Authors — Scott Macaulay
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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 -
Filmmaker‘s Fall Issue, with Laura Poitras Cover Shot by Jacob Appelbaum, Online Now
Activist, hacker and computer security researcher Jacob Appelbaum, a subject in Laura Poitras’s riveting and important CITIZENFOUR, shot Filmmaker‘s Fall issue cover — an eerie portrait of Poitras at home in Berlin, filmed on discontinued Kodak Color Infrared (EIR) film. Here, via email, is Appelbaum on the photograph: I have been shooting with Kodak Color Infrared (EIR) film for the better part of a decade thanks to a kind introduction to the medium by Canadian artist Kate Young. Sadly shortly after discovery of the film, I learned that it was discontinued by Kodak. The film was given an extra lease […]
by Scott Macaulay on Oct 20, 2014 -
Editor’s Letter
“Monsieur Godard, are you more interested in making films or social commentary?” the French director was asked at a 1968 symposium on his work. “I see no difference between the two,” he replied. This anecdote was recounted in a winter 2011 column for this magazine by director Zachary Wigon, who wrote about the outsized role cinema and politicized filmmakers had in the cultural conversations of the late ’60s and early ’70s. Where are today’s filmmakers in the dialogues of our moment? Three years later, it’s a question echoed by Anthony Kaufman in his Industry Beat column. Focused more broadly on […]
by Scott Macaulay on Oct 20, 2014 -
In the Eye of the Storm: Laura Poitras on CITIZENFOUR
Red tail lights glow in an inky black tunnel. In voiceover, a woman’s voice softly reads. “Laura,” the email begins. The sender writes of encryption, passwords, the government documents he intends to send and the reason he addressed this email to her. “You’ve been selected,” Laura speaks, as the sender goes on to explain that every phone call she makes, trip she embarks on, person she befriends will be observed, recorded, surveilled. “This is a story few but you can tell.” With this cool, measured voiceover, drawing us into her life at the moment it changed forever, documentary filmmaker Laura […]
by Scott Macaulay on Oct 20, 2014
