Authors — Scott Macaulay
-
A Japanese Sideways, Virginia Woolf, Beth Gibbons Sings Black Sabbath and Denis Johnson’s Artful Sentences: Sunday Morning Links
For your Sunday morning, here’s some of what I’ve been reading this past week. At the Rumpus, filmmaker (and 25 New Face) Astra Taylor is interviewed about her book The People’s Platform: Taking Back Power and Culture in the Digital Age, which I can’t wait to read. An excerpt: Also, after Examined Life was finished I found myself thinking about the way creative opportunities and distribution channels were shifting. Should I be showing my films in theaters or just think about getting them out online? There were other issues, too. For example, instead of being asked to write an article, […]
by Scott Macaulay on Apr 27, 2014 -
“What I Regret Most in My Life Are Failures of Kindness”: George Saunders, Animated
Author George Saunders’ 2013 Syracuse University commencement address dealt with the subject of kindness. Much in the same way that David Foster Wallace’s This is Water was turned into both an animated short as well as a tasteful stocking stuffer, so too Saunders’ rueful musings. Congratulations, by the Way: Some Thoughts on Kindness is the name of the 64-page book, and an excerpt has been nicely animated by the folks at Serious Lunch.
by Scott Macaulay on Apr 24, 2014 -
Why We Are Discontinuing our Apple Newsstand Edition
After almost two years of experimenting with an iPad-only edition in Apple’s Newsstand, we have decided to discontinue this version of Filmmaker. The reason? Relatively few of you are reading it compared to our print magazine and website, and the cost of its production runs us a substantial loss. And that’s money we’ve decided would be better spent on additional editorial content as well as new digital properties serving a platform-agnostic audience. (Meaning, something that can be read by you Android and Kindle readers too.) With this announcement we want to make clear that all Filmmaker content is still available […]
by Scott Macaulay on Apr 24, 2014 -
25 Great Short Films to Watch Online
The folks at Taste of Cinema have curated a list of 25 of what they dub the best shorts available to watch online. Weighted towards the experimental and animation, it is indeed a good list. One personal favorite is Alison Maclean’s 1989 short, Kitchen Sink, a masterpiece of domestic horror with a strong David Lynch influence. From Kitchen Sink Maclean went on to direct the features Crush and Jesus’ Son and, more recently, various commercials and TV episodes. Back in the day, Kitchen Sink made a huge impact, and I still recommend it to filmmakers looking for an example of […]
by Scott Macaulay on Apr 24, 2014 -
5 Questions For X/Y Writer/Director Ryan Piers Williams
An admission of infidelity — hers — sends a pair of twentysomething New Yorkers into separate rabbit holes of desire, regret and personal discovery in Ryan Piers Williams second feature, X/Y. The film is something of a family affair, as Williams and his wife, America Ferrera, star as the couple, with each supported on their La Ronde-ish journeys by a charismatic cast of supporting players, including Melonie Diaz, Dree Hemingway, Common and Amber Tamblyn. Intimacy, IRL and online; sexual fantasy vs. reality; the artist’s life vs. the corporate warrior — all these dichotomies are explored in a film that draws […]
by Scott Macaulay on Apr 22, 2014 -
5 Questions for Below Dreams Director Garrett Bradley
New Orleans-based multi-media artist Garrett Bradley makes her feature debut at the 2014 Tribeca Film Festival with Below Dreams, a tough-minded portrait of three economically-challenged twentysomethings trying to settle a life for themselves in a city that’s seen its own share of recent adversity. Honest and sensitive, the film is informed by Bradley’s own experience living in New Orleans, and she developed the script based on interviews conducted on frequent Greyhound bus trips there. Below Dreams is an alumni of the IFP Narrative Labs. Filmmaker: What’s been new creatively for you in terms of moving from gallery-based work to a […]
by Scott Macaulay on Apr 22, 2014 -
Robert De Niro’s First Vine
Posted by Jerome Jarre is what he bills as Robert De Niro’s first six-second film. (On first view, it kind of falls into the “Hey, is this thing on?” category of unintentional art.) Hat tip: MUBI Notebook.
by Scott Macaulay on Apr 19, 2014 -
Tribeca: 5 Questions for Glass Chin Writer/Director Noah Buschel
“Boxing has always drawn dumb, confused macho guys like myself,” writes filmmaker Noah Buschel. “It’s cool, it’s tough, it’s naked, it’s true…. But the thing about boxing, as Norman Mailer pointed out, is that it’s just as sensitive as it is murderous. If you go to a boxing gym, and Floyd Mayweather’s not there, it is a remarkably quiet and tender place.” Buschel heads straight into that quiet and tender place with his latest, Glass Chin, premiering at the Tribeca Film Festival. Since he’s already written an essay for us about the film itself, we sent Buschel a set of […]
by Scott Macaulay on Apr 19, 2014 -
25 Picks for the 2014 Tribeca Film Festival
The Tribeca Film Festival opens today, and, as usual, it’s a multi-headed hydra with splashy events, panels, talks but also, of course, films by new and emerging filmmakers. And while Tribeca has garnered a reputation in recent years as a solid platform for international directors with either world or U.S. premieres, this year the American independent section seems particularly strong. Indeed, it was easy to whip out this list of 25 picks I’m especially interested in seeing and that tie closely with the American indie focus of this magazine. Docs look especially sharp, with a number of them dealing with […]
by Scott Macaulay on Apr 16, 2014 -
Welcoming Vadim Rizov as Managing Editor
I’d like to welcome to our Filmmaker staff our new Managing Editor, Vadim Rizov. After an exhaustive job search — thanks to the over 200 of you who applied — we hired Vadim, who previously covered the True/False Film Festival for us. Many of you know Vadim’s bylines from Sight and Sound, Little White Lies and Indiewire, not to mention his posts last year at The Dissolve. Vadim also posts his reviews at Letterboxd and other stuff at his personal blog, Infinite Philistinism. Vadim’s a very smart writer whose interest in culture extends beyond independent film to music and literature. […]
by Scott Macaulay on Apr 14, 2014
