Authors — Scott Macaulay
-
SXSW Teaser: Leah Meyerhoff’s I Believe in Unicorns
A film I’ve been looking forward to for some time is Leah Meyerhoff’s I Believe in Unicorns, which I saw in rough cut at the IFP Narrative Lab. I was tremendously impressed with what I saw then, particularly the emotional sensitivity of its direction and central performances. The film is now finished, and premiering at SXSW. And there’s a Kickstarter campaign. Check out the new teaser above, read information from the filmmakers about the film below, and consider donating: I Believe in Unicorns is Leah Meyerhoff’s debut feature film which tells the story of a teenage girl who gets in […]
by Scott Macaulay on Mar 7, 2014 -
Lily Baldwin Premieres A Juice Box Afternoon, First Episode in New Short Film Series
Filmmaker and dancer Lily Baldwin premieres here at Filmmaker the first episode in her new series of short films, The Paperback Movie Project. Each short “is an interpretation of a novel and explores the fluid relationship between a reader and the book’s characters.” The debuting piece is titled “A Juice Box Afternoon,” and it tells “the story of Anne Morrow Lindbergh through her own writing as she comes of age, meets Charles Lindbergh, and experiences flight in more ways than one.” Following her breakthrough at SXSW 2012 with the dreamscape thriller Sea Meadow,Baldwin’s next short, Sleepover LA, will world premiere […]
by Scott Macaulay on Mar 6, 2014 -
Vimeo Execs Talk New $10 Million Investment for Direct Distributing Filmmakers
Vimeo announced today a $10 million investment in direct financial support and online services for eligible creators distributing their work using Vimeo on Demand. “The direct distribution movement gains momentum every day,” said Vimeo CEO Kerry Trainor in a statement, “and we are fully committed to empowering creators with a vibrant alternative to the ad-dominated online video ecosystem for monetizing content.” Vimeo’s $10 million fund will support the following initiatives. From the press release: Expansion of Crowdfunding Program: Vimeo is expanding on its crowdfunding program announced at the 2014 Sundance Festival by extending access to part of its $10 million […]
by Scott Macaulay on Mar 6, 2014 -
Jillian Mayer and Lucas Leyva Premiere #PostModem Online
Miami-based filmmakers Jillian Mayer and Lucas Leyva — two of Filmmaker‘s 25 New Faces — have been touring the festival circuit with their short film, #PostModem, which they describe like this: “[It’s] a comedic satirical sci-fi pop-musical based on the theories of Ray Kurzweil and other futurists. It’s the story of two Miami girls and how they deal with the technological singularity, as told through a series of cinematic tweets.” For the first time this insanely infectious riff on virality and uploaded consciousness is online. Watch it above, and try to keep its K-Pop-styled song out of your head.
by Scott Macaulay on Mar 6, 2014 -
Michelangelo Antonioni on the Utility of Mystery
Michelangelo Antonioni’s work is known for, in addition to many other things, a certain open-endedness in its exploration of theme and narrative. But, you may be surprised to learn that the writer/director could be a bit more on-the-nose in his scripts. At Dangerous Minds, Paul Gallagher references a 2005 interview in The Guardian with Peter Bowles, who plays a drunk partygoer in Antonioni’s Blow-Up. In the original script, he had a monologue that nailed the themes of the movie. However, before shooting, Antonioni decided to cut it. The actor, feeling the speech was “essential to the film,” confronted Antonioni, pleading […]
by Scott Macaulay on Mar 5, 2014 -
SXSW Trailer Premiere: She’s Lost Control
Following strong notices in Berlin, Anja Marquardt’s debut feature, She’s Lost Control, receives its U.S. premiere at this week’s upcoming SXSW Film Festival. The intense psychological drama, executive produced by writer/director Oren Moverman, considers the meanings and cost of intimacy through its focus on a professional sex surrogate. Premiering here at Filmmaker is the film’s newest trailer.
by Scott Macaulay on Mar 4, 2014 -
Simple Machine to Award Micro-Festival Grants
Simple Machine, the online distribution platform connecting filmmakers to non-theatrical venues, is offering quarterly $1,000 grants to new small, innovative film festivals. “How can we more fully explore the possibilities of hyper-local events designed to create an effective context for contemporary cinema?” asks Simple Machine’s creator, Nandan Rao, in a statement. “How can we push the film-festival concept into smaller, more intimate nooks and crannies in our societal fabric? What new terms are needed to describe the formats of communal movie watching that resonate with us today? These are the questions we’re hoping our grant-winners will help to answer.” The […]
by Scott Macaulay on Mar 3, 2014 -
“In My Film Time Is Shattered”: Producer Anatole Dauman Remembers Working with Alain Resnais
Coinciding with a 2000 retrospective of Alain Resnais’ work organized by both the American Cinematheque and the Film Society of Lincoln Center, producer Florence Dauman gave Filmmaker these quotes from her father, Anatole Dauman, about working with the great director. Through his company, Argos Films, Dauman produced or co-produced many of the masterworks of postwar European cinema – including Resnais’s Night and Fog; Hiroshima, Mon Amour; Last Year at Marienbad; and Muriel. On the occasion of Resnais’ death yesterday at 91, we are reprinting them here. Night and Fog (1956) “It was our first short film together. Would he accept […]
by Scott Macaulay on Mar 2, 2014 -
After Trayvon: Short Doc on Trayvon, Stop and Frisk, and Racial Profiling
Two years after the death of Trayvon Martin, filmmaker Alex Mallis releases online After Trayvon, a short doc shot last summer after the day’s wrap of his latest feature. Mallis, who associate produced and was a cinematographer on Keith Miller’s film, Welcome to Pine Hill, introduces it here: Last summer, a day after George Zimmerman was acquitted of second-degree murder in the death of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin, our cast and crew wrapped a day of filming in Fort Greene Park, Brooklyn for the upcoming feature, Five Star. Informal conversations throughout the day, between takes, and a fully equipped film crew, […]
by Scott Macaulay on Feb 26, 2014 -
The Shape of Something Squashed Director Tom Noonan on How Jennifer Lawrence Inspired His New Play
Playwright, actor, director and screenwriter Tom Noonan is currently debuting his latest play, The Shape of Something Squashed, at New York’s Paradise Factory, but it might never have been written if it weren’t for an invitation to meet with Jennifer Lawrence one day. I’ll let Noonan tell the story below, but suffice to say that the bent emotions and darkly comic introspection that near-encounter produced are the stuff Noonan has memorably mined in his writing and directing work for years. Noonan’s film roles include singular turns in Heat, Mystery Train, Manhunter, Synecdoche, New York, and House of the Devil, to […]
by Scott Macaulay on Feb 25, 2014
