Authors — Scott Macaulay
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Has Twitter Displaced the DVD Commentary Track?
At Medium, tech pundit and DVD commentary track lover M.G. Siegler has a good idea for Twitter: make Twitter live chats and comment streams replayable. Citing the fact that the great DVD commentary tracks of yore have gone by the wayside in today’s downloadable and streamed world (really, Apple, would it be so hard to provide a Criterion commentary track as an extra download?), Siegler suggests that director chats and even fan talkback be stored and then able to be replayed by new viewers watching films on their own schedules. Inspired by Anthony Bourdain’s live tweeting during his CNN Parts […]
by Scott Macaulay on Apr 28, 2014 -
The Power of the Purse
At their fourth floor office in Gowanus, Brooklyn, directors Carl Deal and Tia Lessin are preparing for the release of their second documentary feature, Citizen Koch. Outside their window is the neighborhood’s famous polluted canal but also a new Whole Foods that wasn’t there just one year ago. Gowanus, with its Superfund cleanup site, is a “neighborhood in transition,” but one that urban planners and TEDx speakers hope will be gentrification done right, retaining artists, artisans and small businesses amidst the fancy restaurants and incoming homeowners. A recent New York Times profile said Gowanus “seems poised to exist as an […]
by Scott Macaulay on Apr 28, 2014 -
Sharing The Grief of Others
One of 2011’s best independent films, Patrick Wang’s debut In the Family almost didn’t get discovered. After being rejected by the top festivals, Wang premiered regionally, at the Hawaii Film Festival and San Diego Asian Film Festival, before four-walling New York City’s Quad Cinema, where sterling reviews from everyone from Filmmaker to The New York Times jumpstarted a 30-plus-city DIY theatrical tour. If In the Family was one of those “out of nowhere” films, Wang is determined that not be the case for his follow-up feature. For The Grief of Others, based on the novel by Leah Hager Cohen and […]
by Scott Macaulay on Apr 28, 2014 -
Editor’s Letter
As we shake off what has been a wretched New York winter, we’re delighted to have Jenny Slate, the brilliant actress, comedian and — for fans of subversive squeaky-voiced animation — the co-creator of Marcel the Shell with Shoes On grace our Spring cover. We picked Slate for our list in 2011, and at that time, one of her accomplishments was starring in a high-wire-act of a short, Obvious Child, by the young director Gillian Robespierre. Now that short has been expanded — brilliantly — into a feature that makes fantastic use of Slate’s ferocious stand-up chops. Made independently, produced […]
by Scott Macaulay on Apr 28, 2014 -
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
