Here’s a new video from Richard Kern, a celebration of West Coast punk/skate culture by OFF!, which features ex-Black Flag singer Keith Morris.
by Scott Macaulay on Apr 12, 2012Four additional distribution outlets — Microsoft Xbox, SnagFilms, Sony’s Video Unlimited Service and VUDU — have joined the Sundance Institute’s Artists Services program, Sundance Executive Director Keri Putnam announced today. “Audiences are accessing independent films via a range of platforms and storefronts, which speaks to the need for filmmakers to make their work available in a variety of ways,” Putnam said in a statement. “Beyond that, the more options we’re able to offer our filmmakers, the better able they are to customize their self-distribution programs and work towards individual goals for their films.” Artists Services is a program helping Sundance […]
by Scott Macaulay on Apr 12, 2012Back in the day Filmmaker took note of Peter Christian Hall’s independent drama Delinquent, and more recently we’ve followed his move into fiction writing. Now, film and literature are combining for the promotion of his new novel, American Fever, a dystopic tale about avian flu. With book trailers a requirement for new books, Hall has decided to let fans create one for American Fever — and win $1,000 in the process. What’s cool is that filmmakers can read the book for free and score their trailer to original music by Gang of Four’s Andy Gill. From the site of Hall’s […]
by Scott Macaulay on Apr 10, 2012I remember when I first typed documentary filmmaker Laura Poitras as one cool customer. I was interviewing her on the phone about her 2010 documentary, The Oath — for my money the best of the year. The film is about two Yemeni brothers-in-law, one a low-level driver for Osama bin Laden and the other a soldier who became an al-Qaida member and one of bin Laden’s personal bodyguards. But only one was sent to Guantanamo Bay — the driver, not the bodyguard who, at the film’s start, is seen driving a cab through Yemen and discussing jihad with the young […]
by Scott Macaulay on Apr 9, 2012Playing at New York’s IFC Center tonight — and on newsstands now in the current issue of The Believer — is Laurel Nakadate’s The Wolf Knife, one of Filmmaker‘s Best Film Not Playing at a Theater Near You Gotham Award nominees for 2010. Tonight’s screening is at 9pm, and will feature an on-stage Q&A between Nakadate and novelist Rick Moody (The Ice Storm). Additionally, all ticket-buyers will receive the new issue of The Believer containing the DVD. The video and photography artist’s second feature, The Wolf Knife is a mysterious parable of female adolescence, following two teenage girls who ditch […]
by Scott Macaulay on Apr 9, 2012Alesia Weston, who many filmmakers know from her work as Associate Director of the Sundance Institute’s Feature Film Program, has been named the new Executive Director of the Jerusalem Film Center. She will begin her new job mid-June and will oversee all of the center’s artistic and educational programs, including the upcoming Jerusalem International Film Festival, the organization wrote in a press release. From the press release: “I am thrilled to be associated with this great team, especially Lia van Leer, and I am looking forward to expanding the vision she set in motion as founding director. The vibrant Israeli […]
by Scott Macaulay on Apr 9, 2012The third in Mike Plante’s Home Movie Show is ten minutes of calm as three animators just draw. With Brent Green (Gravity Was Everywhere Back Then), Julia Pott (Belly), Kataneh Vahdani (Avocados).
by Scott Macaulay on Apr 9, 2012It’s been a while since I’ve done one of these, but now that the new issue is shipped and off to the printer, here’s what I’m catching up on. What’s one measure of good dialogue? According to the Physics arIXv Blog at MIT, it’s the memorability of its quotes. A Cornell University study found that there’s a reason lines like “You had me at hello,” “You can’t handle the truth” and “Hasta la vista, baby” lodge themselves in our memories. “The cloud” — that system of networked and very terrestrial computers that store and stream are data — may have […]
by Scott Macaulay on Apr 8, 2012On April Fool’s Day, Funny or Die tosses a linkbait gift to bloggers with this video stolen from Charlize Theron’s hacked cellphone. (Click the headline above if you don’t see the video.) Charlize Theron’s Kinky Sex Tape from Charlize Theron
by Scott Macaulay on Apr 1, 2012Originally posted during the Toronto Film Festival, here is a short video with the now former Maldives President Mohamed Nasheed and filmmaker Jon Shenk on their collaboration making the climate change doc, The Island President. The film opened today at Film Forum in New York. Over at Hammer to Nail, Daniel James Scott interviews Shenk. An excerpt: H2N: So for you, filmmaking starts with story. Yet all of your films coincide with social or political issues that can be affected by the emotional power you described. I’m sure that few filmmakers know more than you the delicate relationship between entertainment […]
by Scott Macaulay on Mar 31, 2012