Authors — Scott Macaulay
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GREGORY BAYNE IN FINAL KICKSTARTER HOURS
Gregory Bayne, who has contributed some of the best, most rabble-rousing recent posts to this site — including the analytics-busting “When Should You Call Bulls@&T” — is in the final hours of a Kickstarter campaign for his documentary Bloodsworth, An Innocent Man. With less than 72 hours to go, he’s about 15K shy of his 25K goal. Tough numbers, but I’ve seen other campaigns pull it out. Bayne is a tough and passionate filmmaker who has the goods, as you’ll see from this demo video. Please check it out and if it interests you, consider helping by supporting his campaign. […]
by Scott Macaulay on Dec 2, 2011 -
Chloe Has the Bunny Ears
The bicycles are sitting in my storage unit, but Chloe Sevigny kept a key piece of costumery from Gummo: the rabbit ears she made for the Bunny Boy character. (Sevigny not only co-starred in the movie, she was also its costume designer.) She explains in this video released by Opening Ceremony tied to the launch of her third collection for the fashion house. (HT: Portable TV.) At Home with Chloë: Part 1 from Opening Ceremony on Vimeo.
by Scott Macaulay on Dec 2, 2011 -
“KINYARWANDA” OPENS, SCORES 4-STAR EBERT REVIEW
25 New Face filmmaker Alrick Brown’s Kinyarwanda, a project of the IFP Narrative Lab, opens today via the AFFRM and Visigoth Pictures, and I urge you all to see it. Brown has made an extraordinary and ambitious independent film that tackles one of the gravest subjects of the 20th century: the Rwandan genocide. He does so with an intimate, character-based approach, evoking details that add up to full, human picture of the conflict. Writes Roger Ebert, who gave the film four stars I thought I knew something about Rwanda, but I didn’t really know very much. I was moved by […]
by Scott Macaulay on Dec 2, 2011 -
SWANBERG’S LATEST AT reRUN TONIGHT
Continuing an extraordinarily prolific phase that has also encompassed his year-long subscription service, Joe Swanberg premieres his latest film, Caitlin Plays Herself, tonight at Brooklyn’s reRun theater. His new star is Caitlin Stainken, a member of the Neo-Futurists Theater Ensemble. Here’s the description and a clip. Making its North American debut, CAITLIN PLAYS HERSELF is the last in a trio of provocative, self-reflexive new dramas premiering at reRun this season from acclaimed auteur Joe Swanberg (SILVER BULLETS, ART HISTORY). Inspired by Eric Rohmer’s THE GREEN RAY and the life of lead actress Caitlin Stainken (a member of the “Neo-Futurists” experimental […]
by Scott Macaulay on Dec 2, 2011 -
WERNER HERZOG GIVES A HUG
Discussing his feature Into the Abyss, Werner Herzog gives Vice Magazine a hug.
by Scott Macaulay on Dec 1, 2011 -
Sleeping Beauty Writer/Director Julia Leigh
When Filmmaker chose Australian novelist Julia Leigh for our 25 New Faces list of 2008, the author of such books as The Hunter and Disquiet was teaching at Barnard while establishing herself as a screenwriter of provocative, nuanced dramas for directors like Walter Salles and production companies like Plan B. She said when I interviewed her that screenplay writing was originally a form of “diversion therapy” while working on Disquiet, but that she grew to appreciate the form. “I actually find scripts hard to read — ugly,” she said in 2008. “I got my head around the very basic conventions […]
by Scott Macaulay on Nov 30, 2011 -
MUSIC VIDEO: THE WEEKND’S “THE KNOWING”
On my list of top ten culture for 2011 would be the woozy morning-after soul of the mysterious Canadian vocalist/producer team, The Weeknd. For a song from an album, House of Balloons, in which every other track sounds like the music from the final five minutes of a Miami Vice episode, this science-fiction opus, directed by Mikael Colombu and originally posted by Drake on his site, is not what I would have expected. Dim the lights, go full screen and check it out. (Hat tip: Pitchfork.)
by Scott Macaulay on Nov 26, 2011 -
The Storm Within: Jeff Nichols’ Take Shelter
Originally published in the Fall 2011 issue. Take Shelter is nominated for Best Feature and Best Ensemble. As I write this introduction the financial press is buzzing about the BBC appearance of a trader, Allesio Rostani, who flatly stated, “I’m dreaming of a global recession.” He says he hopes — and expects — the world economy to crash. If it does, he’ll make a lot of money because he’s short the Euro and various European government bonds. There’s speculation that he’s a member of the political prankster group the Yes Men, not because of the substance of his commentary (there […]
by Scott Macaulay on Nov 25, 2011 -
ACADEMY PICKS 15 DOCUMENTARY OSCAR FINALISTS
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Documentary Branch Screening Committee has announced the 15 film shortlist for the Best Documentary Oscar. The selections were culled from a list of 124 eligible titles. Some Filmmaker favorites, including films by 25 New Face Directors Danfung Dennis (Hell and Back Again) and Marshall Curry (If a Tree Falls: A Story of the Earth Liberation Front) are in the mix, as are Wim Wender’s Pina, Suki Hawley and Michael Galinsky’s Battle for Brooklyn, and Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky’s Paradise Lost 3. I was sad to see more experimental docs like Bombay […]
by Scott Macaulay on Nov 18, 2011 -
25 NEW FACES: “DETROIT UNLEADED”‘S ROLA NASHEF
Originally published in the Summer 2011 issue. Detroit Unleaded is nominated for Calvin Klein Spotlight on Women Filmmakers “Live the Dream” Grant. When South Lebanon-born writer-director Rola Nashef started thinking about her film, Detroit Unleaded, there wasn’t much of a film scene in her home state of Michigan, independent or studio. Now, after several years of tax incentives and high-profile productions, she laughs, “I go to restaurants and hear people talking about their scripts.” But Nashef was inspired by Detroit long before the state’s recent production boom. The city didn’t just provide her debut feature’s location, but also its subject […]
by Scott Macaulay on Nov 17, 2011
