Authors — Scott Macaulay
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FILMMAKER PHOTOGRAPHER HENNY GARFUNKEL IN TORONTO
Reading Filmmaker online is great and all, but one thing you don’t get — in addition to about 60% of the content — is the full impact of Henny Garfunkel’s original photography. For the Fall issue, we have quite bit of her work, including the David Cronenberg cover, another Cronenberg shot inside, and full-page portraits of Jessica Chastain, Jeff Nichols, Michael Shannon, Todd Rohal, Dee Rees, Sean Durkin & Elizabeth Olson, Steve McQueen and Asghar Farhadi. The issue is on newsstands now, and you can see Garfunkle at work in Toronto, where many of these photographs were taken, in this […]
by Scott Macaulay on Nov 1, 2011 -
A THANKSGIVING KICKSTARTER FOR “YEAR WITHOUT RENT”
If you visit this site regularly, then you’ll know about “A Year Without Rent,” filmmaker Lucas McNelly’s Kickstarter-funded twelve-month experiment in community-minded film production and online journalism. At the beginning of this year McNelly staged a dramatic Kickstarter campaign for what seemed like a crazy goal: he’d spend twelve months crisscrossing the U.S., working for free on independent films. Then, he’d document them on his site and at places like Filmmaker, Film Courage, Film Threat and Mubi. The Kickstarter raise was successful, and McNelly has been hard at work since then — rigging lights, manning craft service, holding a boom, […]
by Scott Macaulay on Nov 1, 2011 -
FILMMAKER PAUL RACHMAN REMEMBERS ZOE LUND
I interviewed Zoe Lund for the second issue of Filmmaker, back when we put Abel Ferrara’s Bad Lieutenant on the cover.She was the screenwriter, and she also appeared in one of the film’s most memorable scenes. Previously, Lund starred in a number of films, including Ferrara’s breakthrough, Ms. 45. Lund was fascinating, beautiful, talented, and she had a unique and powerful charisma.She died in Paris in 1999. Recently I ran into filmmaker and Slamdance co-founder Paul Rachman, and he told me about the series of short documentary films he’s making about Lund. He agreed to answer a few questions about […]
by Scott Macaulay on Nov 1, 2011 -
HOPE, VACHON OFFER MASTER CLASS
Many years ago Ted Hope called me up and said that I and my partner, Robin O’Hara, should be at his Good Machine office on a Saturday morning at 9:00 AM. He was doing a workshop on low-budget production and, as young producers, he thought we’d find it helpful. That was about 20 years ago, and I still remember — and rely on — stuff Hope taught that day. A lot has changed in two decades, but both Hope and producer Christine Vachon, who are teaching a master class this Saturday, have kept up with the evolution of independent film […]
by Scott Macaulay on Oct 31, 2011 -
JAMIE STUART IS NOW ON TWITTER
Scored, color corrected, and spikily punctuated by frames of black, of course. Bringing the social to the social network: Yes, I’m Now On Twitter from The Mutiny Company on Vimeo.
by Scott Macaulay on Oct 31, 2011 -
HALLOWEEN SHORT: “THE MAZE”
Via Coolhunting, a documentary short about an annual L.A. Halloween project: While recently exploring the southern coast of the Golden State we ended up in the Los Angeles neighborhood of El Sereno where artist Albert Reyes gave us a behind-the-scenes look at his yearly Halloween project. Since 2004 Reyes has built a Halloween maze in his backyard for a party in celebration of America’s favorite pagan holiday. Over time, the maze has evolved from a blanket tunnel held together with sticks to a full, free-standing structure, guaranteed to spook the drunk, stoned and sober alike. We got a special glimpse […]
by Scott Macaulay on Oct 31, 2011 -
KICKSTARTER: JENNIE LIVINGSTON’S “EARTH CAMP ONE”
Filmmaker Jennie Livingston (Paris is Burning) is raising funds for a new documentary feature, Earth Camp One, through Kickstarter. Described as both a “first-person family story” — Livingston began the film after losing four family members in five years — as well as “an essay,” the film deals with death, loss, and what she calls “the very American problem of discomfort with discomfort.” From her Kickstarter page: “To lose one parent may be regarded as a misfortune; to lose both looks like carelessness.” –Oscar Wilde, The Importance of Being Earnest In the 1970s, I went to a hippie summer camp, […]
by Scott Macaulay on Oct 30, 2011 -
HALLOWEEN SHORT: SHADE RUPE’S “T IS FOR TRICK”
Filmmaker Shade Rupe has contributed a short to the “ABC’s of Death” contest, and he has garnered some impressive props from Clive Barker. That was an elegantly shot, sharply edited and strongly conceived and directed four minutes of film-making. Colour me impressed. You managed to imply a whole range of character options for us, from which entirely plausible narrative solutions spilled. Very fine, courageous work from you and your actors. I hit the heart to say I’d been there. I hope it helps and i will certainly make sure my guys do the same. If you like the short, click […]
by Scott Macaulay on Oct 30, 2011 -
HALLOWEEN SHORT: LARS VON TRIER’S “OCCUPATIONS”
Here’s the ultimate “don’t talk in the movie theater” short by Lars Von Trier. Occupations – short film by Lars von Trier by vahea
by Scott Macaulay on Oct 30, 2011 -
DICTATORS, JENNIFER EGAN AND HILARY SWANK
In Jennifer Egan’s brilliant, Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, A Visit from the Goon Squad, Dolly, a desperate, down-and-out celebrity publicist, takes on the job of rehabilitating the image of a genocidal African dictator. Perhaps it’s a book Hilary Swank should have read. Reports Deadline, Swank has fired members of her team following criticism from human rights organizations for accepting a fee to fly to Chechnya and celebrate the birthday of its president, Ramzan Kadyrov. From an article on the event at The Guardian: “Ramzan Kadyrov is linked to a litany of horrific human rights abuses,” said a statement from Human Rights […]
by Scott Macaulay on Oct 30, 2011
