Authors — Scott Macaulay

MICHAEL PAUL STEPHENSON, “BEST WORST MOVIE”

The most unlikely act of cultural excavation and redemption, Michael Paul Stephenson’s Best Worst Movie is a hilarious and poignant celebration of not only the communal experience of making and watching movies but the sheer randomness of life itself. The doc is Stephenson’s attempt to find out why a seemingly execrable B-movie he made as a child actor, Troll 2, has garnered a cult following of viewers who not only get off on its badness but also find an odd kind of joy in its screwy storytelling. While Stephenson is present in the film, he smartly chooses as the doc’s […]
by Scott Macaulay on May 12, 2010
THIS MOVIE EXISTS!

Benny Safdie hits the streets to promote Daddy Longlegs, opening Friday at the IFC Center in New York and in homes on VOD.
by Scott Macaulay on May 12, 2010
BOB BERNEY EXITS APPARITION

At Deadline New York, Mike Fleming is reporting that Apparition head Bob Berney, a popular figure in the indie community who previously headed distribution arms at IFC, Picturehouse and Newmarket, has resigned. From Fleming: In a pre-Cannes bombshell, Bob Berney tendered his resignation from the top post of indie distribution company Apparition to its owner, River Road’s Bill Pohlad. I hear Pohlad was blindsided by the move, especially since Berney and his staff were about to get on planes to travel to Cannes and look for pictures to acquire. Pohlad has abruptly cancelled those plans, and now Apparition won’t be […]
by Scott Macaulay on May 10, 2010
THE SAFDIES WIN OUR CREATIVITY IN MARKETING AWARD

Who says there is no clever independent film marketing? As Eric Kohn observed, Daddy Longlegs‘ Benny Safdie this weekend wore a sandwich board in midtown that, underneath the come-on, “We Buy Gold,” proclaimed, “This movie exists!” Has there ever been a more honest cry for attention from any independent filmmaker? And now, directors Josh and Benny Safdie have created a charming animated trailer, posted below, that in a completely different filmmaking medium captures some of their movie’s madcap energy. If you haven’t guessed, I love this film and urge you all to see it at the IFC Center this weekend.
by Scott Macaulay on May 10, 2010
TRAILER WATCH: CHRISTOPHER NOLAN’S “INCEPTION”

The summer film I’m most looking forward to.
by Scott Macaulay on May 10, 2010
KEIRA KNIGHTLEY STARS IN PEARSON WRIGHT’S INSTALLATION ART

Via Nowness is this one-minute clip from Stuart Pearson Wright’s Maze, an art installation currently up at the Riflemakers Gallery in London. Another take on the phrase “bodice ripper,” the two-channel Maze sees a corset-clad Knightley stumbling through branch-jutting topiary maze searching for her lover, played by the artist, Pearson Wright. From Nowness: While in this one-minute clip the two protagonists appear side by side, in the installation at Pearson Wright’s current show at Riflemakers in London, the piece consists of two opposing projections following the characters’ individual journeys, forcing the viewer to choose between, as the artist puts it, […]
by Scott Macaulay on May 10, 2010
FACEBOOK FATIGUE

I’ve blogged several times about Facebook’s increasingly insidious attitude towards the concept of user privacy so I’ve surprised myself that I haven’t weighed in so far on their latest efforts — their “Connections” program and attempt to build a so-called Open Graph. (For a quick, visual history of Facebook’s devolving valuation of privacy, see this graphic by Matt McKeon.) There are a few reasons for this: first, I’ve been busy. Second, it occurred to me that all of Facebook’s previous privacy transgressions, like their ham-fisted Beacon program, have served to, deliberately or not, wear us all down so this latest […]
by Scott Macaulay on May 10, 2010
THE BABY FILMS OF INDIE FILMMAKERS

Leading up to the release this weekend of Thomas Balme’s Babies, FilmInFocus (which, full disclosure, I am a co-editor of) asked four independent filmmakers to make one-minute films about their own babies. The shorts are unexpected and diverse and scope, and I decided to post two here. The first, Dada, is from Caveh Zahedi (I am a Sex Addict), who wrote about his filmmaking experience, “My wife was against it but I prevailed. This said, it was the longest minute of my life.” And second, Untitled, is from experimental filmmaker Jennifer Reeves, who wrote: While capturing the exuberance and wonder […]
by Scott Macaulay on May 6, 2010
ANDREW SARRIS AWARD WINNER SIMON KINBERG’S ACCEPTANCE SPEECH

“I can promise you that you are going to fail… but failure is not final.” That’s screenwriter Simon Kinberg in his speech accepting the Columbia University Film School Andrew Sarris award. For all the talk here and elsewhere about the struggles of DIY filmmakers, it’s useful to note that directors and writers targeting the studio system have it tough too. In recounting the five-year-long story of turning his thesis project, Mr. and Mrs. Smith, into the big Hollywood hit it became, Kinberg offers simple but solid inspirational advice for filmmakers of all stripes.
by Scott Macaulay on May 6, 2010
FILMMAKERS TAKE CHARGE AT THE MARYLAND FILM FESTIVAL

Tomorrow, May 6, through Sunday May 9 runs the Maryland Film Festival, which includes this year a one-day conference on Friday entitled “Filmmakers Taking Charge.” The festival itself has a pretty excellent schedule and then there is the conference, which is described like this: This intimate event is a daylong set of case study roundtables and networking opportunities focused on identifying methods to connect audiences and filmmakers in an increasingly overpopulated (and tech-savvy) market. The conference will bring visiting and local filmmakers together with a variety of distributors, critics, and exhibitors in a spirit of mutual support and cooperation that […]
by Scott Macaulay on May 5, 2010

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