Authors — Scott Macaulay

GEN ART SHUTS DOWN

Another sad casualty of the current recession: Gen Art is shutting down. Most film programmers worry about how to cultivate new audiences. Gen Art never had that problem. Indeed, “Who are these people?” was always the operative phrase among film industry folk attending Gen Art screenings, which were always packed with hip and enthusiastic twentysomething viewers. Gen Art’s programming was always interesting and their model and audience outreach downright enviable. I’m sorry to see them go. From Gen Art’s website: It is with an extremely heavy heart that we are are posting this. After struggling for the past 18 months […]
by Scott Macaulay on May 5, 2010
RODRIGUEZ TAKES A MACHETE TO ARIZONA

Cinco de Mayo trailer:
by Scott Macaulay on May 5, 2010
“KIDS” OPENS L.A. FILM FEST; LINE-UP ANNOUNCED

Lisa Cholodenko’s The Kids are All Right will open the 2010 Los Angeles Film Festival, which announced its line-up today. The Focus Features release, due out in July, stars Annette Benning, Julianne Moore, Mark Ruffalo and Mia Wasikowska in a story of a lesbian couple and their children, who search for their sperm donor father. The closing night film will be Despicable Me, a 3D comedy-fantasy directed by Chris Renaud and Pierre Coffin. The festival, organized by Film Independent, will be the first held in downtown L.A.’s L.A. Live complex. Rebecca Yeldham is the Director of the festival and David […]
by Scott Macaulay on May 4, 2010
THE iPAD AS AN (NON) COMMUNAL DEVICE

I bought an iPad the day it came out and wrote a couple of times on the blog and in our newsletter that I’d be posting a review of it. Well, the review is 80% done and sitting on my desktop, but I never finished that final 20% because, frankly, I got sick of reading about the iPad and decided that I didn’t want to add any more verbiage about it to the blogosphere. Short version, though: despite various qualms (no Flash, speakers on only one side of the device, the primacy of Apple’s walled-garden app store, a shutter effect […]
by Scott Macaulay on May 3, 2010
WEEKEND LINKS, 5/2/2010

Most of the time when I come across interesting articles or video on the web I clip them to my Evernote reader and check them out later on my Blackberry or iPad. Here, then, are a few things I’ve clipped that might interest you too. From CNN Money: “One in eight to cut cable and satellite TV in 2010.” What are the implications for online content creators? In Spring 2008 I wrote about Alix Lambert’s Crime book for Filmmaker. (The piece is not online, but you can check it out on her site.) Here, at The Graveyard Shift, she discusses […]
by Scott Macaulay on May 2, 2010
LOW-BUDGET 3D VIDEO STARS… JAMES CAMERON

Joe Corey who posts at A Site Called Fred emailed with this video of James Cameron planting a tree on Earth Day. The kicker is that its in old-school 3D, so if you have some of those blue and red glasses you can slip them on. He also calls this a remake of Les Blank’s film Werner Herzog Eats his Shoe, a comparison which, I have to say, I’m baffled by. No matter — watch Cameron plant a tree in 3D (preceded by a discussion of 3D itself).
by Scott Macaulay on May 2, 2010
U.S. DIRECTORS CALL FOR JAFAR PANAHI’S RELEASE

A powerful statement from U.S. directors calling for the release of director Jafar Panahi from prison in Iran has been issued. I’ll let the petition speak for itself, but kudos to the organizers for taking action and assembling this illustrious group. New York, NY (April 30, 2010) – Jafar Panahi, an internationally acclaimed Iranian director of such award-winning films as The White Balloon, The Circle, Crimson Gold and Offside, was arrested at his home on March 1st and has been held since in Tehran’s notorious Evin prison. A number of filmmaking luminaries have come to Mr. Panahi’s defense and “condemn […]
by Scott Macaulay on May 1, 2010
ROGER EBERT RULES

You know that already, but to be reminded again, surf to this week’s must-read post on film criticism in the age of the internet. Yes, it’s sad that film critics are losing their jobs, but Ebert finds good reason to celebrate the diversity of voices the ‘net brings us. A key graph: What the internet is creating is a class of literate, gifted amateur writers, in an old tradition. Like Trollope, who was a British Post official all his working life, they write for love and because they must. Like Rohinton Mistry, a banking executive, or Wallace Stevens, an insurance […]
by Scott Macaulay on May 1, 2010
SPARROW SONGS, GOD, KAROKE AND BANKSY

Sparrow Songs is a documentary project by filmmaker Alex Jablonski and d.p. Michael Totten, who are making and posting one short doc film per month on their site for a whole year. They are six episodes in, and the films are quite wonderful. Averaging about eight minutes, they are poetic essays that capture the essences of specific places, people, and moments, and that then, without pretension, build these observances into larger statements about love, truth, community, and the ways we are choosing to live our lives. The films include Porn Star Karoke, about the crowd that gathers weekly at an […]
by Scott Macaulay on Apr 29, 2010
JESPER JUST’S TRENTEMOLLER VIDEO

Artist Jesper Just, who Shari Roman wrote about for Filmmaker in 2007, directed this video, “Sycamore Feeling,” for the band Trentemøller. It was produced by Lucas Joaquin, Jay Van Hoy, Lars Knudsen and shot by Kasper Tuxen. (Hat tip: Antville.)
by Scott Macaulay on Apr 25, 2010

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