Authors — Scott Macaulay
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The Gotham Announces the 135 Projects Comprising Its Upcoming Gotham Week Project Market
The Gotham Film & Media Institute (formerly IFP, and Filmmaker‘s publisher) today announced the 135 fiction and non-fiction projects, series and audio podcasts, that will comprise the upcoming Gotham Week Project Market. To be held virtually September 19-24, 2001, the Project Market connects projects in development and production with financiers, producers, distributors and other partners. “We are proud to announce the extraordinary line up of new projects at this year’s Project Market – all of which feature distinctive and original voices. Our virtual format will again provide an exciting opportunity for independent artists to engage with a broader set of […]
by Scott Macaulay on Jul 29, 2021 -
REI Director of Content and Media Paolo Mottola on New Producing Division, REI Co-Op Studios
Earlier this year, REI, the Seattle-based specialty outdoor retailer, announced the launch of REI Co-Op Studios, a content division that is already producing short films, features, podcasts and a magazine. One early progenitor of the new initiative was last year’s REI partnership in the production and release of The Dark Divide, a feature directed by Filmmaker 25 New Face Tom Putnam and starring David Cross and Debra Messing. The well-reviewed film is a real-life story of a butterfly expert on a trek through the wilderness of the Gifford Pinchot National Forest in Washington, a tale that is representative of REI’s […]
by Scott Macaulay on Jul 23, 2021 -
Sundance Institute Announces 10 Producers Lab Fellows, Summit Panelists and Conversations
The Sundance Institute announced today the producers who will take part in its upcoming Producers Lab (July 25 – 29) and the panelists, projects and advisors participating in its Producers Summit (August 2- 5). The former consists of five fiction and five non-fiction producers, each with specific projects. From the press release: Under the leadership of Creative Producing and Artist Support Director Shira Rockowitz and Documentary Film Program Deputy Director Kristin Feeley, the Institute’s Producers Program champions the current and next generation of producers across fiction and nonfiction film and encompasses a year-round series of Labs, Fellowships, granting and events. […]
by Scott Macaulay on Jul 22, 2021 -
“My Ideal is for the Music to Seem Accidental, Like It Just Happened to Be There and Be Perfect”: T. Griffin on Scoring Jill Magid’s The Proposal
With over 50 credits to his name, including Life Animated, A Walk into the Sea and the Emmy-nominated Boy’s State, composer T. Griffin brings sure melodies, inventive arrangements and a clever blending (and treatment of) of acoustic instruments with electronics to his film scoring work. Both an omnivorous listener and a performing musician — he’s a former member of Vic Chestnutt’s band and has performed for live film/media events by artists such as Sam Green — Griffin is invigoratingly thoughtful about the role of music in film, and his scores benefit from that inquisitive process. They buzz with musical ideas while […]
by Scott Macaulay on Jul 14, 2021 -
“We Had No Idea about the LSD, or that Napa Had a Farm….”: Mike Plante and Jason Willis on Their Cramps/Mutants Punk Doc, We Were There To Be There
One of the most storied shows of the punk era was seen by just a tiny audience at an unlikely venue — a California mental hospital. The punk rockabilly band The Cramps and theatrical art-punk band The Mutants played the Napa State Hospital on June 13, 1978, one of a series of concerts programmed at the institution for its residents during that era. What made this concert different was its documentation — it was recorded on old Sony equipment by Bay Area documentarian Joe Rees and his Target Video crew. “Somebody told me you people are crazy, but I’m not […]
by Scott Macaulay on Jul 13, 2021 -
Editor’s Letter
Often when I sit down to write this letter each quarter, I’ll scan through our InDesign file and take note of themes or subject matters that flow from article to article across the issue. Sometimes, a business issue will be represented in multiple stories, or several directors will unexpectedly share the same creative inspiration or working method. This time, as I flipped through the pages of this summer 2021 edition, one thing jumped out: There’s no article tied to the COVID-19 pandemic. A year ago, the digital pages I flicked through remained that way. For the first and only time […]
by Scott Macaulay on Jul 12, 2021 -
After the Goldrush: NFTS, the Blockchain and Independent Film
“One week, I didn’t know what an NFT was,” says producer and director Adam Benzine. “Seven days later, I had the first film out as an NFT, and seven days after that, CNN wanted me on as an expert on NFTs.” Benzine is referring to a time just a few months ago—March 2021—when his documentary, Claude Lanzmann: Spectres of the Shoah, a 2015 short about the maker of the classic Holocaust documentary Shoah, was announced as the “first Academy Award nominee to be released as an NFT.” Issued on the Rarible NFT trading site, Benzine’s NFTs (they were released in […]
by Scott Macaulay on Jul 12, 2021 -
A Musuem of One’s Own: Jessica Oreck on Her Office of Collecting and Design
Drawers of marbles and buttons, a wall of picture frames with nothing in them, empty matchboxes, broken dice and a tray of antique doll eyes, irises fixed in hopeful stares beneath the swoop of their curled eyelashes. These are just a few of the uncanny items you’ll find in the Office of Collecting and Design, a museum full of, in the words of its creator, filmmaker Jessica Oreck (Beetle Queen Conquers Tokyo, One Man Dies a Million Times), “lost and forgotten objects, things that people don’t think are valuable but have too much charm to throw away. These are things […]
by Scott Macaulay on Jul 12, 2021 -
12 Films and VR Works to Catch at the 2021 Tribeca Film Festival
Shuttered last year by the pandemic, the Tribeca Film Festival returns this year with a large program (many of last year’s selections are included) and hybrid format full of large outdoor events and stay-at-home screenings. The festival opens with the premiere of Jon M. Chu’s exuberant In The Heights, and there’s new work by Steven Soderbergh, a film about and live performance by Blondie, and talks with Amy Schumer, M. Night Shamalayan and others. But as usual, though, we’ll point you here to films by emerging makers that might have flown beneath your radar. Here are 12 picks from Vadim Rizov […]
by Scott Macaulay on Jun 9, 2021 -
Kino Lorber and Dedza Films Announce Release of Short Film Omnibus Who Will Start Another Fire
Kino Lorber and Dedza Films announced today their first collaborative release, Who Will Start Another Fire, an international short film omnibus featuring the works of nine emerging filmmakers from underrepresented communities around the world. Beginning June 11, the films will be released digitally on KinoMarquee.com, the distributor’s virtual theatrical platform in partnership with arthouse cinemas around the country. The anthology will also be released day and date on VOD on KinoNow.com, and forthcoming will be a limited edition DVD with an introduction by Charles Burnett. In-person screenings will occur across the country at independent cinemas that are open. From the […]
by Scott Macaulay on Jun 4, 2021
