Authors — Scott Macaulay

@SXSW: FOR THE LOVE OF FAIR USE

Sub-theme for me at SXSW this year: Fair Use. A day after posting my article on Tommy Pallotta about his American Prince, which employs a Fair Use strategy to include film clips illustrating doc subject Steven Prince’s life in the movies and relationship with Martin Scorsese, I run into Gerard Peary, who is here in Austin with his doc For the Love of Movies: The Story of American Film Criticism. His film includes interviews with critics like Andrew Sarris, Pauline Kael, Roger Ebert, Harry Knowles, Karina Longworth and Elvis Mitchell, and it also includes clips from the films they talk […]
by Scott Macaulay on Mar 15, 2009
@SXSW: PALLOTTA, SWANBERG, LIPES, RUSSO-YOUNG AND MORE

At SXSW, the first festival to play out after Twitter passed the tipping point, I’ve seen something I’ve never seen before at a festival: people passed out after a long night of partying with their laptops open on their laps. For those more awake, early response here has been very good for the opening night film, John Hamburg’s I Love You, Man, starring Paul Rudd; David Lowery’s St. Nick; Joe Swanberg’s Alexander the Last; Gary Hustwit’s Objectified. One outsider recommendation: at a party last night, one industry vet raved to me about 45365, which refers to the zip code of […]
by Scott Macaulay on Mar 15, 2009
SWANBERG AND DENTLER

Pictured above, on the second floor of the convention center, Alexander the Last director Joe Swanberg and Cinetic Media Rights’ Matt Dentler. Dentler to me: “You know, I don’t work here anymore, but you don’t need to wait on this long line for your badge. You can go to the Panelists Registration over there.”
by Scott Macaulay on Mar 14, 2009
‘AMERICAN PRINCE”‘S TOMMY PALLOTTA By Scott Macaulay

Even if you consider yourself a literate, well-viewed, cinema completist, you may not remember the name “Steven Prince.” I could jog your memory and tell you that he was influential to the films of Quentin Tarantino, Rick Linklater, and, most directly, Martin Scorsese, and the name still might not ring a bell. If that’s the case, don’t stress — I didn’t recognize the name either, even though I vaguely remembered that there exists a Scorsese film, American Boy, that I’ve never seen, and that Prince’s one scene in Taxi Driver, in which he plays Easy Andy, a fast-talking gun dealer, […]
by Scott Macaulay on Mar 14, 2009
SXSW FILM BEGINS IN AUSTIN

SXSW kicks off today, and here at Filmmaker we’ve aggregated our coverage in a standalone page that you can reach by clicking here. Up now are a number of pieces, including Alicia Van Couvering’s interviews with Joe Swanberg, whose Alexander the Last premieres this weekend and is available nation-wide on IFC On Demand, and the team of Daryl Wein and Zoe Lister-Jones of the film Breaking Upwards. There’s also Ry Russo-Young’s conversation with editor Lance Edmands and a series of “Austin Survival Tips” we’ve collected from a number of SXSW vets. I’ll be moderating the DIY distribution panel Sunday at […]
by Scott Macaulay on Mar 13, 2009
BIG NEWS AT FOX: RICE TO TV; UTLEY, GILULA TO RUN SEARCHLIGHT

From Variety comes news of an executive reorganization at Fox, with the big news for independents that Peter Rice, president of Fox Searchlight, will be moving over to become chairman of Fox Broadcasting. Nancy Utley and Steve Gilula, formerly COO’s of the specialty label, will now jointly take over Rice’s job. From the press release as published at Deadline Hollywood Daily: “Peter Rice is one of our most talented creative executives, having championed such films as Slumdog Millionaire, Little Miss Sunshine, and Juno during his tenure at Fox Searchlight. As we increasingly look to apply unconventional approaches to our traditional […]
by Scott Macaulay on Mar 12, 2009
IN SEARCH OF SLACKER: LINKLATER’S AUSTIN

It doesn’t matter where we’re from, we all remember the way the place used to be. You know, before the local dive bar became a TGIF, the Kroger became the Whole Foods, and back when the scene was truly a scene. But, of course, as powerful as nostalgia can be, it is also self-generating. What’s around us right now will one day be a newcomer’s “way it was.” In terms of a filmmaker’s celebration of his hometown, Rick Linklater’s Slacker has, perhaps, no equal. It not only documented a place, Austin, but it grafted a sensibility onto that place, a […]
by Scott Macaulay on Mar 12, 2009
REBECCA YELDHAM NAMED DIRECTOR OF THE LOS ANGELES FILM FESTIVAL

Film Independent announced today that producer and former executive and festival programmer Rebecca Yeldham has accepted the post of Director of the Los Angeles Film Festival. From the press release: “Rebecca has a wide range of experience in the industry and she’s an inspiring leader — her many talents make her a natural fit for the Los Angeles Film Festival,” said Dawn Hudson, Executive Director of Film Independent. “She has been intimately involved in the building of this festival and the organization over the last nine years as a Film Independent Board member. Rebecca shares our vision of expanding the […]
by Scott Macaulay on Mar 12, 2009
IF YOU HAVE A FILM AT SOUTH BY…

If you have a film at SXSW and would like to send short reports on the festival, your film, and your experience there for Filmmaker blog posting consideration, you can email me at editor.filmmakermagazine AT gmail.com. We have a number of feature interviews going up throughout the festival, and we’ll be posting from the ground, but Filmmaker always welcomes first-person pieces from those involved with the films themselves. And, if you are attending, stop by my panel on Sunday at 1:00pm. (Why does the SXSW calendar function keep auto-syncing it do my calendar at 2:00pm?) It’s entitled “Self-Distribution: Not All […]
by Scott Macaulay on Mar 12, 2009
SOUTH BY GIRLS JUST WANNA…

As I sit here editing the interviews and short reports we’ll be posting in our SXSW section beginning Thursday night/Friday morning, I’m wondering what level of SXSW reporting rises to the level of the impactful meaningfulness we aspire to on this blog. There is less industry news at SXSW, and fewer (try no) eight-figure acquisitions… but does that mean that we should be promoting a contest in which all you aspiring filmmakers create a music video for Double D’s “South By Girls”? From the site: It all started as a joke. On a Twitter challenge from a record-industry friend, Eston […]
by Scott Macaulay on Mar 11, 2009

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