Authors — Scott Macaulay

“ART AND COPY”‘S DOUG PRAY By Alicia Van Couvering

Documentarian Doug Pray has made films about grafitti artists (Infamy), an iterant surfing family (Surfwise), Seattle punk scene (Hype!) Hip Hop DJ’s (Scratch) and truckers (Big Rig), and now, with Art & Copy, he profiles the living legends of corporate advertising. Advertising has a complicated relationship to filmmaking — for one thing, many feature and documentary directors make a living doing commercials. The men and women profiled in Pray’s film have been responsible for most revolutionary campaigns of the ad business — VW’s “Lemon” and “Think Small” were by George Lois, who also provoked controversy with his Esquire Covers and […]
by Scott Macaulay on Jan 25, 2009
YOUTUBE RESTORES LEE’S VIDEOS

Previously I posted some thoughts on the Kevin Lee/YouTube situation, and now, via Lee’s Shooting Down Pictures blog, it’s great to report that YouTube has responded to criticism and restored Lee’s account. In a long post entitled “Things I Learned from Losing — and Regaining — my YouTube Account,” Lee tells all of us how we can defend ourselves against a similar type of complaint, the nature of copyright laws and why YouTube may not be to blame for his situation, and also how we can fight further for digital rights and fair use issues. Thanks to Kevin for his […]
by Scott Macaulay on Jan 23, 2009
CHILLY WORDS FOR FROZEN RIVER

So you come from outside the industry, scrape up enough money to make a small movie about working-class characters… and get slagged off on MSNBC by Courtney Hazlett for being a member of an “elite, effete” group who made a movie that you have to see on “some website.” Check out the clip at the link.
by Scott Macaulay on Jan 23, 2009
AGAINST THE CURRENT’S PETER CALLAHAN By Alicia Van Couvering

Peter Callahan’s Againt the Current is road movie that takes place in a vehicle that “couldn’t out-run a turtle.” It’s a story about Paul Thompson (Joseph Fiennes), a man in his mid-30’s who is still grieving for his wife five years after her death. Emotionally adrift, Thompson decides to make it literal by enlisting his best friend (Justin Kirk) to man a boat as he swims the entire length of the Hudson River. The pair are joined by a pretty, single barfly named Liz, played by Elizabeth Reaser, and they all stop briefly at Liz’s Rhinebeck house, where her mother […]
by Scott Macaulay on Jan 22, 2009
OWN NOTHING

I’m in the group that believes that physical media — books, DVDs, CDs — is essentially going away. I think a sentimental or nostalgic connection will be required to convince us in the future to actually buy something that will sit on our shelves. You love Thomas Pynchon, you have all his books, so when his new one comes out you’ll buy it to reconnect to that part of you that used to love to buy things and loved the idea that your own literary cool could be signified by a physical object. That new writer who has gotten great […]
by Scott Macaulay on Jan 22, 2009
MANOHLA DARGIS ON THE INDIE FINANCING CONUNDRUM

I agree with Manohla, the reduced crowds make this Sundance the most pleasant in years. In her just-posted piece in the New York Times on the festival, however, she includes a bit of historical summary that nails the current conundrum facing the independent sector. An excerpt: The industry was still in attendance this year, but the high-roller fever that has gripped the festival for the last decade has cooled. Although this made for the most pleasant Sundance in memory, it also presents a host of unknowns. If the studios don’t buy independent films, fewer investors in turn may be inclined […]
by Scott Macaulay on Jan 22, 2009
OBJECTIFYING APPLE

Two years ago at SXSW I stood in line trying to see the premiere of Gary Hustwit’s Helvetica. At SXSW, ‘natch, the heavy contingent of designers made my attendance impossible as the line snuch through the lobby of the convention center when I arrived. Now, Hustwit has a new doc, Objectified, that will premiere at SXSW this year , and it’s about industrial design. So, expect another packed premiere, especially given news on the film’s blog that Hustwit filmed an interview with Apple designer Jony Ive inside Apple’s super-secret design facility. Here’s the trailer.
by Scott Macaulay on Jan 22, 2009
PUSHING THE PANIC BUTTON

The big panel at Sundance this year was called “The Panic Button: Push or Ponder.” Here’s how it was described: The sky fell, companies collapsed, and the industry spent much of the year with one hand on the panic button. So, where do we go from here? Is this the end or simply a transition? Of the questions that besiege the industry today (content, distribution, its very identity), maybe the most fundamental is what kind of movies we want to make…and see. Today we ask for a vision of the future; for new models that foster the health, diversity, and […]
by Scott Macaulay on Jan 22, 2009
SUNDANCE QUICK TAKES: THE MESSENGER AND MORE

If you’ve taken a look around the blogosphere you’ll notice that — and on not just this site — postings have slowed from the avalanche of early interviews and features. That’s for a couple of reasons. First, some of us pre-screened films, allowing us to get a jump on coverage; and second, for each day that goes by we see more and more films, and there are only so many hours in the day to compose thoughtful coverage. For me, that means I’ll be trying to write up my take on some of the more complicated films here after tomorrow, […]
by Scott Macaulay on Jan 20, 2009
Of Time and the City: Terence Davies On His Lyrical, Melancholic Memory Piece, Of Time and the City

For Terence Davies, his youth — his early years in Liverpool, his relationship with his mother, and his feelings about being gay in that working-class town — have always provided the raw material for his filmmaking. His celebrated “Terence Davies Trilogy,” a collection of shorts, and later features like Distant Voices, Still Lives and The Long Day Closes summon up for the viewer an interior life with a rare combination of lyricism and heartache. These films cemented Davies’s international reputation, but after two more, non-autobiographical features (The House of Mirth and The Neon Bible), he became less active, a development […]
by Scott Macaulay on Jan 20, 2009

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