Authors — Scott Macaulay

RANDALL SHARP, HENRY MAY LONG AND MAX RICHTER

Over on the main page, check out Alicia Van Couvering’s interview with Randall Sharp, director of the indie anomaly Henry May Long that plays at New York’s Sunshine Theater this week. I call it an anomaly, because you don’t see many elegant turn-of-the-centry period dramas arising from the Gotham indie scene. Here, Sharp tells Van Couvering why she chose to set her tale in 1887: I felt like setting it in that period would wake up the story again. Otherwise it’s just another guy shooting heroin, another gay guy who loved a straight guy. Also it’s a way to say, […]
by Scott Macaulay on Nov 25, 2008
RADDON RESIGNS FROM THE L.A. FILM FESTIVAL

David Poland posted on his Hot Blog early this morning that Rich Raddon, the director of Film Independent’s L.A. Film Festival who found himself under fire when it was reported that he donated $1,500 in support of California’s anti-gay-marriage Proposition 8, has resigned. Mike Jones now has a story at Variety that contains two statements. First, from Raddon: “I feel honored to have worked with such a wonderful group of people at the Los Angeles Film Festival over the last nine years. I am proud of our accomplishments. And I am proud to have worked at Film Independent, an organization […]
by Scott Macaulay on Nov 25, 2008
HOLLYWOOD IN THE UAE

With Robert DeNiro announcing that
by Scott Macaulay on Nov 25, 2008
CRITERION LAUNCHES ONLINE STORE

The Criterion Company has arguably created the most successful art-film related brand when it comes to monetizing the idea of cinematic value. Many people buy their DVDs for the same reason my parents used to line our bookshelves with Modern Library editions of the classics. They are titles that if one is cultured one should know about. They rarely sell the idea of excitement or entertainment; instead, with their director-approved transfers and culturally dense supporting materials, they sell the idea of connoisseurship and erudition. Until now, that idea has always rested in physicality of their beautifully packaged disks. Now, the […]
by Scott Macaulay on Nov 25, 2008
LIGHTS OUT FOR NEW YORK CITY

Filmmaker Ian Cheney, co-producer of King Corn, and director of the forthcoming The City Dark, and Emily Bolevice, a teacher and freelance photographer, have created a lovely video op-ed for the New York Times. It argues that the city should cut back on the night lighting of public buildings as a way of dealing with the coming budget gap, and it is illustrated with beautiful night-time photography of the city. The City Dark is a feature dealing with the fascinating subject of light pollution. For more on the movie click on the link. The Times video is not embeddable, so […]
by Scott Macaulay on Nov 24, 2008
ANTONIO CAMPOS ON AFTERSCHOOL

For the final artist statement in our check-in with the “Best Film Not Playing at a Theater Near You” directors, whose pictures can be seen at MOMA this weekend, here is what Afterschool director Antonio Campos emailed to the blog. (Afterschool plays tomorrow at 5:30pm). I also point you towards BFNP juror Brandon Harris’s compelling argument for the film over at Hammer to Nail. An excerpt: Afterschool is a movie not unlike so many punky, fishnet wearing, Sartre reading high school students; the type you don’t often encounter in this kind of picture. Like that tired cliché for transitory and […]
by Scott Macaulay on Nov 22, 2008
CATHERINE HARDWICKE ON TWILIGHT

At Filmmaker, we like to keep up with the directors who we have supported early in their careers. Back in Summer, 2003, we placed Catherine Hardwicke’s Thirteen on the cover. Now, three films and five years later, she is at the helm of a genuine pop-cult phenomenon: Twilight, adapted from Stephanie Meyer’s best-selling teen novels. Over in our web exclusives, Alicia Van Couvering catches up with Hardwicke on the eve of the film’s release and discusses things like teenage lust, vampires on jet-skis, casting Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson, and how you could always use a little more money. An […]
by Scott Macaulay on Nov 21, 2008
TAYLOR GREESON ON MEADOWLARK

Taylor Greeson’s Meadowlark was a happy discovery for me while sitting on this year’s “Best Film Not Playing at a Theater Near You” Gotham Award panel. I didn’t know Greeson and hadn’t heard of his film. But I, along with the panel, responded to his formally ambitious mixture of crime-reconstruction film and personal documentary. Here’s the program note. “When I was twelve years old, my brother was murdered, I lost my virginity to a twenty-year-old man, and I was ordained with the priesthood in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.” So begins Meadowlark, Taylor Greeson’s quietly devastating […]
by Scott Macaulay on Nov 20, 2008
JAKE MAHAFFY ON WELLNESS

Jake Mahaffy is one of my favorite filmmakers in this week’s “Best Film Not Playing at a Theater Near You” series this week at MOMA. We selected him as one of our “25 New Faces” in 2005, and I’ve watched his shorts and his Sundance Lab project with interest since. His second feature, Wellness, won the Grand Prize at SXSW this year, and its emotional, political and spiritual themes only become more relevant by the day. Mike Ryan beautifully wrote about the film at Hammer to Nail. An excerpt: One of our greatest American philosophers, William James, writes about the […]
by Scott Macaulay on Nov 20, 2008
INDIES BEHIND THE CAMERA AT SNL

SNL this weekend featured a short film directed by Noah Baumbach and starring the show’s guest host, Paul Rudd, whose very funny Role Models is in theaters now. Costarring Fred Armisen and Bill Hader, upcoming in Greg Mottola’s Adventureland, the film, says Karina Longworth at Spout, is “a cute bit of bromance,” but it’s also a kind of a small-screen mumblecore/indie film reunion. Joe Swanberg, whose in-post feature, Alexander the Last, was produced by Baumbach, was the d.p.; fellow Alexander producer Anish Savjani (Wendy and Lucy) produced; Swanberg and writer/director/actress Amy Seimetz operated the camera; and Guatemalan Handshake director Todd […]
by Scott Macaulay on Nov 18, 2008

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