Here’s the second of our catch-ups with previous “25 New Faces” filmmakers. If you’ve been on the list and haven’t sent us an update, you can still email one to editor.filmmakermagazine AT gmail.com. Rachel Grady and Heidi Ewing, directors, 2005: Since we were included in Filmmaker Magazine’s “25 New Faces of Independent Film” we co-directed a film called Jesus Camp that was nominated for an Oscar, and have completed television projects for CBS and VH1. We are currently making a documentary in Saudi Arabia, and producing a segment of the Freakonomics movie. In addition, we just signed on to make […]
by Scott Macaulay on Jul 30, 2008Ted Hope forwarded this link to a fantastic list of “Top 10 Great Movies That Were Never Finished” over at List Universe. Of course, the term “great” is one of almost philosophical speculation as opposed to qualitative judgement. How can a film be great if it was never completed and viewed by an audience? Looking at it from another way, though, films create memories and desires in us long after we view them, and sometimes a film that is wished for yet remains an impossible object exerts a stronger pull on us than one that is released and quickly disappears […]
by Scott Macaulay on Jul 30, 2008While we here at Filmmaker were busy trying to be so ahead-of-the-curve with our 25 New Faces list, we were dreadfully behind-the-curve in another area: figuring out an appropriately smart and knowing take on Comic-Con that would enable us to preserve our indie cred while attracting a fair share of fanboy surfers. Next year we’ll figure it out, but as for this year, I’m glad we didn’t try because we wouldn’t have beaten Karina Longworth’s take on the event, which benefits from her own experience at a Comic-Con of days past. Her lede: When I first went to Comic-Con, almost […]
by Scott Macaulay on Jul 29, 2008A director came into my office the other day wearing one of the fantastic “film director name rendered in heavy metal script” T-shirts that can be found at CineFile Video in L.A. Our whole office was knocked out, and I made a point of stopping by the store when I was in L.A. to pick some up… but forgot. Fortunately, they’re available by mail order, so I can order them and so can you. Each t-shirt marries the name of particular director with the logo and font design of a specific heavy metal band. The new DePalma/Def Leopard design is […]
by Scott Macaulay on Jul 29, 2008Prior to this year’s 25 New Faces hitting the stands and screens, we asked everyone previously selected for this feature to send us a short email updating us on their activities since. Here are the first three responses — thanks to the filmmakers who sent them in. More will appear in the coming days. And, if you are reading this, appeared on this list and haven’t replied yet, please drop us a line and update us. In the coming days you’ll read about people whose films have been made and people who have decided to take other paths in life, […]
by Scott Macaulay on Jul 29, 2008In keeping with our all-embedded-video blog day, here’s Cinematech’s Scott Kirsner with Lance Weiler discussing “The Conversation,” a conference event that will premiere this October in Berkeley. Click play (and turn off David Byrne’s auto-starting clip) and learn more.
by Scott Macaulay on Jul 28, 2008Announced at here. Click on the link to sign up for a free track on August 4. Download drops on 8/18. There’s an announcement video that which I previously had pasted here, but it annoyingly self-starts every time the page loads, so I took it down. You can find it at the site.
by Scott Macaulay on Jul 28, 2008I was initially a little skeptical that Stone could come up with a movie about George Bush that might resonate in the dog days of his presidency, when pretty much everyone just wishes he would hurry up and get the hell out of here. But, I got a kick of this cheeky and ironic first trailer and am hoping that it’s representative of the tone of the final movie.
by Scott Macaulay on Jul 28, 2008I went on vacation for a couple of weeks (hence the diminished blog posts) just as the online debate over Anita Elberse’s article in Harvard Business Review Online appeared. In case you are interested in the concept of the Long Tail and you haven’t read this piece, I recommend that you click on the link above and check it out. After you finish it you can check out Chris Anderson’s response and Elberse’s response to him. And if you just want a taste of the discussion, you can go to Brian Newman’s short and helpful post on the article, in […]
by Scott Macaulay on Jul 27, 2008At the Scanners blog, Jim Emerson has a great look back at David Fincher’s Fight Club, viewing it through the personal lens of depression. An excerpt: One of the (many) reasons I probably connect so strongly with David Fincher’s “Fight Club” (1999) is that, by capturing clinical depression more accurately than any other movie I’ve ever seen (though Laurent Cantet’s “Time Out” and Eric Steel’s “The Bridge” delve mighty deep into that abyss), it helped shake me out of the grips of a depression that was sucking me down at the time. I was the only person in the theater […]
by Scott Macaulay on Jul 27, 2008