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From Portishead’s excellent Third, “The Rip,” one of the album’s best songs performed live on Jools Holland’s U.K. tv show.
by Scott Macaulay on Apr 29, 2008The BLDGBLOB has a great post entitled “Hotels in the Afterlife” that is very J.G. Ballard — a series of shots of abandoned hotel exteriors on the Sinai peninsula, “monuments to failed investment.” Based on a photography show that opened last week in Vienna by Sabine Haubitz and Stephanie Zoche. From Geoff Manaugh’s blog post: The hotels now look more like “architectonic sculptures” in the desert, the photographers claim, or derelict abstractions, as if some aging and half-crazed billionaire had constructed an eccentric sculpture park for himself amongst the dunes. The billionaire goes for long walks at night alone amongst […]
by Scott Macaulay on Apr 28, 2008The artist Cindy Sherman has made a statement disavowing a documentary, Paul H-O’s Guest of Cindy Sherman, in which she is featured that is playing at the Tribeca Film Festival. Mike Jones has the story in Variety, and he reprints her statement, posted below: As my name is in the title and my work and self are so abundantly represented, I would like to counter any assumption that I am or wish to be personally associated with it. I am not a participant in any events related to the film’s screenings in this festival or future presentations. I apologize to […]
by Scott Macaulay on Apr 26, 2008Two stalwarts of the New York indie scene, producers Ted Hope and Christine Vachon, are the hosts of a program on PlumTV entitled “Very Independent Producers.” Five episodes have already been produced, and all are viewable online at the link I just posted. Here’s how PlumTV describes the program: On “Very Independent Producers,” Ted and Christine get a chance to share their wit and hard-earned wisdom as they kick back with friends and colleagues from all corners of the film world. Ted, Christine, and their impressive roster of guests share their film experiences past and present and discuss the inner […]
by Scott Macaulay on Apr 26, 2008It’s official — Governor Patterson has signed the enhanced New York tax incentive. The state now offers a 30% tax credit against qualified expenses and it’s now payable to the production company in one year, not two. The city’s five percent remains intact, meaning a 35% credit for films lensed within the five boroughs.
by Scott Macaulay on Apr 24, 2008One of the hits of this year’s SXSW was the 25-minute short, Glory at Sea. Set in a magically real, emotionally honest post-Katrina New Orleans, the film is something of a mini-epic, a grand tale of outsized, heartbreaking ambition set against both a devastated city and the boundlessness of the open waters. The story of Ben Zeitlin’s film, unfortunately, did not end with its triumphant Austin premiere. Zeitlin and members of his crew were injured in a serious car accident on the way to a screening. The uninsured Zeitlin broke his hip and pelvis and has two sprained ankles. So, […]
by Scott Macaulay on Apr 23, 2008Over at Ain’t It Cool News, Quint calls the trailer for Jonathan Levine’s The Wackness “an okay trailer for a great movie” and “a little clunky.” At Hollywood Elsewhere, Jeffrey Wells thinks star Josh Peck “is basically Leo Gorcey” and is not likely to ever play “anything other than a what-up homie who sells tabs of ecstasy and dilaudid in Tompkins Square Park” while one of his readers, Hallick, calls the clip “the dullest trailer of 2008” and asks, “What the hell are they trying their hardest not to sell here?” Yep, the trailer’s underwhelming, but it does set you […]
by Scott Macaulay on Apr 22, 2008At his CinemaTech blog, Scott Kirsner follows up an earlier post announcing Cinetic Media’s hiring of Matt Dentler to its new digital rights division, Cinetic Rights Management, with a conversation with three of the company’s key players: Christopher Horton, COO Janet Brown, and Dentler. (If you haven’t heard, John Sloss’s Cinetic Media has set up a new company that will represent digital media rights for independent films. They are currently contacting many indie filmmakers and producers and signing for representation films that will presumably be leveraged into digital distribution platforms ranging from internet downloads to new delivery devices like mobile […]
by Scott Macaulay on Apr 22, 2008Phillip Van, who was one of our “25 New Faces” last year (and who is photographed here by Richard Koek), is taking part in the Tribeca All Access program and is interviewed by the Film Panel Notetaker. He discusses And She Stares Longingly at What She Has Lost, the short film he made as part of the Little Minx project. He talks about his TAA project Darkland, Carl Jung, Richard Nixon, and his short, High Maintenance. An excerpt: I made High Maintenance to touch upon behaviors that I see in excess today among friends and in society; things like rampant […]
by Scott Macaulay on Apr 22, 2008Over at his blog, Jonathan Taplin calls “Charlie Rose by Samuel Beckett” the “most creative video mash-up of the year.”
by Scott Macaulay on Apr 22, 2008