Authors — Scott Macaulay

LOOMPANICS, RIP

In a time in which plans for building a nuclear bomb or engineering a bio-terrorism attack are scarily available on the internet, let’s take a moment to note the closing of Loompanics, the Washington state publisher run by Mike Hoy whose titles were once deemed downright dangerous. Now, however, as the company announces a going out of business sale, Loompanics’s books seem, paradoxically, like quaint mementos of a more innocent time. I say “paradoxically” because there’s no doubt that the publisher, which experienced its share of First Amendment battles, suffered after passage of the Patriot Act when people reading books […]
by Scott Macaulay on Apr 22, 2006
NET NEUTRALITY 101

Alex Curtis at Public Knowledge created a short two-minute clip explaining just some of what’s at stake in the upcoming battle for “net neutrality.” And here’s from Save the Internet, a new website launched by a coalition supporting net neutrality. From the site: Congress is pushing a law that would abandon Network Neutrality, the Internet’s First Amendment. Network neutrality prevents companies like AT&T, Verizon and Comcast from deciding which Web sites work best for you — based on what site pays them the most. Your local library shouldn’t have to outbid Barnes & Noble for the right to have its […]
by Scott Macaulay on Apr 22, 2006
DON’T FEED THE TROLLS

Over at Caveh Zahedi’s blog, the director of I Am a Sex Addict ponders the downside of posting one’s daily thoughts as a way of promoting a film: One of the interesting things about having a blog is that anyone can attack you anytime and can do so anonymously. At least with film critics, their names are on their reviews. But with a blog, anyone can post a hostile comment, without any kind of accountability. In short, a blog, like a personal film, can serve as a lightning-rod for free-floating cyberspace aggression. I’m not sure what to do with these […]
by Scott Macaulay on Apr 21, 2006
I POD

The distribution panel I moderated last week is now a podcast. (If I had known this was to be archived on all of your hard drives, I probably would have been more concise in my questions…) Click on the link above to hear Caveh Zahedi, Jay Duplass, Susan Leber and me discuss the treacherous shoals of DIY distribution and offer some hard-earned advice to all of you aspiring directors and producers out there. For a print preview, here’s what Indiewire’s Eugene Hernandez had to say about it.
by Scott Macaulay on Apr 20, 2006
CANNES LINEUP

The Cannes lineup is in a bunch of places: here’s the link to Indiewire’s piece. Quick take: Inarritu’s Babel, Linklater’s Fast Food Nation, new films by Bruno Dumont, Pedro Almodovar, Ken Loach and Aki Kaurismaki, Sofia Coppola’s Marie Antoinette, Richard Kelly’s Southland Tales (which we have a tiny preview of in the new issue — more when it comes out), and Nuri Bilge Ceylan’s follow-up to Distant all in Competition. Andrea Arnold’s Red Road the sole first feature in Competition. (I’m wondering what happened to Darren Aronofsky’s The Fountain — Variety reported that it would be the festival “somewhere” just […]
by Scott Macaulay on Apr 20, 2006
SHOW STOPPERS

Nick Knight’s U.K. fashion and media website SHOWstudio regularly streams some of the most interesting collaborations between media artists and the fashion world. As Knight writes, ““SHOWstudio is based on the belief that showing the entire creative process — from conception to completion — is beneficial for the artist, the audience and the art itself.” Now, SHOWstudio is broadening its community by creating interactive projects with both outside artists and viewers. From the website: Initial investigations into live, interactive fashion—contained within a 180-strong archive of projects on the site—are now being extended into opportunities for SHOWstudio’s international viewer-base to be […]
by Scott Macaulay on Apr 20, 2006
GUATEMALAN HIGH-FIVE

Over at Green Cine Jonathan Marlow posts a long interview with Todd Rohal, director of The Guatemalan Handshake. The film is one of my favorite indies so far this year. (I’ve actually been following the film for a while as I selected it to be part of the IFP’s Rough Cut program last year.) The film opens this week at the Independent Film Festival of Boston, and for more on the film, go to its website and, while you’re there, click on the iTunes link and subscribe to its podcasts. In the interview, Marlow asks Rohal about casting two musicians […]
by Scott Macaulay on Apr 19, 2006
FOUR-EYED MONSTERS CONQUER THE EARTH (AND THE APPLE STORE)

Our favorite podcasters, Arin Crumley and Susan Buice of the film Four-Eyed Monsters, are appearing next week at the Apple Store in Soho, New York. The event is part of the Indiewire series there and will be moderated by Eugene Hernandez. Expect to hear about the duo’s evolving plan to self-release their film, a plan which takes the grassroots, DIY approach they’ve developed to market their film to even new levels. Crumley and Buice are splitting their excellent podcast series into two strands. The first continues the soap opera that was the completion of their film and its premiere at […]
by Scott Macaulay on Apr 19, 2006
HAMPTONS SCREENWRITERS LAB ANNOUNCES PROJECTS

The Hamptons International Film Festival has announced the projects chosen for its Sixth Annual Screenwriters Lab, to be held this coming weekend in East Hampton. The chosen writers will develop their scripts with mentors Warren Leight, Whit Stillman, Charles Randolph and Alison Maclean. From the press release: During the lab in the Hamptons, our emerging screenwriters will have the opportunity to meet one-on-one each day with established screenwriting mentors who will advise them on how to develop their scripts. Within this intimate environment, our screenwriters are encouraged to take risks and discover new possibilities for their projects. Participantsalso attend group […]
by Scott Macaulay on Apr 19, 2006
INDIEWIRE, THE NEW YORK TIMES AND EMERGING PICTURES TEAM UP

From a just received press release: The New York Times and Emerging Pictures, the New York-based digital cinema network, will for the first time present “indieWIRE: Undiscovered Gems” as an eight-month-long film series. Based on indieWIRE’s annual list of the top 15 films from major festivals around the world that have yet to find a theatrical distributor, the series is being presented in association with the California Film Institute. The series kicks off in late April with Jem Cohen’s acclaimed feature Chain. With support from Sundance Channel, an audience prize competition will provide the winning filmmaker a cash award of […]
by Scott Macaulay on Apr 19, 2006

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