Authors — Scott Macaulay
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Back to One, Episode 65: Emmy Harrington
I first was introduced to the incredible talents of Emmy Harrington on the set of Caveh Zahedi’s The Show About The Show, where she plays “Slut Machine,” and witnessed, first hand, her ability to adapt to all types of run-and-gun shooting environments and unorthodox directing styles and deliver a great performance take after take. You can also see her work in shows like High Maintenance and Jessica Jones, and an award-winning film she wrote, directed, and stars in — Two Little Bitches — is currently making the festival circuit. I sat down with her a couple of days after directing […]
by Scott Macaulay on Jul 10, 2019 -
Vice Squad: Director Abel Ferrara and Screenwriter Zoë Lund on Bad Lieutenant
Bad Lieutenant was the cover story for the Winter, 1993 edition of Filmmaker — this magazine’s second issue. This feature by Scott Macaulay, with quotes from director Abel Ferrara and screenwriter Zoë Lund, appears online for the first time. ***“No one can kill me. I’m blessed. I’m a fucking Catholic.” — Harvey Keitel in Bad Lieutenant. “The title is so ironic, Bad Lieutenant. Because of course it doesn’t mean he’s bad. You have the semantic irony of the “baaad” lieutenant and the central irony of ‘Is he bad or is he not bad and perhaps one needs to be bad […]
by Scott Macaulay on Jul 7, 2019 -
Bloody Thoughts: Abel Ferrara on The Addiction
Appearing online for the first time, here is Scott Macaulay’s report on Abel Ferrara’s The Addiction, from our Winter, 1995 edition. It appears here in newly revised form. ***“Addiction will be our question: a certain type of ‘Being-on-drugs’ that has everything to do with the bad conscious of our era.” — Avital Ronell, Crack Wars “Look at this,” Abel Ferrara says, tracing his finger across the video monitor in his Manhattan office/editing room. On the screen: black-and-white images of blood-streaked, bullet-ridden Bosnian casualties. “This is the real thing.” These images, and others of Nazi concentration camp victims from Ferrara’s new […]
by Scott Macaulay on Jul 7, 2019 -
I’m In You: Director Spike Jonze and Screenwriter Charlie Kaufman Talk Being John Malkovich.
In Spike Jonze’s future, you will be famous for 15 minutes. The catch? You will only be famous as John Malkovich. Confused? Don’t be. Being John Malkovich, Jonze’s devious debut feature, creates from our schizophrenic celebrity culture an original comedy that is as affecting as it is absurd. Scott Macaulay ponders the meaning of it all with Jonze and screenwriter Charlie Kaufman in an interview that originally appeared in our Fall, 1999 print edition. There are auspicious debut films, and then there is Being John Malkovitch. Long a subject of film-geek gossip during its production due to its bizarre premise—a […]
by Scott Macaulay on Jul 7, 2019 -
Remembering Ben Barenholtz, 1935 – 2019
Exhibitor, distributor, producer and director — one of the seminal figures of the modern American independent film movement, Ben Barenholtz, died last Wednesday in Prague. He was 83. In the late ’60s, Barenholtz programmed New York rep house the Elgin Cinema, where his scheduled mixed experimental films with mainstream movies. It was also where he popularized the concept of the “midnight movie,” playing Alejandro Jodoworsky’s El Topo for months on end. Another midnight movie — Eraserhead — was an early marquee title of Barenholtz’s first distribution company, Libra Films, and later, at Circle Films, he bought and distributed the classic […]
by Scott Macaulay on Jul 3, 2019 -
Seven Films Winning Spring 2019 SFFILM Rainin Grants Announced
SFFILM in partnership with the Kenneth Ranin Foundation announced today the seven feature films receiving a total of $200,000 in funding as part of the SFFILM Ranin Spring, 2019 grant cycle. These grants are one of the few supporting narrative features, especially in the early stages. One of the films here receives development funding, four receive funds for screenwriting and twofor post-production. From the press release: SFFILM Rainin Grants are awarded twice annually to filmmakers whose narrative feature films will have significant economic or professional impact on the Bay Area filmmaking community and/or meaningfully explore pressing social issues. Applications are […]
by Scott Macaulay on Jun 27, 2019 -
Five Questions for Quickie Fest Creators Anna Roisman and Michael Muntner
Arriving at New York’s SVA Theater this Saturday, June 29, is the seventh edition of Quickie Fest, a twice-yearly festival that showcases short films that time out at 60 seconds or less. There’s a strong comedy element to the selections, although the hosts and curators, Anna Roisman and Michael Muntner, say the films include docs, dramas and music videos as well. Roisman is a comedian, actress, singer and writer, and host of HQ Words. Muntner is a teacher, writer, improviser, comedian, filmmaker and actor, and he is one half of the comedic duo Garbage Farts. Below, the two answer questions […]
by Scott Macaulay on Jun 25, 2019 -
Beast Beast, Lingua Franca Take Prizes at U.S. in Progress Paris
Beast Beast, the first feature from Danny Madden, took the top prize at U.S. in Progress Paris on Friday. In a statement, the jury (of which I was a member), wrote of the multi-strand story, “The film is a successful attempt to capture the present teenage generation. The director approaches his protagonists with empathy and understanding. The film has a strong political (gun control in particular) and social aspect while remaining an entertaining and creative piece of work.” Beast Beast is produced by Vanishing Angle (Matt Miller, Tara Ansley, and Benjamin Wiessner), and Alec Baldwin is an executive producer. A […]
by Scott Macaulay on Jun 23, 2019 -
The Kindest Denial
“Life is not just about what you do but how you do it,” says Nai Nai (Shuzhen Zhou) to Billi (Awkwafina), her New York–based struggling writer granddaughter, toward the end of writer/director Lulu Wang’s triumphant sophomore feature, The Farewell. It’s the type of aphoristic advice passed on by an elder that, on its face, may not seem like much. But given where it’s placed in Wang’s film, after all that has come before and what Billi is certain will come after, it lands with disarming, laconic gravity. And as much as it subtly refers to the film’s central storyline—Billi travels […]
by Scott Macaulay on Jun 19, 2019 -
Editor’s Letter
“Hollywood Flirts with Short Films on the Web” was a New York Times headline from June 2000. Sites like iFilm, Pop and, most prominently, AtomFilms were seeking broadband gold by streaming shorts online. AtomFilms even had a coup—it had just “premiered” George Lucas’s USC film school short, Electronic Labyrinth: THX-1138 4EB. In the article, Atom CEO Mika Salmi talked about the new and growing audience ready to devour shorts “on airplanes, in shopping malls and even in elevators,” while the author also wrote about shorts budgets heading into the millions of dollars. Just three months later the dotcom crash would […]
by Scott Macaulay on Jun 19, 2019
