Authors — Scott Macaulay
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Sundance Institute Announces Its 2019 Screenwriter Intensive Fellows
The Sundance Institute announced the eleven screenwriters who will take part in their seventh annual Screenwriters Intensive. Taking place in Los Angeles tomorrow and Friday, the Intensive is “a two-day workshop for writers or writer/directors from underrepresented communities developing their first fiction feature. Fellows at the Intensive will advance the art and craft of their work under the guidance of experienced filmmakers and in collaboration with Institute’s Feature Film Program.” Advisors are Andrew Ahn, Kyle Patrick Alvarez, Patricia Cardoso, Deena Goldstone, Tanya Hamilton, Elgin James, So Yong Kim, Sarah Koskoff, Tracy Oliver, Joan Tewkesbury, and Andy Wolk. The program is […]
by Scott Macaulay on Feb 27, 2019 -
Clemency, One Child Nation Top a Packed 2019 Sundance Film Festival Awards
Clemency, Chinonye Chukwo’s somber and bracing examination of the corrosive effects of capital punishment — on a woman, a marriage, and a society — won the U.S. Dramatic Competition Grand Jury Prize tonight at the Sundance Film Festival’s Closing Night Ceremony in Park City Utah. One Child Nation, Nanfu Wang and Jialing Zhangze’s disturbing 36-year chronicle of the effects of China’s “one-child policy,” took the top prize in the U.S. Documentary Competition. And then there was great diversity among the remainder of the awards, with many of the most well-received films at the festival scooping up recognition. These included Joe […]
by Scott Macaulay on Feb 2, 2019 -
Wrapping Their 25th Year, Slamdance Co-Founders Discuss the Festival’s Past, Present and Future
“In a way, I see the festival as run like a punk rock label — a successful one!” says filmmaker and Slamdance “co-conspirator” Paul Rachman. With its award ceremony and final screenings, the Slamdance Film Festival concluded its 25th year last night (read the full list of winners here) — an astonishing fact of longevity that none of its founders could have predicted when they launched the outsider event in Park City back in 1995. “We were a wild bunch of filmmakers who got together to do something different,” says co-founder Peter Baxter. “And we’re realizing now how naive we […]
by Scott Macaulay on Feb 1, 2019 -
Dollhouse: The Eradication of Female Subjectivity in American Popular Culture and Kifaru Win Top Prizes at Slamdance 2019
Dollhouse: The Eradication of Female Subjectivity in American Popular Culture, Nicole Brending’s puppet animation about the rise and fall of a female pop star, took home the Narrative Feature Grand Jury Prize and the George Sparks Spirit of Slamdance Award at the Slamdance Film Festival’s award ceremony at Treasure Mountain Inn in Park City Utah tonight. Kifaru, David Hambridge’s documentary about two young Kenyan men who join a rhino caretaking conservatory, won the Documentary Feature Grand Jury Prize as well as a documentary Audience Award. “Dollhouse wasn’t like any other film at the festival or any festival,” said the jury […]
by Scott Macaulay on Feb 1, 2019 -
Watch: A Clip from Mark Jackson’s Slamdance Closing Night Film, This Teacher
25 New Face filmmaker and Spirit Award-winning director Mark Jackson’s latest film, This Teacher, is tonight’s closing night film at this 25th anniversary of the Slamdance Film Festival. Previously, the film won the Grand Jury Prize at last year’s final edition of the Los Angeles Film Festival. From the Slamdance guide: This Teacher follows a French Muslim woman (Cesar-winner Hafsia Herzi) as she travels to New York City to visit her childhood best friend from the rough neighborhoods outside of Paris. When the reunion proves disastrous, Hafsia steals her friend’s credit card and identity, and disappears to a remote cabin […]
by Scott Macaulay on Jan 31, 2019 -
“I Make Stories to Chase that Freedom”: Five Questions for Selah and the Spades Director Tayarisha Poe
When we put together our 25 New Faces list for 2015, Tayarisha Poe was one of our most exciting discoveries. Selah and the Spades: an overture was the product of restless days at what Poe describes as a dead-end job at a digital tech firm. The anger she felt at the stultifying work transmuted into the story of a teenage girl — and classic anti-heroine — running a crew at her private school. Four years later, Selah has leapt from the web page to the screen in Poe’s feature debut, premiering today in the NEXT section of Sundance. As Poe […]
by Scott Macaulay on Jan 27, 2019 -
“We Viewed Simply Telling a Young Black Love Story as a Radical Act”: Five Questions for Premature Director Rashaad Ernesto Green
“Possessor of a sneaky sort of charm that hides his utter tenaciousness, Rashaad Ernesto Green, a promising directorial talent from the Bronx, makes movies that get under your skin with what, upon reflection, seems like relative ease.” That’s Brandon Harris from Filmmaker‘s 25 New Faces of 2010 writing about writer/director Green in the months before the premiere of his debut feature, Gun Hill Road. That Sundance 2011 pic — a tough and empathetic drama about an ex-con grappling with his son’s transition — more than attested to all the promise we spotted in Green’s early shorts, one of which, 2008’s […]
by Scott Macaulay on Jan 26, 2019 -
The Sundance Question: What Hidden Part of Your Film Are You Most Privately Proud of, and Why?
Each year Filmmaker asks all the incoming feature directors at Sundance one question. (To see past years’ questions and responses, click here.) This year’s question: Whenever directors watch their own films, they always do so with the knowledge that there are moments that occurred during their production — whether that’s in the financing and development or shooting or post — that required incredible ingenuity, skill, planning or just plain luck, but whose difficulty is invisible to most spectators. These are the moments directors are often the most proud of, and that pride comes with the knowledge that no one on […]
by Scott Macaulay on Jan 25, 2019 -
20 Films and VR Works to Anticipate at the 2019 Sundance Film Festival
When I look back at last year’s version of this annual “Sundance films I’m looking forward to” list, I’m seeing that my selections were pretty dead on. Almost all of my favorite films of the year — Panos Cosmatos’s Mandy; Tamara Jenkins’s Private Life; Debra Granik’s Leave No Trace; Sam Green’s A Thousand Hours; Josephine Decker’s Madeline’s Madeline — I saw in Park City. Will I come anywhere near that high-water mark this year? I have no idea, but of course I’m hoping. Here are 20 films and VR pieces (the number limited by laptop battery life on my American […]
by Scott Macaulay on Jan 24, 2019 -
Documentary Producers Alliance Fights “Credit Creep” with Proposed Industry Guidelines for Producer Credits
In the world of documentary film, where projects gestate and then are produced over the course of years, and with funding often raised in stages from a variety of different sources, the determination of producer credits can turn into something like the Wild West. There are usually one or more producers who are actually producing the film, and they are supported by a bevy of archival producers, field producers, etc. But what about all the executive producers, co-producers, presenters, etc. — how did they become involved in a film, and what do their credits mean? The question is more than […]
by Scott Macaulay on Jan 16, 2019
