Authors — Scott Macaulay
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Trailer Watch: Shrihari Sathe’s 1000 Rupee Note
Producer Shrihari Sathe makes his directorial debut with 1000 Rupee Note, premiering this weekend in New York at the Village East. Sathe, whose credits include Dukhtar, Buffalo Juggalos, It Felt Like Love (and, full disclosure, A Woman a Part, in partnership with me), developed this story based on a short by Shrikant Bojewar, the resident editor of Maharashtra Times, one of India’s major newspapers. Here’s a description: Budhi, a widow, lives in a small village in Maharashtra, India — and her only son has committed suicide. Though poor and left alone in the world, she leads a cheerful life and […]
by Scott Macaulay on Sep 22, 2016 -
Twelve Programs and Events To Anticipate at IFP Film Week and Screen Forward Conference
In writing last year about IFP’s Film Week and Screen Forward Conference, I dubbed it the long-running event’s “most refined articulation yet,” a streamlined affair that, with “deceptive modesty,” did all the things IFP Film Week has historically done to support filmmakers and their projects with programming specific to today’s multi-platform world. Realizing that I sound like Apple designer Jony Ive in the sentence above, I guess I should then liken last year’s edition of IFP Film Week to the “most singular, most evolved” (per Ive) new iPhone 7, an event where the chassis remained the same but new tech […]
by Scott Macaulay on Sep 16, 2016 -
No Sleep Till Brooklyn: the IFP Talks Its New DUMBO-Based IFP Film Week
In 1979, in a rented Manhattan screening room, there was the IFFM — the Independent Feature Film Market, five days of film screenings that connected new emerging American feature film markets with a burgeoning array of distributors and overseas buyers. A year later, the IFP — first the Independent Feature Project and now the Independent Filmmaker Project — was officially born, and for much of its early existence it was defined by the IFFM. The Market moved to the Angelika Theater, screenings went from 1979’s 20 to the dozens, and the chaos of rabid filmmakers targeting anyone with an industry […]
by Scott Macaulay on Sep 16, 2016 -
Makeup Artist Makes Herself into Actor Steve Buscemi
We’ve shown you how lighting can change a face, and now we’ll show you how a makeup artist can turn a woman into… Steve Buscemi? Over at the Huffington Post, makeup artist Katelyn Galloway impressively transforms herself into the well known independent actor in just under four sped-up minutes. Watch the transformation below and then learn more about makeup artists in our article, “Secrets of Glam Squad: Inside the World of Film Hair and Makeup Artists.”
by Scott Macaulay on Sep 14, 2016 -
TIFF 2016: Five Questions for Prevenge Director/Actor Alice Lowe
Joining Ms. 45‘s blind, black-frocked avenger and Kill Bill‘s sword-wielding, catsuited femme fatale in the pantheon of female killer films is the seven-and-a-half months pregnant Ruth in Alice Lowe’s microbudget pitch-black thriller comedy, Prevenge, receiving its North American premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival. Ruth is just six weeks from delivering her first child, but she’s still grieving the death of her husband several months earlier. And she’s receiving messages from her fetus, who seems to be speaking to her… and urging her to kill. Giving Prevenge an extratextual yet inside-the-frame kick is the fact that its first-time feature […]
by Scott Macaulay on Sep 14, 2016 -
TIFF 2016: Five Questions for The Headhunter’s Calling Director Mark Williams
Making his feature directing debut at the Toronto International Film Festival with The Headhunter’s Calling is producer Mark Williams. Gerard Butler plays Dane Jensen, a hard-nosed corporate headhunter whose ambition to take over his job placement company is put in conflict by a sudden family tragedy. The world of corporate headhunters is a world well known by screenwriter Bill Dubuque (The Judge), and life balance difficulties posed by a demanding profession — headhunting but, one could also say, the entertainment business — are understood by Williams too. That’s because he’s a founder and partner of Zero Gravity Management, an L.A.-based […]
by Scott Macaulay on Sep 12, 2016 -
TIFF 2016: Five Questions for Strange Weather Writer/Director Katherine Dieckmann
Receiving its world premiere as a Gala Presentation at the 2016 Toronto International Film Festival, Katherine Dieckmann’s fourth feature, Strange Weather, a Southern road trip movie in which the landscape is both physical and psychological. Holly Hunter stars as a fifty-something academic administrator whose job is suddenly in peril due to university budget cuts. Her son committed suicide seven years ago, and when she learns that his best friend is now profiting from a restaurant concept he stole from him, she decides to hit the road and possibly settle an old score. Before the festival we asked Dieckmann to tell […]
by Scott Macaulay on Sep 12, 2016 -
TIFF 2016: Five Questions for In the Radiant City Director Rachel Lambert
With In the Radiant City, I wrote in my Toronto preview, Louisville, KY native Rachel Lambert has brought to Toronto a debut film that seems like it might be the kind of laconic, unexpectedly emotional regional drama associated with filmmakers like Victor Nunez. Executive produced by Jeff Nichols, In the Radiant City follows a man, Yurley (Michael Abbott, Jr.), estranged from his family, who returns home to finally deal with the aftermath of a violent act in his family’s past. Supporting players include the always excellent Marin Ireland and Paul Sparks. Below, Lambert discusses how she connected with Nichols, why […]
by Scott Macaulay on Sep 11, 2016 -
TIFF 2016: Five Questions for In Dubious Battle Director and Actor James Franco
Continuing his strike as one of the most tireless and unpredictable multi-hyphenates working in film today, James Franco brings to Toronto the North American premiere of his latest feature, an adaptation of John Steinbeck’s first novel, In Dubious Battle. A tale of labor strife amongst fruit pickers and orchard owners in 1930s California, the work mixes politics with human drama as it captures the rivalries and conflicts that arise in times of activism. In addition to directing, Franco stars alongside Vincent D’Onofrio, Robert Duvall and Selena Gomez. The screenplay is by Matt Rager, who scripted Franco’s other recent Great Novel […]
by Scott Macaulay on Sep 11, 2016 -
TIFF 2016: Five Questions for Katie Says Goodbye Writer/Director Wayne Roberts
Katie Says Goodbye reps the feature directing debut of Alaska-born NYU writer/director Wayne Roberts. An alumni film of the IFP Narrative Lab, Katie Says Goodbye is described as “a cautionary tale for dreamers,” a dark drama about a young waitress striving to leave New Mexico for a new and better life in San Francisco. There’s a brutal scene at the film’s core, which we circle around in non-spoiler fashion in the below interview, in which we also discuss Roberts’ casting of Me and Earl and the Dying Girl‘s Olivia Cooke in his lead role as well as his advice to […]
by Scott Macaulay on Sep 10, 2016
