Authors — Scott Macaulay
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Trailer Watch: Tilda Swinton’s The Seasons in Quincy: Four Portraits of John Berger
Is there any contemporary filmmaker — or any artist invested in the creation of images — who hasn’t been influenced, at least on some level, by the British writer John Berger? His Ways of Seeing, a semiotics-tinged analysis of imagery ranging from European oil painting to 20th century advertising, is a seductive and accessible introduction to critical theory, feminist film criticism and Marxist cultural commentary. Premiering at the Berlin Film Festival is the anthology film, The Seasons in Quincy: Four Portraits of John Berger. Conceived of by Swinton and producer and literary critic Colin McCabe, the film captures the 89-year-old […]
by Scott Macaulay on Feb 15, 2016 -
Behind-the-Scenes Blue Velvet Footage in Blue Velvet Revisited
Last August we posted the trailer for the reissue of Peter Bratz’s Blue Velvet Revisited, a feature-length, Super 8 documentary on the making of David Lynch’s classic with a new score by Tuxedomoon and Cult with No Name. The footage in that trailer consisted on square, black-and-white video. Now, not one but two new teasers have been posted online with restored, color-corrected footage that reveals the full range of the film, including strange, behind-the-scenes moments, interview footage with Lynch, and the director in a nicely starched shirt buttoned up to the collar. For more on Blue Velvet Revisited, check out […]
by Scott Macaulay on Feb 14, 2016 -
Watch: Sam Scoggins’ J.G. Ballard Short, The Unlimited Dream Company
Having just posted the trailer for Ben Wheatley’s upcoming adaptation of J.G. Ballard’s classic dystopian novel, High-Rise, now’s a good time to check out this considerably more obscure — yet, for fans of the British writer, equally rewarding — film. With a hat tip to Dangerous Minds, check out Sam Scoggins’ rather Ballardian author’s portrait, which mixes interview footage with both imagery and storytelling strategies drawn from Ballard’s work.
by Scott Macaulay on Feb 11, 2016 -
Music Video: Beyonce, “Formation”
“I might be a black Bill Gates in the making….” There’s a lot going on in Formation, the new single and music video surprised-released by Beyonce this afternoon. Hurricane Katrina, Black Lives Matter, the antebellum-era American South. Oh, yeah, and Red Lobster in one perversely profane lyric. Plus, the last shot is a fantastic riff on what is a pretty familiar indie-film trope — the actress submerging her face in a bathtub. I’ve been searching around and can’t find a director credit but will add if I come across it. You can download the song for free here.
by Scott Macaulay on Feb 6, 2016 -
“Flop”: The Conclusion of Short Film Winner Jim Cummings’ Sundance Video Diary
“You won a trophy in a bowling alley — get it together!” Thunder Road short film award-winning director Jim Cummings deals with sudden success in this final installment of his video diary series from the Sundance Film Festival. There are parties and drugs, bad behavior in the snow, nods to Kanye and Birdman, and much more. Check it out above.
by Scott Macaulay on Feb 5, 2016 -
The Birth of a Nation, Weiner Top 2016 Sundance Film Festival Awards
The Birth of a Nation, Nate Parker’s transporting historical drama about Nat Turner’s 1831 slave rebellion, won the U.S. Grand Jury Prize as well as the Audience Award last night at the 2016 Sundance Film Festival closing awards ceremony. Josh Kriegman and Elye Sternberg’s Weiner, a documentary about beleaguered NYC mayoral candidate Anthony Weiner, scored the U.S. Grand Jury Prize for Best Documentary. With its record-breaking, $17.5 million sale to Fox Searchlight, The Birth of a Nation had dominated conversation at the festival earlier in the week. Said Turner at the film’s Q&A, “I made this film for one reason […]
by Scott Macaulay on Jan 31, 2016 -
5 Questions for Dark Night Director Tim Sutton
After essaying lost teenagers in his poetic debut picture, Pavilion, and a creatively-blocked soul singer in his compelling follow-up, Memphis, New York-based independent filmmaker Tim Sutton ventures into considerably darker terrain with Dark Night, which premiered yesterday at Sundance in its NEXT section. Loosely based on the Aurora theater shootings of 2012, in which a gunman killed 12 and wounded 70 moviegoers attending a screening of Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight Rises, Dark Night depicts the moments around such an event, using suspense and foreshadowing to meditate on American violence and spectatorship. Below, Sutton answers five questions about his intention […]
by Scott Macaulay on Jan 25, 2016 -
Street Magic, Bad Robot and Crime: J.D. Dillard Talks His Sundance Debut, Sleight
Premiering in Sundance’s NEXT section is, Sleight, the debut feature of Los Angeles-based screenwriter and music video director J.D. Dillard. A street-wise crime caper about a bustling magician who moves from sleight-of-hand card magic to drug dealing on the boulevards of L.A., Sleight combines a raft of interests, including hip hop and sci-fi, from its young director and his writing partner Alex Theurer. The two have been kicking around the Los Angeles script development scene for several year, with Dillard working at production outfits like Bad Robot while keeping up with his passion for sleight-of-hand, which began as a teenager […]
by Scott Macaulay on Jan 24, 2016 -
Jim Cummings’s Thunder Road Goes to Sundance
After appearing on our 25 New Faces list in 2012, director, writer, producer and actor Jim Cummings has popped into the page of Filmmaker from time to time, offering advise on making and marketing short films and what filmmakers can learn from South Park. Cummings, who is a producer of two of the past year’s best independents (Krisha and The Grief of Others), has an intriguingly hard-to-pin down filmmaking personality. So, when he suggested that Filmmaker partner with him on a series of videos documenting the journey of his new short, Thunder Road, to Sundance, we quickly agreed. Of course, […]
by Scott Macaulay on Jan 23, 2016 -
12 Films to Anticipate at the 2016 Sundance Film Festival
As always, Sundance is chock full of anticipated films, many by friends, colleagues and filmmakers we track here at the magazine. Below are 12 films I’m really hoping to see while I’m in Park City. Swiss Army Man. Consider The Daniels’s (Daniel Kwan and Daniel Schweine) arresting and surreal string of music videos and short films their very long tease for a debut feature that promises to be one of the Dramatic Competition’s most anarchic entries. The film stars Daniel Radcliffe and Paul Dano and, explaining the title, Schweine told Filmmaker last summer, when The Daniels made our 25 New […]
by Scott Macaulay on Jan 22, 2016
