Authors — Stewart Nusbaumer
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Five Film Reviewers Advise Filmmakers
Top L to R: Lauren Wissot, Michael Tully, Laura Blum; Bottom L to R: Mark Bell, Dusty Wright Part I. Five Film Reviewers on Screening Films Part II. Five Film Reviewers Advise Filmmakers In Baal – the BBC’s 1982 cinematic adaptation of Bertolt Brecht’s 1918/1923 dramatic play – Ekart is broke and unable to pay his bar bill. In a grimy tavern, he explains: “If I had money to pay, it would undermine my sense of self.” Paying a bar bill can be a bitch, but living as a drunken-pauper doesn’t sound better. Unlike Ekart in Baal*, I doubt today’s bohemians would be […]
by Stewart Nusbaumer on Jul 30, 2013 -
Errol Morris Lets Loose on The Act of Killing Controversy
Banging away on Twitter, does Errol Morris have a point? Or does he just need another scotch and water? Friday night, respected filmmaker Errol Morris fired off two quick tweets. Morris and Werner Herzog are the executive producers of The Act of Killing, which had its New York theatrical opening on Friday. In Friday night’s tweets Morris seemed annoyed and confused — actually, pissed and baffled. The two tweets were posted at 10:51 and 10:53 (EST): errolmorris @errolmorris Tired of hearing people complain that “The Act of Killing” does not provide enough background, historical context, etc. errolmorris @errolmorris Hey, read a book. Wait, aren’t […]
by Stewart Nusbaumer on Jul 22, 2013 -
Five Reviewers on Screening Films
Top L to R: Michael Tully, Marshall Fine, Lauren Wissot; Bottom L to R: Mark Bell, Dusty Wright With prices dropping and technology increasing and audiences expanding, the indie community is whacking out films at a hectic pace — but it’s even more prolific at whacking out words on films. Websites and magazines broadcast a stream of articles on the work of emerging filmmakers. For years, info-packed pieces on distribution and funding have been ubiquitous. Tacky scribblers suck up to celebrities, arty ones profile auteurs, bloggers are all over the turf — latest craze, lists of the best and the worst […]
by Stewart Nusbaumer on Jul 19, 2013 -
The Long Shoot: 10 Questions for Calling My Children Director David Binder
For 25 years, first as still photographer and then as filmmaker, David Binder doggedly chronicled the Farrow family. The mother/wife dies … husband grieves and copes … four young sons struggle and mature … and for 25 years David Binder captures the story. Binder’s initial photo essay on the Farrow family was published by In Health magazine in 1990, and updated a decade later in Life magazine. His Farrow photographs were displayed in several major exhibitions, including at Harvard AIDS Institute and in 40 cities for the United States Centers for Disease Control. A decade later he made a short documentary […]
by Stewart Nusbaumer on Jul 9, 2013 -
Brooklyn Goes BAM: Docs at BAMcinemafest
Manhattan has its big dog festivals, while across the East River in Brooklyn, home to the country’s greatest number of independent filmmakers, several fests are aspirating to the top ranks. Not in a A-List cookie cutter way, but uniquely, in their own way. The number of documentaries at the fifth annual BAMcinemaFest remained limited. Out of 25 features nine were docs, and out of 14 shorts nine were docs. Events were likewise limited, with some filmmakers organizing their own post-screening get-togethers in local bars. But what continues to lift the stature of this festival is not number of movies or number […]
by Stewart Nusbaumer on Jul 2, 2013 -
The Art of Brooklyn Film Festival Keeps It Local
“What Brooklyn needed was not a good film festival,” Jason Cusato (above) says in rapid-fire speech and heavy accent, “it has plenty of good festivals. What Brooklyn needed was a film festival that concentrated solely on Brooklyn filmmakers and on Brooklyn.” With 2.5 million residents and the largest borough in New York City – if an independent city, Brooklyn would be the fourth largest in the United States – with a diverse and energetic populace residing in distinctive and tight-knit neighborhoods, with the gritty and refined hopelessly interwoven, with a tornado substituting for a Zeitgeist, with shadowboxing demons and an occasional elephant a favorite pastime, Brooklyn is large, more than […]
by Stewart Nusbaumer on May 13, 2013 -
Ground Breaking for DCTV’s New Doc-Only Theater
“Today we’re celebrating the start of a new era,” DCTV’s co-founder and co-executive director Jon Alpert announced to a crowd of several hundred filmmakers, documentary enthusiasts and journalists. In the background stood DCTV’s home since 1979, a striking structure in French Chateau style with steeply pitched hip roof and prominent corner spiral, which contrasted sharply with the surrounding towers of American boxes. This juxtaposition contributed a bit of the surreal to the ceremony. But only a bit. This was not the 16th century, and certainly not the tranquil Loire Valley in France. The honking horns and growling trucks, darting taxis, the […]
by Stewart Nusbaumer on May 8, 2013 -
Slurping Docs at Tribeca
The 12th annual Tribeca Film Festival is finis, but not its films. They will live, often for years, particularly documentaries which historically are Tribeca’s strongest category — one of the few things New York festivalgoers agree upon. This year’s crop of wide-ranging docs had me ping-ponging fast and furious, doc slurping from gruesome war to ballroom dancing to stoned hillbillies to weird couple to profound icon to stunningly gorgeous. Maturity seems to be catching up to Tribeca, and in a good way. Certainly for the docs. The Kill Team After a decade of U.S. fighting in Afghanistan and after screening […]
by Stewart Nusbaumer on Apr 29, 2013 -
CHEMO INSTEAD OF GRASS
A rough road from the existential world to the sickie ward to the movie screen, dodging hungry demons and embracing cinematic gems, while maintaining a clear eye on the tall grass on the horizon. For several years, my life revolved around attending film festivals and screening movies and writing reviews. Then the bomb dropped. The C-bomb! Now I’m fighting cancer and enduring chemotherapy and struggling as a whacked-out Chemo Head. Unlike Speed Heads and Flop Heads and Crack Heads, whose chem-soaked brains are tightly wrapped around a single heat-seeking obsession and whose emotions are riveted to one Pavlov […]
by Stewart Nusbaumer on Aug 8, 2012 -
FOUR TRIBECA DOCS: FROM ZEN TO MADNESS TO SEXY
At 85, Tony Bennett looks and sounds great. In The Zen of Bennett, which premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival and will soon appear on Netflix, Bennett relies on a single word, repeated over and over throughout the documentary, to describe his life philosophy. That word is “quality.” For the clothes he wears, for the songs he sings, for the people who are his friends, for everything, quality is his guiding principle. Conversely, the elderly singer with the smoothest pipes in the business, disparages cheap songs, crude and outlandish behavior, and anger. “Everything you do should be done with love, […]
by Stewart Nusbaumer on Apr 30, 2012
