Festivals & Events
Festivals & Events
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Makeovers: The New York Film Festival, Part II
Every film not only tells a story but is a story. Lumping several movies together to find commonality is a perilous pursuit. For example, we have to determine if shared traits operate at the level of content, plot or characters. Or might they be more in the vein of form — style, perhaps, or generic membership? Last week, zeroing in on what I consider the six finest features screening in the first third of the New York Film Festival led me to a marked thematic thread, which we can file under “loneliness and the attempt to escape it.” From the […]
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Vimeo Introduces ‘Staff Pick’ Premieres as Year-Round Online Film Festival
Vimeo has announced it is extending its flagship Staff Pick channel into a year-long online film festival and has added new laurels honoring films selected as Best of the Month and Year, plus weekly premieres. “The Vimeo Staff Pick channel represents the most progressive and imaginative filmmaking direct from our community of world class filmmakers,” said Peter Gerard, General Manager, Vimeo. “The iconic Staff Pick laurel has helped launched the careers of many filmmakers coming up through the Vimeo platform and we’re excited to continue to honor and elevate our Staff Picked filmmakers with two new levels of prestige, while also […]
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“Story Drives the Form”: Laura Poitras and Charlotte Cook on Creative Tag-Teaming
Before IFP Film Week fades too far in our rearview mirror, we’re elaborating upon several of our snaps from our Instagram feed with further comments by the filmmakers, speakers and panelists. View all of Meredith Alloway’s Instagram diaries here at the link. Laura Poitras and Charlotte Cook talked their visual journalism platform, Field of Vision, on an IFP Film Week panel called “Creative Tag-Teams” last month. Poitras, of couse, shook the world with her Oscar-winning doc, Citizenfour, in 2014. Cook, who was Director of Programming at Hot Docs, is an executive producer and co-founder of this new creative platform with […]
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The Wanted and the Ones Who Want: Financiers and Distributors Offer Advice at IFP Film Week
Before IFP Film Week fades too far in our rearview mirror, we’re elaborating upon several of our snaps from our Instagram feed with further comments by the filmmakers, speakers and panelists. View all of Meredith Alloway’s Instagram diaries here at the link. The financiers are the wanted. The people looking for financing are the ones who want. That’s always been the dynamic, the power play. And no matter how genius you are, how many people support you creatively, how many outstanding New York Times reviews you get, you still someone to believe in your next film and give you money […]
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Content vs. Art: Online Comedy Creators Talk at IFP Film Week
Before IFP Film Week fades too far in our rearview mirror, we’re elaborating upon several of our snaps from our Instagram feed with further comments by the filmmakers, speakers and panelists. View all of these Instagram diaries here at the link. “There’s a huge power today in building a following.” — Mark Lieberman, Above Average On Monday, September 19, at “The Faces of Comedy: Platforms that Look for (and Bring) the Funny,” IFP Film Week panel it was clear that having an audience is crucial. When you find out who that audience is, well that’s another thing. And for these […]
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“Life is Not a Ladder”: Amy Emmerich and Jacqueline Novak at IFP Film Week
“Life is not a ladder. It’s a lattice.” — Amy Emmerich outside panel in the street, via Instagram On Sunday, September 18, Refinery 29’s CCO Amy Emmerich and comedian/author Jacqueline Novak discussed their creative partnership at IFP Film Week. Refinery29’s new YouTube channel, Riot, is home to Novak’s series “How to Weep in Public,” which deals with mental health and sharing positive advice around topics like weight, anxiety and depression. Oh, and it’s super funny. In one of her articles, kicking off the series on Refinery29’s website, “How to Take Car of Your Body When You’re Depressed,” Novak advises on a workout […]
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The Power of “I Don’t Know”: Antonio Campos and Rebecca Hall at IFP Film Week
Before the recently-completed IFP Week fades too far from memory, we’ll wrap up our coverage with something new: an IFP Instagram Diary. We’ve already clocked how many times the words “branded,” “followers” and “content” were used at the event, and apparently social media is the future. Who knew? When Refinery29’s CCO Amy Emmerich urged during a panel, “Paramount Pictures should not be above Snapchat,” well, we figured we should hop on the social media bandwagon too. No, we don’t have a Snapchat yet – we will? The tag line for the conference, “Everybody Gets Creative,” acknowledges the way we’re all […]
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I Made a Film. I’m Exhausted. Now What?
For me, IFP Film Week fell at a serendipitous time. It was the week leading up to the final Sundance short film submission deadline — the looming September 23rd — that also happened to be my birthday. I told myself that if I could finish this damn movie I’d have the best birthday I’ve ever had in my life. I was one audio mix and one color session away from sending this butt naked baby off into the frigid forest that is the larger industry. How cute, how hopeful my film is! Yes, it is time to actually do something with […]
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Christopher Doyle, Live and Uncut, at the Big Screen Symposium
Screen luminaries from around the world are invited once a year to New Zealand for its annual industry gathering, the Big Screen Symposium. Last year, guest speaker Sebastiàn Silva (Nasty Baby, The Maid) shared his horror stories of working with Christopher Doyle, who (Silva claimed) exposed himself to everyone on the set of Magic Magic, refused to shoot close ups (“That’s HBO bullshit”) and generally caused chaos. When Doyle himself was announced as a guest speaker for this year’s event, it was clear the Symposium intended to take the announced theme of “Playing With Risk” quite literally. And so from […]
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Eating a Monica Bellucci By the Sea: The 64th San Sebastián Film Festival
San Sebastián may have a population of less than 190,000 but when it comes to culture and gastronomy the Basque seaside resort punches well above its weight. It combines the two during its annual film festival, even going so far as to team up with local bars to offer movie-themed pintxo snacks and a bottle of beer for less than $3, with names ranging from the elegant Monica Bellucci (roe and smoked herring perched on bread), to the less cerebral Porky’s (braised ham, pepper, onion and cheese) and the frightening Tarantino, which features a mushroom whose name translates as “trumpets […]
