Festivals & Events

“PUTTY HILL” DIRECTOR MATT PORTERFIELD BLOGS FROM BERLIN

A couple of weeks ago I blogged about Matt Porterfield’s Kickstarter campaign for his film Putty Hill. He needed to raise $10,000, and with 30 hours left to go, he is still collecting funds over and above his goal; he’s currently at $18,926. Undoubtedly, the film’s high-profile premiere — in the Berlin Film Festival’s Forum section — helped. You can follow his adventure there over at the IFP blog, where Porterfield has been blogging. Here’s an excerpt where he talks about some of the people he has been meeting: I saw Claire Denis (pictured) speak to the Talent Campus today […]

By Scott Macaulay on Feb 16, 2010 Festivals & Events
VON TRIER/SCORSESE/DE NIRO MAY BE PONDERING “TAXI DRIVER” REMAKE

UPDATE 2/16: Screen reports that the remake rumors are just that. The biggest news so far to come out of the Berlin Film Festival is on a film that was made 36 years ago. Spreading all over the blogs, Lars von Trier and Martin Scorsese are supposedly mulling over the idea of remaking Taxi Driver with Robert De Niro to reprise the role of Travis Bickle. In Variety, Gunnar Rehlin reports: The idea behind the project is similar to the film The Five Obstructions that von Trier and Danish helmer Jorgen Leth made in 2003. In that film, von Trier […]

By Jason Guerrasio on Feb 15, 2010 Festivals & Events
Indie Film Ink Pirated, Filmmakers Pleased

When I attended the Future of Music Conference this year I heard a lot of talk about all of the opportunities that exist today for indie musicians to create and distribute their products via digital media on the web. Later, at the Flyway Film Festival I heard former Tribeca CEO Brian Newman speak on similar topics in relation to indie filmmakers. The central theme to all of it is that indie artists can be successful without a major label contract or major studio distribution. In the end though talk is cheap and what looks good on paper doesn’t always translate […]

By Jason Guerrasio on Nov 17, 2009 Distribution
In Conversation with Postif Editor Michel Ciment

In connection with the Film Society of Lincoln Center’s new series “Mavericks and Outsiders: Positif Celebrates American Cinema,” Jamie Stuart spoke recently with Positif‘s editor, the noted French film critic and author Michel Ciment. FILMMAKER: I probably know you best from your Kubrick book. What was that like, having the ability to interview him over the years? CIMENT: Well, it came very naturally. I don’t know why. I think he had a piece of mine translated from 1968 — a long essay I did on the work of Kubrick. It was probably the first essay in France to try to […]

By Jason Guerrasio on Jan 30, 2009 Festivals & Events
Rotterdam ’09: The Hungry Ghosts

Opening this year’s Rotterdam International Film Festival is Michael Imperioli’s directorial debut, The Hungry Ghosts, a gripping look at five New Yorkers all struggling to satisfy their physical and spiritual needs while facing down their own – and society’s – flaws. Best known for his Emmy-winning portrayal of Christopher on The Sopranos, Imperioli has over the course of his 20-year career worked with such top directors as Martin Scorsese and Spike Lee. He’s also built a sub-career as a screenwriter, having penned numerous episodes of The Sopranos and Lee’s Summer of Sam, which originally Imperioli was going to direct. For […]

By Jason Guerrasio on Jan 21, 2009 Festivals & Events
A Thousand Phoenix Rising

Following is the text for Ted Hope’s keynote address at the Film Independent Filmmaker Forum on September 27, 2008. Thanks to Ted for allowing us to reprint his speech. A THOUSAND PHOENIX RISING How The New Truly Free Filmmaking Community Will Rise From Indie’s Ashes I can’t talk about the “crisis” of the indie film industry. There is no crisis. The country is in crisis. The economy is in crisis. We, the filmmakers, aren’t in crisis. The business is changing, but for us –us who are called Indie Filmmakers — that’s good that the business is changing. Filmmaking is an […]

By Jason Guerrasio on Sep 27, 2008 Festivals & Events
Your Film Online

My name is Ryan Bilsborrow-Koo and this is my guest post for the just-concluded Independent Film Week here in New York. Along with Zachary Lieberman (co-creator of The West Side), I spoke on Monday’s panel “Your Film Online,” and I wanted to expand here on some thoughts I shared during that panel — mostly in response to the prevailing wisdom that “the sky is falling” on independent film. (This is also cross-posted on my own blog, No Film School). I’m a New Face of independent film, not an Industry Veteran, so maybe it’s naiveté that leads me to have a […]

By Jason Guerrasio on Sep 23, 2008 Distribution
Coverage of a Different Kind

The four-to-five week run of New York Film Festival screenings and press conferences each fall functions as something of an annual end-of-summer camp for a certain caste of mostly local film journalists. The series of videos shot, directed, edited by and usually starring Jamie Stuart which document this ritual should be, then, something of a camp yearbook… except that over the years Stuart has only rarely seemed interested in directly documenting the festival itself. He uses the experience of the NYFF — its films, visiting filmmakers both relatively obscure (Hany Abu-Assad, Hong Sang-soo) and unquestionably famous (Warren Beatty, Nicole Kidman), […]

By Jason Guerrasio on Sep 19, 2008 Festivals & Events
Migrating Talents: Inside the Flaherty Seminar

The 54th edition of the notorious Flaherty Film Seminar (June 21-27) kicked off with some steamy words from president Patti Bruck. “We’re not here to discuss film,” she insinuated; “we’re here to argue about film.” Begun in 1955 when Robert Flaherty’s widow Frances gathered filmmakers, critics, and musicians to discuss the potential of the moving image, the Seminar has evolved into one of the more idiosyncratic and invigorating stops in the film world, with an almost Nietzschean will for conflict. No titles or filmmakers are announced beforehand; all screenings, meals, and discussions are mandatory; filmmaker/audience hierarchies are abandoned in favor […]

By Jason Guerrasio on Jul 16, 2008 Festivals & Events
Sundance, A Glance From the Inside

Last spring we took an exclusive look inside the Sundance Directors and Screenwriters Labs as filmmaker Braden King posted weekly stories about his experience with his project, Here, co-written by himself and Dani Valent. Now, he’s graciously given us an insight into what he took away from the Institute, including attending this year’s Festival, where he was involved in the New Frontier’s Multimedia Performance Events with The Story Is Still Asleep and Here was selected as the U.S. recipient of the 2008 Sundance / NHK International Filmmakers Award. “I haven’t fought much with the past, but I’ve fought plenty with […]

By Jason Guerrasio on Feb 8, 2008 Festivals & Events

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