Filmmaker Videos
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Watch: “The LGBTQ Oscars”
Jacob T. Swinney inspects how many non-LGBTQ actors have been nominated by the Academy for playing LGBTQ roles in his latest Fandor Keyframe video essay. He notes LGBTQ actors with a rainbow flag, illustrating a clear discrepancy in numbers.
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Watch: Aphex Twin’s New Music Video Directed by 12-Year-Old Ryan Wyer
It’s been over a decade since Richard James released a storied string of Aphex Twin music videos, including the fiendish hip-hop musical extravaganza Windowlicker (directed by Chris Cunningham and embedded below). But, today, a surprise new video dropped from James’ upcoming EP, Cheetah, and it revisits several classic Aphex Twin tropes — namely, kids and disconcerting James’ masks. In fact, the director is a kid — 12-year-old Ryan Wyer of Rush County, Dublin. Check out “CIRKLON3 [Колхозная mix]” above.
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David Lynch Launches “Festival of Disruption” with Film, Music and More
“Life is a festival of disruption,” according to Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. Now filmmaker and Maharishi disciple David Lynch will create his own Festival of Disruption. Taking place at the Ace Hotel in Los Angeles on October 8 and October 9, the festival will feature film, music, photography, multimedia, dance, and discussions all curated by Lynch himself. On the film side, the festival will screen the documentary Blue Velvet Revisited, The Elephant Man, and rare David Lynch shorts. There will talks by architect Frank Gehry, Mel Brooks, Kyle McLachlan & Laura Dern, and Blondie’s Debbie Harry & Chris Stein. Chris Milk will exhibit […]
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Trailer Watch: Andrea Arnold’s American Honey
A24 has just released this trailer for Andrea Arnold’s Cannes prize-winning American Honey, starring Shia LaBeouf and riveting newcomer Sasha Lane. She’s the new recruit, he’s the troubled showboater and Riley Keough is the bikini-clad capitalist who has cultishly transformed a motley collection of street youth into a band of traveling grifters. Arnold, along with her regular DP, Robbie Ryan, creates an exuberant and kaleidoscopic vision of contemporary America in a film that creates its own entirely compelling rhythm.
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Watch: The Dick Cavett Show with Brian De Palma and Martin Scorsese
With the release of De Palma, Noah Baumbach and Jake Paltrow’s documentary on Brian De Palma and his work, and Metrograph’s continuing De Palma retrospective, material reflecting on the filmmaker’s career continues to surface. This episode of The Dick Cavett Show from 1978 provides candid insight into the work of both De Palma and Martin Scorsese. Scorsese himself introduced De Palma at the DGA New York Theater on June 10. In the discussion the two reflect on their working relationship, with De Palma declaring that the two “tend to be each other’s toughest critics.” When asked about differences in their working process, De Palma answers: “I […]
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Trailer Watch: Ron Howard’s Beatles Doc Eight Days A Week
We recently reported that Hulu has launched Hulu Documentary Films, a destination for original and exclusive documentary film titles. Now its first acquisition — The Beatles: Eight Days A Week – The Touring Years, a new Beatles documentary from Ron Howard — has its first trailer (above). The film features rare and exclusive footage, and was produced with the full cooperation of Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, Yoko Ono and Olivia Harrison. It focuses on the early part of The Beatles’ career (1962-1966), and will explore how John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr came together to form the Fab Four. The documentary’s U.S. theatrical […]
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Watch: Directors David Farrier and Dylan Reeve on Tickled, Their Working Relationship and the Importance of Graphic Design
The documentary Tickled begins as a story about the bizarre world of competitive endurance tickling but evolves into an investigation of the ominous company behind videos in which young men tickle one another. Co-directors David Farrier (a New Zealand TV journalist) and Dylan Reeve have endured harassment and lawsuits in the process of digging into what seems to be an extended history of intimidation and coercion. Following substantial media coverage, the film is set to open in the United States on June 17 after premiering at the 2016 Sundance Film Festival. I talked to the duo about what it’s like to work with a […]
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Trailer Watch: I, Daniel Blake, Ken Loach’s Palme d’Or Winner
The new film by British filmmaker Ken Loach, I, Daniel Blake won the Palme d’Or at the 2016 Cannes Film Festival and now it’s got a trailer (above) in advance of its U.K. release on October 21. The film stars Dave Johns as Daniel Blake, a 59-year-old in the North-East of England who falls ill and applies for unemployment benefits only to get caught in a mess of red tape. Along the way, he meets a single mother and her two children who are dealing with their own challenges. Sundance Selects has U.S. rights to the film, but no release date has […]
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Watch: The Radical Beauty of Tangerine
When Tangerine was released in 2015, much of the press attention focused on the fact that it was shot entirely on an iPhone 5s. Though that technical feat is impressive, the raw beauty of the film is equally striking. Set on Christmas Eve, Tangerine follows transgender sex workers and best friends Sin-Dee (Kitana Kiki Rodriguez) and Alexandra (Mya Taylor) on an odyssey through various Los Angeles subcultures. At Fandor Keyframe, a new video essay (above) by LJ Frezza examines the film’s unique aesthetic and how director Sean Baker and DP Radium Cheung found beauty from a position of marginalization.
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Watch: “David Fincher: From a Distance”
In his latest video, Jacob T. Swinney inspects David Fincher’s approach to the long shot. Clips from Fight Club, Zodiac and The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, among others, serve as examples of the filmmaker’s use of distance. Supplementally, you can also watch Swinney’s previous video, David Fincher’s Extreme Close-Ups.
