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Everything That Will Happen Has Already Happened (Or Why I Still Make Independent Ultra-Low-Budget Films in a Time of Media Oversaturation)
Everything That Will Happen Has Already Happened
I’ve been making films for many years now, at the unusual intersection of US independent and East-European cinema, and teaching at a university in New York. When COVID hit, it made me re-evaluate everything I was doing. I stopped the… Read more
Failure as Creative Inspiration: How I Shot — and Recorded — My Christmas-Set Musical Long December in 12 Days
Shooting "Long December" (Photo: Joshaun Anderson)
In 2015 I directed my first feature. It would be six years before I was able to direct my second. But once I had completed the first draft of that script, we had the film in the can within six… Read more
The Price of Passion: Addressing the Mental Health of Documentary Filmmakers
An image from "The Price of Passion"
Sustainability and scarcity of opportunity have been predominant challenges of a documentary career since the early days of the form, but sustaining mental health has been a significant one as well. Launched in 2021 by a group of documentary filmmakers… Read more
What Filmmakers Should Know about AI Copyright Restrictions
(Photo: Gearstd/Shutterstock.com)
Uttering the words “artificial intelligence” in Hollywood right now elicits something of a Chicken Little response. From major studio IP franchises to small independent documentaries, there is no corner of the entertainment industry that artificial intelligence does not (or will… Read more
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“A Nihilist Western”: Athina Rachel Tsangari on Harvest
It’s been nearly a decade since Athina Rachel Tsangari, the idiosyncratic Greek filmmaker who’s never one to repeat herself, has graced us with a new film. Tsangari is always looking for a new challenge: from the improvisational, genre-bending desolateness of The Slow Business of Going (2000), to her Greek Weird-Wave breakout Attenberg (2010) and game of hypermasculinity, Chevalier (2015), each new project takes on a whole different formal imagination. What links them together? Beyond their ostensible differences is Tsangari’s affinity for betweenness—that feeling of not belonging. This feeling is reflected in the films as much as in Tsangari’s life, bouncing […]
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“Nostalgia for When Things were Terrible”: Conner O’Malley, Danny Scharar and Jack Bensinger on Rap World
There’s an honesty to Rap World, the feature debut of co-directors Conner O’Malley and Danny Scharar, beyond its vérité stylings. With Scharar playing the director, Ben, Rap World is a mockumentary following three friends—Matt (O’Malley), Casey (Jack Bensinger) and Jason (Eric Rahill)—from Tobyhanna, Pennsylvania, as they trudge through one long night in a quixotic attempt to make a rap album. It is January 11th, 2009: a month earlier The Dark Knight was released on home video, in nine days George W. Bush will leave office, the Great Recession looms and America feels like it is on the cusp of some […]
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Catapult Reveals 2024 Development Slate with 15 New Projects
Catapult Film Fund, which provides non-fiction filmmakers with early stage funding and mentorship, announced today its 2024 Development Grant recipients. Through its flagship program, the California-based nonprofit will help launch 15 new projects from around the world, including stories from China, India, Iran, Mexico, Russia, and across the United States. As noted in a press release, half of the projects are by film teams of color and more than 80% are directed by women and nonbinary filmmakers. The projects were selected from a competitive pool of 900 applications, a record high for the organization. Each film team will receive a […]
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Cap’n Crunch and the Serial Killer: John McNaughton on His Career
Currently underway at the the Nitehawk Cinema in Prospect Park, “Portraits of Wild Things: The Films of John McNaughton” is a long overdue retrospective of the Chicago-based filmmaker of Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer (1986). Like The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974), I’ve always felt that the most exploitative aspect of McNaughton’s film was its title—it sounds like something you shouldn’t take joy in watching even if you’re even depraved enough to seek it out in the first place. Critically praised upon its (much delayed) release, Henry provided McNaughton with a path to mainstream success, even as the filmmaker […]
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The Gotham Pages: Community News
It’s that time of year again. Fall is setting in, with cooler temperatures and a flurry of exciting film and media events on the horizon. Chief among these is Gotham Week’s Project Market, the nation’s oldest and largest marketplace for film and TV creators, slated for September 30 to October 4. Mark your calendars and dive in below to learn more about some of the filmmakers joining us for a week focused on filmmaking, connecting and relationship-building. This issue, we’re highlighting the standout filmmakers and media creators of our first-ever Branded Storytelling Initiative. Amandla Baraka is a self-taught commercial director […]
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The Gotham Pages: Tahira White is Building an Accelerator for Branded Content Storytellers
19th & Park is a lot of things—a creative marketing hub, a branding and production powerhouse—but perhaps equally important is what it’s not. Tahira White, the agency’s co-founder and president, will be the first to tell you that 19th & Park isn’t interested in the linear approach of traditional agencies. Instead, it does its business holistically, taking a 360-degree approach to working with brands by offering creative direction, social media strategy, robust production and more—all while foregrounding underrepresented talent in front of and behind the camera. For White, who started her career in media at Hearst before segueing into production […]
