Taylor Hess’s article “Disclosed: Producers and Therapists on Dealing with the Stress of a Demanding Profession” struck deep with me, so much so that I was compelled to write this response. I’m not a producer by choice. I’m a writer/director, and out of necessity, I produced my first feature film, The Purple Onion. I didn’t wait around for anyone or for the perfect conditions. I worked with trusted people around me and we did it, we made a movie and it got distribution. Now I’m in the process of packaging my second feature film through ICM. Again I’m my own […]

Independent Filmmaker Project (IFP), Filmmaker‘s publisher, announced today Jeffrey Sharp as its new Executive Director. Sharp, as longtime Filmmaker readers will know, is a veteran producer whose credits include Boys Don’t Cry, You Can Count on Me, Evening and The Yellow Birds. He was also co-founder and President of Open Road Media, a pioneering digital publishing company that has an early innovator in the book space. Sharp’s non-profit experience comes from his role as co-founder and Chair of the Hamptons International Film Festival Advisory Board, and his most recent producing work with his Sharp Independent Productions has focused on productions […]

Since 1895 films have had at least two distinct advantages over live theater: the ability to be reproduced and watched at times and in places where the action did not actually take place, and the ability to direct the audience’s attention to precisely what the filmmakers desired. Conversely, after more than a century of cinema’s evolution, these have become precisely the reason that theater remains vibrant: it’s live and it’s present, and audiences can look wherever they want. Now virtual reality is mixing these experiences in a new way. While still prerecorded and edited (generally), it expands the audience’s range […]

The Sundance Institute announced the eleven screenwriters who will take part in their seventh annual Screenwriters Intensive. Taking place in Los Angeles tomorrow and Friday, the Intensive is “a two-day workshop for writers or writer/directors from underrepresented communities developing their first fiction feature. Fellows at the Intensive will advance the art and craft of their work under the guidance of experienced filmmakers and in collaboration with Institute’s Feature Film Program.” Advisors are Andrew Ahn, Kyle Patrick Alvarez, Patricia Cardoso, Deena Goldstone, Tanya Hamilton, Elgin James, So Yong Kim, Sarah Koskoff, Tracy Oliver, Joan Tewkesbury, and Andy Wolk. The program is […]

Water Makes Us Wet – An Ecosexual Adventure is Beth Stephens and Annie Sprinkle’s ecstatic exploration of the pleasure and politics of water. Premiering tonight at MoMA’s Documentary Fortnight, the doc is part road movie, part experimental film, part activist project. Water Makes Us Wet combines the allure of sex and environmental justice as it takes viewers on a trip through California, a state recently ravaged by drought and wildfires linked to climate change. Moving from San Francisco’s wastewater treatment plants to Sprinkle’s childhood house to the shrinking, toxic Salton Sea, the queer couple and artistic duo create a vivid […]

Since the late 1990s, Gas Food Lodging filmmaker Allison Anders frequently lamented the pitiful media attention around women directors. “There are no girl-wonders, especially in this business,” she told BOMB Magazine in 1994. “But men all think they’re the next boy-wonder.” In the wake of bombshell reports on gender pay inequity and the #TimesUp movement, the media and entertainment industries are now certainly well aware of the “boy wonder syndrome,” as it’s been called. But bias is still glaringly with us, sometimes in subtle ways. Not only were no women directors nominated for Oscars this year, as has been widely […]

The following guest essay on the making of Ham on Rye is from cinematographer Carson Lund. The film premieres at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival this week, and the official site is here. For independent filmmakers, Los Angeles is a city of contradictions: it’s both an ideal place to congregate with likeminded artists and craftspeople, and a truly daunting place to actualize on-location productions if you’re low on cash. Between inflated permitting fees, hefty fines for unlawful shooting, and a police force with plenty of experience enforcing these standards, there’s no shortage of ways in which the city formally discourages guerrilla […]

Screening as part of this year’s Indie Episodic at Sundance, the pilot for Bootstrapped draws upon star/writer Danielle Uhlarik’s background working at Google and Twitter. Uhlarik stars alongside Maribeth Monroe, playing two developers trying to get their fashion app (bitchthatwouldlookbetteronme.com) launched from Kansas City out into the world. Via email, DP Amanda Treyz spoke to staging comedy in two-shots, mixing color temperatures and getting away from the zoom lens mode of television production. Filmmaker: How and why did you wind up being the cinematographer of your film? What were the factors and attributes that led to your being hired for this job? […]

The Independent Filmmaker Project, Filmmaker‘s parent organization, announced Friday a partnership with The Blackhouse Foundation, a non-profit organization that works to expand opportunities for black multi-platform content creators, to launch the IFP-Blackhouse Multicultural Producers Lab, sponsored by HBO Corporate Social Responsibility Department, beginning in January 2019. From the press release: A cohort of seven (7) producers of innovative fiction and nonfiction projects (film, television, and digital media) were selected by IFP, Blackhouse, and HBO. These Fellows will participate in this year-long, collaborative program to expand the number of multicultural production companies; to increase their pipeline of content; and to support the sustainability of mid-career independent producers and the scale […]

“You have an Oscar-nominated movie, what more do you want?” An assistant assured another assistant that he did not say this out loud to their boss but that he definitely thought it. Heavily. That is a rhetorical question I never thought I would hear at 9:00 AM while drinking coffee, but I also never thought I’d walk past Boots Riley at 9:00 AM for two consecutive years in a row either. He looks dressed for the weather this year at least. After a missed flight due to snow in Denver and a midnight wandering around a labyrinthine condo complex, I’m […]