This is a picture of LA-based producer Jodi Redmond breast-feeding her three-month old daughter, Collette, while she waits for her next meeting at No Borders. Colette has been to three markets around the world already. When I saw Jodi, it really brought into sharp focus how committed indie producers need to be to their projects to get them made. It’s also a perfect metaphor for what’s going on at Independent Film Week. Arriving in New York after a very gentle and lovely time in Halifax felt like a very frontal attack on my senses. It was a classic case of […]
Hi, my name is Ian Harnarine and I’m one of Filmmaker magazine’s “25 New Faces of Independent Film” for 2012. My short film Doubles With Slight Pepper won the award for Best Canadian Short Film at the 2011 Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) and also won the Genie Award (Canada’s Oscar). I am adapting the short film into a feature and was invited back by the festival to compete in their PITCH THIS! competition. I will compete with five other filmmakers that each have six minutes to pitch their feature film idea to a live audience of over 200 industry […]
Hello, Jesse Epstein here. I’m blogging on behalf of “Team Skeeter” at the IFP Independent Film Week. We’ve been here with our feature documentary, Mosquito, which is currently in production. It’s been quite an intense week so far (and it’s only Tuesday!). We had our screening today, had meetings yesterday and today, and more meetings are lined up for tomorrow and Thursday. We’re learning a lot and feeling very grateful to be here with the project. But let me back up… The night before Film Week started I found myself unexpectedly extra-motivated for my two morning meetings because I was […]
Yesterday I attended the “How the Critics Saved My Film” Film Week panel, featuring the pre-eminent critic for the New York Times A.O. Scott (I discovered with pleasure yesterday that his friends call him “Tony”), critics David D’Arcy and Miriam Bale, and filmmaker Alex Ross-Perry. One subject that wasn’t addressed in the panel, but that is pertinent to all of this, is the quality of writing in film criticism. Since I am a filmmaker (whose films will need to be saved), the way a review is written feels important to me, and it’s not just because I like good writing. […]
Today Kino Lorber releases Paul Lovelace and Jessica Wolfson’s documentary Radio Unnameable, starting with an exclusive run at Film Forum in New York City. The following interview was originally published on the eve of the film’s screening at BAMcinemaFest. For decades, Bob Fass has been a unique voice on the airwaves of New York City’s freeform radio station WBAI with his show “Radio Unnameable.” From hosting a young Bob Dylan to organizing spontaneous youth gatherings with the Yippies, Fass has come to define an era of radio that had a profound influence on our culture. In their new documentary film […]
The way we watch TV shows is changing. Whether one is watching a movie or other program over a TV set, a PC or a mobile device, the size of the display screen matters in terms of a viewer’s appreciation of a show. A recent study by two ad service firms, YuMe and IPG Media Lab (IPG Mediabrands), analyzes consumer viewing experiences, comparing four TV screens – traditional TV, online TV, a PC and a smartphone. As it reports, “while the size of the video screen did drive more excitement, variables such as ad clutter, creative content, and context had […]
I was very sorry to hear this week of the passing of Sandy Mandelberger, an indefatigable champion of independent film and independent film festivals. I first met Sandy almost two decades ago, when he was the Associate Market Director of the IFP’s Independent Feature Film Market. I remember him as a sunny, enthusiastic and engaged professional who thought very clearly about the ecosystem that supports independent film. He went on to form his own company, International Media Resources, where he consulted with both filmmakers and film festivals on their promotion and industry branding. He also organized the Independents Showcase at […]
If you’re in New York, please join us tonight at 8:00 PM at the IFC Center for a program selected from our 2009 “25 New Faces” list. Derek Cianfrance, director of Blue Valentine and a 2009 “25” alumni, will be hosting along with myself and Nick Dawson, and a panel discussion will follow after the screenings. The complete information is below, and tickets can be purchased here at the link. A special IFP Film Week showcases of work from members of Filmmaker Magazine‘s “25 New Faces of Independent Film” of 2012: The Gathering Squall (Hannah Fidell, 2012, 13 mins) Doubles […]
At the risk of sounding like the luckiest, happiest, most ridiculously annoying girl in the world… WANNA KNOW WHAT I LOVE MOST ABOUT INDEPENDENT FILM WEEK?! I could run through a list… but I’ll cut to the chase: What I love most is watching people’s eyes widen as I describe my project in my one-on-one industry meetings. It’s one of those little things that I never anticipated. I mean yes, I’m sitting with people who already had a clue about my project and chose to have a meeting with me because there was something about it that appealed to them. […]
Independent Film Week kicked off on Sunday at Lincoln Center and co-writer/co-producer of Brooklyn Flee, Devon Kirkpatrick, and I sat in a room full of Emerging Narratives filmmakers nervously awaiting our moment to practice pitch our scripts in front of an esteemed industry panel. We spent two hours the day before sketching out our thoughts over bad guacamole and happy hour Chardonnay, attempting to figure out what makes a good two minute pitch. After a few hours, Devon and I parted ways needing to take a moment to center ourselves before a hectic week. I went home to fall asleep […]