The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation was created in 1934 by the then head of General Motors to bestow grants related to science, technology, and economics, and to make these subjects more appealing to the general public. Part of a shift towards doing so via the arts can be attributed to Doron Weber, who runs the Public Understanding of Science and Technology program. Weber introduced the concept of providing sometimes sizable grants to narrative films, dealing with science or the science community, over a decade ago, when the idea was relatively novel and returns were a total question mark due the […]
Have you ever sat talking to someone and half way through a sentence thought, “Have I said this to this person already? OMG, what was I talking about? I’m lost?” I’m waking up in the middle of the night sweating with this fear rattling my head because I am preparing for two weeks of solid pitching. I need to be ready for about 10 a day, each one focused exactly the same as all the others, do the greatest pitch of your life! And that is just what’s organized. I have a shadow agenda to seek out other people – […]
In films about the teenage social scene, there is an inevitable disconnect between the adult director, and the youthful experience that he or she wants to portray. My Sucky Teen Romance is a rare exception, since the writer/director Emily Hagins happens to be 19 years old and a peer to her characters. Hagins began her exceptional career at the age of 12, when she created her first feature-length film, Pathogen, and became the youngest recipient of the Texas Filmmakers Production Fund grant, not to mention the youngest feature film director in the United States. The zombie movie was a group […]
The optimist and the contrarian may find common ground in anticipation; to be a festivalgoer at the Toronto Film Festival is to be a bit of both. Particularly when preceded by negative reviews trickling out of earlier festivals in Cannes, Locarno, Venice and Berlin or less-than-enticing trailers, the debut of new work from filmmakers who have proven themselves capable of greatness can have cinephiles’ hearts in their throats. What if the hype is true, and your favorite living director is no longer creating essential work? Yet with reports of boos just might come a sneaking desire to go to that movie anyway. See […]
After a summer dominated by big budget Hollywood blockbusters, we could all use a film that reminds us of the humanity and joy of the medium. Teal Greyhavens’ Cinema is Everywhere follows actors and directors from four disparate cultures, creating an interwoven narrative fabric that lovingly renders the importance of film across the globe. Greyhavens’ documentary makes effort to explore cinema in countries where social and political barriers limit or restrict free speech; often, movies are the best opportunities people have to express their thoughts, fears and hopes. With such an ambitious scope the film could easily spread itself too […]
Last Thursday, August 23, Syrian filmmaker Orwa Nyrabia was arrested by Syrian security forces at the Damascus airport while on his way to Cairo. Since then, he has not been heard from. Lawrence Wright of the New Yorker wrote about Nyrabia and his disappearance in a blog post last week. I had the good fortune at the time to meet Orwa Nyrabia (also transcribed Nairabiya). He is a big, ironic, bold spirit, whose jolly nature seemed perversely at odds with the grimly repressive atmosphere inside that country. With another producer, Diana el-Jeiroudi, Orwa started Proaction Film, the only independent documentary-film […]
Journalists are often privy to inside information when a film deal goes down at a festival, but rarely do they take place on the other end of my dinner table. Nor do they generally concern one of my friends, as was the case at a certain dinner party on a snowy night at this year’s Sundance Film Festival. Actually, until now, that has never happened. My friend is director Jamie Travis, and it was during a cast and crew dinner at a fancy pop-up steak restaurant when his little, low-budget indie, For a Good Time, Call…, was picked up for […]
Over the years, many friends and colleagues had mentioned the cinephile haven that is Telluride, but I was either too busy or too far to make the trip to the mountain tops. Finally I caved in to the (positive) peer pressure and applied to be a volunteer for the 39th Telluride Film festival over Labor Day. The deal is simple: work 40 hours over 4 days and you will eat for free, see incredible films and probably get hooked for the rest of your life. Enticing. Telluride is not easy to get to: you will need multiple connecting flights, an […]
A few weeks ago on the newsletter, I pondered the evolution of the “25 New Faces,” and posited the idea that it’s more than just a list that is published annually. I wrote that the list takes on a life of its own, that “it does not stop after the Filmmaker Summer issue hits newsstands. When Scott and I spend nights and weekends watching screeners and reading scripts through all of April, May and June, we’re looking for exciting creative voices that we think are the future of independent film. Once the list is done, that excitement has not dissipated; […]
Clint, here, via Harmony Korine and Mark Gonzalez, is how you fight a chair. (The clip, of course, is from Gummo, which I co-produced.)