Filmmaking
Filmmaking
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SYRIAN FILMMAKER ORWA NYRABIA ARRESTED AND MISSING
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 […]
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Director Jamie Travis on For a Good Time, Call…
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 […]
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TELLURIDE: MAVENS OF THE IMPOSSIBLE
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 […]
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“25 NEW FACES” SCREENING SERIES TO TOUR U.S. IN SEPTEMBER
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; […]
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CHAIR FIGHTING TIPS FOR CLINT EASTWOOD
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.)
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“BIG RIVER MAN” BENEFIT SCREENING SEPT. 4 AT IFC CENTER
Along with Jonathan Caouette, Ingrid Kopp, Thom Powers, Esther Robinson, Morgan Spurlock, and John Vanco I’ll be co-hosting a benefit screening of John Maringouin’s Big River Man on Tuesday, September 4, at the IFC Center at 7:30PM. All proceeds will go towards the filmmaker’s surgery fund and an urgently needed lung operation. Additionally, IFC will be donating an additional 50% of the box towards the fund as well as 100% of all income from membership sales and renewals purchased that evening. I’ve posted about Maringouin’s situation previously, and, with days left, the fund still needs monies to reach its $60,000 […]
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TRAILER WATCH: RICK ALVERSON’S “THE COMEDY”
I’m not usually a fan of films using negative quotes in their promotional materials, but in the case of this teaser for Rick Alverson’s The Comedy, it feels totally appropriate and is in tune with the general vibe of the film. This spot is so minimal but, I think, highly effective. It goes against the grain by selling the film as actually what it is, rather than making it seem more palatable and crowdpleasing. The film is coming out in November through Tribeca Film, and you’ll be seeing more Filmmaker coverage of the film in the buildup to its release.
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The Ambassador — A Hammer to Nail Review
(The Ambassador had its world premiere at IDFA 2011 and its U.S. premiere at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival. It was picked up for distribution by Drafthouse Films. It launched on VOD and digital platforms on August 4, 2012, and opens theatrically at the IFC Center in New York City on August 29, 2012, and at The Cinefamily in Los Angeles and Alamo Drafthouse locations in Austin on August 31, 2012.) For the Fox News crowd, the Central African Republic could be seen as the future they’ve been waiting for: a skeleton government that rules hand in hand with ruthless, unregulated […]
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Kubrick’s One-Point Perspective
From Kogonada is this supercut of scenes from Stanley Kubrick’s films showing his fondness for symmetrically composed wide shots. Check it out, and follow the comments thread at the Vimeo link, where the conversation continues. (Hat tip: Text of Light.) Kubrick // One-Point Perspective from kogonada on Vimeo.
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Reactions to the Canon C100
Canon went and shrunk the C300! The company just announced its baby brother, the C100, which looks very similar but is slightly smaller and is absent a feature or two. Most notable, perhaps, is the use of the AVCHD codec, and the LCD has been moved to the back of the camera from the detachable handle. But the C100 has the same sensor as the C300, and may produce a very similar image. All of those issues may be less important, however, than the price; at around $8,000 it will be half the price of the C300. To get the […]
