Second #6909, 115:09 (Note: there are six posts remaining in the project, which will conclude with #154 on August 24.) 1. The seconds preceding this frame show Sandy and Jeffrey in the hallway outside Dorothy’s apartment, embracing, kissing, the shot slowly blowing out to blinding white before fading back into this shot, a close-up of Jeffrey’s ear as he lays dozing (dreaming?) on a lounge chair in his parents’ back yard. 2. The black frame, from earlier, as balance. 3. Is Jeffrey emerging from the dream that has been the film? When Jeffrey awakes in his lawn chair in his […]
Solitude: It can come from choice, or by default. An unusual number of movies made across South and Central America over the past year have as a central theme the existential state of loneliness, be it operative or merely a hovering threat. In an umbrella culture that honors celebration, music, and gossip, being shunned, marginalized, or discarded is a declaration of non-being, a metaphoric death sentence. Does the stereotype of Latin Americans as gregarious, affable extroverts hold water? The annual Latinbeat exhibition at the Film Society of Lincoln Center (August 10-23), curated by Marcela Goglio and Richard Pena, measures the […]
Below Italian filmmaker Saverio Pesapane, who is working on Devotional, a documentary about 2012 presidential elections in Egypt, Russia and the U.S., describes his experiences shooting in Egypt earlier this year. Pesapane has an ongoing Indiegogo campaign for Devotional, which you can contribute to here. I was in Egypt four times between December and June 2012. Everything started with a request from the curators of the International Architecture Rotterdam Biennale to make a film on the Nile Valley for the 2012 exhibition. The first time I went, in December 2011, I spent two weeks there, including New Year’s Eve. We […]
Chicago-based filmmaker Jack Marchetti currently has a Kickstarter campaign to raise funds for 4 of a Kind, his debut feature. Below he writes about the uniquely pressing situation that he is facing with this production. “Action!” The actors perform. The camera operator frames the shot. You focus on the monitor. The boom operator steadies the mic. You watch as your work, your writing, comes to life. You smile. You yell “Cut!” and doubt creeps in. Was that good enough? Did we get it? This isn’t simple indecision, it’s something you’ve dealt with most of your life. This isn’t a lack […]
Two days is not nearly enough time to cover the Woods Hole Film Festival, which started as a “one day, one hour” event over two decades ago, and now for eight days takes over this tiny idyllic town on the Cape, otherwise known for its world famous Oceanographic Institution, and where the moneyed can catch a ferry to Martha’s Vineyard. Luckily, I used my 48 hours wisely, hopping from venue to quaint venue – including the Lillie Auditorium at the Marine Biological Laboratory, the 120-seat Woods Hole Community Hall, and the 70-seat Old Woods Hole Fire Station – and taking […]
Back when we selected filmmaker John Maringouin for our 25 New Faces list in 2006, we knew he had crazy, gonzo talent. His father-son reunion pic, Running Scared is, as I wrote at the time, “a true epic in the fucked-up family doc genre.” Three years after Running Scared, Maringouin made an even bigger impact with Big River Man, a hilarious and heartfelt tale of adventure and human endurance. But now, as I sadly learned in an email from filmmaker Stephen Kijak, Maringouin is fighting his own medical battle and he needs our support. I’ll let Kijak explain: My friend, […]
We learnt from Abraham that when it comes to the hierarchy between our children and God, God comes first…but this story, with all its profound meaning, has been lost and denied—for many understandable reasons-by contemporary Israeli culture…a fact that can be seen in two films I recently viewed at the 2012 Jerusalem International Film Festival. Dover Kosashvili’s new feature, Single Plus (above), tracks the story of a woman and her 35-year-old single daughter. The mother is so distraught by the fact that her daughter has not yet reproduced that she comes up with an outrageous ruse. The mother lies to […]
“In Production” is a regular column which focuses on notable independent films that are currently shooting. Casey Affleck (The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford), Rooney Mara (The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo) and Ben Foster (Here) are among the impressive cast members assembled for newcomer David Lowery’s second feature, Ain’t Them Bodies Saints. Currently shooting in Shreveport, Louisiana, the drama-thriller has been described as a modern day Bonnie and Clyde. Coming off the success of his short film Pioneer (which got him on Filmmaker‘s “25 New Faces” list in 2011), Lowery developed Ain’t Them Bodies Saints at the Sundance […]
There’s really not a lot of actual footage or dialogue in this teaser trailer for director Kathryn Bigelow and writer Mark Boal’s follow-up to their Best Picture Academy Award-winning The Hurt Locker — instead what we have here is suggestive, and very much style over content. The film about the hunt for Osama Bin Laden — which comes out on December 19 — is not set to play fall fests and is still in postproduction, and it seems from this teaser that Columbia Pictures wants to keep as much of the material under wraps as possible, at least for now. […]
The Locarno Film Festival has carved out a role for itself since Olivier Père took over three years ago, in which it offers the best of all festival worlds. Acting as perhaps the best cross-section of contemporary cinema—or something very close to it—available on the festival circuit, it has often been described as one of the true “cinephilic” fests. Additionally, in order to make this possible, Locarno still needs to be something of a hotspot, and the “glamor” that makes such a reputation possible is also a key component. However, Locarno manages to avoid being an industry-driven media frenzy like […]