Filmmaking
Filmmaking
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CALL ME BERLINALE: A KUCHU CHRONICLE
It’s opening night of the 62nd Berlinale, and we’re tottering down the gleaming red carpet, tipsy with exhaustion after a marathon three-week final push to finish our documentary Call Me Kuchu for its world premiere at the festival. The black tie affair has women dripping in mink and jewels, and men tightly bound in waistcoats and cummerbunds. Just 48 hours prior, we were dripping in sweat and bound by a serious time crunch as we raced to the airport, gripping two newly-minted HDCAMs, still toasty-warm from the tape deck. Our run at the Berlinale marks the culmination of two years documenting the work […]
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MUST SEE: KIRBY FERGUSON’S CONCLUSION TO “EVERYTHING IS A REMIX”
Kirby Ferguson’s epic and informative web serial, Everything is a Remix, comes to an inspiring conclusion with part four, to my mind the best of the series. In “Part Four: System Failures,” he looks at the historical roots of copyright and patent protection and examines how today’s system has drifted so far away from the original goals of furthering the public good while still protecting creators. I can’t recommend Ferguson’s series more highly, and if you find yourself in an argument with someone about legislations like SOPA, PiPA and ACTA, point them towards these videos for a succinctly argued treatise […]
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THE REAL THING: A BOSNIAN TACKLES FAMILY AND WAR IN “CIRKUS COLUMBIA”
The reliable and gifted director of fluid, sometimes baroque films, known here mostly for his Oscar-winning opera prima No Man’s Land (2001), Bosnian filmmaker Danis Tanovic deftly addresses two subjects others flirt with but rarely grasp, and certainly not when broached in a single film: family and war. With a relatively conventional but appropriate style, Tanovic skillfully weaves together the two topics in his most recent film, the powerful Cirkus Columbia, highlighting their reciprocal impact. He co-wrote the script with the source novel’s Croatian author, Ivica Djikic. Tanovic examines kinship up front, with the impending war between Croats and Serbs […]
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Jess + Moss — A Hammer to Nail Review
(Jess + Moss world premiered at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival. It opens theatrically at the reRun Gastropub in New York City on Friday, February 17, 2012. If you are not in NYC, don’t worry, as it is now available on VOD at the following outlets: YouTube, iTunes, Sundance Now, and Amazon. Visit the film’s official website to learn more.) While there are many pressing existential questions, to my mind, this is one of the most significant: can one make a truly effective film about aimlessness and boredom without that film becoming excruciatingly aimless and boring in its own right? […]
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“THE TESTED” SCREENS AT BAMcinematek’s NEW VOICES IN BLACK CINEMA SERIES
As part of its New Voices in Black Cinema series, BAMcinematek will screen tomorrow The Tested, Russell Costanza’s debut feature that was developed as part of the IFP Narrative Lab. The film is tough and ambitious New York drama, the kind of film Sidney Lumet might have made at one point, and it deals with both institutional racism and the struggle to achieve forgiveness. It also boasts an amazing performance by Aunjanue Ellis (pictured). This is a film that has flown a bit too much under the radar and is well worth checking out. The trailer is below, and tickets […]
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CASSIDY AND SHATZKY’S “FRANCINE” DEBUTS IN BERLIN
David Rooney’s Hollywood Reporter review of Brian Cassidy and Melanie Shatzky’s tough, piercing American independent character drama Francine, which premiered this week in Berlin, is masterful. As noted also by Jeffrey Wells, Rooney approaches the film on its own terms, and distills in his prose strengths that would be ignored or misconstrued by another critic. From the review: A minimalist, image-based character study that is almost impossibly fragile and yet emotionally robust, Francine is a legitimate discovery. It’s propelled by Melissa Leo’s remarkable title-role performance, rigorous in its honesty and unimpeded by even a scrap of vanity. Made on a […]
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SXSW ADDS TODD ROHAL’S “NATURE CALLS,” MORE TO LINE-UP
SXSW has announced a few late additions, rounding out a lineup that already includes high-profile world-premieres from Nelson George, Lena Dunham, Drew Goddard, Caveh Zahedi, and the Duplass Brothers. Notably, Todd Rohal’s Nature Calls, his Johnny Knoxville and Patton Oswald-starring followup to last year’s surrealist comedy The Catechism Cataclysm, will premiere in the Narrative Spotlight section, while Sundance favorites such as Shut Up and Play the Hits, Safety Not Guaranteed, and Sleepwalk with Me will screen as well. The full list of additions: NARRATIVE SPOTLIGHT Blue Like Jazz Director: Steve Taylor, Screenwriters: Donald Miller, Steve Taylor, Ben Pearson A Texas […]
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REFLECTIONS ON THE 2012 CINEKINK NYC
Each year Cinekink co-founder and director Lisa Vandever previews her festival here on the blog, pointing Filmmaker readers to films of particular interest to our readers. This year, the festival ran earlier, so below Vandever presents a wrap-up in which she lists the winners and discusses some of her programming choices. — Editor. Earlier-than-usual dates this year for CineKink NYC (February 7-12) and a ramped-up pre-production schedule hampered my ability to put together some coherent thoughts on the festival going into it. I’m happy, then, for the opportunity to remark on some of the highlights coming out of it — […]
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DP David Kruta on Shooting the Movie Concussion
At the end of last year I interviewed DP Dave Kruta about shooting with the Red EPIC [See: DP DAVID KRUTA AND THE RED EPIC]. At the time I also talked to him about the independent movie Concussion, which he’d just finished shooting. The movie is currently in post-production: Q: How did you come to work on the movie Concussion? I was contacted out of the blue by the director, who’d seen my reel. She interviewed a whole bunch of DPs and I guess we just connected over the script and what she was trying to do. Q: Can […]
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The Blue Velvet Project, #80
Second #3760, 62:40 Jeffrey, having arrived later than expected to pick up Sandy after school, has just been spotted by Sandy’s boyfriend Mike, who is doing a variation of jumping jack exercises with the football team (in full uniform, including helmets) on a tennis court across the street in a scene that oddly predicts the “Do the Locomotion” scene in Inland Empire. We are back in the sunlight now, the deeply coded normalcy of high school, the girls in their long skirts recalling the teenage rebel movies of the 1950s. The frame captures no one looking at anyone. Dead gazes. […]
