Filmmaking
Filmmaking
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The Blue Velvet Project, #33
Second #1551, 25:51 Jeffrey: I’m gonna try to sneak in tonight. It’s Friday. Do you have a date? Sandy: Yeah. I do. Jeffrey: Well. (pause) That does that. * “The historian of cinema faces an appalling problem. Seeking in his subject some principle of intelligibility, he is obliged to make himself responsible for every frame of film in existence. For the history of cinema consists precisely of every film that has ever been made, for any purpose whatever.” –Hollis Frampton * For a time, in the 1980s, it seemed as if Reagan’s victory would be permanent. There was comfort in […]
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FALL ’11 ISSUE ONLINE
Select stories from our Fall issue are now available. You can now read online our interviews with Melancholia‘s Lars von Trier (before announcing he would no longer give interviews), Sean Durkin and Elizabeth Olsen chat about Martha Marcy May Marlene, we get biblical about The Catechism Cataclysm with thoughts from the Reverend Megan Hollaway and we look at what film schools need to achieve to be relevant in the future. Plus, the Culture Hacker and Industry Beat columns. The issue hits stands next week, but you can read it now on your desktop by subscribing to our digital issue. Learn […]
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Week Six at the Edit Center
On Monday we watch the famous f*ck scene from The Wire. In the past I have seen this scene used as an example of great writing, great directing and great acting. It seems to be a quintessential teaching scene. If you don’t know what I am talking about, you can see it below. We also watch a sequence from Unzipped, the documentary that follows the fashion designer Isaac Mizrahi (1995, edited by Alan Oxman, cinematography by Ellen Kuras, who went on to shoot a long list of films including Eternal Sunshine of The Spotless mind). Its lyrical look, pacing and […]
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Culture Hacker: What if 5th Graders Ruled Your Storyworld?
What If 5th Graders Ruled Your Storyworld? By Lance Weiler
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CHOOSE NOMINEES FOR GOTHAMS’ AUDIENCE AWARD
For the second year the IFP‘s Gotham Independent Film Awards will have an Audience Award. Head over to the award’s sponsor, Festival Genius, to select the five films you want nominated. On Nov. 10, the nominees will be announced and you can then vote for the winner. All 29 films vying for the five nominee slots are Audience Award winners from the top US and Canadian film festivals. Get out there and vote! The Gothams take place Nov. 28.
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Director Jeremiah Zagar on Starved For Attention
It’s been awhile since I sat down to chat with director Jeremiah Zagar, one half of Brooklyn-based Herzliya Films, which he runs with his producer Jeremy Yaches, so I was pretty excited to hear about their latest venture, Starved For Attention. A short film series created at the behest of Doctors Without Borders and VII Photo designed to highlight childhood malnutrition around the world Starved For Attention also seems to be the rarest of public service announcements, doubling as works of cinematic art. I spoke briefly with Zagar as he was preparing for the release of the eighth doc in […]
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The Blue Velvet Project, #32
Second #1504, 25:04 The woman in the background carrying groceries has a story to tell. She has her own secrets, in that purse, and for approximately two seconds she becomes a part of Blue Velvet. Perhaps an unremembered part, called forth in the same way that Douglas Gordon’s 24 Hour Psycho—which slowed down Psycho to two frames per second, stretching the film’s duration to 24 hours—made it possible to see details in a new way. In Point Omega, Don DeLillo captures the dislocating feeling of looking very, very closely at something, brought about by a character watching 24 Hour Psycho: […]
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The Catechism Cataclysm — A Hammer to Nail Review
(Distributed by IFC Midnight, The Catechism Cataclysm opens theatrically at the IFC Center on Wednesday, October 19, 2011. It becomes available on VOD beginning October 26th.) At the heart of Todd Rohal’s work is a very basic concept lost on today’s major theatrical audience who are hypnotized by the tired routine of familiar narrative structure. It’s so simple that it could be lost in the ether of the week’s releases comprised of cults and the continued ascension of the Catfish crew, but I’ll lay it out: Anything Goes. It’s a mindset that will definitely help you take on The Catechism […]
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NOMINEES FOR 21ST GOTHAM INDEPENDENT FILM AWARDS ANNOUNCED
The IFP have announced the nominees for their 21st Gotham Independent Film Awards. Considered the kick off to awards season, this year’s leaders in nominations are Alexander Payne‘s The Descendants and Sean Durkin‘s Martha Marcy May Marlene with three nominations each. Along with the competitive awards, Charlize Theron, Gary Oldman, David Cronenberg and Tom Rothman will each be presented with career tributes. The full list of nominees are below. The awards will be handed out on Monday, November 28th at Cipriani Wall Street. And from Nov. 18-21 be sure to check out the nominees of the Best Film Not Playing […]
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AMERICAN INDIE HIDES OUT IN THE MIDDLE EAST
Director Sam Neave and his producer/star Marjan Neshat are both Iranian born, but the films they tend to make together, which include the unfortunately titled 2003’s Sundance entry Cry Funny Happy and their terrific new two shot high-wire act Almost in Love, tend to focus on the romantic travails of upper-middle-class Westerners. As such, they are naturals for the American independent festival scene, where such films usually find their natural constituency, that being other upper-middle-class Westerners. Not so for Almost in Love, their daring second feature collaboration, which had its world premiere this past weekend at the 5th Abu Dhabi […]
