Filmmaking

A Talk with Red Hill Director Patrick Hughes

Starring True Blood‘s Ryan Kwanten, Red Hill is a suspenseful modern-day Western that uses Australia’s dramatic and vast landscapes to stage a drama of frontier justice with an antagonist right out of Halloween-style horror film. Kwanten plays a city cop assigned to a small outback town where he intends to raise a baby with his very pregnant wife. But his move coincides with the escape of Jimmy Conway (Tom E. Lewis) from the local jail. The indigenous Jimmy was wronged years ago, and his brand of frontier justice consists of non-stop mayhem. In my conversation with Hughes, he spoke about […]

By Scott Macaulay on Nov 4, 2010 Directing
“WO AI NI MOMMY” AT STRANGER THAN FICTION

While introducing Wo Ai Ni Mommy (I Love You Mommy) at last night’s Stranger Than Fiction, programmer Thom Powers thanked the Sadowsky family for allowing director Stephanie Wang-Breal to document their experiences adopting an eight-year-old girl from China, pointing out that “it’s not an easy thing to let a camera into your life.” Startlingly intimate, Wo Ai Ni Mommy follows the Sadowsky family as they struggle to incorporate their new daughter, who speaks no English, into their family. When the girl, Faith, demands to know why her parents would even want a Chinese daughter, her parents are shocked that multiculturalism is a concept […]

By Mary Anderson Casavant on Nov 3, 2010 Filmmaking
VOTE NOW FOR FIRST-EVER GOTHAM AUDIENCE AWARD

Voting is currently underway for the Gotham Independent Film Awards‘ first-ever Festival Genius Audience Award. The IFP and Slated have complied 26 titles from 50 U.S. and Canadian film festivals that will vie for the award, which will be announced during the Gotham Awards on November 29. They include Winter’s Bone, Fair Game, Waiting for ‘Superman’, Waste Land, The New Year and happythankyoumoreplease, to name a few. Voting for the five nominees of the award will close Nov. 7, then voting for the winner will open Nov. 9 and end the night of the event. And by voting you will […]

By Jason Guerrasio on Nov 2, 2010 Filmmaking
102 CELEBRATIONS OF REQUIEM FOR A DREAM

Nicholas Rombes, of The Rumpus’s 10/40/70 column and Filmmaker‘s Into the Splice, has launched an experimental project in film criticism — a Tumblr blog collecting 102 takes on Darren Aronofsky’s Requiem for a Dream. Tied to the film’s tenth anniversary (hey, where’s the features-packed new DVD?), the project consists of 102 contributors writing about 102 frames of the film — one for each minute of its running time. Writes Rombes: October 27 2010 marks the 10th anniversary of the release of Darren Aronofsky’s Requiem for a Dream, a movie that shook some foundations. To mark that and to extend the […]

By Scott Macaulay on Nov 2, 2010 Filmmaking
AN INTERVIEW WITH DOC NYC CREATIVE DIRECTOR, THOM POWERS

For most curators, programming the Toronto Film Festival would be a full plate, but Thom Powers’ appetite for documentary knows no bounds. In between programming and promoting Stranger than Fiction, his weekly documentary series at the IFC, he and Raphaela Neihausen, his wife and business partner, have co-founded DOC NYC, a New York based documentary festival. It’s a festival of riches for documentary lovers — five days of documentary screenings, panels and stars (Werner Herzog and Errol Morris will be in attendance). A celebration of documentary media of all kinds, in addition to the many screenings there are also panels […]

By Mary Anderson Casavant on Nov 1, 2010 Filmmaking
HAILING “INTO THE NIGHT”

Here’s the BBC’s Mark Kermode hailing as a “forgotten gem” John Landis’s Into the Night, starring Jeff Goldblum and Michelle Pfeiffer. It’s been years since I’ve seen this film but I’ve always remembered it fondly as well. To see if it holds up I’m going to put it on my Netflix queue.

By Scott Macaulay on Oct 31, 2010 Filmmaking
KEVIN SMITH REVEALS “RED STATE” POSTER

Here’s a little treat for ya on Halloween! Today on Kevin Smith‘s blog, Silent Bob Speaks, the outspoken writer-director put up a teaser poster of his next film, Red State, his first foray into horror. In the past Smith has described the film as being loosely based on religious extremism, and its one he’s talked about making for years. If you follow Smith on Twitter you know he finally found enough money to shoot it over the summer, and according to his blog post, principal photography is now wrapped. Smith on the poster: Moody, weird, and pitch-perfect for the tone […]

By Jason Guerrasio on Oct 31, 2010 Filmmaking
KAREN SCHMEER FELLOWSHIP ANNOUNCED; DEADLINE DEC. 15

Friends of the late Karen Schmeer, the documentary film editor whose credits include Errol Morris’s Fast, Cheap and Out of Control and Greg Barker’s Sergio, have honored their colleague by creating a fellowship for editors. They have partnered with ACE, SXSW, IFFBoston, the Manhattan Edit Workshop, and Powell’s books for this program intended to help-and-coming documentary editors while remembering Schmeer’s extraordinary accomplishments. Schmeer died last year when she was struck by a car fleeing a drug store robbery. From the group’s website: We are now accepting submissions for the Karen Schmeer Film Editing Fellowship. Awarded annually, the Fellowship was created […]

By Scott Macaulay on Oct 31, 2010 Filmmaking
EARLY COURSEWORK FROM DISTRIBUTION U.

Scott Kirsner and Peter Broderick are bringing their Distribution U. to New York and Los Angeles November 13 and 20, respectively. Among the various presentations dealing with independent marketing and distribution in New York will be a case study of Banksy’s Exit Through the Gift Shop. In L.A., singer-songwriter Jill Sobule will be talking about how she reinvigorated her recording career through crowdfunding and an online community. I’ll be leading one of the seminars in New York. Here is how the event is described: Designed and presented by leading distribution strategist Peter Broderick and cutting-edge author and tech analyst Scott […]

By Scott Macaulay on Oct 29, 2010 Filmmaking
“ON COAL RIVER” AT STRANGER THAN FICTION

There’s an explosion. Children play on swings, unaware of a darkening cloud on the horizon. A man opens the back of his toilet only to discover it’s filled with black sludge. Just a few scenes from On Coal River, last night’s selection for Stranger Than Fiction, the weekly documentary series hosted by Thom Powers at the IFC Center. Significantly more frightening than your average horror flick, On Coal River follows a group of West Virginia activists in their fight against Massey Energy and its practice of “mountaintop removal mining,” a type of strip mining where they literally blow off the top […]

By Mary Anderson Casavant on Oct 28, 2010 Filmmaking

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