Last night British director Chris Cunningham premiered a new short work, New York is Killing Me, at the Museum of Modern Art. An “audio-visual remix” of the song by Gil-Scott Heron from his new album, the piece was projected on three screens and was both darkly beautiful as well as unexpectedly simple. Far from the stutter-step hyperglitch and shocking imagery of his short Rubber Johnny and some of his Aphex Twin videos, New York is Killing Me was dreamy in both seductive and menacing ways. A close-up of Scott-Heron singing the song occupied the left side of the middle screen […]
So if you’re reading this, it means Filmmaker Magazine hasn’t cut off my access to blog at this site yet, and I’m here with another report. Independent Film Week has officially ended as I write this, but it’s a testament to IFP and the power of being part of the Emerging Narrative/Project Forum that it feels as if so much new has started—new connections, new possibilities, new friends, new outlook on the indie film world, and a new sense of my own work. When I last checked in, I described the setup of the Project Forum meetings, which lasted through […]
Thanks to the Workbook Project for allowing us to cross-post this interview with Ben Moskowitz of the Open Video Conference. Filmmaker readers can receive a special discount to attend this year’s conference by clicking here and entering the discount code FILM20. The Open Video Conference returns to NYC with a stop at FIT for two days of conference Oct 1st and 2nd and a special hack day on Oct 3rd. We caught up with Ben Moskowitz who’s pulling the event together to get a better sense of what to expect. WorkBook Project: What is OVC and what’s new this year? […]
Here’s part one of five from yesterday’s press conference of the New York Film Festival’s opening day film, The Social Network, at Lincoln Center yesterday. Parts two through five can be seen at the film’s YouTube site.
A highlight of last year for me was the Open Video Conference, a two-day seminar uniting thinkers, technologists, software developers and activists around the concept of “open video” — that is, open, non-proprietary standards allowing video to be generated and distributed on the web with the same ease as text. For a taste of what last year was like, read my coverage here. I’ll be attending this year’s conference at the Fashion Institute of Technology this coming Friday and Saturday, October 1 and 2. The organizers have kindly offered a discount to Filmmaker readers, so if you’d like to attend, […]
Starting with Jesse Eisenberg, stills from today’s red carpet and press conference by Jamie Stuart, whose filmic ode to this year’s New York Film Festival will be up on the site soon.
IFP invited a number of us to blog our experiences at Independent Film Week, and we were supposed to contribute three posts. But with a whirlwind of meetings, events, and networking opportunities to try to take advantage of, I haven’t had much time to sleep, much less time to blog. So here’s my one post wrapping up our experiences pitching our transmedia project 3rd Rail (pictured) during Independent Film Week, which will have to do in lieu of three progress reports. For a great general description of the Project Forum and how it is configured, see Marc Maurino’s post. Marc […]
Cinetic Media powerhouse John Sloss took to the stage on Wednesday morning at the Independent Filmmaker Conference in a conversation moderated by indieWIRE’s Eugene Hernandez (who announced today that he is leaving indieWIRE to take a new role as Director of Digital Strategy at the Film Society of Lincoln Center). Sloss began the conversation by acknowledging that we all stand on the shoulders of giants, pointing to the influence of John Pierson on his career, “His heart wasn’t in the business side of things but mine was.” Everyone should read Pierson’s book Spike, Mike, Slackers and Dykes he declared. He […]
Like a bitch-slap to those who have accused it of excessive reverence for French fare over the past 48 years, the 2010 New York Film Festival is bookended and centered on American movies—oddly enough, all from the big studios. David Fincher‘s The Social Network (pictured above) opens the event September 24; Clint Eastwood’s Hereafter is the October 10 Closing Night selection; and Julie Taymor’s The Tempest, the Centerpiece. I’ve seen none of them, but early reviews of The Social Network have been very positive, not surprising from the director of Se7en and Fight Club. Evaluations of Hereafter have been much […]
Eugene Hernandez, the editor-in-chief/co-founder of indieWIRE will be joining the Film Society of Lincoln Center as their director of digital strategy, according to an announcement sent out today by FSLC. Hernandez is one of the most respected voices in indie film, starting indieWIRE in 1996 and building it to become the prominent site that it is today through tireless news and film festival reporting, and most recently bringing on marquee names to blog for the site like Anne Thompson, Todd McCarthy and Leonard Maltin. FSLC describes Hernandez’s newly created role as overseeing all digital initiatives of the nonprofit, including working […]