Filmmaking

TORONTO: ON ELEPHANTS, VIOLINS AND TATTOOS: AN INTERVIEW WITH DOUGLAS GORDON

Have you ever seen an elephant lie down? This question provoked Scottish artist Douglas Gordon to create Play Dead; Real Time, a giant, startling multiple projection depicting just that. Timeline, a beautiful Gordon exhibition the Museum of Modern Art in 2007 that included the piece, was a triumph not only with art enthusiasts but with cinephiles as well, and Gordon regularly walks the line between these two worlds. In addition to his successful art career and installation pieces, he has made two feature films: Zidane: A 21st Century Portrait (2006) and a new work, k.364 A Journey by Train (2010). […]

By Livia Bloom Ingram on Sep 14, 2010 Filmmaking
TORONTO: SPC NABS “INCENDIES”

According to Michael Fleming at Deadline, Sony Pictures Classics has acquired Denis Villeneuve‘s Incendies, which follows twins who travel to the Middle East to investigate their mother’s past and find a shocking revelation. See the trailer here.

By Jason Guerrasio on Sep 13, 2010 Festivals & Events
TORONTO: ON FESTIVAL STARTS AND THE FORCE OF NATURE THAT IS BROWNIAN MOVEMENT

It’s day four here at the Toronto Film Festival—although based on the post-midnight criteria rather than the 8-hours-of-sleep criteria, I suppose it’s technically day six. The distinctions between days, between periods of lights and darks, have a tendency to become blurry after one’s tenth—or is it the fifteenth?—festival film has come and gone. Already an appalling quantity of fast food has been eaten, numerous cups of coffee have been gratefully slurped, and at least one trusty steno pad, blank as driven snow just moments ago, is nearly full of hieroglyphics that must have meant something when I was scribbling in […]

By Livia Bloom Ingram on Sep 13, 2010 Filmmaking
BUSY DAY AT TIFF WITH “SUPER” & “DIRTY GIRL” LANDING DEALS

The first weekend of the Toronto International Film Festival comes to a close with two films finding distribution deals. Earlier today IFC landed the first major deal of the fest with a seven-figure deal for the James Gunn-directed wannabe superhero dark comedy Super, starring Rainn Wilson, Ellen Page, Kevin Bacon and Liv Tyler. And just announced moments ago, The Weinstein Company inked a U.S. deal (and some foreign territories) north of $3 million for Dirty Girl. Starring Juno Temple, Dwight Yoakam, Milla Jovovich and Willam H. Macy, the film, directed by Abe Sylvia, follows a young girl through her journey […]

By Jason Guerrasio on Sep 12, 2010 Festivals & Events
TORONTO INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL: WINDFALL

After reading a few small articles on wind energy in the Delaware County Times, the New York City-based video and commercials editor Laura Israel, who retreats to a 16’ by 16’ cabin outside the town of Meredith in said county, thought she might do something for the green movement and get a wind turbine—and not have to pay for electricity in the bargain. “I went on the internet and realized, ‘Wind energy is not what I thought.’ I was editing at a place where a guy was doing a tv segment on it as part of green. I told him […]

By Howard Feinstein on Sep 10, 2010 Filmmaking
WHAT I’M LOOKING FORWARD TO IN TORONTO

Toronto, the IFP Filmmaker Conference hot on its heels, the New York Film Festival, and, for us, the close of our Fall issue — the season has begun. We’ve already begun work on the magazine, and I’m getting ready to go Toronto, where I’ll join Howard Feinstein and Livia Bloom contributing to the magazine and blog. Of course, the best part of any festival experience is the serendipitous discovery, the word-of-mouth gem you were tipped to or the film you randomly walked into that turned out to be great. I hope to be telling you about some of those over […]

By Scott Macaulay on Sep 9, 2010 Filmmaking
LENA DUNHAM’S APATOW-PRODUCED PILOT GREENLIT BY HBO

Tiny Furniture director Lena Dunham, one of Filmmaker Magazine’s “25 New Faces of 2009,” will write, direct the pilot for, and co-executive produce a new HBO series exec produced by Judd Apatow and Jenni Konner, reports Nellie Andreeva at Deadline Hollywood. The piece says the series “is expected to feature autobiographical elements” From Deadline: “Lena has a unique, truthful comic voice,” Apatow said. “I am excited to work with her and learn from her.” Konner said she was “obsessed with working with Lena” since HBO’s entertainment president Sue Naegle gave her a copy of Tiny Furniture. “She has a staggeringly […]

By Scott Macaulay on Sep 8, 2010 Filmmaking
WHAT’S IN MY INSTAPAPER: SUNDAY MORNING LINKS

Here are a few articles, links and videos that caught my eye this week: The shape of documentaries to come may be revealed by Prison Valley, which won the second FRANCE24-Radio France International Web Documentary Award last week. From France 24’s article about the new media doc by David Dufresne and Philippe Brault: Created by David Dufresne and Philippe Brault, the striking multimedia production takes viewers to the heart of Canon City, “a distant place that is home to 36,000 souls and 13 prisons.” Produced by the French company Upian and distributed by Arte.tv, Prison Valley, is an interactive journey […]

By Scott Macaulay on Sep 5, 2010 Filmmaking
ETIENNE! PREMIERES AT NEW YORK’S reRUN

I loved Jeff Mizushima’s delicate, entirely charming, and vaguely emo-ish Etienne! when I saw it last year after its CineVegas premiere. I wound up putting Jeff in our “25 New Faces” simply because the film’s sensibility seemed so different to me. I also loved its formally-bold second-half narrative shift and director Caveh Zahedi’s last-reel appearance in a scene that could have been taken from a Peter Handke novel. The film receives its East Coast premiere at the Brooklyn gastropub theater reRun beginning tomorrow for a one-week run. You can reserve tickets here. Here’s what I wrote last year: Writer-director Jeff […]

By Scott Macaulay on Sep 2, 2010 Filmmaking
“GET ME MY F*CKING SOY BURRITO!”

Producer Gavin Polone’s presumably ex- current assistant has made one of those Xtranormal videos where you submit text and use the service to make a robotically-voiced animated short. This was sent to me this week by a friend who attested to its validity, and now, Nikki Finke gets confirmation from Polone (Curb Your Enthusiasm, Zombieland) himself. He is quoted, “Sadly, it isn’t altogether untrue. People seem to like it. Maybe it will inspire an HBO series about me?” Some enterprising curator should assemble the best of these Xtranormal videos. They’d make an oddly compelling full-evening show.

By Scott Macaulay on Sep 1, 2010 Filmmaking

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