Spring, 1996. It’s so strange now to look back at a piece in this issue by David Leitner on the new digital camera technology and read this bit of breaking news: 1996 will witness the inauguration of prerecorded films on CD-sized Digital Versatile Disks or “DVDs” (you and I will call them Digital Video Disks). DVDs not only doom VHS but also CD-ROMs as we know them for the mere reason that single-sided DVDs store 8.5 gigabytes compared to the puny 680 megabytes of CDs while manufacturing costs are the same. Also in this issue was filmmaker John Landis (yes, […]
Rooney Mara — profiled in Filmmaker last summer when we selected her for our “25 New Faces” list — has won out in the most public casting process I can remember in years for the lead role as Lisbeth Salander in David Fincher’s adaptation of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. It’s interesting to read some coverage that has called her an unknown and then to compare the comment to my lede in last year’s profile, reprinted below. She talks about why she got into acting, her love of John Cassavetes, and her non-profit organization, Faces of Kibera. The careers […]
Attention film lovers in or around Tacoma, Washington: Beginning this Friday, The Grand Cinema will be presenting projects from this year’s “25 New Faces of Independent Film.” Nowhere else in the country will you be able to see the works from this year’s 25 New Faces in a concentrated program at the same venue. The six-day event will include 21 films and 12 of the “25” will be making the trip to be in attendance, including New Low‘s Adam Bowers, Babyland‘s Marc Fratello and The New Year‘s Trieste Kelly Dunn. We here at Filmmaker would like to give a special […]
One of most vital stops on the funding circuit for European arthouse films as well as select American independents is the Rotterdam Cinemart, held each year at the International Film Festival Rotterdam in late January. Here is how the festival describes the Cinemart: CineMart was the first platform of its kind to offer filmmakers the opportunity to launch their ideas to the international film industry and to find the right connections to get their projects financed. Launching about 36 new projects in need of additional financing, CineMart also heralds an important start of the ‘film year’. Every year, the CineMart […]
Project Forum, part of IFP‘s Independent Film Week which will take place Sept. 19-23, is the centerpiece of IFW, designed specifically as a place for industry to meet with new talent, as well as discover fresh projects from emerging and veteran filmmakers. 150 projects have been selected for this year’s Project Forum, and will be spread out over its four section — Emerging Narrative, Independent Filmmaker Labs, No Borders International Co-Production Market and Spotlight on Documentaries. Some of the established names showing new work this year include producers like Howard Gertler & John Cameron Mitchell (Shortbus), Lynette Howell (Half Nelson), […]
Spike Lee was our cover in Winter, 1996, and there were two tie-ins. First, his movie Girl 6 was about to be released. And, second, John Pierson’s Spike, Mike, Slackers and Dykes was just being published. For Filmmaker, Pierson gave us an expanded version of a talk he had with Lee and Kevin Smith that includes this interesting note from Lee. I had forgotten that Lee’s intended first feature was Messenger, an autobiographical tale about a young bicycle messenger. The film collapsed in pre-production when financing was pulled. Kevin: I want to do goofy young filmmaker questions, the kinds of […]
Here’s what piled up in my Instapaper this week: Director Armando Iannaccui on the proposed shutdown of the UK Film Council: An excerpt: Here’s what happens when you try to make a film. You have no money, but you have an idea. You need people, helpful, experienced people, to guide you to where the money is, fit you up with the best sort of financial backing, who understand the film you want to make, can nudge it in a direction that will see it gets the audience it merits. That’s what the UK Film Council built up 10 years of […]
A number of cool things about our Fall, 1995 issue. First, the cover portrait of Tim Roth was an original by Nan Goldin, which was a pretty amazing coup for us at the time. Roth was one of the stars of Four Rooms, a now barely-remembered omnibus film all set in a hotel with segments helmed by Quentin Tarantino, Robert Rodriguez, Allison Anders and Alexandre Rockwell. Roth had shaved his head for a part when this photo was taken, so he was kind of unrecognizable, but we were still thrilled to have an original of Nan’s. L.M. Kit Carson did […]
Summer, 1995. Safe. The Usual Suspects. Kids. Living in Oblivion. Double Happiness. The Brothers McMullen. The Incredibly True Adventure of Two Girls in Love. Art for Teachers of Children. All in the same issue. What a quarter for independent film releases! Julianne Moore from Safe was on the cover, inaugurating our irregular tradition of the big-head cover photo. Larry Gross interviewed Haynes, and it’s a great interview. An excerpt: Gross: Leaving the world of the film for just a second, do you ever feel ambivalent about making a film that’s this pessimistic? Is somebody watching the film gonna say “I […]
Terry Zwigoff’s Crumb was our cover story in Spring, 1995. Consensus was that our cover, which was an illustration by the film’s subject, R. Crumb, didn’t really work. Newsstand distributors mistook the issue for a comics magazine, leading to retail confusion. Also in the book: Swimming with Sharks, Basketball Diaries, My Family, and Berenice Reynaud interviewing filmmaker Lourdes Portillo about her The Devil Never Sleeps. Liza Bear interviewed Atom Egoyan about his Exotica, who spoke of the film and his impending fatherhood: Filmmaker: You were becoming a father while Exotica was in production. What effect did being an expectant parent […]