Filmmaking
Filmmaking
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Alex Jablonski & Michael Totten
“This project has been like what musicians call ‘woodshedding,’” says Alex Jablonski about his collaborative venture with Michael Totten, Sparrow Songs. “We are finding our voice, trying out different styles, and learning so much.” Adds Totten, “In the past I’ve let this idea of ‘I don’t have the right money or equipment or subject matter’ prevent me from moving forward. Sparrow Songs has taught me to get rid of the idea of perfection because it doesn’t exist.” What is Sparrow Songs? Simply, it’s a year-long filmmaking project in which director-editor Jablonski and d.p. Totten make and upload one short doc […]
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Victoria Mahoney
Writer-director Victoria Mahoney began her artistic career as an actress in theater and then film. “Shelly Winters was my teacher,” Mahoney says. “If you touched your hair too many times in her class, she’d come over and cut off your bangs. She taught me the gift of stillness.” After working off-off Broadway, Mahoney went to L.A., did a number of pilots, a few European films, and a season of Seinfeld (she played Gladys Mayo, owner of the clothing store Putumayo). But then there were all those “ridiculous films I did to sustain myself. And that’s when I began to feel […]
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SUPERFLUID’S QUID PRO QUO
I’ve been interested in the concept of alternative forms of currency, barter and exchange with regards to independent film production and distribution for a little while. Back in November I blogged about a Doug Rushkoff speech on video in which he discussed some of the new start-ups exploring these ideas. I wrote: With two-and-a-half minutes to go, Rushkoff reaches the reason I decided to watch the video: a discussion of alternate forms of currency to facilitate creative value exchange. Of course, the idea of local currency or script, actually being practiced in some communities, has surfaced recently in discussions about […]
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DOCUMENTARIES GO IN BLOOM AND UNDER THE KNIFE
As part of her series “Documentaries in Bloom” at the Maysles Center, curator, critic, and Filmmaker contributor Livia Bloom has assembled a fascinating program this week comprised of three rarely shown films all dealing with plastic surgery and the construction of beauty. The centerpiece is Mitch McCabe’s feature Youth Knows No Pain, in which the filmmaker (and daughter of a plastic surgeon) examines America’s “culture of anti-aging,” juxtaposing her research with an examination of not only her own face but her own attitudes towards her body as a result of being her father’s daughter. I saw the film when it […]
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HARVEY PEKAR, R.I.P.
The comic book genius and working man’s philosopher Harvey Pekar died today of cancer at age 70. From William Grimes’ New York Times obituary. Harvey Pekar’s life was the subject of Shari Springer Berman and Robert Pulcini’s innovative bio-pic, American Splendor, in which Paul Giamatti played Pekar in the dramatic sections while Pekar appeared as himself in interview segments. The trailer is below. R.I.P., Harvey.
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“NIGHT AND FOG” IT AIN’T
When I was sent a link to this video today I was initially sure it was a bad-taste put-on. It’s not. “I Will Survive: Dancing Auschwitz” is apparently exactly what it purports to be: a Holocaust survivor and his family dancing at several concentration camps to Gloria Gaynor’s “I Will Survive.” Reaction to the clip has been mixed. Buzzfeed calls it “the most heartwarming Holocaust memorial ever displayed.” At Haaretz, the filmmaker defends her clip. From their piece: Australian Jewish artist Jane Korman filmed her three children and her father, 89-year-old Holocaust survivor Adolk, in the video clip “I Will […]
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10/40/70’s NICHOLAS ROMBES INTERVIEWED
The rise of the web has led to an explosion of film writing — Roger Ebert has called it “A Golden Age of Movie Critics.” I don’t disagree with him, but I also think it’s fair to say that with the exception of comments boards and social media, the web hasn’t changed the actual form of film writing that much. A few people (Matt Zoller Seitz, for example), are exploring long-form film criticism online through engagingly edited videos. And, of course, the web has brought David Bordwell’s essential essays exploring films through the history of their technologies, styles, and audience’s […]
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WHAT’S IN MY INSTAPAPER (SUNDAY MORNING LINKS)
Here are a few links I sent to my Instapaper account and have been reading this weekend. * When we queried a few filmmakers for a column on software and apps in the new issue of Filmmaker, I noted the number of respondents who had migrated to the Android operating system. I recalled meeting an Android developer at SXSW this year, and he told me he was planning for the platform’s rapid rise. He also said that he was an Apple fan too, and he felt the competition would be a good thing for both platforms. There’s an exchange along […]
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SHE AND HIM IN SUPER 8
She and Him, the band comprised of Zooey Deschanel and M. Ward, have a new video out for their song “Thieves.” It’s in gloriously grainy Super 8 and directed by Norwood Cheek, who is also responsible for L.A.’s Flicker Film Festival. Check out the video below.
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IN TURKEY, CINEMA AS CAMERA
Here’s a short video from The Guardian in which artist Mark Wallinger discusses his plans for a cinema/art installation overlooking the Çanakkale Strait in Turkey.
