Filmmaking

THE SAFDIES WIN OUR CREATIVITY IN MARKETING AWARD

Who says there is no clever independent film marketing? As Eric Kohn observed, Daddy Longlegs‘ Benny Safdie this weekend wore a sandwich board in midtown that, underneath the come-on, “We Buy Gold,” proclaimed, “This movie exists!” Has there ever been a more honest cry for attention from any independent filmmaker? And now, directors Josh and Benny Safdie have created a charming animated trailer, posted below, that in a completely different filmmaking medium captures some of their movie’s madcap energy. If you haven’t guessed, I love this film and urge you all to see it at the IFC Center this weekend.

By Scott Macaulay on May 10, 2010 Filmmaking
TRAILER WATCH: CHRISTOPHER NOLAN’S “INCEPTION”

The summer film I’m most looking forward to.

By Scott Macaulay on May 10, 2010 Filmmaking
KEIRA KNIGHTLEY STARS IN PEARSON WRIGHT’S INSTALLATION ART

Via Nowness is this one-minute clip from Stuart Pearson Wright’s Maze, an art installation currently up at the Riflemakers Gallery in London. Another take on the phrase “bodice ripper,” the two-channel Maze sees a corset-clad Knightley stumbling through branch-jutting topiary maze searching for her lover, played by the artist, Pearson Wright. From Nowness: While in this one-minute clip the two protagonists appear side by side, in the installation at Pearson Wright’s current show at Riflemakers in London, the piece consists of two opposing projections following the characters’ individual journeys, forcing the viewer to choose between, as the artist puts it, […]

By Scott Macaulay on May 10, 2010 Filmmaking
FACEBOOK FATIGUE

I’ve blogged several times about Facebook’s increasingly insidious attitude towards the concept of user privacy so I’ve surprised myself that I haven’t weighed in so far on their latest efforts — their “Connections” program and attempt to build a so-called Open Graph. (For a quick, visual history of Facebook’s devolving valuation of privacy, see this graphic by Matt McKeon.) There are a few reasons for this: first, I’ve been busy. Second, it occurred to me that all of Facebook’s previous privacy transgressions, like their ham-fisted Beacon program, have served to, deliberately or not, wear us all down so this latest […]

By Scott Macaulay on May 10, 2010 Filmmaking
THE BABY FILMS OF INDIE FILMMAKERS

Leading up to the release this weekend of Thomas Balme’s Babies, FilmInFocus (which, full disclosure, I am a co-editor of) asked four independent filmmakers to make one-minute films about their own babies. The shorts are unexpected and diverse and scope, and I decided to post two here. The first, Dada, is from Caveh Zahedi (I am a Sex Addict), who wrote about his filmmaking experience, “My wife was against it but I prevailed. This said, it was the longest minute of my life.” And second, Untitled, is from experimental filmmaker Jennifer Reeves, who wrote: While capturing the exuberance and wonder […]

By Scott Macaulay on May 6, 2010 Filmmaking
ANDREW SARRIS AWARD WINNER SIMON KINBERG’S ACCEPTANCE SPEECH

“I can promise you that you are going to fail… but failure is not final.” That’s screenwriter Simon Kinberg in his speech accepting the Columbia University Film School Andrew Sarris award. For all the talk here and elsewhere about the struggles of DIY filmmakers, it’s useful to note that directors and writers targeting the studio system have it tough too. In recounting the five-year-long story of turning his thesis project, Mr. and Mrs. Smith, into the big Hollywood hit it became, Kinberg offers simple but solid inspirational advice for filmmakers of all stripes.

By Scott Macaulay on May 6, 2010 Filmmaking
FILMMAKERS TAKE CHARGE AT THE MARYLAND FILM FESTIVAL

Tomorrow, May 6, through Sunday May 9 runs the Maryland Film Festival, which includes this year a one-day conference on Friday entitled “Filmmakers Taking Charge.” The festival itself has a pretty excellent schedule and then there is the conference, which is described like this: This intimate event is a daylong set of case study roundtables and networking opportunities focused on identifying methods to connect audiences and filmmakers in an increasingly overpopulated (and tech-savvy) market. The conference will bring visiting and local filmmakers together with a variety of distributors, critics, and exhibitors in a spirit of mutual support and cooperation that […]

By Scott Macaulay on May 5, 2010 Festivals & Events
GEN ART SHUTS DOWN

Another sad casualty of the current recession: Gen Art is shutting down. Most film programmers worry about how to cultivate new audiences. Gen Art never had that problem. Indeed, “Who are these people?” was always the operative phrase among film industry folk attending Gen Art screenings, which were always packed with hip and enthusiastic twentysomething viewers. Gen Art’s programming was always interesting and their model and audience outreach downright enviable. I’m sorry to see them go. From Gen Art’s website: It is with an extremely heavy heart that we are are posting this. After struggling for the past 18 months […]

By Scott Macaulay on May 5, 2010 Festivals & Events
RODRIGUEZ TAKES A MACHETE TO ARIZONA

Cinco de Mayo trailer:

By Scott Macaulay on May 5, 2010 Filmmaking
“PIN GODS” AT STF

It may be hard to imagine, but there was a time when documentaries about off-brand sporting events and competitions were a rare thing. In this pre-Spellbound era, Pin Gods managed to make a small bowling-ball sized splash at the Toronto festival, only to fall through the cracks of the distribution system (a fact bemoaned last night by one of Pin Gods’ biggest fans, Stranger Than Fiction programmer Thom Powers). A film about what its director Larry Locke calls, “the small dream,” Pin Gods is an endearingly humane look at four men, each one trying to make a life out of professional […]

By Mary Anderson Casavant on May 5, 2010 Festivals & Events

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