Filmmaking

“DEAR DIARY” — TORONTO’S WAVELENGTHS 6: FLASH POINT CAMERA

In a personal touch, all the filmmakers whose work was showcased in the sixth and final Wavelengths program were present for their screening. German director Ute Aurand presented a reverie on her childhood and family called Snowing Chestnut Blossoms, while American Jim Jennings, apparently a neighbor of mine in Brooklyn, showed a collection of images in Greenpoint that not only documented the quirky, spunky personality of that environ but also reminded me of two pair of boots in that little shoe repair shop with the orange-awning that are just about ready to be picked up.Coleen Fitzgibbon’s FM/TRCS (1974) is an […]

By Livia Bloom Ingram on Sep 20, 2009 Filmmaking
“GHOST STORIES” — TORONTO’S WAVELENGTHS 5: UNE CATASTROPHE

Glowing phantoms of days and films past haunted the fifth Wavelengths avant-garde film program at this year’s Toronto International Film Festival, a series of meditations in which, as film programmer Andréa Picard described, “personal expressions of historical and collective memory confront spectres from the past.” Une Catastrophe (pictured), Jean-Luc Godard’s trailer for the Viennale is a companion piece of sorts to the Alonso BIFICI trailer that screened the night before. At once forward-looking and nostalgic (it excerpts and pays homage to Sergei Eistenstein‘s Battleship Potemkin, among other films) Godard’s piece is happily available online here. Apichatpong Weerasethakul, the Thai director […]

By Livia Bloom Ingram on Sep 19, 2009 Filmmaking
FILMMAKERS BLOG ABOUT INDEPENDENT FILM WEEK

You may have caught on overnight that IFP’s Independent Film Week is upon us. Throughout the event (which begins tomorrow and concludes on the 24th) filmmakers who are participating this year will take time out of their busy schedules to post their thoughts on the experience on the blog. Here’s who you’ll be hearing from: Kristi Jacobson (Hungry in America, Spotlight on Documentaries)Paul Lovelace & Jessica Wolfson, a.k.a. Lost Footage Films (Radio Unnameable, Spotlight on Documentaries) Rebecca Richman Cohen (War Don Don, Spotlight on Documentaries)Jennifer Phang (Look for Water, No Borders)Noah Harlan (Free In Deed, No Borders)Melissa B. Miller (The […]

By Jason Guerrasio on Sep 18, 2009 Filmmaking
TORONTO — THE BEST LAID PLANS: ACCIDENT AND THE DISAPPEARANCE OF ALICE CREED

Industry friendly genre films are always top draws at film festivals, and So Chiang’s Accident, produced by Johnny To and straight from Venice, has a diabolical premise that calls out for an English-language remake. A team of hit-men and women meticulously stage their killings to appear as accidents. Chiang takes an Argento-like glee in these elaborate projects, which are part Rube Goldberg and part Al Queda training manual. Balloons float into the sky to block ever-present security cameras; minor car crashes set off chain reactions leading to neck-slicing rain showers of shattered glass; the slicked-down streets found in so many […]

By Scott Macaulay on Sep 17, 2009 Filmmaking
“BRICK WORK” — TORONTO’S WAVELENGTHS 4: IN COMPARISON

Ironically, a strange, brilliant one-minute trailer for the Buenos Aires Festival International de Cine Independiente (BAFICI) by Argentine director Lisandro Alonso opened the fourth Wavelengths program of avant-garde cinema at the Toronto International Film Festival. In the piece, officially titled S/T (pictured above), an unblinking owl stared in luxuriously saturated color, while pounding drums created a masterful musical score. The work was being asked to function not primarily as advertising but as cinema — and experimental art cinema at that. S/T was followed by In Comparison, a 16mm film by accomplished filmmaker and installation artist Harun Farocki. Born in the […]

By Livia Bloom Ingram on Sep 16, 2009 Filmmaking
CRITERION ANNOUNCES KUROSAWA BOX SET

With this being the 100 year anniversary of Akira Kurosawa‘s birth the Criterion Collection announced today that in December they will be putting out the most comprehensive collection of the legendary director’s work ever to be released in the US, which will include four titles never before available on DVD. From the release: AK 10025 Films by Akira Kurosawa Deluxe, linen-bound collector’s set includes twenty-five films and an illustrated book featuring an introduction and notes on each of the films by Stephen Prince (The Warrior’s Camera: The Cinema of Akira Kurosawa) and a remembrance by Donald Richie (Films of Akira […]

By Jason Guerrasio on Sep 16, 2009 Filmmaking
"ARE YOU READY TO KILL SOME NAZIS?" INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS IN ISRAEL

With its pulp fiction take on the Nazi regime, World War 2, and a band of Jewish avengers, many have wondered how Quentin Taratino’s Inglourious Basterds would play in Israel. Well, if initial press reports are accurate, the answer is pretty well. Haaretz.com titles its story, “Israelis go wild for Inglourious Basterds,” noting that Tarantino introduced the premiere by saying, “Are you reading to kill some Nazis?” (They didn’t note the second line: “Are you ready to fuck up some Nazis?”). See the intro here: The film opens in Israeli theaters on Thursday, and we’ll check out the reviews when […]

By Scott Macaulay on Sep 16, 2009 Filmmaking
“PARTICIPATORY ETHNOGRAPHY” — TORONTO’S WAVELENGTHS 3: LET EACH ONE GO WHERE HE MAY

A pair of bare feet was wedged though the gap between seats in front of me, ankles casually crossed and toes silhouetted against the screen, for Let Each One Go Where He May, the third experimental Wavelengths program at this year’s Toronto Film Festival. The screening was devoted to the World Premiere of a single 135-minute 16mm work by American filmmaker Ben Russell?. The film has no translated dialogue and no traditional narrative. It is made up of ten 13-minute shots of two men walking and is described by programmer Andréa Picard as an “intervention” into culture and landscape. This […]

By Livia Bloom Ingram on Sep 15, 2009 Filmmaking
Exclusive | OREN PELI TALKS PARANORMAL

We’ve been keeping tabs on director Oren Peli (pictured) and his debut low-budget horror Paranormal Activity after seeing the film and instantly putting him on our 2008 25 New Faces on Independent Film list. Now Paramount Pictures has announced that the film — which the few who have seen it compare to The Blair Witch Project — will be doing a creative release of the film starting Sept. 24th when it screens at Austin’s Fantastic Fest at midnight. In select theaters across the country on the same night the film will have free midnight screenings. The studio has also created […]

By Jason Guerrasio on Sep 15, 2009 Filmmaking
WEINSTEINS TAKE SINGLE MAN

In the first major deal at Toronto, the Weinstein Company has picked up Tom Ford‘s A Single Man in a seven-figure deal for U.S. and German rights, according to Variety. An adaptation of the Christopher Isherwood novel, the fim’s star Colin Firth recently received the Best Actor award at the Venice Film Festival. Follow our coverage of the Toronto International Film Festival here.

By Jason Guerrasio on Sep 15, 2009 Filmmaking

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