Filmmaking

Hirokazu Kore-eda on Still Walking

A connoisseur of longing and remembrance who brings great sensitivity to each of his reflective fables, Japan’s Hirokazu Kore-eda should be better known in the States, as his films extend the tradition of world-class artists like Naruse and Ozu. Enthralled with the operation of memory and the impact of grief on the lives of everyday people, Kore-eda has created a body of work that’s as rich with feeling as it is modest in tone. In Maborosi (1995), Kore-eda told the story of a quietly devastated young widow struggling to move on after her husband commits suicide. He then departed from […]

By Jason Guerrasio on Aug 26, 2009 Directing
SPIKE LEE’S FILM ABOUT STEW’S PASSING STRANGE

Back in 2005 Matt Ross selected STEW for our “25 New Faces” list. STEW is the multi-media art duo consisting of theater artists Stew and Heidi Rodewald, and they had just staged their show Passing Strange at the Public Theater and attended the Sundance Producer’s Lab. Four years later a film version of Passing Strange opens at the IFC Center, directed by Spike Lee. Check it out this weekend and meet Stew and Heidi, who will be appearing in person at the shows. Here’s the trailer:

By Scott Macaulay on Aug 21, 2009 Filmmaking
MUSIC VIDEO’S DEFLATIONARY DEATH SPIRAL

I remember being involved in a music video in the 1980s. At the time I was programming director at New York’s The Kitchen and we would rent out the space to video shoots to help pay the rent. The space got rented out to a big video with a budget in the mid-six-figures. They took both floors, built for a few days, shot for a few days, and envelopes of petty cash were handed out like candy. A few years later my partner and I produced a couple of music videos and wondered how we’d pull it off on only […]

By Scott Macaulay on Aug 21, 2009 Filmmaking
WERNER HERZOG’S MY SON, MY SON, WHAT HAVE YE DONE TRAILER

Werner Herzog has not just his Bad Lieutenant rethink at Toronto but also his David Lynch-executive produced psychological crime drama My Son, My Son, What Have Ye Done. Strip out the title cards and the formulaic voiceover and there is some vintage Herzog in this trailer.

By Scott Macaulay on Aug 21, 2009 Filmmaking
MICHAEL MOORE PREMIERES CAPITALISM: A LOVE STORY TRAILER

Timely? Too late? Successfully satirical or else defeated by the same complexities that have befuddled the lawmakers themselves? We’ll see what happens when Moore takes his Everyman Avenger persona into the dizzying world of derivatives and credit default swaps. Embedded video from CNN Video

By Scott Macaulay on Aug 20, 2009 Filmmaking
JEREMIAH ZAGAR’S IN A DREAM ON HBO 2 TONIGHT

In our Spring, 2009 issue, Lauren Wissot interviewed In a Dream director Jeremiah Zagar as well as his longtime producer Jeremy Yaches and their executive producers Pamela Tanner Boll and Geralyn White Dreyfous. The feature, which is a fascinating look at artistic obsession and its effects on an entire Philadelphia family, receives its broadcast premiere on HBO2 tonight at 8pm with further screenings as detailed on this schedule: Wednesday, 8/19 @ 8pm – HBO2 EastWednesday, 8/19 @ 11pm – HBO2 WestMonday, 8/24 @ 6:30pm – HBO2 EastMonday, 824 @ 9:30pm – HBO2 WestFriday, 8/28 @ 1:30am – HBO2 EastFriday, 8/28 […]

By Scott Macaulay on Aug 19, 2009 Filmmaking
ROGER EBERT ON THE DEATH PANELS

Peter Bowen at FilmInFocus pointed me towards this striking Roger Ebert piece entitled “Death Panels: A Most Excellent Phrase.” Weighing in on the current health reform debate from the perspective of a man who has endured several life-threatening illnesses and operations in recent years, Ebert illustrates his article with images and film clips from a movie that shows us what a real death panel would actually be like. From Carl Theodor Dreyer’s The Passion of Joan of Arc:

By Scott Macaulay on Aug 19, 2009 Filmmaking
ROBERT MCKEE ON REWRITING

When I used to be script reader for one of the mini-majors, I remember all of the executives taking Robert McKee’s Story seminars. Invariably they all came back extolling its praises, even the ones who kind of dismissed it going in. When he issued his seminar in book form, Story, I got around to reading it, and, like everything, there’s plenty to take away from it even if you choose not to focus on some of his broader dictums. (I especially like McKee for his discussion of the expectations of genre.) Anyway, so too his interviews. There’s a lot of […]

By Scott Macaulay on Aug 19, 2009 Filmmaking
"25 NEW FACE" IAN OLDS’ FIXER ON HBO TONIGHT

With his partner, the late Garrett Scott, Ian Olds made the excellent Iraq war doc, Occupation: Dreamland. This year Olds completed his first solo doc, Fixer, a riveting story of the capture and execution by the Taliban of Ajmal Nadshbandi, whose job was to aid foreign journalists in their attempts to capture what’s going on in Afghanistan and make sense of it for us. The film not only captures the human tragedy of Nadshbandi’s killing but also its global dimension, showing us how governments decide how to value the lives of their citizens. On the basis of this film as […]

By Scott Macaulay on Aug 17, 2009 Filmmaking
WERNER HERZOG ON HIS BAD LIEUTENANT: PORT OF CALL NEW ORLEANS

BAD LIEUTENANT: PORT OF CALL NEW ORLEANS – Werner Herzog Interview from Millennium Films on Vimeo. Hat tip: Movie City Indie.

By Scott Macaulay on Aug 16, 2009 Filmmaking

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