Filmmaking

HARVEY MILK AT 575 CASTRO STREET

New on the FilmInFocus site is “575 Castro Street,” a short film by San Francisco filmmaker Jenni Olson (The Joy of Life). The film contains images shot on the set of Gus Van Sant’s film over which audio from the real Harvey Milk is played. Excerpted from her director’s statement, which can be read in full at the link above: The visuals of 575 Castro St. (the play of light and shadow upon the walls of the Castro Camera set for Gus Van Sant’s Milk) harken back to those gay short films of the ‘70s: The films that passed through […]

By Scott Macaulay on Nov 25, 2008 Filmmaking
RANDALL SHARP, HENRY MAY LONG AND MAX RICHTER

Over on the main page, check out Alicia Van Couvering’s interview with Randall Sharp, director of the indie anomaly Henry May Long that plays at New York’s Sunshine Theater this week. I call it an anomaly, because you don’t see many elegant turn-of-the-centry period dramas arising from the Gotham indie scene. Here, Sharp tells Van Couvering why she chose to set her tale in 1887: I felt like setting it in that period would wake up the story again. Otherwise it’s just another guy shooting heroin, another gay guy who loved a straight guy. Also it’s a way to say, […]

By Scott Macaulay on Nov 25, 2008 Filmmaking
RADDON RESIGNS FROM THE L.A. FILM FESTIVAL

David Poland posted on his Hot Blog early this morning that Rich Raddon, the director of Film Independent’s L.A. Film Festival who found himself under fire when it was reported that he donated $1,500 in support of California’s anti-gay-marriage Proposition 8, has resigned. Mike Jones now has a story at Variety that contains two statements. First, from Raddon: “I feel honored to have worked with such a wonderful group of people at the Los Angeles Film Festival over the last nine years. I am proud of our accomplishments. And I am proud to have worked at Film Independent, an organization […]

By Scott Macaulay on Nov 25, 2008 Filmmaking
HOLLYWOOD IN THE UAE

With Robert DeNiro announcing that

By Scott Macaulay on Nov 25, 2008 Filmmaking
CRITERION LAUNCHES ONLINE STORE

The Criterion Company has arguably created the most successful art-film related brand when it comes to monetizing the idea of cinematic value. Many people buy their DVDs for the same reason my parents used to line our bookshelves with Modern Library editions of the classics. They are titles that if one is cultured one should know about. They rarely sell the idea of excitement or entertainment; instead, with their director-approved transfers and culturally dense supporting materials, they sell the idea of connoisseurship and erudition. Until now, that idea has always rested in physicality of their beautifully packaged disks. Now, the […]

By Scott Macaulay on Nov 25, 2008 Filmmaking
LIGHTS OUT FOR NEW YORK CITY

Filmmaker Ian Cheney, co-producer of King Corn, and director of the forthcoming The City Dark, and Emily Bolevice, a teacher and freelance photographer, have created a lovely video op-ed for the New York Times. It argues that the city should cut back on the night lighting of public buildings as a way of dealing with the coming budget gap, and it is illustrated with beautiful night-time photography of the city. The City Dark is a feature dealing with the fascinating subject of light pollution. For more on the movie click on the link. The Times video is not embeddable, so […]

By Scott Macaulay on Nov 24, 2008 Filmmaking
Director Randall Sharp on Henry May Long

The Talented Mr. Ripley by way of Somerset Maugham, Henry May Long is a drama about two men, Henry May and Henry Long, set in the upper crust and under belly of 1887 New York City. Long is obsessed with the golden child May, and via constant surveillance has come to know his secret debt and drug addiction. He convinces May to care for him for three months, as an illness takes his toll, in exchange for money to repay May’s debts. Hiding out, along together, their friendship expands and May begins to find meaning in his own limited life […]

By Jason Guerrasio on Nov 24, 2008 Directing
ANTONIO CAMPOS ON AFTERSCHOOL

For the final artist statement in our check-in with the “Best Film Not Playing at a Theater Near You” directors, whose pictures can be seen at MOMA this weekend, here is what Afterschool director Antonio Campos emailed to the blog. (Afterschool plays tomorrow at 5:30pm). I also point you towards BFNP juror Brandon Harris’s compelling argument for the film over at Hammer to Nail. An excerpt: Afterschool is a movie not unlike so many punky, fishnet wearing, Sartre reading high school students; the type you don’t often encounter in this kind of picture. Like that tired cliché for transitory and […]

By Scott Macaulay on Nov 22, 2008 Filmmaking
CATHERINE HARDWICKE ON TWILIGHT

At Filmmaker, we like to keep up with the directors who we have supported early in their careers. Back in Summer, 2003, we placed Catherine Hardwicke’s Thirteen on the cover. Now, three films and five years later, she is at the helm of a genuine pop-cult phenomenon: Twilight, adapted from Stephanie Meyer’s best-selling teen novels. Over in our web exclusives, Alicia Van Couvering catches up with Hardwicke on the eve of the film’s release and discusses things like teenage lust, vampires on jet-skis, casting Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson, and how you could always use a little more money. An […]

By Scott Macaulay on Nov 21, 2008 Filmmaking
Director Catherine Hardwicke on Twilight

All of Catherine Hardwicke’s four feature films – Thirteen, The Lords of Dogtown, The Nativity Story and now Twilight – have been about teenagers. They have also all been about real people, and all but Thirteen cover stories and characters already known to the public. Twilight is a teen vampire love story based faithfully on the Stephanie Meyer’s book trilogy, starring Kristen Stewart as the human Bella and Robert Pattison as the “vegetarian” vampire Edward Cullen who loves her too much to bite her. The books are coveted and obsessed over by young girls across this country, who are assembling in […]

By Jason Guerrasio on Nov 21, 2008 Directing

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