Filmmaking

A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE?

One of the more curious projects out there right now is reported on by Jeff Wells today over at Hollywood Elsewhere. It’s the adaptation of Peter Biskind’s Down and Dirty Pictures, which is to be directed by Kenneth Bowser, best known for his Emmy Award-winning episode of American Masters on John Ford and his helming of the doc version of Biskind’s previous Easy Riders, Raging Bulls. Now he’s heading behind the camera again for a dramatic adaptation of Biskind’s book chronicling the rise of independent film — or, more accurately, the growth of the mini-majors and the specialty film market. […]

By Scott Macaulay on Apr 2, 2008 Filmmaking
PAUL ARTHUR, R.I.P.

Manohla Dargis notes the passing of film historian, critic and filmmaker Paul Arthur in the New York Times. An excerpt: He was first published in the early 1970s, and over the next few decades he wrote fluidly and accessibly on a range of topics, notably avant-garde cinema but also film noir and documentary. His work appeared in publications including Artforum, Film Comment, Cineaste, The Village Voice and USA Today magazine. For several years starting in the mid-1980s he served on the board for two venerable avant-garde film institutions in New York: the Collective for Living Cinema, an adventurous screening space, […]

By Scott Macaulay on Mar 30, 2008 Filmmaking
WEEKEND ROUNDUP

Here’s a roundup of some stuff that caught my eye in the blogosphere this weekend. There’s a lively discussion going on over at Indiewire regarding the Tribeca Film Festival’s “embargo” rule that attempts to prohibit press from writing about pre-screened films until after their Tribeca premiere. Of course, in the world of mainstream journalism, embargos happen all the time; what irks a pretty passionate group of responding posters is the TFF’s attempt to be strict with this rule when it comes to the online journalists who can often positively motivate a fan base leading up to a film’s fest premiere. […]

By Scott Macaulay on Mar 30, 2008 Filmmaking
ARTS ENGINE NABS DOCUCLUB

Celebrating its tenth year, the organization Arts Engine, which produces, supports and distributes social-issue media, has announced today that it will be expanding its services to include DocuClub, the 14-year-old program dedicated to nurturing documentaries that are works-in-progress. DocuClub’s first screening of ’08 will be recent “25 New Faces” Kimberly Reed‘s Prodigal Sons, taking place next month in New York City. Arts Engine is also re-launching its fiscal sponsorship program, which has provided services for films such as My Kid Could Paint That, God Grew Tired of Us, The Story of the Lost Boys of the Sudan, The Trials of […]

By Jason Guerrasio on Mar 28, 2008 Filmmaking
AUSTIN FLASHBACKS

With Austin’s SXSW 2008 now a memory, perhaps it’s appropriate that Spencer Parsons’ essay on the changing topography of the city itself has just gone up at the FilmInFocus site. The critic, professor and filmmaker (his feature I’ll Come Running, starring Melonie Diaz, should appear on the festival circuit this year) pens an ode to the places the city has lost since Rick Linklater’s Slacker memorialized a whole stretch of its countercultural topography. And despite the inherent whiff of nostalgia, Parsons finds much to like in Austin today while writing more broadly about the ways artists appropriate and create from […]

By Scott Macaulay on Mar 26, 2008 Filmmaking
WOULD A FILM IMPROVE YOUR LIFE?

Sometimes people approach us at Filmmaker who need, simply, a filmmaker — someone to do for-hire work documenting some aspect of their life. For all of these folks and as a public service we pass on the following video, linked to at Boing Boing and which there is an extended discussion about here.

By Scott Macaulay on Mar 25, 2008 Filmmaking
LOST AND CENTRAL CONFLICT THEORY

Over at his Esotika Erotica Psychotica blog, Mike explains why he’s been slacking on posting and watching Lost instead. His explanation contains a great passage from Raul Ruiz’s Poetics of Cinema that makes me want to dust off my copy. But, I do occasionally “watch TV” via DVD rentals, streaming episodes, and online downloads. For some reason, at the beginning of February, something convinced me to start watching Lost. And then, since February 9th, I’ve watched the entire first three seasons, plus the five episodes of season four that have aired so far. This amounts to 76 45 minute episodes. […]

By Scott Macaulay on Mar 24, 2008 Filmmaking
ZERO PLUS 20

Scott Timberg’s L.A. Times profile of Bret Easton Ellis — in a piquantly titled column called “Reassessments” — is worth a read. It’s got this strong section on contemporary storytelling’s fixation on defined, understandable characters, which includes quotes by A.O. Scott and Jonatham Lethem: Of all the things the literary world holds against Ellis, his lack of interest in characters with recognizable psychological depth may be the most unforgivable. His players are impassive to the point of opaque. They resemble each other so completely they almost cease to exist. In “Psycho” and “Glamorama” people are often mistaken for each other: […]

By Scott Macaulay on Mar 24, 2008 Filmmaking
TRIBECA ALL ACCESS CELEBRATES 5TH YEAR

The Tribeca Film Institute announced the projects for its 2008 Tribeca All Access program today. The program is designed to “help foster relationships between film industry executives and filmmakers from traditionally underrepresented communities,” according the the press release. Tribeca All Access will provide the filmmakers workshops and opportunities to present their works in one-on-one meetings with more than 100 potential investors, development executives, producers and agents. The six-day event will take place during the Tribeca Film Festival in late April. The 37 narrative and documentary projects selected (the largest showing ever) are listed below. NARRATIVE Bardos, Anslem Richardson (Writer)Two family […]

By Jason Guerrasio on Mar 24, 2008 Filmmaking
NEW YEAR ARRIVES IN NYC

Over at his Cinema Echo Chamber, Brandon Harris interviews Tom Quinn, writer/director of the excellent indie feature The New Year Parade, which screens tonight at the IFC Center. The film won the Grand Prize at Slamdance this year and is also a graduate of the IFP Rough Cuts Lab, which is where I originally encountered it. Harris originally wrote about the film here on the Filmmaker blog, and in the intro to the interview at Cinema Echo Chamber he dubs the film a “naturalistic, emotionally resonant look at the year long dissolution and repair of a South Philadelphia Irish family, […]

By Scott Macaulay on Mar 24, 2008 Filmmaking

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