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Before arriving at Sundance, if people asked what I thought the business climate was going to be, I told them that if they had a film with name cast and genre hooks enabling it to be sold as something other than a speciality film that the bidding would be strong. Traditional “small” speciality films might have a harder time given the poor theatrical performance of last year’s Sundance titles. So far, I don’t think my prediction is far off, although it’s too early to tell how strong the bidding will be for the larger titles. One industry vet told me […]
Filmmakers Joe Swanberg and Ronnie Bronstein are videoblogging Sundance for Spout. Here’s episode four, in which they wonder where all the filmmakers are. Sundance 4: Melee on Main StreetAdd to My Profile | More Videos
I ran into producer Mike Ryan, whose Choke is screening here at Sundance, and he told me about a new website he’s involved with. Hammer to Nail has just launched, with Ryan and, soon, Mike Tully filing film reviews from Sundance — reviews that are intended to be provocative conversation-starters that eschew the niceties that sometimes inhibit writing from not only the MSM but also the blogosphere. (Last year, Ryan forwarded me at Sundance his politically-outraged comments about Grace is Gone, which I posted on the blog.) He launches the new site with a review of the Sundance doc The […]
The Directors Guild of America has reached a tentative deal with the AMPTP, and now its time to weigh in on it. However, coming as it did on the eve of Sundance, much of the working film industry press is a bit distracted. Michael Cieply and Brooks Barnes have a solid article in today’s New York Times, in which they outline how the DGA’s different negotiating philosophy and lengthy pre-negotiation back channel conversations led to a quick deal. Over at the Working Life blog, labor activist and former Senatorial candidate Jonathan Tasini is doing the math, reviewing the deal point […]
Sat, Jan 19th, 8:30pmWed, Jan 23rd, 10am Interview by Brandon Harris Jack Frost’s playboy lifestyle in New York City is rocked by the news that his childhood love is engaged. Jack plunges into whiskey and self-destruction. until his eleven-year-old neighbor, Sophie, an unlikely mother figure, leads Jack back into himself, and out of the nostalgia and excess that consumed him. Interview with Steve Clark Where were you when you heard you’d been accepted to Slamdance and how did you react?I was in my apartment in NYC about to take a shower, when I picked up the phone, and one of […]
Fri, Jan 18th 4:30pmTues, Jan 22nd, 7pm Interview by Brandon Harris Eva Weber’s doc short City of Cranes takes you on a journey high up in the sky, to look at London’s ever-changing landscape through the eyes and words of crane drivers. It is a glimpse into a world unnoticed by most of us, yet fundamental to our lives. What initially drew you to the world of cranes?I started making this film as I was fascinated by the fact that there is almost another world above London; yet most of us never look up to notice cranes or their drivers. […]
Interview by Brandon Harris As Sundance begins this weekend, the world of independent cinema once again turns its attention to this snowy resort town thirty miles outside of Salt Lake. Yet, since 1995, Sundance hasn’t been the only act in town. The 2008 Slamdance Film Festival begins today at Park City’s Treasure Mountain Inn, opening with Randall Cole’s Real Time, a brisk indie comedy starring Randy Quaid. As a brief snapshot of some of the 29 features and 67 shorts that Slamdance will screen in the next nine days, I caught up with thirteen Slamdance Filmmakers to discuss their films […]
As I type this I’m on my way to the Sundance Film Festival, where the Filmmaker team will be filing coverage all week. I’ll be blogging along with Jason Guerrasio and Justin Lowe; Jamie Stuart will be shooting video – creating one of his own typically personal and idiosyncratic portraits of festival life as well as filming interviews with directors and actors which you’ll see in the months ahead; if all goes well, Brian Chirls will be shooting and posting video from the fest’s panels and programs; and, Brandon Harris will be covering Slamdance, blogging news and reviews from the […]
The Axium saga continues, now appearing that Defamer’s headline, “Axuim: The Enron of the Payroll Services World,” was less of an overstatement than it initially appeared. (Props to Defamer for continuing to cover a story that has resulted in hardship for thousands of entertainment industry employees and which has been relatively underplayed by the trades.) Axium’s financier, Golden Tree Asset Management, has filed a multi-million dollar lawsuit in California court against Axium principals John Visconti and Ronald Garber; their subsidiary companies, and their wives and ex-wives. I will try to have the full PDF of the lawsuit posted for your […]
Seith Mann’s short film five deep breaths is one of the best we’ve seen in recent years, and it got the New York filmmaker selected to our 25 New Faces list — in 2003. And now that Mann has made a name for himself directing episodes of HBO’s hit The Wire, his short has surfaced again, this time via Bilge Ebiri at New York Magazine. Click here to both read about and see the film. Here’s Ebiri on Mann and his work: The tale of two friends who get in too deep when they decide to help out a battered […]