From commercial crab fishing in Alaska, to learning how to become a filmmaker in Peru, Aaron Woolf’s worldly experience makes him an ideal documentarian for PBS. His previous films — Dying to Leave: The Human Face of Global Trafficking, Greener Grass Cuba and Baseball and the United States — all aired on public television, but Woolf is proud to have his latest film, King Corn, get theatrical distribution. “I never wanted to be anything,” Woolf says. “I only knew things I wanted to accomplish in my life. I wanted to build a house, drive cross-country, run for office, shoot a […]
Head over to Filmmaker Videos to check out the latest NYFF short by Jamie Stuart, starring Todd Haynes.
Josh Welsh over at Film Independent forwarded me this info about a cool new documentary project that’s unfolding on YouTube. Two filmmakers, Eric Byler and Annabel Park, are making a film about the politics of immigration in Northern Virginia. They are posting short clips of their film on a channel they have set up on the site and are soliciting viewer feedback about the future direction of the project. “We will respond to viewer feedback, including requests for more coverage on certain storylines, contextual clarifications, and even perhaps on-site production excursions,” the filmmakers write on their YouTube page. Here’s a […]
An independent filmmaker in post on his new feature forwarded me this link to the satirical weekly The Onion and this story: “Independent Film Made by Dependent 27-Year-Old.” “Hit a little too close to home on this one,” he wrote in his email. Here’s the lede: Independent filmmaker Craig Rivers, still financially dependent on his parents at 27, announced Monday the completion of his feature-length debut, the locally produced, parentally financed Far Above The Jiffy Lube, The Stars Of Phoenix Shine. Shot on a tight budget of $75,000 of Marv and Elaine Rivers’ money, the film chronicles the lives and […]
In the upcoming Fall issue of Filmmaker (which is literally at the printers as I type this), Anthony Kaufman investigates the constant struggles documentary filmmakers are going through to qualify for the Oscars. Well, unbeknownst to Anthony, and us, the Academy was in the process of revising the guidelines, remedying the filmmakers’ criticisms. Read Anthony’s thoughts on his blog about the newest development in this ongoing saga.
Jurgen Fauth posted in the comment section of the post below about the dust-up at the NYFF press conference over Brian DePalma’s Redacted and the black bars that now appear over the film’s final images. He links to his own blog, which has both a video clip of DePalma at the conference as well as a detailed description of what happened, which I’ll quote here: When selection committee member J. Hoberman asked about the black bars that now cover some of the photographs at the conclusion of the film, Palma didn’t pull any punches, either: Redacted is now itself redacted,” […]
Jamie Stuart attended the NYFF press conference for Redacted this morning and emailed his take on the squabble at the press conference afterwards: In the middle of Brian De Palma’s NYFF pc for Redacted earlier today, as he began discussing the film’s use of actual war photographs and their graphic nature, Eammon Bowles from Magnolia began shouting from the rear of the Walter Reade theater to refute De Palma’s claims that Mark Cuban was trying to…well…redact them from the picture’s release. Then, just as the pc was coming to a close, producer Jason Kliot rushed the stage and grabbed moderator […]
For those who just look at the blog, head over to our newest section on the main page, Filmmaker Videos. There you will see Jamie Stuart’s second installment from the New York Film Festival along with some of the other shorts he’s made for Filmmaker. Enjoy.
TOM WILKINSON AND GEORGE CLOONEY IN TONY GILROY’S MICHAEL CLAYTON. COURTESY WARNER BROS. PICTURES. As a Hollywood screenwriter, Tony Gilroy has brought an insistent energy and intelligence to the projects he has worked on, so it was a totally logical step that he should progress to becoming a director. New York native Gilroy grew up with writing and the movies in his veins, as he is the son of Frank D. Gilroy, the Pulitzer prize-winning writer and filmmaker, possibly best known for writing The Only Game in Town (1970), starring Elizabeth Taylor and Warren Beatty. Gilroy Jr. debuted with the […]
Or, view it here at the Gucci site and check out the related content, including the behind-the-scenes.