Filmmaking

RYAN IS FETED

Over at his blog, Anthony Kaufman posts a letter from Ted Hope saluting Mike Ryan, who was named one of Variety‘s 10 Producers to Watch. He begins: Despite — or maybe because of — working in the film business, it is rare that I encounter the individual that is clearly driven by passion for film, knowledgable on a wide range of subjects, has a cultivated and constantly evolving aesthetic, and lives and breathes in accordance with principals and politics that they have fully thought out and committed to; to me all those things should be up on the PGA website […]

By Scott Macaulay on Sep 10, 2007 Filmmaking
SHOCK AND AWE

Alfonso Cuaron’s latest film is playing at the Toronto Film Festival, but you can see it now, for free, online, below… It’s his collaboration with Jonas Cuaron and author Naomi Klein that accompanies Klein’s latest book, The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism. Cory Doctorow at Boing Boing summarizes the book’s thesis thusly: …present-day global capitalism took hold when its advocates learned to exploit disasters. After a disaster (war, tsunami, terrorist attack), you can push your agenda for worsening labor conditions, looser regulation, and pocket-lining exercises (Enron, Halliburton) while the reeling, disaster-struck population of the world has its attention […]

By Scott Macaulay on Sep 9, 2007 Filmmaking
IFP MARKET TIPS

A week ago on Indiewire, Agnes Varun posted a “Doc Filmmakers Guide to the IFP Market,” which is full of solid advice from Market vets to help you navigate the upcoming conference (Sept. 16 – 19). Today, on the Renew Media blog, she posts a follow-up: the entirety of a 1,200 word piece by Tracy Heather Strain, a seven-year Market vet. It’s full of practical advice that anyone attending the Market should read.

By Scott Macaulay on Sep 6, 2007 Filmmaking
BART WALKER HEADS TO CINETIC

In what Gregg Goldstein of The Hollywood Reporter proclaims a “seismic shift of power in the independent film community,” CAA agent Bart Walker, previously the head of their NYC film office and rep to such directors as Sofia Coppola, Julie Taymor and Julian Schnabel, has left the agency to join Cinetic Media. THR reports that Cinetic’s John Sloss and Walker will form a new division, Cinetic Management. From the joint statement Sloss and Walker released: We see Cinetic as a new kind of service company, one that will create innovative structures that benefit filmmakers as well as financiers so that […]

By Scott Macaulay on Sep 6, 2007 Filmmaking
FROWNLAND REMINDER

Ronnie Bronstein’s film, co-hosted by Lodge Kerrigan… a rare screening, tonight, IFC Center/New York, 7:30…. see you there.

By Scott Macaulay on Sep 5, 2007 Filmmaking
SUBTERRANEAN HOMESICK BLUES

Perhaps because Gross doesn’t write for a daily outlet but more likely because the erudition of his criticism is genuinely thrilling, the occasional essays on film by screenwriter Larry Gross pack a punch within our metacritic’d, tomato-splattered blogosphere. Here he is with an early appreciation of Todd Haynes’s I’m Not There that’s just gone online at Film Comment. “How can a work not give us politics and yet be so political?” he asks in a piece that opens by quoting Jean-Godard, and Gilles Deleuze & Felix Guattari and ends by considering how Haynes’s film fits into a moment signified by […]

By Scott Macaulay on Sep 4, 2007 Filmmaking
Jeff Garlin on I Want Someone To Eat Cheese With

Jeff Garlin may be best known as Larry David’s right hand man on HBO’s Curb Your Enthusiasm, but there’s more to this Second City alum than his deadpan humor. Along with doing stand up and developing new TV shows when Curb isn’t taping, he’s also been trying to get his feature films made. His first is I Want Someone To Eat Cheese With, which premiered at the 2006 Tribeca Film Festival to rave reviews and then suddenly lost its momentum and collected dust for over a year until finding distribution through IFC Film’s First Take banner and The Weinstein Company. […]

By Jason Guerrasio on Sep 4, 2007 Directing
TRACKS OF MY TEARS

Okay, here’s a link to an Ain’t It Cool News report that links to the trailer of a film I’m really excited about seeing in Toronto: Dario Argento’s Mother of Tears, the conclusion of the trilogy that began with the brilliant Suspira and Inferno. The early word on the film, which stars Asia Argento, Udo Kier, Daria Nicolodi, among others, is good. For those who don’t know the first film in the series (and since the Mother of Tears trailer is not able to be embedded), here, below, is the charmingly old school U.S. trailer for

By Scott Macaulay on Sep 2, 2007 Filmmaking
THE SECOND TIME, WITH MEANING

John August wants you to see his new movie, The Nines… twice. At his blog, he’s posted a downloadable commentary track which you can listen to on your iPod as the movie unspools. (It’s too distracting to do on your first viewing, he says.) He writes: One of my favorite moments of the Sundance premiere was listening as progressive waves of audience members realized that a story Hope Davis begins telling in Part One is, in fact, not a story at all. Hearing the little gasps, those who hadn’t yet caught on became more vigilant, wondering what they were missing. […]

By Scott Macaulay on Sep 2, 2007 Filmmaking
THINGS TO DO IN DENVER

One of my favorite websites, Boing Boing, has just undertaken a re-design. The site is a lot cleaner and easier on the eyes now, all the better to scope out eccentric pieces like this article in the Denver Westword News about the historical end date of the Mayan calendar, Freemason conspiracy theory, the New World Order… and the Denver airport? It’s all knitted together by a filmmaker — producer Nick Weidner, who, with his partner Sharron Rose, made 2012: The Odyssey. Westword’s Jared Jacang Maher, who writes about Weidner’s appearance on KHOW’s Coast to Coast, explains: Weidner, a filmmaker and […]

By Scott Macaulay on Sep 1, 2007 Filmmaking

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