Filmmaking

JAMIE STUART, EPISODE TWO

Over at The Mutiny Company Jamie Stuart has posted the second episode of his hardboiled take on the 44th Annual New York Film Festival. With appearances by Helen Mirren, Stephen Frears and others… Don’t miss it.

By Scott Macaulay on Oct 2, 2006 Filmmaking
THE REELER REBORN

Today our friend S.T. Van Airsdale premieres the relaunch of The Reeler, his blog/website devoted to New York City cinema and cinephilia. Stu is now on his own and he’s enlarged the site by adding two new blogs, film reviews and other news to a now bustling main page. From today’s editor’s letter: As mentioned previously, nothing much has changed except that I have accrued extra piles of crap that I will never get done. But it all still pertains to the sphere of New York cinema that you have (hopefully) been following here for a while now, where the […]

By Scott Macaulay on Sep 29, 2006 Filmmaking
VACHON RETURNS TO THE BOOKSTORES

Over at Indiewire Eugene Hernandez has an appreciation of and excerpts from Christine Vachon’s new book, A Killer Life. There are many film books out there these days, but Vachon is one of the few people writing them who actually has the real-world experience and successes to back up her advice and opinions. Here’s an excerpt from the book: My strategy is to stay a moving target. I’ve got a reputation for “edgy,” “dark” material — the kind of movie where you’re maybe rooting for the bad guy. I’m also frequently accused of operating with a political agenda. A gay […]

By Scott Macaulay on Sep 27, 2006 Filmmaking
JANE, YOU IGNORANT SLUT!

There’s a great point/counterpoint going on over at The Onion’s A.V. Club Blog having to do with whether or not Kelly Reichardt’s Old Joy and Andrew Bujalski’s Mutual Appreciation (pictured) are the future of independent cinema. Or, actually, whether we should be scolded for not ensuring that they are considered as such. First Scott Tobias’s original post, which is entitled “Mutual Appreciation, Old Joy and the Current State of American Independent Film.” An excerpt: …If you care at all about American independent films, you’re required to see these movies…. Watching these movies in short succession was a pretty bracing experience […]

By Scott Macaulay on Sep 25, 2006 Filmmaking
MUST SEE TV

Here at Crooks and Liars is the Fox News Bill Clinton clip, which Ray Pride says this about: Why does Fox News’ Chris Wallace hate America? (Rhetorical question.) Every writer who’s been on a beat for years or decades has a few tropes, fixations and straw men they fall back upon on a morning with a touch of the flu: pudding-headed political commentators love to describe dark turns in a pol’s career as “Shakespearean,” which, unless it’s coming from a studied, articulate, passionate former theater critic like Frank Rich, is usually so much bumf drawn from a dip into the […]

By Scott Macaulay on Sep 24, 2006 Filmmaking
THE WORD OF GOD

Over on the main page Annie Nocenti interviews the directors of Jesus Camp,, the incredibly fascinating documentary that opened this weekend from Magnolia Pictures. In the piece, co-director Heidi Ewing discusses Magnolia’s strategy to position the film as something of interest to both Christian evangelical audiences and godless hipsters in the big city: Ewing: Eamonn wants to bring the film to Christian strongholds before it hits L.A. or New York. Colorado Springs, Kansas City — they get the movie first. Magnolia is withholding the film from the secular world for one or two weeks. The Evangelicals have time to embrace […]

By Scott Macaulay on Sep 24, 2006 Filmmaking
"ARE YOU TALKIN’ TO ME?"

Over at Ticklebooth Ajit Anthony Prem gets ready for Martin Scorsese’s The Departed by trolling YouTube for homemade renditions of Robert DeNiro’s classic scene from Taxi Driver. From Prem’s post: There are were many impersonations of De Niro on Youtube, mostly of the notorious “You talking to me?” scene. The scene was largely improvised by De Niro who clearly was “living the role.” The scene is not as powerful as it once used to be. When Taxi Driver was first released, films resisted getting into its character’s head, to spend alone-time with someone. Before Taxi Driver, scenes were clearly part […]

By Scott Macaulay on Sep 24, 2006 Filmmaking
IFP MARKET WINNERS

At a luncheon celebrating the end of the IFP Market and Filmmaker Conference at NoHo’s Chinatown restaurant this Thursday, a number of awards were given to films and filmmakers who were part of the IFP’s various programs. The winners are: The Fledgling Fund Award for Emerging Latino Filmmakers ($10,000): Vivian Lesnik Weisman. IFP Market Emerging Narrative Screenplay Award ($5,000, presented by Artists Public Domain): I Hate to See That Evening Sun Go Down, Scott Teems. IFP Market Documentary Completion Award ($5,000, presented by Artists Public Domain, and $25,000 in-kind support from Alpha Cine, Analog Digital International, Mercer Media, Showbiz Software/Media […]

By Scott Macaulay on Sep 23, 2006 Filmmaking
ON THE MAIN PAGE…

If you’re in the habit of just bookmarking this blog page, check out the main page for two new online features of films opening this weekend: American Hardcore and Jesus Camp.

By Scott Macaulay on Sep 23, 2006 Filmmaking
Fast, Cheap and Out of Control

Director Paul Rachman retraces the history of punk rock. Paul Rachman’s American Hardcore is a salute to the U.S. underground punk scene that exploded in 1980. Inspired by Steven Blush’s 2001 book American Hardcore: A Tribal History (Feral House), Rachman’s blunt documentary was culled from over 120 hours of interview footage, as well as a stack of archival concert videos compiled from closets, shoeboxes and fan memorabilia stashes. The film also documents a phenomenon that Rachman and Blush observed firsthand, before the scene fizzled in the mid-’80s. “The scene burned out before anybody came to capitalize on it, so it’s […]

By Jason Guerrasio on Sep 22, 2006 Filmmaking

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