Filmmaking

OUT OF THE ’80S

As I sit here working my CD changer has just slid over to the Mysterious Skin soundtrack, which has not left the platter since I received a promotional copy about a week ago. From its first seesawing notes, Robin Guthrie and Harold Budd’s distinctive style, echoing their classic The Moon and the Melodies, evokes the 4AD and Budd ambient releases that provided a dreamy backdrop to many of our adolescences years ago. Writes Skin director Gregg Araki, “I have been a huge fan of Robin Guthrie and Harold Budd since the glory days of the 80s when 4AD, the Cocteau […]

By Scott Macaulay on May 19, 2005 Filmmaking
CONTENT IS KING

While James Marsh’s film The King plays at the Festival de Cannes, the Hollywood Reporter relays this odd bit of news regarding ContentFilm, Ed Pressman and John Schmidt’s company that produced the pic: “Edward R. Pressman, co-chief executive officer of London-based ContentFilm PLC, and co-chief executive officer John Schmidt are going their separate ways after four years together. The board of directors of ContentFilm, which went public in December 2003, has voted to abandon film production and continue forward as a library acquisitions company. Schmidt will run the company, which has agreed to buy Fireworks International’s film and television library […]

By Scott Macaulay on May 17, 2005 Filmmaking
CATCHING SOME ZZZZZ’s

Below I posted some thoughts about the Xan Cassavetes doc Z Channel: A Magnificent Obsession, and now this weekend IFC runs a Z-Channel marathon. Tune in all weekend and see films like the uncut Heaven ‘s Gate, Nick Roeg’s Bad Timing: A Sensual Obsession, and the fairly obscure That Most Important Thing: Love..

By Scott Macaulay on May 14, 2005 Filmmaking
OUT OF AFRICA

Ever since he made the independent classic Killer of Sheep Charles Burnett has had more than his share of tough times finding financing for his films. But this news story in Variety may detail his strangest career moment yet: the crew shut-down of his latest feature, Where Others Wavered due to lack of payment by the government of Namibia, where the film is shooting. From the article: “Principal photography started April 25 in the capital of Windhoek on the movie about former freedom fighter Sam Nujoma ( played by “Alias” thesp Carl Lumbly), who helped Namibia gain independence from South […]

By Scott Macaulay on May 12, 2005 Filmmaking
THE GLOBAL FAMILY

Writing in the New York Press, Matt Zoller Seitz (who recently spoke with Jeremiah Kipp for Filmmaker about his own debut feature, Home) uses the occasion of Jet Li’s trip to the U.S. to promote the Rogue Pictures release of Unleashed to pen a lengthy and thoughtful appraisal of the various martial arts genres in the age of globalism and the Internet. From the piece: “In the past decade, the rise of the internet and cheap DVD authoring technology made it harder for repressive governments to regulate pop culture’s ebb and flow. When a noteworthy new release comes out in […]

By Scott Macaulay on May 12, 2005 Filmmaking
TRANS-CENDED

In Berlin I was walking to the premiere of Duncan Tucker’s Transamerica at the CineStar theaters this February with a friend, the head of a small indie distributor, when he got a phone call. The sellers of a film his company had bid on earlier in the festival had accepted his offer, and he had to turn back and meet them immediately to close the deal. I walked on and caught the film, which, if you’ve read my Berlin coverage in the print magazine this issue, I thought was sincere, empathetic and with an appealingly gentle humor. My only qualm […]

By Scott Macaulay on May 10, 2005 Filmmaking
Z CHANNEL — YOU HAVE TO SEE IT

You can read about Xan Cassavetes’ doc on L.A.’s art-film cable pioneer The Z Channel (linked her via Nerve.com), but you should really watch it while it plays this month on IFC. The story of Z Prez Jerry Harvey’s murderous and suicidal demise is a captivating one, but what makes the doc really great viewing is its conveyance of a very specific brand of cinephilia that almost doesn’t exist anymore. Pre-internet, pre-DVD, the Z Channel’s generous scrambling of Euro greats, American auteurs and Euro-softcore — a mix that included everything from Berlin Alexanderplatz to Laura Antonelli festivals — undoubtedly shaped […]

By Scott Macaulay on May 10, 2005 Filmmaking
U.S. DISTRIBUTORS IN CANNES

Anne Thompson files a fairly exhaustive survey of the American companies and their business objectives going into the Cannes Film Festival and Market. And even if you’re not headed to the Croisette, it’s worth reading as a summary of the state of the indie distribution business. Among the topics Thompson covers are the potential business partners of the Weinstein Brothers, the road ahead for Bob Berney in his new HBO/New Line theatrical distribution outfit, and the strategies of the smaller companies like ThinkFilms and Roadside Attractions. She also comments on likely pick-ups. From the piece: “Distributors who saw advance screenings […]

By Scott Macaulay on May 10, 2005 Filmmaking
THE GULAGER INFLUENCE

Like many of you, I’ve been watching this season’s Project Greenlight with degrees of amusement, empathy and recognition. But it wasn’t until just now that I flashed on the tidbit of trivia that ties PGL director John Gulager and his dad Clu to today’s indie film scene. Father Clu, a veteran character actor who plays the bartender in his “contest-winner” son’s PGL horror movie Feast, has only one directing credit to his name, but it’s an evocative short that inspired the career of one of today’s most interesting filmmakers. In fact, Gulager’s 1969 A Day with the Boys, which d.p. […]

By Scott Macaulay on May 7, 2005 Filmmaking
THE GUATEMALAN HANDSHAKE

Here’s a novel promotional e-mail we received today from Todd Rohal, director and sound engineer of The Guatemalan Handshake. We can’t vouch for the accuracy of the story, but we thought you might find it of interest: “As the news of Tom DeLay’s misuse of funds is talked about daily here in the nation’s Capital, we at The Guatemalan Handshake would like to clear the air about our involvement… “Early on in our search for funding we were set up to meet with a high-profile Washington lobbyist. I bought a brand new pair of pants for the occasion. This lobbyist […]

By Jason Guerrasio on May 5, 2005 Filmmaking

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