Filmmaking

THE 2004 INDEPENDENT SPIRIT AWARDS

The biggest surprise at the 2004 IFP/Los Angeles Independent Spirit Awards occurred during John Waters’s opening monologue. As Waters spun out an outlandish, increasingly hilarious story involving him being imprisoned in an MPAA cell for participating in screener bootlegging, none other than MPAA topper Jack Valenti appeared to grab the microphone away from Waters, handcuffing and dragging the mustachioed director offstage. Indeed, the tale of the screener battle — recounted by IFP/Los Angeles (a co-plaintiff) Executive Director Dawn Hudson — was, more or less, the afternoon’s sole political topic of discussion. There was no Michael Moore rant and, perhaps remembering […]

By Scott Macaulay on Feb 29, 2004 Filmmaking
SARAH JACOBSON MEMORIALS

We were sad to receive this note from Ed Halter today about the filmmaker Sarah Jacobson: “As many of you know, Sarah Jacobson was battling terminal cancer for the past half a year or so. Well, I’m sorry to report that last night she passed away. Because Sarah knew so many film people, I’m helping her family spread the word about two memorial events happening this week in her memory. On Monday, February 16th, at 3pm, there will be a memorial service for Sarah at the synagogue on 17th Street between 2nd and 3rd street in Manhattan. (Sorry, I don’t […]

By Scott Macaulay on Feb 15, 2004 Filmmaking
THE ATROCITY EXHIBITION

It’s hard to find original gift ideas. While searching for a Valentine’s Day present, I remembered a conversation I had with the director Sara Driver in Rotterdam. She told me about Boym Studio’s Buildings of Disaster series. Small postmodern totems, the series consists of bonded nickel sculptures of sites like the Chernobyl nuclear reactors, the Unabomber’s Cabin (pictured, right), the L.A. freeway during the O.J. Simpson chase, the Waco Complex, and, yes, the World Trade Center. Reading about the sculptures, one would imagine them to be pieces of ghoulish kitsch. Seeing them in person, though, they come off as strange […]

By Scott Macaulay on Feb 13, 2004 Filmmaking
OVERLOOKED

Of course, with the Academy nominations come and gone, it may seem kind of pointless to hype an un-nominated performance. But given the nods to Naomi Watts and Benicio del Toro for their work in 21 Grams, I just wanted to mention my favorite performance in the film which I was surprised to see absent from the various year-end lists. I’m not talking about Melissa Leo, who has her supporters, but rather Charlotte Gainsbourg. Playing Penn’s wife — a Brit transplanted to Memphis who just wants a second chance at a child with Penn — Gainsbourg, in a quiet, unshowy […]

By Scott Macaulay on Feb 10, 2004 Filmmaking
MARK SILVERMAN FELLOWSHIP

Sundance has awarded its annual Mark Silverman Producer’s Fellowship to L.A.-based producer Gina Kwon. Formerly a V.P. at Myriad Pictures, Kwon has worked with Academy Award-winning filmmaker R.J. Cutler on his TNT series The Residents and his Fox series American High. She’s most associated, though, with director Miguel Arteta and producer Matthew Greenfield, having production-managed Star Maps, associate produced Chuck and Buck, and co-produced The Good Girl. She is currently producing a Sundance Lab project, Miranda July’s Me and You and Everyone We Know, aiming for a Summer 2004 shoot. The fellowship, which is a tribute to the late producer […]

By Scott Macaulay on Feb 9, 2004 Filmmaking
FIELD REPORT

Following last year’s Rotterdam Film Festival, Simon Field, the fest’s illustrious director, announced that the 2004 edition would be his last. This year’s festival more than lived up to the high standard Field set when he joined Rotterdam eight years ago, and now Field has revealed his next endeavor. He’ll be joining the U.K. production company Illuminations, run by Keith Griffiths and John Wyver, and will be executive producing a series of music, architecture and film pieces commissioned by the City of Vienna on the occasion the Mozart anniversary in 2006. Theatre and opera director Peter Sellars will be artistic […]

By Scott Macaulay on Feb 5, 2004 Filmmaking
REMEMBERING LYNN AUERBACH

Lynn Auerbach, the Sundance Institute’s much-loved Associate Director of the Feature Film Program, passed away shortly after this year’s festival following a brief illness. For her many friends and colleagues — including the dozens of young fellows and industry mentors who have passed through the Sundance labs since her arrival at the Institute 15 years ago — the news came as a sad shock. Passionate, witty, and clearly in love with her job of discovering new filmmaking talent and helping them develop their projects, Auerbach nurtured her fellows with equal amounts emotional support and keen advice. Just a few of […]

By Scott Macaulay on Feb 4, 2004 Filmmaking
THE PSYCHOPATHOLOGY OF BIG BUSINESS

Following The Corporation‘s successful run at the Sundance Festival, where it won the Documentary Audience Award for World Cinema, Big Picture Media Corporation has signed a U.S. distribution deal with Zeitgeist Flms. Co-Director/producer Mark Achbar (who co-directed The Corporation with Jennifer Abbott and co-created it with writer Joel Bakan) couldn’t be more pleased with the response the film has generated. “From the feedback we had after our sell-out screening at the World Social Forum in Mumbai, India, to this amazing reception at Sundance, not to mention the truly incredible numbers so far with our Canadian launch — it’s clear that […]

By Jason Guerrasio on Feb 2, 2004 Filmmaking
SAINT — AND SISTER — HOOD

One of the buzz films to emerge at this year’s Rotterdam Film Festival has been Teona Strugar Mitevska’s How I Killed a Saint. The 29-year-old director attended the MFA program at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, and on one level, her film could easily fit within the American indie “dysfunctional family” tradition. It tells the story of Viola, a young girl who returns home after travelling abroad for three years, having left behind a family secret and returning to tense relationships with her out-of-it parents and alienated, delinquent brother. Except in this case, Viola is returning in 2001 from […]

By Scott Macaulay on Feb 1, 2004 Filmmaking
A PRIMER ON “PRIMER”

Upon hearing the awards news from Sundance this past Sunday in Rotterdam, most of the buyers and sales agents at the Cinemart all wanted to know one thing from me: “What the hell is Primer?” The small minority who caught the film in Utah, though, had a different question: “Why the hell did this film win the Sundance Grand Prize?” International film business types customarily feel somewhat lost and bewildered at Sundance, unable to figure out the shuttle bus routes or how to make it into the evening parties. But to be completely confused by what’s on screen? That’s a […]

By Scott Macaulay on Jan 29, 2004 Filmmaking

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