Filmmaking
Filmmaking
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“Create Something That Is Undeniable”: Director Dee Rees Talks Mudbound And Life After Pariah at IFP Week
The highpoint of Dee Rees’ IFP Week appearance was a complete surprise. There to discuss her latest feature, the Sundance fave Mudbound (hitting theaters and Netflix on Nov. 17) with Buzzfeed film critic Alison Willmore, the Pariah filmmaker waxed nostalgic over one of the films that most inspired her to take up the craft: Sugar Cane Alley, Euzhan Palcy’s 1983 César-winner about life in a small village in Martinique during the 1930s. Rees’ mother had it on VHS when she was a kid, and she would watch it over and over again. “That was before I understood what a director did,” […]
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Angelina Jolie, Aaron Sorkin, Gael Garcia Bernal and Mary Harron Talk at TIFF
The Toronto Film Festival closed out its 42nd year with another impressive round of masterclasses and “TIFF talks.” On the industry side, while not as heavily programmed as other festivals, there was an engaging round of panels that tackled on-topic discussions such as diversity and alternative distribution. Typical to other years, a robust line-up of filmmakers and writers made up the festival’s one-to-one talks, their “In Conversation With…” series. Aaron Sorkin’s candid conversation was one of my highlights. He openly discussed his ten year-dependence on drugs, regarding which Carrie Fisher sent him a letter assuring him he could write even […]
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The Good Son, The Piano Teacher and Night Moves: Jim Hemphill’s Home Video Recommendations
When Dave Kehr reviewed director Joseph Ruben’s The Stepfather in the Chicago Tribune on the occasion of its initial theatrical release, he wrote, “Watching The Stepfather, with its near-perfect command of the entire vocabulary of filmmaking, it’s hard to believe that Joseph Ruben isn’t one of the best-known directors working today.” That was over 30 years ago, and while Kehr’s hope that Ruben would be universally recognized as one of the greats never quite came to pass, it should have — the critic was 100% correct in his assessment of Ruben’s mastery. The Stepfather was an extraordinary film, a low-budget […]
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“I Think There’s a Parallel Between Gender Politics and Politics of the Land”: Clio Barnard on Her TIFF Premiere, Dark River
UK-based Clio Barnard has impressively transitioned from video artist to acclaimed feature filmmaker in the span of just seven years. After making several short films, her feature debut The Arbor, a hybrid documentary about the late playwright Andrea Dunbar, went on to win a bevy of awards, including London Film Festival’s Best British Newcomer award, Tribeca Film Festival’s Jury Award, British Independent Film Awards’ Douglas Hickox Award, and subsequently a BAFTA nomination for Outstanding Debut by a British Writer, Director, or Producer. Her second feature The Selfish Giant, loosely based on Oscar Wilde’s children’s story of the same name, also […]
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25 New Faces of Independent Film 2017
Click here to read our 25 New Faces of Independent Films list.
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Finding My Filmmaking Community (Or, I Moved from LA to NY to Make Movies — What Was I Thinking?)
Adam Keleman’s humor-laced melodrama Easy Living — about a door-to-door makeup salesman (Hannibal‘s Caroline Dhavernas) — opens tomorrow in New York at the Cinema Village before becoming available on digital platforms Tuesday, September 19. Below, he contributes a guest essay on his path towards becoming a feature filmmaker — a journey that took him from Los Angeles to New York. Los Angeles is an isolating place — and I can say that as a native. I was born and raised in the San Fernando Valley, that large, sprawling suburb simply known as “The Valley,” memorably featured in such films as […]
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Nicole Kidman and Ed Lachman to Receive Tributes at the 2017 IFP Gotham Awards
Nicole Kidman, in the midst of an extraordinary year of well-received performances, and legendary DP Ed Lachman, whose latest Todd Haynes collaboration is due for release in November, were announced today as the latest 2017 Gotham Award Tribute recipients. “It is truly an honor to present Nicole Kidman with the Actress Tribute this year,” said Joana Vicente, Executive Director of IFP and the Made in New York Media Center, in a statement. “Her choices in projects throughout her career have been bold and carefully selected, ranging from thought-provoking independent films and studio blockbusters to unique and original television series. She […]
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Should Filmmakers Tour Their Work Like Bands Tour Their Albums?
Since I started working in film ten years ago I’ve been fascinated by the creative possibilities of distribution. Filmmakers tend to think of releasing their film primarily as homework: the creative work is over and now the boring part begins: booking theaters, organizing print traffic, getting your film onto the right platforms online, generating press, and perhaps toughest of all — convincing anyone out there to actually care about what you made. It can be a boatload of labor, and a lot of it is administrative and connection-based. It’s no wonder that most filmmakers prefer to outsource distribution to companies […]
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Sony’s Two New Cameras: VENICE and RX0
Sony has announced two new cameras that will be of interest to filmmakers, though because they are so different it’s entirely possible that you might have heard of one and not the other. Sony VENICE At the high-end, Sony has announced its new flagship camera, the VENICE. Note that Sony does the name in all-caps, though it doesn’t appear to be an acronym. Sony first hinted at this camera back in June. It has a newly developed 36x24mm full-frame sensor and is their first CineAlta digital camera to have a full-frame sensor. It has several other notable features including: 15 […]
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L’Argent, The Quiet American, and Charles Bronson: Jim Hemphill’s Home Video Picks
Robert Bresson’s L’Argent (1983) is the kind of final film any director would kill to have on his or her resume, a beautifully distilled summation of Bresson’s preoccupations and techniques that nevertheless strikes out in fascinating new directions. It’s simultaneously the director’s most empathetic film and his bleakest, a wrenching study of how a series of slight moral lapses creates a snowball effect of tragedy that leads to imprisonment and mass murder. Using a late Tolstoy novella as his source material, Bresson depicts the path of a counterfeit bill as it changes hands and inexorably alters the lives of those […]
