Issues
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Load & Play
Charlotte: A Wooden Boat Story Antidote Films – Available Now “The separation of craft from art and design is one of the phenomena of late-twentieth-century Western culture,” writes Peter Dormer in The Culture of Craft, cited on the website to Jeffrey Kusama-Hinte’s new documentary, Charlotte: A Wooden Boat Story. In his directorial follow-up to Soul Power, Kusama-Hinte (also a producer whose credits include The Kids are All Right and the board chairman of IFP) captures, in loving 16mm, a Martha’s Vineyard boatyard whose work is an elegy to those vanishing values of hand-crafted perfection cited by Dormer. Charlotte follows boat […]
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Thessaloniki International Film Festival
Rome fell. Athens fell. Unelected representatives of European banks were installed in Italy and Greece, elections distant down the road. Interesting times in the south of Europe, with a rush of drama in the outside world to match the 100-plus films slated during 10 eventful days of November’s 52nd edition of the Thessaloniki International Film Festival. The event was trim, yet taut, light wind in its sails from a two-year budget infusion from the European Regional Development Fund. Photo exhibits, publications, masterclasses and retrospectives still accompanied the international competition, the Balkan Survey and Open Horizons programming sections. If one weren’t […]
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Abu Dhabi International Film Festival
Taking place in one of the world’s strangest, most transcendently inauthentic cities, the Abu Dhabi Film Festival (Oct. 13-22, 2011), started in 2007 as the Middle East International Film Festival and began to make a name for itself internationally after acquiring former San Francisco and Tribeca festival director Peter Scarlet. As a programmer, Scarlet is know for his strong taste in Middle Eastern selections (perhaps making him a natural for the post) and, as a festival director, someone who never saw a velvet rope he didn’t like, which makes for some hard-to-penetrate party bouncers. In the third year on the […]
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Marrakech International Film Festival
Less than three hours before this departing journalist had to hail his morning airport shuttle, he’s rumored to have been onstage at a five-star Moroccan hotel nightclub, loosened by too many free scotch whiskeys, guest performing a White Stripes song (supported by a mostly Canadian gig band with scantily clad, former cheerleaders as backup dancers) for an audience best described as “the 1 percent.” Cannes may have its prestigious world premieres and swingin’ Riviera yacht parties, but who knew that the height of film fest luxury — and if you seek it, decadence — lies in the North African desert, […]
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CPH:DOX Film Festival
Any great film festival needs to do two things. The first is establish an identity, a curatorial purpose that draws attendees by promising them something defined, different and necessary. And the second, far harder thing to do is to constantly upend that identity, throwing enough curveballs so that visitors know they’ll be challenged on every trip. Finishing it’s 9th year this past November, Copenhagen’s CPH:DOX does both these things brilliantly. Positioned just before the mammoth doc bellwether IDFA, CPH:DOX takes as its mission the challenging of staid notions of the documentary form itself. CPH:DOX director Tine Fischer told Sight and […]
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Hits & Misses
Will 2011 be remembered as the year the indie film biz rebounded after nearly two years of contraction, consolidation and caution? Or was it merely a brief minor upsurge, hardly enough to sustain the numerous companies, executives and filmmakers trying to make a go of it? The beginning of the year started bright, even dazzling. Independent films like Black Swan, The King’s Speech, The Kids Are All Right and Winter’s Bone were big at the Oscars and the box office. And at Sundance, more than 40 films were acquired during and immediately after the fest. It looked like independent films […]
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Parting Shot – Greta Gerwig
Since becoming the poster girl for indie film’s most scrutinized subgenre – mumblecore – Greta Gerwig has transformed herself from a twentysomething aspiring playwright to a diverse character actress who can hold her own with the likes of Ben Stiller, Russell Brand and even the particular direction of Woody Allen. Her latest role once more shows her expanding range as she delves into the obscure and mannerist comedic world of indie vet Whit Stillman with his first film in 14 years, Damsels in Distress. In the film, which Sony Pictures Classics opens in March, Gerwig plays Violet, the angst-driven leader […]
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Strategic Planning
With conventional theatrical distribution deals harder to come by, independent filmmakers are increasingly looking towards DIY, or do-it-yourself, releasing strategies for their movies. But the truth is that there is no one, sure-fire way to distribute a movie. Certain platforms accessible to self-distributing filmmakers work beautifully for some movies while being terrible for others. Each film possesses its own specific DNA, and to determine its most appropriate strategy requires an analysis of a film’s goals, assets and realistic potential. For some, a goal will be to recoup investments. For others it will be to get a modicum of renown, and […]
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Don’t Do This!: 12 Mistakes Commonly Made on Independent Film Productions
The mixture of risk-taking, cost-cutting and pure enthusiasm that is independent film production can lead to great movies but also, all too frequently, poorly thought-out productions. Here, from producer Maureen A. Ryan (Man on Wire), is a list of 12 mistakes often made by new filmmakers and their producers as well as many who should know better. It originally appeared in our Winter, 2012 issue. 1. Decide to shoot before you have the best script possible. You’re dying to shoot your first feature but don’t start prepping until your script is ready to be shot. It doesn’t matter if your […]
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Rewind
One year ago in this spot I cautiously heralded “signs of life” in the independent film world, citing, among other things, all the independently financed features (Black Swan, Winter’s Bone, The Kids Are All Right) headed for the Oscars. A month after I wrote my piece, Sundance 2011 concluded with a record number of acquisitions, which included films like the tough, defiantly independent Martha Marcy May Marlene and the no-budget Another Earth by none other than Fox Searchlight. And while American independents didn’t sweep the Oscars, they did figure prominently, with a Best Actress win for Natalie Portman. But, as […]
