Issues
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We Are All Auteurs: YouTube’s Channels of Reality
In his prescient 1967 essay “The Death of the Author,” theorist Roland Barthes celebrated the birth of the reader at the expense of the death of the author: “Once the Author is removed, the claim to decipher a text becomes quite futile. To give a text an Author is to impose a limit . . . to close the writing.” Coming during the expressive, anti-authoritarian energy of the counterculture, Barthes’ essay served as a manifesto for a democratic impulse that would transform the readers, in fact, into the creators of the text. This was also an era of radical experiments […]
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Prophet Motive
Save for the beard, Vikram Gandhi resembles nothing of his fictional creation Sri Kumaré, “a revered yoga master known to his contemporaries as Adarsha or ‘The Mirror.’ He is the current torchbearer of the Kumaré lineage and a respected, charismatic teacher of Yogic Science. Sri Kumaré is known for his youthful energy, transformative philosophy and divine blessing.” (That’s all from the Kumaré website — yes, Gandhi’s made-up character has his own website.) Instead, Gandhi comes across as the humble and inquisitive New Jersey native that he is in real life — a guy whose mischievous curiosity about humankind’s search for […]
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Five Questions with Girls Creator Lena Dunham
Is Lena Dunham about to change television? Recent years have seen big-screen critical darlings like Michael Mann, Martin Scorsese and Diablo Cody make the pilgrimage over to the small screen. But last year’s announcement that the 25-year-old Tiny Furniture director would be masterminding a new series for HBO seemed a more direct link between the indie film and TV industries than had been attempted previously. Audiences are in for a treat, as Dunham’s wit has only grown more acute over time. A continuation of the 20-something angst that Tiny Furniture mined so hilariously, Girls re-teams Dunham with her Furniture co-star […]
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The Weight of Water: An Interview with Jessica Yu
Jumping from social-issue documentary films — like her new Last Call at
the Oasis — to independent narrative to network television, director JESSICA YU has one of the most multi-faceted careers around. By NICK DAWSON. Photograph by Henny Garfunkel -
Production Portal
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Twice Removed: Your Sister’s Sister Director Lynn Shelton
Following her acclaimed bromantic comedy Humpday, LYNN SHELTON travels to a cabin on a secluded island to examine female relationships in the insightful Your Sister’s Sister. Writer/director RY RUSSO-YOUNG learns more from the Seattle-based filmmaker. -
Cinema of Space
At his excellent BLDGBLOG, Geoff Manaugh offers a smart, original perspective on architecture by connecting it with various other disciplines including, this spring, film. -
Calling the Shots
TV FOR FILM Original characters. Unlikely relationships. Undiscovered locations. The purview of independent filmmakers is increasingly the stuff of television, and filmmakers are making the small screen a bigger part of their careers. Creative crossover is not breaking news, of course; shows like Mad Men, Breaking Bad, Boardwalk Empire, In Treatment, Enlightened and dozens more regularly hire directors from independent film and have for a long time. But now more and more independent film writers and writer/directors are making the leap — pitching, developing and producing original series. Meanwhile, reliable outlets like Netflix and IFC/Sundance Channel have slowed down their […]
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Crowded Marketplace: How the JOBS Act Will Transform Film Financing
How the JOBS Act will transform independent film financing. By Matthew Savare, Esq. and Richard Jaycobs
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Una Noche at the Berlinale
Two weeks ago I was on the phone to a lab in Canada, who were holding our film, telling them that 6 lab rolls of Una Noche were missing. The movie was supposed to premiere in Berlin in a matter of days. I proceeded to go through every frame of footage in the NYC lab double-checking to see if the shots were there. They were not. I did not tell anybody. I did not want to believe it myself. When the colorist, Martin, told me that we might have to use black slates with “missing shot” written on them, my breathing spontaneously […]
