“If I had to make [Noah Baumbach’s 1995 pic] Kicking and Screaming today, I’d make it for $50,000, not $1 million,” said producer Jason Blum (The Purge, Insidious, Whiplash) at his SXSW keynote address on Sunday. In a conversation with the Los Angeles Times’ John Horn, Blum blended his own producer origin story with practical advice for filmmakers seeking to emulate his rise to top of Hollywood’s low-budget horror hierarchy. “Don’t wait for the industry to go forward,” he told the crowd, explaining that his own career was accelerated when he learned from a past error: passing on The Blair […]

Following “The Women of Sundance” article in our print and online additions, Danielle Lurie continues her coverage of female filmmakers with a series of pieces highlighting women directors at SXSW. In this email interview, she talks with the director of Que Caramba Es La Vida, Dorris Dörrie. Filmmaker: Why this movie? Why did you decide to do it? Dörrie: I have spent some time in Mexico and found that the only association that we (in Europe) have is drug war and chaos. I wanted to tell a different story of Mexico, and I became very interested in mariachi music, especially […]

Following “The Women of Sundance” article in our print and online additions, Danielle Lurie continues her coverage of female filmmakers with a series of pieces highlighting women directors at SXSW. In this email interview, she talks with the writer/director of the narrative short, Crystal, Chell Stephen. Filmmaker: Why this movie?  Why did you decide to do it?   Stephen: An image of the character Crystal came into my head a few years ago, and I could see her so clearly. After directing music videos in New York for a few years as a part of filmmaking collective Think/Feel, I knew […]

Beating back chilly, sub-normal temperatures, the season finale of True Detective and the myriad distractions of its surrounding program — referencing the new SXSports category, one independent film stalwart snarled to me, “Don’t try to tell me that sports are now creative” — SXSW Film put a capper on its 2014 edition by awarding Sarah-Violet Bliss & Charles Rogers’ Brooklyn beach comedy Fort Tilden and Margaret Brown’s Deepwater Horizon doc, The Great Invisible, its top prizes. Other awards included a “special jury award for courage in storytelling to the lead actor and screenwriter of Collin Schiffli’s Animals, David Dastmalchian. (The […]

Following “The Women of Sundance” article in our print and online additions, Danielle Lurie continues her coverage of female filmmakers with a series of pieces highlighting women directors at SXSW. In this email interview, she talks with Katie Mustard, a producer of Jocelyn Towne and Simon Helberg’s Narrative Spotlight feature, We’ll Never Have Paris. Filmmaker: Why this movie?  Why did you decide to do it?   Mustard: The story and the people is the short answer.  For me, these are two best things you can look for when deciding on a project. We’ll Never Have Paris is a hilarious, clumsy […]

Following “The Women of Sundance” article in our print and online additions, Danielle Lurie continues her coverage of female filmmakers with a series of pieces highlighting women directors at SXSW. In this email interview, she talks with the director of the Documentary Competition title, The Great Invisible, Margaret Brown. Filmmaker: Why this movie?  Why did you decide to do it? Brown: After the [Deepwater Horizon] spill, my dad started sending me pictures of our bay house in Alabama surrounded by boom, which BP was using to prevent the oil from getting in our marshes. Seeing my childhood invaded in this way was […]

Following “The Women of Sundance” article in our print and online additions, Danielle Lurie continues her coverage of female filmmakers with a series of pieces highlighting women directors at SXSW. In this email em>Butterfly Girl, which screens today, March 10. Filmmaker: Why this movie? Why did you decide to do it? Bell: Jess, our editor/producer, and I have been working on projects together off and on since college. I think when you click with someone creatively, in the way that we do, it’s such a blessing. We also have similar working styles, ethics, and visions, so when we were both […]