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“North Dakota is Trump Country Today”: John Hanson and Rob Nilsson on the 4K Restoration of Northern Lights
Northern Lights
It would be easy to call 1979 a red letter Cannes for New Hollywood: Apocalypse Now got Francis Ford Coppola his second Palme d’Or (split with Volker Schlöndorff for The Tin Drum), Terrence Malick received Best Director for Days of Heaven. Outside of the spotlight of official competition, another American film playing in the International Critics’ Week walked away with the second ever Camera d’Or for best first feature. Directed by John Hanson and Rob Nilsson, Northern Lights returned the pair to their North Dakota roots by documenting 94 year-old Henry Martinson, a socialist organizer instrumental in the victory of the left-wing Nonpartisan League, set up by and for farmers, which won control of the governorship of North Dakota in… Read more
Cap’n Crunch and the Serial Killer: John McNaughton on His Career
Michael Rooker in Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer
Currently underway at the the Nitehawk Cinema in Prospect Park, "Portraits of Wild Things: The Films of John McNaughton" is a long overdue retrospective of the Chicago-based filmmaker of Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer (1986). Like The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974), I’ve always felt that the most exploitative aspect of McNaughton’s film was its title—it sounds like something you shouldn’t take joy in watching even if you’re even depraved enough to seek it out in the first place. Critically praised upon its (much delayed) release, Henry provided McNaughton with a path to mainstream success, even as the filmmaker simultaneously fought not to be typecast in genre fare. Along the way, the soft-spoken director worked with everyone from Robert… Read more
“There’s a Lot about ‘The Watcher’ and This Third Party in What We Do”: Will Janowitz, Back To One, Episode 311
Straddling the line between outsider artist and full-fledged Hollywood sellout, Will Janowitz has always found solace working both sides of the industry. With work ranging from Troma films to Ang Lee's Taking Woodstock to The Sopranos, he’s made a career of always doing the unpredictable. This year two films he produced, and one he wrote, will make their festival run; Bang Bang starring Tim Blake Nelson and the later, Train Dreams, starring Joel Edgerton and Felicity Jones directed by Clint Bently. On this episode he talks about his improvisational sweet spot and how it rests in the heart of danger and risk, brings us back to his beginnings at UNCSA and the reasons why that school didn’t work so well… Read more
Trailer Watch: Andrew Norman Wilson’s “It’s Not What the World Needs Right Now”
Earlier this year, filmmaker Andrew Norman Wilson (profiled as part of our 25 New Face of Independent Film list in 2021) published an essay in The Baffler about his struggles to get his work financed, made and seen. Entitled "It's Not What the World Needs Right Now," the (mostly) comic essay made enough of a splash that Wilson has subsequently presented it (in New York, Los Angeles and Locarno) as a live one-man show while dressed as Abraham Lincoln. Now the presentation form returns to New York's Metrograph this Friday, and we're pleased to share Wilson's trailer for the event, complete with a classic deep-voiced narrator.
The Ofcom Gap: VOD, UK Broadcasters and Ethical Fact-Based Filmmaking
Jessica Gunning in Baby Reindeer
Netflix’s breakout hit Baby Reindeer brought into vivid relief an issue long at play in the UK: VOD platforms do not have to jump through the same regulatory hoops as broadcasters, for whose programs “compliance” is a necessary headache. The UK’s extensive regulatory framework for broadcasting is overseen by the UK’s Office of Communications (Ofcom), a super regulator covering a vast array of communications from postal services to internet provision and online safety, radio and television. The ten sections of Ofcom’s broadcasting code provide a detailed roadmap for broadcasters to ethically make and deliver programs, addressing a vast number of topics: protection of children, issues around harm and offense to the audience, undercover filming, informed consent and the special treatment… Read more
“How Would Frederick Wiseman Order This Procession of Images?”: Making Robert Kolodny’s The Featherweight
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Robert Kolodny's Venice-premiering The Featherweight is the dramatic story of real-life boxer Willie Pep as he exits retirement to attempt a comeback in the ring — all as he's shadowed by a documentary crew. The film's action occurs two decades after Pep's 1940s heyday, with Kolodny and his team, who include producer and screenwriter Steve Loff and editor Robert Greene, convincingly replicating the look and rhythms of 1960s verite documentary to meditate on both the past as well as the boxing film's durability in the present. Wrote The New Yorker's Richard Brody in his review, "It's an instant classic of a boxing movie, with its closeup view of the inseparable agonies and passions of a sport that’s shadowed with death." With… Read more
“We Needed to Steer the Film to a Place Where It Wasn’t a Biopic”: Cinematographer Turned Director Ellen Kuras on Her Kate Winslet-Starring Lee
Kate Winslet in Lee
For years filmmakers have tried to tell Lee Miller’s story. Famous first as a model for artists like Man Ray, then as a fashion photographer, Miller became a war correspondent during World War II. She captured some of the most iconic images of her time, from views of Hitler’s life to the horrors of concentration camps. For her feature debut as a director, Ellen Kuras was determined not to fall into standard biopic conventions. Starting from a book of Miller’s photographs, she collaborated with star and producer Kate Winslet and writers Marian Hume, Liz Hannah, and John Collee to find a dramatic framework for Miller’s life, one that often ignores biographical details to concentrate on her day-to-day struggles as an artist… Read more
21 Films to See at the 2024 New York Film Festival
Nickel Boys
With this year's New York Film Festival underway, Filmmaker is recommending 18 films to watch over the course of the festival, which runs this year from September 27 through October 14. This year, our staff has covered several festivals— including TIFF, Venice, and Cannes,—whose premieres will be screening at NYFF during these upcoming weeks, some of which have previously been featured on our site. Below, we have compiled a list of the must-see films playing at the New York Film Festival, along with links and excerpts from director interviews and festival dispatches as well as, for three titles we have covered yet, the reasons we're anticipating them. Anora "A Cinderella fantasy that plays out in Brighton Beach... [Sean Baker's Palme d'Or-winning Anora]… Read more
