In Dogtooth, an authoritarian father’s carefully constructed sham world falls apart after one of his sheltered daughters watches Rocky IV and Jaws. In Electrick Children (above), a 15-year-old Mormon girl (played by “25 New Face” Julia Garner) gets pregnant after listening to a rock ‘n’ roll song on an unmarked blue cassette tape. The narrative similarities essentially end there but, given their equally unorthodox takes on coming of age in cloistered environments, the two are oddly complementary. Split between rural Utah and fabulous Las Vegas, Electrick Children‘s visual world is entirely at odds with what its doe-eyed protagonist is used to on her big-sky homestead: neon lights, dingy […]
Game Changers is an indie film currently being shot in Buffalo, New York. In this second part of the interview with filmmakers Rob Imbs (director) and Benjamin Eckstein (cinematographer), they discuss funding a low-budget movie, how the budget effects the production, as well as casting and location scouting. Filmmaker: So you had a script, but then you had to fund the movie. How did you go about doing that? Imbs: Funding was always an Indiegogo thing. Just as I fell in love with Twitter, I also fell in love with the idea of Indiegogo. I really believe in supporting artists, […]
Memorable movie moments may be made out of triumph — the winning of the big game, the getting of the girl — but a career in film rarely reaches its triumphant third act in 90 minutes. Even the most successful filmmakers spend years on their journey, and it is for them — those waiting and hustling for their breaks — that Independent Film Week exists. Founded in 1979 by IFP, the publisher of Filmmaker, Independent Film Week has mushroomed over the past 33 years into a one-of-a-kind event that connects emerging and established artists with the producers, financiers and executives that […]
There is a saying I once heard: “Once you change the method of distribution, the product has to change.” This itself is a take on the idea that distribution defines the product. You see this around every day in the products you buy. Cars are influenced by the dealership networks that sell them. Phones by the mobile network operators and the choice of computer you use at work by whatever the IT department or value-added reseller prefers to work with. Mass-market restaurants offer what can be sold by wholesalers — typically frozen, long shelf-life staples. Almost every product category is shaped more by […]
Jessica Yu revisits the subject of her own Academy Award-winning short documentary Breathing Lessons by speaking with writer/director Ben Lewin, whose The Sessions brings the story of the paralyzed poet Mark O’Brien to dramatic life.
Ingrid Jungermann was selected by Filmmaker as part of this year’s crop of “25 New Faces of Independent Film” along with her comedic cohort from The Slope, Desiree Akhavan. After chronicling the relationship between two “superficial, homophobic lesbians” in The Slope, Jungermann is striking out on her own with a new web series, F to 7th — currently in the final stages of its fundraising campaign on Kickstarter — in which the same “Ingrid” character reappears, now looking for her place in the world. Filmmaker briefly chatted with Jungermann about her upcoming show, going solo and lessons learned from The Slope. Filmmaker: Tell us about F to […]
This Tuesday we have the big announcement of “The New F” from Sony to look forward to. Will it be amazing? Sony is certainly talking it up, billing it as “The Future, Ahead of Schedule.” Peter Crithary of Sony has tweeted: Peter Crithary @CineAltaNews Those few that have seen, and know the features, their reaction is #GameChanger Of course, he’s from Sony, so he might be expected to say that. Filmmaker Sebastian Wiegärtner has said: Sebastian Wiegärtner @wiegaertner #TheNewF announcement will be very tough for some big players in the industry! I was so surprised yesterday! And Andy Shipsides of […]
Karen has left her slimy but successful husband Mario after ten years of marriage. She needs a fresh start to find out who she is and who she could be, despite her husband’s proclamation that she can do absolutely nothing. She walks out into Bogotá with no job, no friends, and hardly any money, but catches a break when she meets a hairdresser named Patricia at a cheap flophouse. With her younger and seemingly stronger friend by her side, Karen takes her first steps towards independence and self-discovery. (Dir. Gabriel Rojas Vera)
1 hitRECord’s RECollection “Who knows, maybe in three years we’ll have hitRECord cinema!” This was Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s hope when we talked to him about his open-collaborative site hitRECord.org in 2009. Well RegularJOE, you did it in less than three! With the release of RECollection: Vol 1, Gordon-Levitt’s dream of building work with a community of artists from across the globe is becoming a reality. Featuring the films, music, drawings, poetry and photography of 471 collaborators (which have already been showcased at Sundance and SXSW), this hardbound 64-page book (along with DVD and CD) proves that Gordon-Levitt’s mission to create a […]
The Dragons & Tigers section has been the richest part of VIFF’s legacy, dating back to 1994. Each year, the Award for Young Cinema has highlighted an as yet unrecognized talent of East Asian cinema. This year the Dragons & Tigers jury was made up of Shinozaki Makoto, Joao Pedro Rodrigues and Chuck Stephens. I was able to see a few films from the competition, including the winner Emperor Visits the Hell, directed by Li Luo. An often perplexing, but always interesting film, Li’s movie transports a story (three chapters) from the Ming Dynast novel Journey to the West to […]