TALENT SHOW CONTESTANT LIMA SAHAR IN DIRECTOR HAVANA MARKING’S AFGHAN STAR. COURTESY ZEITGEIST FILMS. Following in the footsteps of such filmmakers as James Marsh (Man on Wire), Stephen Walker (Young@Heart) and Parvez Sharma (A Jihad For Love), Havana Marking is the latest director of a British TV-funded documentary to find her film in the theatrical spotlight Stateside. The intrepid director went to school in Dorset, England, before studying Anthropology at the University of London’s School of Oriental and African Studies. Subsequently, she began working in documentary television, progressing from researcher through to producer, on shows as disparate as Himalaya with […]
The trajectory of careers can be pretty fascinating. I remember when G.G. Allin was a Lower East Side punk rock performance freakshow, cutting himself on stage, fighting with audience members and threatening/promising to kill himself during one of his performances. Todd Phillips was attending NYU Film School at the time and while a junior there made his debut feature, a documentary portrait of the performer entitled Hated: GG Allin and the Murder Junkies (1994). He also, with Andrew Gurland, founded the New York Underground Film Festival, would go on to make with Gurland the controversial college hazing doc Frat House […]
Here’s actor, writer and director Keith Gordon’s (pictured) second post from the Sundance Directors’ Lab. For his first post, click here. OK, so the weather isn’t great so far (lots of rain), and the food is, well, it’s kinda like being at summer camp. (That’s why I always bring some cereal and cans of soup from home). And that’s all I can come up with to complain about. This place is magic, and I’m thrilled to be back in it’s grip. I unpacked in my cozy little condo, and headed down to the Sunday reception for us “new folk.” I […]
I’ve been slow on the blog and behind on posting my notes on day two of the Open Video Conference because we’re trying to finish the Summer issue and get it off to the printers before the July 4th holiday. It’s our annual “25 New Faces” issue, so it’s a tougher one to pull together than usual. Anyway, one person I won’t be writing about when I get that OVC Day Two post up is keynote speaker Clay Shirky — because he wasn’t there. Travel difficulties derailed his presentation but for those who want to hear him anyway, here’s his […]
At last year’s FIND Film Financing Conference in Los Angeles, Mark Gill told us the sky is falling. This year’s keynote speaker, Endgame Entertainment CEO James H. Stern, had a more optimistic message. Referencing Malcolm Gladwell’s book Outliers, Stern reminded the crowd, “We are lucky enough to be at the right place at the right time for great opportunities.” Stern encouraged the crowd of filmmakers to not just make better movies, but smarter ones that keep a film’s audience — and how to reach it — in mind well before the cameras roll, not just after the film is complete. […]
I’m still typing up my thoughts on day two of the Open Video Conference, but in the meantime, here is an example of open video in action. At his Mind Flip blog, Jay Cousins writes about “augmented content” as being a potential driver for video monetization on the web. He gives an example of the technology at play by embedding the below video which demonstrates some of the functions of Firefox’s new version 3.5, which supports Ogg video. Check it out.
Tonight our first Filmmaker/Apple “Meet The Filmmaker” event takes place at the Apple Store in SoHo at 8pm (103 Prince St.). Nick Dawson will be interviewing our Spring cover director Kathryn Bigelow about her new film, The Hurt Locker, which opens this weekend. The event is open to the public. Following the first 38 days of army bomb expert Sgt. Will James (Jeremy Renner) in Iraq, The Hurt Locker (pictured) is a trademark Kathryn Bigelow film. Like Near Dark, Point Break or Strange Days the action is non-stop and includes a breakout performance by Renner. Check out what we mean […]
The surprise guest at the conclusion of this weekend’s Open Video Conference was Peter Sunde of The Pirate Bay, which bills itself as the “world’s largest BitTorrent tracker.” As many of you know Sunde and three of his colleagues were recently convicted in a Swedish court and were sentenced to a year in jail and a $3.6 million fine. They have accused the judge of bias and are now battling the verdict on appeal. The Open Video Conference organizer introducing Sunde, who appeared via Skype from Sweden, acknowledged the controversial nature of his activities, particularly for the content creators in […]
In a “things are tough for everyone” reminder, Peter Bart and Michael Fleming in Variety report that Columbia Pictures’ Amy Pascal has put the new Steven Soderbergh movie, Moneyball, starring Brad Pitt, into “limited turnaround” just three days before it was due to begin filming. From the piece: The move came after Pascal read the final draft delivered last week by Steven Zaillian and found it very different from the earlier scripts she championed. Pascal was uncomfortable enough with how Soderbergh’s vision had changed that she applied the brakes. Soderbergh and Pitt’s CAA reps spent the weekend attempting to get […]
Yesterday wrapped up the first day of the Open Video Conference, a two-day event being held at New York University Law School featuring speakers, screenings and events all centering around the topic of Open Video. The conference, which can be livestreamed on its website, is produced by the Participatory Culture Foundation, the Yale Internet Society Project, the open source video platform Kaltura, iCommons, and the Open Video Alliance. What is Open Video? Quoting from the website: Open Video is a broad-based movement of video creators, technologists, academics, filmmakers, entrepreneurs, activists, remixers, and many others. When most folks think of “open,” […]