2PAC AND HIS SOLDIERS IN ASGER LETH’S GHOSTS OF CITÉ SOLEIL. COURTESY THINKFILM. Asger Leth grew up with film as a way of life. His father, Danish film giant Jørgen Leth, featured him in Life in Denmark (1971) before young Asger could even walk or talk, and he also appeared in two more of his father’s documentaries, Good and Evil (1975) and Moments of Play (1986). Keen to escape his father’s shadow, Leth initially considered a career as a lawyer but ultimately could not resist the lure of filmmaking. He started directing short films in the mid-1990s, while simultaneously working […]
Last year writer/director So Yong Kim (pictured) was one of Filmmaker‘s 25 New Faces of 2006, and now, her debut feature, In Between Days, is opening in New York. GreenCine rounds up links to the rave reviews, and The Reeler has an interview with Kim in which she discusses her upcoming projects, the current movie’s long march through the festival circuit and into release, and the methods by which she cast her movie.
Writer Lauren Wissot emailed me after I blogged about the Antidote Films vs. JT Leroy verdict with a link to her own blog, Beyond the Green Door, where she’s posted several pieces about the case. Wissot takes the pro-Laura Albert position in two posts, beginning with: I guess I’m trying to find the humor in all this because, frankly, Laura Albert’s Kafkaesque nightmare scares the hell out of me. Though the defense lawyers have broached the subject of Albert’s psychiatric history on the stand, Albert’s mental health is irrelevant. (Though as a good friend of mine pointed out, amputees who […]
[ Filmmaker concludes its exclusive look inside the Sundance Directors and Screenwriters Labs (which wraps up at the end of the week) with a final entry from Filmmaker Braden King [pictured above], who’s been posting weekly stories on his experience at the Labs. His project is titled Here, co-written by himself and Dani Valent, and follows an American mapmaker charting the Armenian countryside who’s traveling with an adventurous landscape photographer revisiting her homeland. King has directed music videos and short films for Sonic Youth, Will Oldham and Yo La Tengo. He co-directed the film Dutch Harbor: Where The Sea Breaks […]
Paranormalist Jim Callahan has created a psychologically subtle piece of interactive noir/horror in the form of a short film. He’s a contestant trying out for the Spielberg-produced On the Lot show. Check it out and see if Callahan’s magic works on you…
BEN KINGSLEY AND TÉA LEONI IN JOHN DAHL’S YOU KILL ME. COURTESY IFC FILMS. John Dahl has unquestionable cinematic flair and a genuine talent for telling unconventional stories, yet he never set out to be a film director. Growing up in Montana in the 60s and 70s, his great passions were art and music: he studied fine art in college, then dropped out to become a commercial artist and play in rock ‘n’ roll bands. Still uncertain of his place in the world, he ended up at film school where he focused on directing. After graduation, he worked as an […]
A jury in Manhattan this afternoon ruled for plaintiff Antidote Films International in its lawsuit charging Laura Albert, the writer behind fictitious literary star JT Leroy, with fraud. Antidote was awarded the $110,000 it paid for film options to the Leroy novel Sarah and $6,500 in punitive damages. In a blog posting below I noted the reference to coverage in the New York Times discussing the fact that the trial has had the effect of entering the story behind the creation of the Leroy material into the public record, making it fair game for filmmakers, documentarians, writers, etc. It’s this […]
Over on the main page, Howard Feinstein’s interview with Michael Moore.
The Antidote Films vs. JT Leroy trial has gone to jury in New York today, and Alan Feuer’s most recent piece in the New York Times touches on what may be the most notable byproduct of the trial. There’s been discussion in the trial of director Steven Shainberg’s idea to do a “Sarah Plus” version of the Leroy story, blending elements of novel Sarah with the real-life story of its creation by writer Laura Albert. Of course, that would require some kind of purchasable or in the public domain material documenting Albert’s life to pull off. Writers Feuer: It is […]
Variety is reporting that Monster’s Ball director Marc Forster will direct the next James Bond movie. I loved Casino Royale and think Forster’s choice is definitely keeping my interest up for the next one.