In the early 1990s, the playbook for beginning independent producers used to be this: Find a budding auteur, make their first ultra-low-budget film, sell it at a festival, then partner with the director on larger, increasingly successful projects, allowing both careers to grow symbiotically. Independent film does contain such partnerships—Christine Vachon and Todd Haynes is a notable one and, more recently, the producing team of Toby Halbrooks and James M. Johnston and director David Lowery—but countless others fizzle out. Sometimes, the stress of a first feature generates behavior from either party that shuts down any thought of future collaboration. Other […]
I teach documentary studies and production at the Skidmore College MDOCS program and run the MDOCS Storytellers’ Institute. When non-tenure track faculty recently organized to form a union, MDOCS curated a series of labor-related films to add to the conversation around labor organizing on campus. What should have been a fun project became increasingly frustrating because all the documentaries we found centered strikes—the most conflict-oriented, high-stakes and visible side of unionization. What we wanted to feature were the less-visible processes of labor organizing: meetings, conversations, collaborations and negotiations. We ended up screening two excellent films about striking workers, and although the screening generated […]
Everything Everywhere All At Once editor Paul Rogers first met co-directors Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, or the Daniels, at OMG CAMERAS EVERYWHERE, a free filmmaking summer camp pairing kids with established filmmakers to shoot videos for musicians like Daft Punk, Diplo and Benny Blanco. When I called Rogers via Zoom to interview him, Scheinert sat beside him with a guitar and occasionally chimed in: “The first thing we worked on together was a silly music video with kids—no rules, directions or studio notes. We just had to make something that would make the kids excited about what they did […]
The main poster for Steven Spielberg’s The Fabelmans displays its characters within the frames on three strips of celluloid: young Steven Spielberg stand-in Sammy Fabelman (Gabriel LaBelle) holding a 16mm camera, mom Mitzi (Michelle Williams) dancing in car headlights, etc. This makes sense for the “childhood of a 1970s filmmaker” plot, and it tracks technically as well. Like every Spielberg feature—save the digital-world portions of Ready Player One, the CG of The BFG and the mocap experiment of The Adventures of Tintin—The Fabelmans is shot on 35mm. But look closely and this key art doesn’t make any sense: The vertical […]
TÁR opens with its namesake, played by Cate Blanchett, being interviewed in front of a packed audience at The New Yorker Festival. The chat serves multiple functions. It delivers the character’s backstory as an EGOT-winning classical composer and conductor, establishes the film’s immersive, observational style and lets the viewer experience sound the way that Lydia Tár experiences it. During the interview, the festival’s audience is only heard as a communal mass. It laughs together. It applauds together. There is no ambient chatter, no whispered asides, no rustling clothes or shuffling feet. It’s only when the interviewer asks about the influence […]
Watch the first trailer for Kelly Reichardt’s Showing Up, which premiered at Cannes earlier this year before screening at the New York Film Festival. The film stars Michelle Williams as a ceramic artist named Lizzy who’s preparing for an upcoming show, but is constantly thwarted from working by mundane inconveniences. Hong Chau also stars as Jo, Lizzy’s landlord/colleague/artistic rival, who is currently thriving in her career. The film also features Maryann Plunkett, John Magaro, André Benjamin, James Le Gros and Judd Hirsch in supporting roles. During his Cannes coverage, our Vadim Rizov wrote: “Showing Up is a comedy of frustration […]
Projectr, the independent film-focused streaming service, has announced the launch of its new streaming branch Projectr EDU. Partnering with public libraries, universities and educational institutions across North America, the free streamer presents a curated selection that encompasses acclaimed films, archival restorations and award-winning documentaries. The streamer kicks off its educational initiative by partnering with the New York Public Library, meaning that any New Yorker with a library card can access Projectr EDU’s extensive library, which at present includes over 1,000 titles. It is also the only streaming service currently partnered with the NYPL. “With Projectr EDU, we’re delighted to be […]
Today, the nonprofit Sundance Institute announces the lineup for the Short Films and Indie Episodic programs ahead of the 2023 Sundance Film Festival. This comes shortly after the feature lineup announcement, which we covered last week. Notably, Sundance will resume in-person attendence in 2023, with screenings being held in Park City, Salt Lake City and the Sundance Resort for the entirety of the Festival, which runs from January 19-29. A selection of films, including all short and episodic works, will be available to stream from January 24-29 through the Festival’s online platform. “Short films and episodic projects are an integral […]
The first time Andrea Riseborough was on the podcast (episode 100), we got a chance to hear how this incredible actor approaches her craft. On this episode, we get to focus on her astounding work in the new movie To Leslie. She talks about the interesting ways shooting on film in the middle of the pandemic affected everything, why working on her character’s alcoholism would have been a disaster, finding a touchstone with director Michael Morris in Barbara Loden’s Wanda, taking the objective “to just exist” from Mike Leigh, seeing constrains as freedoms, the importance of keeping your integrity, and […]
Watch the trailer for Spanish director Carla Simón’s Alcarràs, which won the Golden Bear at this year’s Berlinale (the first Catalan-language film in the festival’s 72-year history to do so) and is now Spain’s official Oscar selection for Best International Feature. The film is a follow-up to Simón’s 2017 semi-autobiographical feature debut Summer 1993. Alcarràs follows a rural family living in present-day Catalonia that must grapple with the changing landscape of their collective livelihood. The cast predominantly features non-actors from the Lleida region, which includes the titular village of Alcarràs. Per the official synopsis: “As far as they can remember, the Solé family […]