The New York-based film festival CineKink has announced their line-up for this year’s event, which runs from February 26 to March 2. From the press release: Billing itself as “the really alternative film festival,” the event will run February 26-March 2, 2008. Presented by CineKink, an organization dedicated to the recognition and encouragement of sex-positive and kink-friendly depictions in film and television, works presented at CineKink NYC will range from documentary to drama, mildly spicy to quite explicit – and everything in between. “It seems our programming theme for this year was ‘No mercy!’” says Lisa Vandever, CineKink’s co-founder and […]
Over at Wired.com, Megan McCarthy has an article about Dealipedia, a new start-up from Michael Robertson, who previously founded MP3.com, which he sold to Vivendi in 2001. From the piece: Michael Robertson, who made $115 million when he sold his startup MP3.com to Vivendi in 2001, wants every other entrepreneur to tell the world how much, or little, they pocketed during their business deals. His new site, the recently launched Dealipedia, aims to become a hub of information about mergers, investments, acquisitions, and other business deals by encouraging the people in on the deals to upload information to its public […]
Interesting news via Pitchfork Media: Beastie Boy Adam Yauch has launched Oscilloscope Pictures, a new independent distributor, with former Think Film V.P. David Fenkel and former Think employee Dan Berger. The Pitchfork article quotes this Reuters/Hollywood Reporter piece, which gives more details. From the Gregg Goldstein piece: Yauch and Fenkel plan to acquire narrative and documentary features from festivals for release in the U.S. and provide funds to complete and release unfinished films. The pair, who worked on Yauch’s Beastie Boys documentary “Awesome! I F***in’ Shot That!” at ThinkFilm, will oversee postproduction and marketing work at Oscilloscope Laboratories’ downtown Manhattan […]
Looking at our coverage of films last year we realized we did a pretty good job choosing films that went on to get Oscar nominations (yes, there was much rejoicing in the office). Some appeared in Nick Dawson’s Director Interviews section on the Website, others were Web Exclusives, while a good deal was in the magazine and we never got them online. So beginning tonight and going all the way to Oscar night on Feb. 24, we’ll be republishing those pieces in the Oscar Preview section on the main page (except for There Will Be Blood (nominated for Best Picture, […]
Over at the FilmInFocus site there’s a five-part series beginning today in which five documentary filmmakers (or filmmaking teams) tell us their top sources for news and political reporting and commentary. The first set, picked by Jesus Camp directors Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady, spans an “alternative news nexus” to a site that measures “hostility across the political spectrum.” Their selections are at the link.
An amazing, amazing Super Bowl with a fourth quarter for the ages. John Woods, liveblogging for The New York Times, says, “To heck with the Coen brothers. This is your best picture of the year.” I just finished watching the game in Paris on France 2, where most of the late-game commentary consisted of “Incroyable!” and “Ooh, la la!” (Seriously.) Anyway, congrats to the Giants and all the fans!
The AP is reporting that four New York indie film companies — Greenestreet Films, This is That Corporation, Killer Films and Open City Films — have signed an interim agreement with the striking WGA, allowing them to go forward with WGA-scripted development projects and productions. From the piece as it runs on CNN.com: Jason Kliot and Joana Vicente, speaking for GreeneStreet, Open City and Killer films, credited the union with “thoughtfulness during the discussions.” This is that co-founders, Ted Hope and Anne Carey, said the united action by the companies to settle “clarifies our support for and solidarity with the […]
Brian Chirls, who was part of the Filmmaker team at Sundance this year, sat down for an interview with Scott Kirsner over at his Cinematech blog/ They talked about audience building, monetizing your web audience, and Brian’s work with the Four Eyed Monsters team. I’ve embedded it below. And if you are not a regular visitor to Kirsner’s blog, click over there for lots of other great commentary on web video, new media, and new distribution and business models.
Given that he’s just made his debut feature about the mysteries, speculations, half-truths and flights of fancy that comprise the 9/11 Truth Movement, I guess it makes sense that filmmaker Paul Krik is accustomed to finding conspiracy wherever he goes. He’s travelled from Brooklyn to Rotterdam to premiere Able Danger, but when I ask him to shoot me an email about why he chose to make a movie about 9/11 conspiracy theorists, he responds by noting some suspicious activities having to do with Dutch bicycle renting: “Indruk de en Brooklyn fietser in Rotterdam” True Conspiracy #1; It is illegal to […]
WRITER-DIRECTOR-STAR NADINE LABAKI IN A SCENE FROM CARAMEL. COURTESY ROADSIDE ATTRACTIONS. As role models, few filmmakers are more inspirational than Nadine Labaki. On top of the inherent difficulty of succeeding as a writer-director, Labaki grew up in Lebanon’s war-ravaged capital, Beirut, in a Middle Eastern culture where women are essentially second-class citizens. However, Labaki’s passion for film drove her to overcome her obstacles, and in 1998 her short film 11 Rue Pasteur (her graduating project at Beirut’s Saint-Joseph University) won the top prize at an Arabian film festival in Paris. Back in Lebanon, Labaki honed her craft as a director […]