| Filmmaker Magazine

DUBAI INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL: THE BEGINNING

It’s my first day here in Dubai and my initial observations are the obvious ones: beautiful sights, impeccable service and construction (I mean a lot!). For those who don’t know a lot about this jewel of the United Arab Emirates, imagine Las Vegas before it became the tourist trap it is now, but instead of it built on mob money, this playground for adults is blossoming from the wealthy sheiks whose palaces are buried behind high gates along the coast. The picture above (not taken by me, but my images will appear in future posts) highlights the coast with Dubai’s […]

by Jason Guerrasio on Dec 10, 2007

SLAMDANCE PREVIEW: MY MOTHER’S GARDEN

Cynthia Lester’s film My Mother’s Garden has been selected for the Slamdance Documentary Competition and will premiere at Park City in January. The film has a MySpace page which streams the extraordinary show reel (also embedded below) and contains this summary of the film: My Mother’s Garden explores one woman’s extreme attachment to material objects and her emotional struggle to let go of them. My Mother’s Garden is the story of Eugenia Lester whose hoarding disorder has entered a dangerous and life threatening stage. Directed by her daughter Cynthia, it documents how one family comes together to cope with their […]

by Scott Macaulay on Dec 9, 2007

ANOTHER WAY OF THINKING

Last winter in a Filmmaker article recapping 2006’s most notable trends in independent film, I used as my lede a discussion of metrics — how, in every business, there’s some kind of unit of evaluation, but how in independent film that yardstick is often hopelessly confused. First-time filmmakers exorcising personal demons or doc makers espousing outside-the-mainstream viewpoints are later shocked and disheartened when their films don’t get picked up by a mini-major and gross Michael Moore numbers. Why don’t, I wrote, filmmakers consider things like the importance of transmitting the film’s message and their own enjoyment and personal growth as […]

by Scott Macaulay on Dec 9, 2007

THIS IS A HISTORY OF NEW YORK

I stopped by Other Music this weekend and discovered on the racks photographer Paula Court’s book, New York Noise: Art and Music from the New York Underground 1978-88. I first moved to New York during those years and became Programming Director at The Kitchen during the tail-end of that span, and for me the book, full of striking, energetic portraits of NYC’s key downtown art players, was not just a nostalgic blast-from-the-past but also a welcome confirmation that, yes, there was something special and perhaps unrepeatable about that scene and its casual cross-pollination. The Times Online has an article and […]

by Scott Macaulay on Dec 9, 2007

Jennifer Venditti, Billy The Kid

BILLY PRICE, THE STAR OF DIRECTOR JENNIFER VENDITTI’S DOCUMENTARY BILLY THE KID.COURTESY ELEPHANT EYE FILMS. You might say that Jennifer Venditti is a people person. After starting out as a fashion stylist, she moved on to casting where she distinguished herself as someone with an eye for the unconventional as well as the beautiful. In 1998, she started JV8inc, a New York-based casting company working in fashion, commercials and film, which has become known for its use of street scouting, finding “real” people for campaigns or movies by going out and pounding the pavements. Since starting JV8, Venditti has worked […]

by Nick Dawson on Dec 7, 2007

SLAMDANCE ’08 TITLES ANNOUNCED

The Slamdance Film Festival announced the titles for its 14th year. The festival will run alongside Sundance in Park City, Utah Jan. 17-25. This year’s Opening Night Film is Randall Cole‘s Real Time. The full list is below. Narrative Feature Competition FIX, (USA) Written/Directed by Tao Ruspoli This darkly comedic road movie journeys from Beverly Hills to Watts over the course of 12 hours, as documentary filmmakers Bella and Milo race to get Milo’s brother Leo from jail to rehab before 8 p.m. – or Leo goes to prison for three years. FROST, (USA) Written/Directed by Steve ClarkWhen a Manhattan […]

by Jason Guerrasio on Dec 5, 2007

ANN ARBOR FEST ANNOUNCES SETTLEMENT

If you read this blog regularly you’ve noticed we’ve been giving updates on the free speech lawsuit the Ann Arbor Film Festival has on the State of Michigan (posts: “Saving Ann Arbor” and “AAFF Update“). Today the festival announced that it has settled its federal lawsuit, filed by the ACLU on its behalf. With the state legislature repealing unconstitutional restrictions on arts funding, AAFF and the ACLU agreed to voluntarily dismiss the lawsuit. According to a statement sent out by the AAFF: “The new guidelines for arts funding, resulting from the AAFF’s lawsuit, mirror the National Endowment for the Arts […]

by Jason Guerrasio on Dec 5, 2007

KEY TO RESERVA

Surfing around the net tonight I found this amazing homage to Alfred Hitchcock made by Martin Scorsese (and paid for by the champagne Freixenet). Shot by Harris Savides, with additional lensing by Ellen Kuras, and cut by Thelma Schoonmaker, Scorsese tells a “documentarian” that he plans to shoot pages of a lost script he found titled Key To Reserva the way Hitchcock would have. “To preserve a film that has not been made,” he says. Using the familiar music of Bernard Herrmann, Scorsese casts Simon Baker to play the debonair lead and classic sequences from many of Hitchcock’s films appear […]

by Jason Guerrasio on Dec 2, 2007

Frank Cappello, He Was A Quiet Man

CHRISTIAN SLATER IN DIRECTOR FRANK CAPPELLO’S HE WAS A QUIET MAN. COURTESY MITROPOULOS FILMS. Whether he’s writing, directing, creating special effects, playing music, or simply recounting anecdotes, Frank Cappello seems to have a compulsive need to entertain. He honed his storytelling skills as a kid reading out his imagined motocross adventures to classmates, and then spent years writing spec scripts while working in special effects. Though the first script he sold, Suburban Commando (1991), became a derided Hulk Hogan vehicle, it was a launchpad for Cappello to direct two genre pictures. American Yakuza (1993) and No Way Back (1995) both […]

by Nick Dawson on Nov 30, 2007

ALTERNATING FIELDS

Harmony Korine’s latest feature, Mister Lonely, opened recently in England, will open France soon, and is due to arrive in U.S. theaters in the Spring from IFC Films. But Korine has also been filming some other work recently. Here’s a wonderful TV ad he just completed for the British department store chain Thornton’s.

by Scott Macaulay on Nov 29, 2007

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