| Filmmaker Magazine

James C. Strouse, Grace is Gone

GRACE IS GONE. This article is part of Filmmaker’s Sundance 2007 Special Coverage. Certain films arrive at Sundance with a special type of anticipation, whether it’s due to star presence, subject matter, timeliness, or some ineffable quality that is the stuff of buzz. At Sundance 2007, Grace is Gone is one of those films. The directorial debut of James C. Strouse, who wrote Lonesome Jim (the Steve Buscemi-directed film screened at Sundance in 2005), the film tells the heart-wrenching story of a father, played by John Cusack, who must find a way to tell his children that their mother has […]

by Jason Guerrasio on Jan 20, 2007

Cherien Dabis, Make a Wish

MAKE A WISH. This article is part of Filmmaker’s Sundance 2007 Special Coverage. Supported by numerous prestigious grants — including the Jerome Foundation’s New York City Media Arts Grant, the New York State Council on the Art’s Electronic Media and Film Distribution Grant, and National Geographic’s All Roads Film Project Seed Grant — Itmanna (Make a Wish), the most recent short film by writer/director, Cherien Dabis, will quickly follow its Sundance bow with screenings at Berlin and the Clermont-Ferrand Short Film Festival. A former media activist and public relations specialist in Washington D.C., Dabis is the daughter of Palestinian/Jordanian immigrants, […]

by Jason Guerrasio on Jan 20, 2007

JENKINS RETURNS WITH THE SAVAGES

With one full day in the books the talk around Main St. is about Tamara Jenkins’ The Savages. On an eight year hiatus from making features (her last being Slums of Beverly Hills), Jenkins returns with The Savages screening in the Premieres section. Funny yet touching, the story follows two siblings who are forced to interrupt their self-absorbed lives to take care of their ailing father. Laura Linney and Philip Seymour Hoffman (could you think of a better tandem?) play the siblings who finally have to give a damn about their father (stage vet Philip Bosco) after years of non-communication […]

by Jason Guerrasio on Jan 20, 2007

Fellipe Barbosa, Salt Kiss

SALT KISS. This article is part of Filmmaker’s Sundance 2007 Special Coverage. Salt Kiss, the second short film by writer/director Fellipe Barbosa to screen at Sundance (following last year’s La Muerte Es Pequena), has none of the tropes commonly associated—by Americans—with “Latin American” cinema. That means no knife-fights, gambling, gang violence, or overt poverty. Yet Salt Kiss is absolutely a Latin American film—Brazilian, to be exact—because its creator told a film straight from his heart, and yes, he happens to be from Brazil. In truth, Salt Kiss shares much more with two fine American independent films released in recent years—Sideways […]

by Jason Guerrasio on Jan 19, 2007

Hope Dickson Leach, The Dawn Chorus

THE DAWN CHORUS. This article is part of Filmmaker‘s Sundance 2007 Special Coverage. Hope Dickson Leach’s short film, The Dawn Chorus, tells the story of two siblings who annually reenact—with other survivors—the plane crash that killed their parents. An MFA thesis film for Columbia University’s Film program (where Hope graduated with honors), The Dawn Chorus explores the process of grieving and, hopefully healing. A former assistant to Todd Solondz, Hope’s short films have played at festivals around the world, from London and Edinburgh to Boston and Austin. The Dawn Chorus screens in Shorts Program 1, and the film’s path to […]

by Jason Guerrasio on Jan 19, 2007

Nanobah Becker, Conversion

CONVERSION. This article is part of Filmmaker‘s Sundance 2007 Special Coverage. Conversion, the ambitious second short film by Nanobah Becker, clocks in at only nine minutes, and is described simply tantalizingly as: “Christian missionaries make a catastrophic visit to a Navajo family.” Becker’s first short, Flat, has screened in festivals internationally, and she is a recipient of a 2005 Sundance Institute Ford Fellowship and a 2006 Media Arts Fellowship for her feature screenplay, Full. Conversion will play in Shorts Program V at Sundance. Can you say a little bit about your background? Where you’re from? Age? Education? Film experience prior […]

by Jason Guerrasio on Jan 19, 2007

"RISK FACTORS" IS RIGHT!

It’s kind of ironic that I’m here picking up the hotel’s free Wi-Fi and blogging on the second floor of the Sundance headquarters while waiting in a long line for my press credentials, which are delayed due to the festival’s internet being down (and the festival computers having lost a large number of photo files). So far, our small Filmmaker crew has, in less than 24 hours, been hit by said internet failure, food poisoning, lost luggage (along with the entire Delta flight I was on), and a missing condo owner (who was holding the keys). So it looks like […]

by Scott Macaulay on Jan 19, 2007

Ian Olds, Bomb

BOMB. This article is part of Filmmaker’s Sundance 2007 Special Coverage. It isn’t easy to glean a sense of Ian Olds’ identity from his films — they’re too diverse, too global. From Occupation: Dreamland (short-listed for an Academy Award), a breathtaking documentary that avoids simple political interpretation by opting to tell the story of the Iraq War from the perspective of the entire city of Fallujah — including both native Iraqis and U.S. troops — to Bomb, his most recent film, which explores teenage heartache against the backdrop of a decrepit bombing range and junkie malaise, Olds seems to be […]

by Jason Guerrasio on Jan 19, 2007

Lilah Vanderburgh, Bitch

BITCH. This article is part of Filmmaker’s Sundance 2007 Special Coverage. Bitch, the kinetic, black-and-white, Harold Lloyd-meets-Jello Biafra love story, is one of the most visually sophisticated and stylized films to emerge from that Sundance short film-factory, Columbia University’s MFA Film Program (eight shorts screening at the festival this year!). The film’s director, Lilah Vanderburgh, is obsessed with skater culture, punk-rock, underground comics, and displays the hip film literacy of another director with an encyclopedic knowledge of pop culture. (Is it taboo to compare a young director to Tarantino? Who cares — in this case, it’s deserved). This film will […]

by Jason Guerrasio on Jan 19, 2007

READY TO DANCE

It’s finally here. And Filmmaker is on the scene at the Sundance Film Festival to report on all the films we can possible see and everything else that goes on outside of the screenings. Along with dedicating this blog to our coverage, as an added bonus this year we’ve created a seperate page to the festival. Click here to check it out.

by Jason Guerrasio on Jan 18, 2007

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