Over at Nerve, Daniel Nemet-Nejat interviews A.J. Schnack,, whose Kurt Cobain Without a Son recently played at the AFI Festival. Constructed around a series of audio recordings of Cobain conducted by journalist Michael Azerrad, the doc is a surprisingly poetic and non-didactic portrait of a reluctant rock star’s interior life. Here’s Schnack on his approach towards constructing the film: I tried to pay attention to Michael’s desires that it be unusual, not the typical cut-and-paste piece about a band. Immediately I thought what would be interesting to me is if the tapes would be the single source for the narrative, […]
In Sharon Swart’s piece on the major agency indie financing units in our Spring issue, Endeavor’s Graham Taylor discussed his work philosophy: “I’m not interested in setting up financing so people can just collect fees,” adds Endeavor’s independent packaging agent, Graham Taylor. “It’s about the artists owning their films and truly benefiting when the films work. People have the misperception that packaging is only about attaching talent and finding financing. It’s a much lengthier process. It’s about development and taking it all the way through ancillary markets. Even on the indie side, you have to be connected to the marketing […]
On the web and in the magazine we have Annie Nocenti’s interview with directors Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady, filmmakers currently receiving a second burst of publicity due to some fortuitous casting. Massage-loving, meth-indulging evangelist Ted Haggard, whose recent troubles may have depressed the Christian Right vote in yesterday’s election, is prominently featured in the duo’s Jesus Camp, still in national release. If you’ve been watching the cable news you’ve probably seen clips like this one in which Haggard’s comments in the film are quite at odds with his recently revealed private life. Here on the Huffington Post is a […]
Now that Borat has proved that it is worthy of all the hype, many question why it only opened on 800-plus screens. Was Fox cleverly building the word of mouth? Were they scared it could have possibly been a Snakes on a Plane? Variety explores the studio’s thinking. Here’s a little taste: Some close to the comic thesp point to the pic’s amazing $31,607 per-playdate average as a sign the film had enough appeal for a wider release. But some distrib execs point to the still-low awareness of “Borat” — in the latest tracking, which reflects polling from over the […]
I posted below the incredibly sad news about Adrienne Shelly’s death and never mentioned that it was initially thought a suicide as a friend had told me that there was an ongoing police investigation. Now, CNN and other news organizations are reporting that a construction worker who apparently was heard arguing with Shelly has been charged in her death.
There were many amazing moments at the Sundance Institute’s 25 Anniversary Gala in New York this evening — including a great piece of performance art by Miranda July — but the evening’s most unexpected surprise may have occurred during the pre-dinner cocktail party. The wait staff serving hors’ d’oeurves were all actors who were giving back to Sundance as they produced expressions of shock, amazement, and slight embarassment among the attendees. Parker Posey, Kathy Bates, and yes, Paul Newman were all game, circulating through the crowds in white shirts and black aprons, handing out the finger food to those who […]
Via GreenCine comes this interview with David Gordon Green appearing in The Believer. Here, Green talks about his adolescent video renting habits: “The first movie I rented—and I was a little overwhelmed, so I ended up regretting my choice—but it was an Al Pacino movie called Author! Author! I was debating between that, Ladyhawke, and I Spit on Your Grave, but that last one, I was afraid my sisters would tell my mom I’d rented that. And it was not going to be the kind of appropriate thing to have around the house. But I was glad to see the […]
Um, our Alexa ratings could use a boost at the moment… so here’s the the just-released Scale, the second installment in Mike Figgis’s Kate Moss meditation, The Dreams of Miss X. It’s part of a four-part series he’s been doing for the lingerie house Agent Provocateur. (You have to watch it on their site and give them an email address before you’re allowed to view it. The clip does get cool in a Jean Cocteau kind of way as it goes on, though.) From the site: “The four dreams of Miss X” was shot in night vision and explores the […]
The Criterion Collection has started a blog titled “On Five.” (It’s subtitled, “Unofficial Information about the Criterion Collection from the People who are Officially in Charge.” Click over there on Tuesdays and Fridays for posts on new releases, HD vs. Blu-Ray, and more.
On October 18 I posted a few quick comments on the Google/YouTube deal. Specifically, I concluded my posting by wondering if any of the artists whose work has been streamed on YouTube will see any cash from the “copyright infringement” settlements that are part of the deal. Here’s what I wrote: The question then becomes, what mechanism or accounting system exists to reward individual copyright holders from the revenue “shared” with Universal by YouTube? Do artists signed to Universal see (or do their balance statements reflect) this income? And what about all the other artists whose video is being shared […]