17721 Results for “”
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“A Lifetime of Loving Ape Movies and Primate Documentaries and Bigfoot-Adjacent Things”: David and Nathan Zellner on Sasquatch Sunset
Since the dawn of man, there have been anthropomorphic recreations of the lives of primates (they are our evolutionary ancestors, after all). And since the legend of the Sasquatch was first told, there have been numerous recorded sightings of the elusive “Bigfoot,” albeit with most footage deemed a hoax carried out by opportunistic fraudsters in possession of hairy full-body suits. The most infamous came in 1967 in the form of footage shot by Roger Patterson and Robert Gimlin in Northern California—fleeting frames that, depending on whom you ask, could either be easily debunked or serve as ineffable proof of the […]
by Erik Luers on Apr 19, 2024 -
“…With the Giddy Feel of a College Reunion”: The Full Frame Documentary Film Festival Returns
In the spirit of springtime renewal, the Durham, North Carolina-based Full Frame Documentary Film Festival returned to in-person mode for the first time since 2019. And while Full Frame presented virtual versions from 2020 through 2022, the festival was canceled altogether last year, due in large part to fiscal struggles undermining its parent, the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University. An April 2023 report in Duke’s The Chronicle indicated that the university would undertake a review of the Center. Members of the festival’s Advisory Committee circulated a petition on social media, helping to assure the festival’s return and, a […]
by Tom White on Apr 18, 2024 -
Represent Justice Announces New Speakers Bureau, Strategic Plan and Impact Campaign Around Clemency for Women Impacted by Mandatory Minimum Sentences
Represent Justice, the organization that began as an impact campaign for Destin Daniel Cretton’s wrongful-conviction drama, Just Mercy, announced today via press release a three-year strategic plan, “a roadmap for building narrative power and infrastructure around people impacted by incarceration and creating a justice system that is focused on healing, rather than punishment.” New this year is the Speakers Bureau, which will represent “the extraordinary ecosystem of system-impacted movement leaders, exonerees, artists, campaign leaders, filmmakers, and film participants who work in partnership with Represent Justice to transform the legal system. The Represent Justice Speakers Bureau will be a full-service bureau […]
by Scott Macaulay on Apr 18, 2024 -
Jeremy O. Harris and Slave Play, UFOs, Diane von Furstenberg, Anti-Putin Activists and More: The Tribeca Film Festival Announces Its 2024 Edition
The Tribeca Film Festival, which runs from June 5 – 16 in New York City, announced today its 2024 feature film lineup. As always there are many buzzy celebrity-focused films, from Trish Dalton and Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy’s opening night doc, Diane von Furstenberg: Woman in Charge to LIZA: A Truly Terrific Absolutely True Story, directed by Bruce David Klein, to music docs featuring Sting, Prince, Linda Perry, Avicii and Detroit techno pioneer Carl Craig. And then there’s BRATS, Andrew McCarthy’s road trip doc as he reconnects with fellow members of the ’80s Brat Pack, Rob Lowe, Demi Moore, Ally Sheedy and Emilio […]
by Scott Macaulay on Apr 17, 2024 -
“My Best Ability, In Terms of Acting, Is To Know Everything About My Character.” Dylan Baker, Back To One Episode, 287
Dylan Baker is the definition of a consummate actor. For over three decades he has delivered so many incredible performances in series like The Good Wife, Damages, Hunters, films like Happiness, Selma, Spider-Man 2, and his latest, LaRoy, Texas, where he plays a professional killer. He talks about his approach toward playing despicable people, some who other actor’s wouldn’t touch. He takes us back to his beginnings, and the acting instruction that changed his work and which he still uses today. He tells a story about how the legendary theater director Nikos Psacharopoulos had a big impact on his early […]
by Peter Rinaldi on Apr 16, 2024 -
“The Charismatic Leader Leads People, But What Toward?”: Rory Kennedy and Mark Bailey on Their HBO Docuseries The Synanon Fix
Currently unspooling across four episodes on HBO and continuing to stream on Max is The Synanon Fix, the latest true-crime catnip from the cable channel that’s not a juggernaut of the genre. And while the Sundance-debuting docuseries does involve the usual “suspects” (a cult, a cache of weapons, attempted murder via a venomous snake), it’s also the latest HBO Original from director Rory Kennedy and writer Mark Bailey (Ethel, Downfall: The Case Against Boeing). Which means it’s less interested in lurid details and more focused on actual individuals with an optimistic vision who are drawn into — and failed by […]
by Lauren Wissot on Apr 15, 2024 -
Watch: Devan Scott’s Video Essay, “Why Are Movies So Dark?”
Accompanying his debut article in Filmmaker’s print edition, “Did You See (and Hear) That?),” Devan Scott posts today a video essay, “Why Are Movies So Dark?”, that provides visual backup for his points. “Contemporary visuals are commonly diagnosed as dark,’ ‘underexposed’ or ‘underlit’. In actuality, they describe an array of phenomena, many of them widely misunderstood,” he writes. “The most common charge, dim,’ is often used interchangeably with ‘underlit.’ Tools are frequently blamed; ‘the digital look’ is as much an accusation of modern equipment as an assessment of its apparent effects.” Watch Scott’s new video above.
by Scott Macaulay on Apr 12, 2024 -
“I Love the Kind of Cinema That [Tells You Everything] Through Images, Where Every Frame is Like a Painting”: Ena Sendijarević’ on Her Metrograph Series, Sweet Dreams
Amsterdam-based, Bosnian-born filmmaker Ena Sendijarević’s two features to date, Take Me Somewhere Nice and Sweet Dreams, hone the filmmaker’s personal cinematic language while expanding the parameters of her own perspective. The former, her 2019 debut feature, follows a Dutch teen as she journeys to visit her ailing Bosnian father in the hospital. The latter, which will screen at NYC’s Metrograph beginning today, chronicles the decline of a wealthy Dutch family’s Indonesian sugar plantation at the turn of the 20th century. While her first feature explores the contours of Eastern and Western European relations—a subject Sendijarević is familiar with as a […]
by Natalia Keogan on Apr 12, 2024 -
“Congratulations, That Shot was Terrible”: DP Matthew Temple on Late Night with the Devil
I typically have two problems with found footage horror movies. First, it’s often hard to believe the characters wouldn’t simply drop their cameras once the body count begins. Just as the haunted house movie must present a sufficiently logical reason for the inhabitants to remain once the voices start whispering “get out,” the found footage horror movie must posit an acceptable rationale for why the cameras keep rolling. Second, the subgenre’s veneer of reality often means some of filmmaking’s most effective tools—score, editing, composition—are sacrificed on the altar of verisimilitude. The premise of Late Night with the Devil alleviates both […]
by Matt Mulcahey on Apr 11, 2024 -
“The Step from Being a Human to Becoming a Monster is Much Shorter than We Think”: Oksana Karpovych on Her ND/NF Doc, Intercepted
While the on-the-ground horrors of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine have been viewed around the world, often in real time — and even formed the basis of this year’s Best Doc Feature Oscar winner, Mstyslav Chernov’s 20 Days in Mariupol — Ukrainian-Canadian filmmaker Oksana Karpovych has chosen to take a much different and rather innovative approach to documenting the war. Intercepted premiered this year at the Berlin International Film Festival before traveling to CPH:DOX and now, tomorrow night, New Directors/New Films, and while it contains no shortage of cinematically-framed images of both devastation and defiant rebuilding, it predominantly captures our […]
by Lauren Wissot on Apr 11, 2024
