David Weissman moved to San Francisco in 1976 and has been a fixture of the filmmaking community there, working on films like Crumb and In the Shadow of the Stars before directing his own movie (with Bill Weber), The Cockettes, a documentary chronicle of the legendary Bay Area performance group. With his latest, We Were Here, Weissman again digs into the history of the city, this time capturing the height of the AIDS epidemic in the 1980s. The following short conversation was conducted at Sundance before the first screening of his film. We Were Here opens in New York at […]
I remember when I was a teenager sitting down with my dad and doing my resume. My father had left a 30-year government job to move into consulting and the corporate sector, and he was sending out a lot of them. I modeled mine after his. There were headings down the left side — a short-term “Goal,” experience, education, and my interests — and all the info was succinct, tabbed, bullet-pointed. It fit on one page. I haven’t done a resume in years. In film, the narrative bio is used more often. Or, an iMDb page suffices. But, after reading […]
Kevin Smith continues his maverick release strategy of his latest film Red State by announcing today that he’ll be screening a one-night only nationwide simulcast of the film on Sept. 25. at Quentin Tarantino’s New Beverly Cinema in L.A. The film will screen at select theaters nationwide through a unique partnership with Ira Deutchman‘s Emerging Pictures theater network, including the post screening Q&A with Smith which will be digitally streamed live from the New Beverly into all of the participating theaters, allowing audience members to interact directly with Smith utilizing Twitter. Red State had its VOD premiere yesterday after grossing […]
This interview with Jon Foy, director of Resurrect Dead: The Mystery of the Toynbee Tiles, was originally published during the 2011 Sundance Film Festival, where the film won the Documentary Directors Award. The film opens today at the IFC Center in New York, with Foy and his collaborators doing Q & A’s at the evening shows. There are few professions in the world that demand more from their practitioners than documentary filmmaking — most filmmakers spend years (if not lives) toiling away in obscurity, with little keeping them going beside the faith that theirs is a story worth sacrificing everything […]
Second #564, 9:24 Jeffrey comes down the stairs of his home. It’s night, and his mother (played by Priscilla Pointer, the real-life mother of Amy Irving) and Aunt Barbara (Frances Bay) sit on the sofa watching a black-and-white crime drama on the television. Positioned on opposite ends, the space between them opens up like some sort of haunted void where someone (or something) else should be. In Lynch’s films, sofas—which seem like the most harmless piece of furniture possible—become uncanny objects, spooky places that are so familiar that they become unfamiliar. There is one more point of general application which […]
Macrumors reported today that Apple is now selling again Final Cut Studio, the “old” version of its desktop editing software that was retired upon the launch of its new Final Cut Pro X. The software is not available in stores or even via online sale; customers must call 1-800-MY-APPLE to order the software. As has been reported here and elsewhere, the Final Cut Pro X release has been a controversial one. Although many editors applauded its rethought paradigm and powerful tools, just as many pointed to missing features and declared it not suitable for professional use. Final Cut Pro X […]
Shia LaBeouf’s directing credit makes this video for Marilyn Manson’s new “Born Villain” something of a curiosity. I will give him a nod, though. Many videos from established rock stars trafficking in violence and theatricalized SM imagery gloss it up too much. But there’s something genuinely sleazy about this one, even with all the obvious references (Jodorowsky, Gilles Berquet, David Cronenberg, Cinema of Transgression). Says LaBeouf to MTV, “The song has all these references to ‘Macbeth’ and all this Shakespeare and heavy theology, so we tried to make Manson’s ‘Un Chien Andalou’ macabre ‘Macbeth’ — that’s sort of what that […]
(Richard Linklater’s seminal indie feature was released 20 years ago this summer. In celebration, 24 Austin-based filmmakers have crafted Slacker 2011, a collage/montage/homage, which premiered on August 31 at the Austin Film Society. For our part, we’re posting Nelson Kim’s essay on the film, which originally ran at Hammer To Nail on January 5, 2009. Buy the Criterion edition on DVD, or watch it at Amazon Instant.) A young man (the then-31-year-old writer, director, and producer) gets off a bus in Austin, hails a cab, and tells the driver about his theory that every choice we make in life creates […]
Now on our VOD calendar are titles available for the month of September. Some highlights: You’ve heard about Kevin Smith putting together an auction at Sundance for his latest film, Red State, only to buy it himself and go on a self-distributed nation-wide theatrical roadshow. Well, now you can see what all the fuss is about as it premieres on VOD today. There’s also Richard Press‘ doc Bill Cunningham New York on the iconic New York Times photographer; Andrew Haigh‘s fest favorite, Weekend; and Cameron Crowe‘s doc Pearl Jam Twenty, which gives a candid look at the legendary band. For […]
The world of indie filmmaking is forever colliding with the larger worlds of technology and giant media conglomerates, regulatory and legal developments, non-profit groups and a fickle consumer who loves indie film and other indie media. Indie-Current is a monthly heads-up tracking these developments. It’s a big — and forever getting bigger – world out there, so readers are encouraged to e-mail me stories I’ve missed or something you believe is important for others in the indie community. I can be reached at drosennyc AT verizon.net. Remembering 9/11 September 11, 2011, will commemorate the tenth anniversary of a day that […]