Yesterday at DIY Days I presented a conversation with Scott Lindenbaum, a founder of the online publishing platform Electric Literature. I think his new venture, Broadcastr, is pretty amazing. But before I tell you more about it, here’s how Scott describes himself in his bio. Scott Lindenbaum is the Co-Founder/President of Broadcastr, a free social media platform for geo-located audio that lets people create and share recordings on an interactive map. On the Web, Broadcastr is a digital archive of human memory and narrative; mobile users can take a walk while stories about their surroundings stream automatically, like a museum […]
It’s not too late to attend the IFP’s Script to Screen Conference, which takes place this Saturday at 92Y Tribeca in New York City. Highlights include conversations with writer-director Barry Levinson (Rain Man) and Black Swan screenwriter Mark Heyman; a Pitch Workshop in which five emerging screenwriters will pitch their screenplays to a panel of experts (including sales agents, Magnolia Pictures’ head of acquisitions, and a producer from Glass Eye Pix); a case-study with the team from Sundance hit Martha Marcy May Marlene moderated by Ted Hope; a live reading of two IFP alumni screenplays for dialogue analysis with independent […]
Apple announced the new iPad 2 today, and with the announcement came a new iMovie for iPad. The iPad itself is thinner, has a faster processor, has both front and rear-facing cameras (although the still camera is not of iPhone 4 quality), and can be outfitted with a new and very cool protective covering that snaps on via magnets and can be folded for use as a stand. As for iMovie, Jobs said at the keynote that with its precision editor and touchscreen interface multi-track audio “you can really edit a movie on this thing.” I’m not sure I’d go […]
The South by Southwest Film Conference and Festival revealed today that its closing night film this year will be the world premiere of Bill Bob Thornton‘s documentary on Willie Nelson, The King of Luck. They also announced additional titles to the fest, including a work-in-progress screening of Bridesmaids, starring Kristen Wiig and produced by Judd Apatow, and a short from Harmony Korine. More info on the closing night film and additional titles can be found below. SXSW will take place March 11-19 in Austin, Texas. Read full list of features here; Midnight, SXFantastic and shorts here. CLOSING NIGHT FILM The […]
The Tribeca Film Festival has just announced that Cameron Crowe‘s documentary, The Union, will open their 2011 edition. The film follows the career of Elton John and his collaborative album with Leon Russell. It’s produced by T-Bone Burnett. Marking the festival’s 10th year, The Union will screen for free outdoors at the World Financial Plaza’s North Cove in New York City’s Lower Manhattan. Elton John will also perform after the screening. This year’s fest will take place April 20-May 1. The feature film slate will be announced in the coming weeks.
Korea’s love affair with genre film continues unabated in the hands of cult favorite Kim Jee-woon, the versatile 46-year-old writer-director of A Bittersweet Life (revenge thriller), The Good, the Bad, and the Weird (Eastern Western), and the award-winning A Tale of Two Sisters (ghost story). This avatar of Extreme Asian cinema certainly has his share of fans at home and abroad—a major retrospective of Kim’s work, “Severely Damaged: The Cinema of Kim Jee-woon,” ends a five-day run at Brooklyn’s BAM Rose Cinemas this evening—but his latest ultra-stylish provocation, I Saw the Devil, made the censors queasy. Several minutes of the […]
At the Oscars, host Anne Hathaway said it was the cinematic year of lesbians. At the Spirit Awards, host Joel McHale said it was the year of cunnilingus. But this year at CineKink, the range of filmic sexual expression is, as always, more varied. Now in its 11th edition, Cinekink kicks off tonight at the Taj Lounge with a program of performance and short films before moving to the Anthology Film Archives tomorrow for four days of screenings. A closing night party will be held on Sunday, March 6. Each year I ask Cinekink director Lisa Vandever to make a […]
Director and producer Gary Winick, a friend and mentor to many in the independent film community, died Sunday afternoon in New York at the age of 49. The cause was brain cancer, a friend told Indiewire. As the comments in that Indiewire piece — “an amazing mentor,” “a generous visionary,” “one of the finest human beings in our industry”— attest, Winick was a rare soul in the world of independent film. He was a smart, compassionate and truly giving person, and, even as his Hollywood career took off, he never forgot his roots. While he was crafting smart and heartfelt […]
Josh Radnor, the writer-director-actor of, happythankyoumoreplease, has a day job: he stars on the hit CBS sitcom, How I Met Your Mother. (Radnor plays the titular “I”— perhaps the most famous “I” in pop-culture since Withnail & I.) happythankyoumoreplease is an immensely likeable New York ensemble film about young people trying to negotiate love and responsibility, and its Audience Award win at Sundance in 2010 marks Radnor, who makes his directorial debut with the movie, as a filmmaker to watch. happythankyoumoreplease features a number of outstanding performances by actors including Malin Akerman, Tony Hale, Zoe Kazan, Kate Mara, Pablo Schreiber, […]