6301 Results for “Open ”
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NYFF Critics Notebook: Manakamana, What Now? Remind Me, Norte, The End Of History
As the last stop on the fall festival circuit affecting awards season hysteria and odds, the New York Film Festival tends to draw most of its coverage for already-in-discussion main slate titles. This year there were a record 36 films in that section, with the expanded number seemingly designed to include more crowdpleasing filler (Richard Curtis’ About Time) and Hollywood titles that can serve as reliable draws (Nebraska, Inside Llewyn Davis). That’s not to say the festival’s 51st installment doesn’t still serve as a festival-of-festivals cross-section of notable recent titles of the hard sell type, but more of them than […]
by Vadim Rizov on Sep 26, 2013 -
These Are a Few of My Favorite Things: New York Film Festival I
I have both good and bad news about the New York Film Festival (September 27-October 13). First, the good news: For the most part, the films in this impressive, carefully balanced program are very good. And the bad: The fest has become so expansive that quantity just may overshadow quality. A bright, high-energy, and well-regarded expert in all things cinema, Kent Jones debuts as head of the NYFF. For the first time in its 51 years, the composition of the selection committee has been, wisely, revised. Traditionally it was guided by the fest director, always a professional programmer, but rounded […]
by Howard Feinstein on Sep 26, 2013 -
Seed&Spark’s WestFest: Streaming to Theaters
Both a selective crowdfunding site and curated streaming platform, Seed&Spark has proven itself a unique enclave for filmmakers and viewers since its inception in 2012. From October 1-3, the hybrid will fully realize its “Cinema” component with a three-part film program at The HUB LA. Screening a total of six films from the recently launched Conversation series, the festival calls upon S&S founder Emily Best, Sundance programmer Christine Davila, and Twitch Film editor Ben Umstead to bring their selections to a live format. Filmmaker spoke with Seed&Spark’s director of content, Amanda Trokan, about the unprecedented event, and bridging the gap between online and […]
by Sarah Salovaara on Sep 25, 2013 -
Jean-Pierre Jeunet on his 3D Movie, The Young and Prodigious T.S. Spivet
When he was eight, Jean-Pierre Jeunet would marvel at 3D pictures on his View-Master. It was a popular toy where someone could see a sequence of stereoscopic images printed on a cardboard disc inserted into a handheld viewer. “It my first step into cinema,” the director of Amelie fondly recalled, “because I would adjust the frame in the viewer to change the order, and I’d imagine a new kind of film.” Little did Jeunet know that his beloved View-Master would lead to him to direct an entire film in 3D 52 years later. Jeunet was speaking about the pleasures — […]
by Allan Tong on Sep 25, 2013 -
What’s Your Proudest Career Accomplishment? Jeff Skoll Talks Participant Media at TIFF
When he was 16 growing up in Montreal, Jeff Skoll saw Gandhi and it changed his world. “Here was a way of talking about an exemplary figure who touched the world and spread a message to millions of people.” Skoll would go on to build eBay, amass a fortune currently estimated at $4.5 billion, then use his wealth to launch Participant Media, a film company whose mission is to change the world through movies. Skoll was the keynote speaker at TIFF’s industry series recently. He was in Toronto, where he studied business as a young man, to open the festival […]
by Allan Tong on Sep 20, 2013 -
C.O.G.’s Kyle Patrick Alvarez on the Art of Indie Adaptation
Kyle Patrick Alvarez has carved out an unusual niche for himself within American independent cinema; as he himself comments, “Everyone keeps on joking I have This American Life authors named David cornered now.” Alvarez made his feature debut in 2009 with Easier with Practice, a poignant, heartfelt drama about a young man who begins a phone relationship, initially sexual and then later also romantic, with a woman (or is it?) who randomly calls a motel room he’s staying in. Based on an autobiographical essay, “What Are You Wearing?”, written for GQ by This American Life contributor Davy Rothbart, the film debuted at CineVegas, had a small theatrical […]
by Nick Dawson on Sep 20, 2013 -
High in Bed-Stuy: Shaka King on Newlyweeds
The lovers at the center of Shaka King’s Newlyweeds are young Brooklynites whose romance more or less revolves around their love of marijuana. King’s often outrageously funny and wistfully bleak movie is a black stoner answer to James Ponsoldt’s Smashed; with genre-bending humor and style to burn, the movie asks delicate questions about the nature and sustainability of their relationship and fissures that may pull them apart. Amari Cheatom’s Lyle is a repo man for a rent-to-own electronics and appliance store while Trae Harris’ Nina is a museum tour guide. He’s a little angry and brighter than his job title would indicate […]
by Brandon Harris on Sep 20, 2013 -
“What’s Your Story?” Collaborative Media-Making at the Made in NY Media Center’ by IFP
I’ve been really eager to hear more about IFP’s newest venture, the Made in NY Media Center by IFP, which is a collaboration with the Mayor’s Office of Media and Entertainment, the NYC Economic Development Corporation and General Assembly (an organization offering immersive classes in web development, media and business management). I was all ears for Thursday’s Filmmaker Conference profile panel where representatives from each of those organizations spoke a little more about the Media Center and what it will offer for NYC-area filmmakers. Opening in two weeks in a beautiful 20,000 square foot ground-floor DUMBO location (22 John Street), the Media Center aims […]
by Katie Carman-Lehach on Sep 20, 2013 -
Meta-Vamping
This second installment of Time Frames draws on The Media History Digital Library, a reservoir of information about early cinema that includes the sorts of magazines, journals, and trade publications that, in the pre-digital era, had only been available to those able to travel to research libraries. At over 800,000 scanned pages and growing, the collection is daunting. In Time Frames I’ll cull through and select a series of images and text from the collection to highlight key transformative moments in the film culture and industry, as well as other oddities and obscure artifacts. In the pre-Code, chaotic world of […]
by Nicholas Rombes on Sep 19, 2013 -
Kyle Patrick Alvarez on How C.O.G. Wrapped in Mid-November — and Still Got into Sundance
It’s every independent filmmaker’s dream to have their film have its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival, but realistically the chances are very slim. The festival gets over 12,000 submissions annually, and only around 200 of those are chosen. However, when the deadline to apply for the 2013 Sundance Film Festival came around this time last year, writer/director Kyle Patrick Alvarez faced a much steeper challenge than most. His sophomore feature, C.O.G., based on an autobiographical essay by David Sedaris about a formative summer spent in Oregon after graduating college, hadn’t even started production. Delayed from its original August […]
by Nick Dawson on Sep 19, 2013
