6300 Results for “Open ”
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Directors Rachel Grady and Heidi Ewing on Detropia
In Detropia, the new documentary from directing partners Rachel Grady and Heidi Ewing, a gleaming sun rises over a handsome stretch of metal and glass, yet much of the landscape it kisses is neglected, overgrown, and decaying. This is the dichotomous portrait of Detroit delivered by the filmmakers, whose breakthrough film, Jesus Camp, likely rattled your core. With similar attention paid to stirring emotional heft, Grady and Ewing’s latest uncovers the splendor and squalor of a very American metropolis, whose all-time-low state of disrepair is punctuated by glimmers of its former — and, perhaps, future — glory. Painstakingly researching their […]
by R. Kurt Osenlund on Sep 5, 2012 -
The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation’s Doron Weber
The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation was created in 1934 by the then head of General Motors to bestow grants related to science, technology, and economics, and to make these subjects more appealing to the general public. Part of a shift towards doing so via the arts can be attributed to Doron Weber, who runs the Public Understanding of Science and Technology program. Weber introduced the concept of providing sometimes sizable grants to narrative films, dealing with science or the science community, over a decade ago, when the idea was relatively novel and returns were a total question mark due the […]
by Farihah Zaman on Sep 5, 2012 -
THE VIEW FROM ACROSS THE ATLANTIC
Have you ever sat talking to someone and half way through a sentence thought, “Have I said this to this person already? OMG, what was I talking about? I’m lost?” I’m waking up in the middle of the night sweating with this fear rattling my head because I am preparing for two weeks of solid pitching. I need to be ready for about 10 a day, each one focused exactly the same as all the others, do the greatest pitch of your life! And that is just what’s organized. I have a shadow agenda to seek out other people – […]
by Zaheer Goodman-Bhyat on Sep 5, 2012 -
Five Questions with Cinema is Everywhere Director Teal Greyhavens
After a summer dominated by big budget Hollywood blockbusters, we could all use a film that reminds us of the humanity and joy of the medium. Teal Greyhavens’ Cinema is Everywhere follows actors and directors from four disparate cultures, creating an interwoven narrative fabric that lovingly renders the importance of film across the globe. Greyhavens’ documentary makes effort to explore cinema in countries where social and political barriers limit or restrict free speech; often, movies are the best opportunities people have to express their thoughts, fears and hopes. With such an ambitious scope the film could easily spread itself too […]
by Sam Eisen on Sep 4, 2012 -
TELLURIDE: MAVENS OF THE IMPOSSIBLE
Over the years, many friends and colleagues had mentioned the cinephile haven that is Telluride, but I was either too busy or too far to make the trip to the mountain tops. Finally I caved in to the (positive) peer pressure and applied to be a volunteer for the 39th Telluride Film festival over Labor Day. The deal is simple: work 40 hours over 4 days and you will eat for free, see incredible films and probably get hooked for the rest of your life. Enticing. Telluride is not easy to get to: you will need multiple connecting flights, an […]
by Camille Bertrand on Sep 1, 2012 -
The Ambassador — A Hammer to Nail Review
(The Ambassador had its world premiere at IDFA 2011 and its U.S. premiere at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival. It was picked up for distribution by Drafthouse Films. It launched on VOD and digital platforms on August 4, 2012, and opens theatrically at the IFC Center in New York City on August 29, 2012, and at The Cinefamily in Los Angeles and Alamo Drafthouse locations in Austin on August 31, 2012.) For the Fox News crowd, the Central African Republic could be seen as the future they’ve been waiting for: a skeleton government that rules hand in hand with ruthless, unregulated […]
by Paul Sbrizzi on Aug 30, 2012 -
Mads Brügger, The Ambassador
Two years ago, Danish filmmaker Mads Brügger received heaps of praise and a certain level of notoriety for his North Korea documentary, The Red Chapel, a surreally funny glimpse at the repressive routinization of daily life inside the hermit kingdom that won the Grand Jury Prize for international documentary at Sundance. To some, the controversial film was merely a highwire stunt: Brügger managed to gain entrance to the totalitarian state (along with two gagmen, one a self-described “spastic”) by posing as a communist theater director attempting to mount a comedy in the interest of cultural exchange. The disadvantages of his […]
by Damon Smith on Aug 29, 2012 -
TIME IN A BOTTLE: “THE GOOD DOCTOR”
After leaving his native Britain for the U.S., Dr. Martin Blake (Orlando Bloom) begins his residency in general medicine in a chaotic, understaffed hospital in an unspecified coastal city. This well-mannered, middle-class young man is vying for a fellowship in infectious diseases. Unfortunately, he is off to a bad start: He falls out with a powerful nurse, Theresa (Taraji P. Henson); and he inadvertently endangers a non-English-speaking patient with a potentially lethal dose of penicillin. Screenwriter John Enbom succeeds in a difficult balancing act: The more events point to Martin’s culpability in two deaths, the greater his superiors’ enthusiasm for his work. […]
by Howard Feinstein on Aug 29, 2012 -
PARSING POLITICAL DOC HIT “2016: OBAMA’S AMERICA”
Tuesday’s 10 a.m. showing of 2016: Obama’s America drew about 20 customers to the big AMC theater in Times Square. A modest turnout, to be sure, but part of a larger wave that’s turned this conservative documentary into one of the summer’s independent film success stories. After a small opening in July, the film expanded to almost 1,100 screens last weekend. Over three days, 2016—directed by Dinesh D’Souza and John Sullivan, and released by Rocky Mountain Pictures, a company that specializes in conservative movies—grossed a reported $6.2 million, with a per-screen average of almost $6,000, “the best of any film […]
by Kevin Canfield on Aug 28, 2012 -
Shooting With John: A Performance Behind The Lens
It was a hazy Saturday afternoon in Berne, New York, and a motley crew of filmmakers holding shotguns, aimed at the sky, surrounded me. My mouth was dry and I felt the mind’s eye going black while gripping my barrel. “What the hell am I doing here and who are these strangers?” Well, I was asked to join a small group of filmmakers to shoot skeet and talk shop (and sadly, not form a militia). This past year was a whirlwind tour with my first feature art/documentary, Convento, which premiered at SXSW, played a bunch of fests and was picked up […]
by Jarred Alterman on Aug 28, 2012
