6300 Results for “Open ”
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Sundance 2012
Robot and Frank (director, Jake Schreier) I got into film because I was spectacularly mediocre at everything else. I loved art and performance, but wasn’t much of an actor, was a pretty bad keyboard player and couldn’t draw at all. When I got to try out filmmaking at an NYU summer high school program, it was the first time where the things I made vaguely resembled the ideas I had in my head. That doesn’t really explain why Robot & Frank had to be a film, except that in my hands it would have made for a really cheesy song […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Jan 10, 2012 -
Released
On Aug. 19, 2011, Damien Echols, Jason Baldwin and Jessie Misskelley Jr. entered an Arkansas courtroom for the final time. This was the last place these men, known better as the West Memphis Three, thought they’d be on this summer day — Baldwin and Misskelley were currently serving life sentences and Echols was on death row. But 18 years and 78 days after being sentenced for murdering three 8-year-old boys in West Memphis, Ark., there was finally a glimmer of hope that the state would recognize that these now mid-30-year-old men were not the killers and let them go free. […]
by Jason Guerrasio on Jan 10, 2012 -
Thessaloniki International Film Festival
Rome fell. Athens fell. Unelected representatives of European banks were installed in Italy and Greece, elections distant down the road. Interesting times in the south of Europe, with a rush of drama in the outside world to match the 100-plus films slated during 10 eventful days of November’s 52nd edition of the Thessaloniki International Film Festival. The event was trim, yet taut, light wind in its sails from a two-year budget infusion from the European Regional Development Fund. Photo exhibits, publications, masterclasses and retrospectives still accompanied the international competition, the Balkan Survey and Open Horizons programming sections. If one weren’t […]
by Ray Pride on Jan 10, 2012 -
Marrakech International Film Festival
Less than three hours before this departing journalist had to hail his morning airport shuttle, he’s rumored to have been onstage at a five-star Moroccan hotel nightclub, loosened by too many free scotch whiskeys, guest performing a White Stripes song (supported by a mostly Canadian gig band with scantily clad, former cheerleaders as backup dancers) for an audience best described as “the 1 percent.” Cannes may have its prestigious world premieres and swingin’ Riviera yacht parties, but who knew that the height of film fest luxury — and if you seek it, decadence — lies in the North African desert, […]
by Aaron Hillis on Jan 10, 2012 -
CPH:DOX Film Festival
Any great film festival needs to do two things. The first is establish an identity, a curatorial purpose that draws attendees by promising them something defined, different and necessary. And the second, far harder thing to do is to constantly upend that identity, throwing enough curveballs so that visitors know they’ll be challenged on every trip. Finishing it’s 9th year this past November, Copenhagen’s CPH:DOX does both these things brilliantly. Positioned just before the mammoth doc bellwether IDFA, CPH:DOX takes as its mission the challenging of staid notions of the documentary form itself. CPH:DOX director Tine Fischer told Sight and […]
by Scott Macaulay on Jan 10, 2012 -
Hits & Misses
Will 2011 be remembered as the year the indie film biz rebounded after nearly two years of contraction, consolidation and caution? Or was it merely a brief minor upsurge, hardly enough to sustain the numerous companies, executives and filmmakers trying to make a go of it? The beginning of the year started bright, even dazzling. Independent films like Black Swan, The King’s Speech, The Kids Are All Right and Winter’s Bone were big at the Oscars and the box office. And at Sundance, more than 40 films were acquired during and immediately after the fest. It looked like independent films […]
by Anthony Kaufman on Jan 10, 2012 -
Parting Shot – Greta Gerwig
Since becoming the poster girl for indie film’s most scrutinized subgenre – mumblecore – Greta Gerwig has transformed herself from a twentysomething aspiring playwright to a diverse character actress who can hold her own with the likes of Ben Stiller, Russell Brand and even the particular direction of Woody Allen. Her latest role once more shows her expanding range as she delves into the obscure and mannerist comedic world of indie vet Whit Stillman with his first film in 14 years, Damsels in Distress. In the film, which Sony Pictures Classics opens in March, Gerwig plays Violet, the angst-driven leader […]
by Jason Guerrasio on Jan 10, 2012 -
Don’t Do This!: 12 Mistakes Commonly Made on Independent Film Productions
The mixture of risk-taking, cost-cutting and pure enthusiasm that is independent film production can lead to great movies but also, all too frequently, poorly thought-out productions. Here, from producer Maureen A. Ryan (Man on Wire), is a list of 12 mistakes often made by new filmmakers and their producers as well as many who should know better. It originally appeared in our Winter, 2012 issue. 1. Decide to shoot before you have the best script possible. You’re dying to shoot your first feature but don’t start prepping until your script is ready to be shot. It doesn’t matter if your […]
by Maureen A. Ryan on Jan 10, 2012 -
Rewind
One year ago in this spot I cautiously heralded “signs of life” in the independent film world, citing, among other things, all the independently financed features (Black Swan, Winter’s Bone, The Kids Are All Right) headed for the Oscars. A month after I wrote my piece, Sundance 2011 concluded with a record number of acquisitions, which included films like the tough, defiantly independent Martha Marcy May Marlene and the no-budget Another Earth by none other than Fox Searchlight. And while American independents didn’t sweep the Oscars, they did figure prominently, with a Best Actress win for Natalie Portman. But, as […]
by Scott Macaulay on Jan 10, 2012 -
An Interview With Frederick Wiseman
The New Year can be as much a time to reflect as it can be to project into the future. Some see the act of looking back as an integral part of moving forward. But on a brisk afternoon in Cambridge the day before New Year’s Eve, Frederick Wiseman resists this notion. The legendary documentary filmmaker has been making roughly one film a year since 1967, only taking breaks when funding difficulties, or in this case critical recognition, require him to do so. Tomorrow night Wiseman is receiving the Legacy Award at the annual Cinema Eye Honors for his debut […]
by Daniel James Scott on Jan 10, 2012
