At the 30th Sundance Awards Ceremony last night, I walked around the hall and asked filmmakers a simple question, and requested a short response. My question was: “What does Sundance mean to you?” Their answers were incredibly diverse — in fact none were identical. I shouldn’t have been surprised. Out of varied thoughts are born unique visions that can become great films. Of course not great films for everyone, but great for someone, or for a group of someones. For an audience taken on a journey where they have never been, or have not been for a long time, films […]
To create a feature with a genuine sense of mystery pulsing beneath the filmed veneer is a rare accomplishment, but to achieve that in a short film? Next to impossible. However, Pioneer — David Lowery’s tender, moody short — is an absolute cryptogram. Little more than a father (well-played by musician/actor Will Oldham) telling a tall and violent tale about an absent mother to his young son, Pioneer manages to stay within the confines of a bedroom yet utterly transports the audience to the high altitudes of childhood imagination. Lowery’s facility to direct children was on fine display with his […]
One of the key figures in the New Queer Cinema and ever youthful at 51 years of age, Gregg Araki is a director who is increasingly hard to pigeonhole. After the critical success of 2004’s Mysterious Skin, the film which confirmed that Joseph Gordon-Levitt was a movie-star and that Mr. Araki could direct delicate drama as well as exploitation and cult cinema, it seemed that the director of such indie LGBT classics as The Living End (1992) and The Doom Generation (1995) was moving on to a new, more conventionally respectable, middle-aged portion of his career. Now Mr. Araki is […]
Good things come to those who wait, as writer-director Megan Griffiths will attest. The debut feature from the Seattle-based filmmaker, The Off-Hours, was seven years in the making before it finally went into production last spring. Inspired by Griffiths’ own experiences working the night shift, this moody, atmospheric indie captures the lives of the people who frequent a diner in a nowhere truckstop town, including pretty young waitress Francine (Amy Seimetz), her foster brother Corey (Scoot McNairy), soft-spoken truck driver Oliver (Ross Partridge), and alcoholic diner owner Stu (Tony Doupe). There are also cameos from fellow directors Lynn Shelton (whose […]
Fresh off the whirlwind opening weekend of the 2011 Sundance Film Festival, here are my admittedly skewed impressions of this year’s cinema extravaganza — which seemed queerer than ever despite (or perhaps because of) my being unable to see many of the LGBT films on view. Fear not. I have a well-developed facility for chiming in relevant commentary on films I’ve never seen, and at least one worthy observation on the presentation of the LGBT films at this notoriously queer “straight” festival. So here from the perch of January is a glimpse at the queer year in film ahead. On […]
[PREMIERE SCREENING: Tuesday, Jan. 25, 3:00 pm — Egyptian Theatre] I believe that All Your Dead Ones is actually built upon surprise. It is a project that we decided to undertake with a very reduced production team and that meant that surprises would abound and appear around every corner: for instance, the weather conditions are very variable in the region where we shot the movie and this complicated even further our challenge of using only natural light right at the moment were the sun is completely perpendicular. Every day we were forced to expect the climatic surprise of the day, […]
On Friday night the IFP and 7 For All Mankind put the spotlight on seven talents that soon will get your attention. Nestled in the TR Suites in Park City, the 7 Fresh Faces In Film party rocked late into the night. Attendees included industry vets like producers Ted Hope, Vanessa Hope, and Jamie Patricof; Visit Films topper Ryan Kampe; Slated’s Duncan Cork; new media expert and consultant Brian Newman; filmmaker and distribution guru Jon Reiss; the much buzzed about cast of Pariah and even Olympic snowboarder Shaun White. But the night belonged to these seven faces. Olivia Crociccha – […]
[PREMIERE SCREENING: Monday, Jan. 24, 11:30 pm — Library Center Theatre] My biggest surprise was the miracle of locations we were able to shoot in for free in our “no budget” New York City movie. They were of course all simultaneously open for business, and part of shooting in this vein means that you have to be willing to work in a stop-and-start fashion. First we had asked if we could shoot a day in the stationery store. Then that day turned into two, three, five, seven days… They always said yes, and it always surprised me. Especially after some […]
[PREMIERE SCREENING: Monday, Jan. 24, 6:00 pm — Egyptian Theatre] The biggest surprise for me in making this movie is the emotional power of the finished product. As someone with a strong documentary background, making this movie opened my eyes to how powerful the dramatic narrative arc can be when you get it right. We took so many risks on so many levels that I guess I’m still amazed that all the pieces have come together and that the end result gels so beautifully with the music. The performances are a big part of this too — they’re really raw […]
With his second feature, the Gotham Award-winning Littlerock, California native Mike Ott explores the dreams of a small California town through the eyes of a visiting pair of young Japanese tourists. By Ray Pride.