Derek Cianfrance’s Blue Valentine opens December 31 and stars Ryan Gosling and Michelle Williams. Here’s the first trailer from the Weinstein Company.
In news that just makes you scratch your head, according the Mike Fleming at Deadline, the MPAA ratings board has given Derek Cianfrance‘s Sundance gem (and Oscar hopeful) Blue Valentine an NC-17 rating. Starring Ryan Gosling and Michelle Williams as a married couple who are on the verge of a divorce, Fleming says the rating was given due to the scene where Gosling and Williams’ characters spend the night in an adult fantasy suite. “They get drunk and their problems intensify when he wants to have sex and she doesn’t, but will to get him off her back. It is […]
Lurking about the less reputable precincts of Texas’ capital, Erica (a terrific Amanda Fuller) at first seems like another aimless, sexually adventurous young woman who in the city that embraced mumblecore would find herself in a pedestrian drama of mid twenties malaise. Living for free in a dusty co-op, she trolls the seedy side of Austin, scoring a new suitor every night for a bout of casual, unprotected sex. Clad in denim cut-offs and white cowboy boots, she drifts through days and nights with an anomie that is only enhanced by the arty, elliptical rhythms of Veteran UK helmer Simon […]
I now have a full week’s perspective on what happened at Independent Film Week as part of the Emerging Narrative section; what I learned, who I met, follow-up completed, what I might have done differently, and a new sense of where I’m going. If you are considering applying for next year, or lucky enough to have gotten in, hopefully this will be helpful. The best place to start, and usually the best place to finish, is with gratitude. I’m grateful to IFP for having selected my project; to the IFP volunteers, who with smiles and patience steered us around for […]
One of Filmmaker’s 25 New Faces of Independent Film in 2005, the documentary team of Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady have gained notice in the past five years for a string of socially conscious theatrical features and television projects developed at their jointly founded company, Loki Films. The Boys of Baraka (2005) followed a group of at-risk inner-city Baltimore school kids on their journey to an experimental boarding school in rural Kenya to see whether a change of environment could inspire and motivate these youths coping with an array of problems (violence, drug addiction, absent parents) at home and in […]
Here’s another report from a part of Independent Film Week that I’ve written a little about, but which is actually a huge—or at least, half—of IFW—the conference. I previously described the Project Forum situation, but get this—when we were out of our meetings, we had the opportunity to walk outside and around the block to an auditorium where every hour, on the hour, assembled experts, case studies, and assorted panels were weighing on various subjects. If you’re an aspiring filmmaker and don’t have a project in Project Forum, it would still be extraordinarily worthwhile to get a week pass just […]
It was only later that I discovered that I had been charged admission to Machete as a “student.” I am not one, and haven’t been for many, many years. I was glad not only because it saved me two dollars, but also because I didn’t have to resort to the Harvey Korman moment near the end of Blazing Saddles, when he cuts in line to buy a ticket for the film itself, pulls out an I.D., holds it up with a skeptical smile and asks the ticket lady, “Student?” to which she replies flatly, “Are you kidding?” At 9:30 on […]
I came here with my script The Garden, a comedy about a failed plan to turn a strip mall yoga center into a Utopian commune. I came with an open heart and a desire for a gin and tonic to ease social anxiety at an industry mixer. But like the idealistic plans of my open-hearted Yogi, things went horribly awry. I can’t get over the look in that bartender’s eyes — he seemed so trustworthy, like he knew the real me, the me inside of jaded filmmaker me. Then he said “$13” and I looked at him and said, “I don’t have a […]
So if you’re reading this, it means Filmmaker Magazine hasn’t cut off my access to blog at this site yet, and I’m here with another report. Independent Film Week has officially ended as I write this, but it’s a testament to IFP and the power of being part of the Emerging Narrative/Project Forum that it feels as if so much new has started—new connections, new possibilities, new friends, new outlook on the indie film world, and a new sense of my own work. When I last checked in, I described the setup of the Project Forum meetings, which lasted through […]
When I was first asked to create three posts on the IFP blog for Independent Film Week, I had no idea what I’d be writing about during the middle post — no real sense of how intense and all consuming this week would be — or how I’d feel about sharing my experiences. But I’m happy to report that Independent Film Week so far has been an amazing experience in every way, over-stimulating in the best sense of the word — a lot of information, many points of view, and various philosophies about every aspect of making independent films. After […]