These interviews were recorded prior to the SAG/AFTRA strike, in June 2023, as part of the Tribeca Festival. On this special episode of Back To One, actors Sophia Lillis, Hannah Gross and Michael Cera talk about their work in writer/director Dustin Guy Defa’s wonderful new film The Adults. We get a glimpse into each of their general preparation processes before doing a deep dive into their work on this actor-centric production. They each talk about how they built the reality of their complex sibling relationship, why the songs and dances that play such a big part in their characters’ past feel […]
“Have you ever seen Romanian TikToks?” It’s a torrid afternoon in Locarno and Radu Jude and I are sitting in a container repurposed as an interview booth, a couple of days after the premiere of his latest, Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World. Social media play a prominent role in the film, an electrifying snapshot of life in the 21st century designed to both immortalize our back-to-front digital zeitgeist and dissect its textures. A collage straddling black comedy and road movie, Do Not Expect centers on Angela (Ilinca Manolache), an overworked production assistant whose company […]
Formerly known as the Contemporary World Cinema program, TIFF announces today the lineup for its 2023 Centerpiece slate, which includes films from Víctor Erice, Aki Kaurismäki, Ryûsuke Hamaguchi, Wim Wenders and many more. Additionally, TIFF reveals further selections for its gala and special presentation as well as documentary lineups. So far, the festival has also announced programming for its Platform, Midnight Madness and Discovery categories. “We are very excited to present the new Centrepiece programme, a cinematic journey that transcends boundaries and embraces the art of human experience,” said Anita Lee, TIFF Chief Programming Officer, in a press release. “The […]
Filmmaker is happy to share an exclusive clip of Elaine McMillion Sheldon’s documentary King Coal, which opens at DCTV Firehouse Cinema in New York City on August 11 before a limited expansion. The clip details the history of West Virginia’s New River—”the second oldest river in the world”—and the discovery of coal in a tributary nearby. Watch the full clip above. An official synopsis gets into the film’s overall thesis: A lyrical tapestry of a place and people, King Coal meditates on the complex history and future of the coal industry, the communities it has shaped, and the myths it […]
Like many Filmmaker readers, I first encountered the work of Elaine McMillion Sheldon a decade ago, when the West Virginia native landed on our annual 25 New Faces of Independent Film list in 2013. She’d just completed Hollow, which began as a documentary about her home state’s struggling McDowell County, and ultimately transformed into a sprawling interactive project; and per Randy Astle’s profile, “a community portrait that includes about three hours of video — including a lot shot by members of the community — audio recordings, text, photographs and user-generated material via Instagram.” Sheldon then popped back onto my radar two […]
When you make your living in production, the relationship between work and time off can be a complicated one. After months of Fraturdays and Second Meal pizza at 2 a.m., you need to rest, decompress and resume the parts of your life that have been essentially paused during shooting. But stay off set too long and dread can fester—a fear of dwindling bank accounts, falling short on days for insurance and being usurped in your market’s hiring hierarchy. Cinematographer Paul Yee is acutely aware of that delicate balance and how it feels when the equilibrium becomes askew. He took a self-imposed […]
A Hong Kong documentary crew travels to Borneo to dig up the grave of an ancient “evil dwarf sorcerer” for a mondo film on black magic; as you might imagine, protracted supernatural revenge is exacted for the next 70 minutes. This is the gist of Red Spell Spells Red (1983, d. Titus Ho), the second of two Hong Kong exploitation films written by Amy Chan Suet-Ming (the first being the previous year’s Centipede Horror, directed by Keith Li), of whom little is known beyond her proclivity for bug-based horror. Neither film is a major studio production, perhaps because Hong Kong’s […]
Today, Film at Lincoln Center unveils the Main Slate lineup for the 61st New York Film Festival, taking place from September 29 through October 15. This comes after previous announcements concerning the festival’s 2023 gala titles, with Todd Haynes’s May December opening this year’s NYFF, Sofia Coppola’s Priscilla as the centerpiece selection and closing with Michael Mann’s Ferrari. “The unsettled state of the industry is an unavoidable talking point these days, but my hope is that our festival, as it has done through its 61-year history, will serve as a reminder that the art of cinema is in robust health,” […]
On this special episode, I visit the picket line at each of the four SAG/AFTRA strike sites in New York City, in one continuous, unbroken audio “take.” Actors Michael Gaston, Clarissa Thibeaux, and others talk to me about what’s at stake, and en route to each location I share my own thoughts on the issues at hand, make some predictions, voice concerns, and offer up my total and complete solidarity to the cause, all supported by the loud and never-ending symphony of the New York City streets! Get ready for the strangest, but definitely most sonic-rich, episode of this podcast […]
In November 2022, the Maryland Film Festival announced it would stop public-facing operations the following year, including the following year’s edition of the festival and new and repertory screenings at Baltimore’s Parkway Theater, in order to “prioritize a planning process to develop a new business model and plan that will chart the future trajectory of the organization.” Barely six months later, the New/Next Film Festival was announced, running from August 18 to 20 in the festival’s previous home, The Charles Theater, just a few blocks south of the Parkway. Leading the charge, or at the very least facilitating it, is […]