Open | Filmmaker Magazine

Astra Taylor, Examined Life

CORNEL WEST IN DIRECTOR ASTRA TAYLOR’S EXAMINED LIFE. COURTESY ZEITGEIST FILMS. Still in her twenties, documentarian Astra Taylor has already brought a philosophical bent to non-fiction filmmaking and is looking to push the form in new and exciting directions. Taylor was born in Winnipeg, Manitoba, in 1979 and grew up in Athens, Georgia. She studied first at the University of Georgia and then got an MA in sociology, philosophy and cultural theory at the New School for Social Research in New York. In 2001, she co-produced and co-directed the 45-minute documentary Miracle Tree: Moringa Oleifera, about infant malnutrition in Senegal, […]

by Nick Dawson on Feb 25, 2009

BETWEEN THOUGHT AND EXPRESSION

Okay, here’s a pull quote you won’t often get from me: this film is good for your soul. I’m referring to Astra Taylor’s Examined Life, which opens tomorrow at the IFC Center in New York and which is so engaging, hopeful and against-the-grain that it becomes a must-see cinematic tonic for these confusing times. Examined Life is Taylor’s documentary about the related acts of thinking and walking. Using the history of mobile thought as her springboard (for more on this, read Rebecca Solnit’s Wanderlust), Taylor (pictured) follows eight philosophers as they stroll through their hometown environments engaging in a series […]

by Scott Macaulay on Feb 24, 2009

GONDRY AND FORD ANNOUNCE WINNERS OF FIRST BABELGUM MUSIC VIDEO AWARDS

Director Michel Gondry and singer-songrwiter David Ford have announced the winners of of the first ever Babelgum Music Video Awards. Babelgum viewers from over 100 countries participated, for the first time simultaneously from the Web and from Mobile phones. The 10 finalists rated highest by the public online were then viewed by Gondry and Ford, for their final selection of the overall winner. From the release: The Babelgum Music Video “Grand Prize” (a record development deal with Universal Music UK) went to Quio (Germany) for her “So Dazed”, produced by Christine Lang (Director) and Maria Schöpe (Production design). “I liked […]

by Jason Guerrasio on Feb 18, 2009

IFP RELAUNCHES "SCRIPT TO SCREEN"

IFP announced today that after a five year sabbatical they are bringing back their spring conference, “Script to Screen.” Taking place March 7 & 8 at the New York Film Academy, the conference returns to address the new landscape and opportunities facing content creators working across platforms in film, television and new technologies. The conference opens with a conversation between James Schamus, Focus Features CEO, and Scott Macaulay, Editor of Filmmaker Magazine. The conference closes with a conversation with filmmaker Lee Daniels, director of the recent Sundance Grand Jury Prize Winner Push: Based on the Novel by Sapphire. Other featured […]

by Jason Guerrasio on Feb 17, 2009

YOUTUBE TRYING OUT PAID DOWNLOADS

Via Scott Kirsner’s CinemaTech blog comes potentially important news for film and video makers interested in distributing their work online: YouTube is enabling paid downloads. From Kirsner: If you want to pull down a high-res, MP4 copy of a video from the site (which will play on an iPod), you can pay to do so. No word on what percentage of the revenue goes to the creator. But the one way to pay for videos is Google Checkout, Google’s own PayPal-like payment system. YouTube is currently only testing this with select partners. Wired News notes that the files aren’t DRM […]

by Scott Macaulay on Feb 16, 2009

Tom Tykwer, The International

CLIVE OWEN AND NAOMI WATTS IN DIRECTOR TOM TYKWER’S THE INTERNATIONAL. COURTESY COLUMBIA PICTURES. German writer-director Tom Tykwer, arguably one of the most exciting auteurs in world cinema, has been immersed in movies since he was a child and always seemed destined to become a director. Born in the town of Wuppertal in 1965, by the age of 11 Tykwer had picked up a Super 8 camera and begun making films. At the age of 14, he got a job at Cinema, the local arthouse theater, where he would stay after hours, repeatedly watching Blade Runner. After completing his compulsory […]

by Nick Dawson on Feb 13, 2009

NEW DIRECTORS/NEW FILMS ’09 SLATE ANNOUNCED

The line up for this year’s New Directors/New Films was announced moments ago. The opening film will be Cherien Dabis’s Amreeka and Lee Daniels’s Sundance Grand Jury Prize winning film Push: Based on the Novel by Sapphire is the closing film. The full list of titles are below. ND/NF will be held at NYC’s Museum of Modern Art and The Film Society of Lincoln Center March 25 – April 5. OPENING NIGHT Amreeka Cherien Dabis, USA/Canada/Kuwait, 2009; 96m Cherien Dabis’s humanist miracle of a first film chronicles the bittersweet adjustment to a multicultural way of life after Muna, a single […]

by Jason Guerrasio on Feb 12, 2009

Veit Helmer, Absurdistan

MAX MAUFF AND KRISTYNA MALÉROVÁ IN DIRECTOR VEIT HELMER’S ABSURDISTAN. COURTESY FIRST RUN FEATURES. German writer-director Veit Helmer is a true oddity, a creative mind whose films might well have been unearthed from a time capsule buried during the era of silent comedy. Born in Hanover in 1968, Helmer spent much of his childhood watching Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton and Harold Lloyd and by the age of 14 had already made his first film. He studied at Munich’s School of Television and Film, and made quirky shorts throughout his time there, such as the highly inventive Surprise! (1995). When Wim […]

by Nick Dawson on Feb 6, 2009

HEY, WE’RE RECESSION PROOF… AREN’T WE?

Yes, the economy is tanking, but, hey, we’re in the entertainment business! Escapism rules in downturn. People want to go out and forget the troubles, and the price of a movie ticket is just… Reality check: Nick Wingfield and Piu-Wing Tam argue in The Wall Street Journal that the economically distressed are not heading out to the movies — they’re staying home and surfing the ‘net. From the piece: It’s been decades since Americans had this much time on their hands and — thanks to the Web — never have there been so many opportunities to burn it. In November, […]

by Scott Macaulay on Feb 3, 2009

SXSW ANNOUNCES LINE-UP!

The SXSW Film Festival, unspooling in Austin, Texas from March 13 – 21, has just announced its line-up. Without further adieu… NARRATIVE FEATURE COMPETITIONThis year’s 8 films were selected from 737 submissions. Films screening in Narrative Feature Competition are: Artois the GoatDirector: Kyle Bogart. Writer: Cliff and Kyle BogartLab technician Virgil Gurdies embarks on an epic quest to craft the greatest goat cheese the world has ever known and reclaim the heart of his beloved Angie. Cast: Mark Scheibmeir, Sydney Andrews, Stephen Taylor Fry, Dan Braverman (World Premiere) Bomber Director/Writer: Paul CotterA bittersweet comedy about love, family and dropping bombs […]

by Scott Macaulay on Feb 1, 2009

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