Open | Filmmaker Magazine

Ole Bornedal, Just Another Love Story

From his eclectic resumé, it’s clear that Ole Bornedal likes to challenge himself so (almost always) refuses to return to familiar territory. The Danish writer-director was born in the small town of Nørresundby in 1959, and became a director of Danish radio plays in the 1980s after failing to get into film school. In the early 90s, he moved into television, where he wrote and directed sketch comedy and political satire as well as the colorfully titled TV movie Masturbator (1993). Bornedal made his feature film debut in 1994 with Nightwatch, a thriller about a law student who moonlights as […]

by Nick Dawson on Jan 9, 2009

PREDICTING A NEW, SMOOTHER INDIE CINEMA

Below I posted John August’s take on the new iMovie HD, introduced this week at Macworld Expo. Now, the New York Times‘ David Pogue weighs in. He’s mixed/positive on the update, saying that it fixes some of the previous version’s deficiencies while ignoring others. But while most filmmakers don’t use this consumer-level application, I can’t help but think that one new iMovie development may reshape some no-budget filmmakers’ creative arsenals: Now, longtime readers may recall that I absolutely hated iMovie ’08. It wasn’t iMovie at all; Apple completely junked the beloved iMovie that had served it well for years, and […]

by Scott Macaulay on Jan 8, 2009

ROTTERDAM ANNOUNCES TIGER COMPETITION FILMS

The Interational Film Festival Rotterdam, which opens this year January 21, has just announced its Tiger Competition line-up. The competition, which is limited to first and and second features, contains 14 films, including eight world premieres, and the opening night film is MIchael Imperioli’s directorial debut, The Hungry Ghosts. Here is the complete list: At West of Pluto, Henri Bernadet & Myriam Verreault (Canada)Be Calm and Count to Seven, Ramtin Lavafipour (Iran)Blind Pig Who Wants to Fly, Edwin (Indonesia)Breathless, Yang Ik-june (South Korea)Dark Harbor, Takatsugu Naito (Japan)Dogging: A Love Story, Simon Ellis (U.K.)Floating in Memory, Peng Tao (China)The Hungry Ghosts, […]

by Scott Macaulay on Jan 7, 2009

FILMMAKER YEAR IN REVIEW: JASON GUERRASIO

Here’s Managing Editor Jason Guerrasio’s take on ’08. I always find it difficult to put together a “Best of” list every year because no matter how many films I see I always feel I haven’t seen enough to make an honest list. This year has been even more difficult because so many titles have been pushed to the end of the year. So with that said here’s a collection of titles in no particular order that I enjoyed (most of them really loved), but I feel there are so many more I still need to watch (particularly, Frost/Nixon, Gran Torino […]

by Scott Macaulay on Dec 31, 2008

SCHAMUS AND SCOTT ON THE APARTMENT

I’m late catching up to some of the things that have been bouncing around the blogosphere, but here the New York Times‘ A.O. Scott has a nice video essay on Billy Wilder’s The Apartment, which is dubbed “a brilliant alternative to classic holiday films” and one that ends on New Year’s Eve. (I wish these great Times video pieces were embeddable — I get that they have to increase traffic, but I’d so love to post them.) The Apartment was also selected by producer, screenwriter and Focus Features CEO James Schamus as part of a series on the FilmInFocus site […]

by Scott Macaulay on Dec 31, 2008

BILL LANDIS, R.I.P.

Bill Landis, a man who championed the world of underground exploitation moviemaking and exhibition, died this week of a heart attack at 49. With his wife Michelle Clifford he was the editor of Sleazoid Express, a zine that chronicled the films of the 42nd Street grindhouse scene, which he described in an interview at Nerve.com: Grind houses were opulent, old-style movie palaces with chandeliers, opera seats and huge screens. They seated several hundred people and played all kinds of films, across genres. A shoebox theater catered to the adult audience, seated eighty to 200, usually on one floor, and was […]

by Scott Macaulay on Dec 26, 2008

John Walter, Theater Of War

MERYL STREEP IN DIRECTOR JOHN WALTER’S DOCUMENTARY THEATER OF WAR. COURTESY WHITE BUFFALO ENTERTAINMENT. In the field of documentary, John Walter has emerged as the medium’s most eloquent and entertaining cultural historian. The Detroit-born director, who is also an unpublished poet, began his career in the film industry as a boom operator and worked in that capacity on Sam Raimi’s Evil Dead II. In the mid 90s, he became an editor, beginning with Norman Reedus’ Messenger (1994), and in 1995 he directed Edison’s Miracle of Light, an episode of PBS’ television series The American Experience. In 2002, Walter made his […]

by Nick Dawson on Dec 24, 2008

FILMMAKER YEAR IN REVIEW: JAMES PONSOLDT

Here’s the next in our Filmmaker contributor ’08 wrap-ups, from James Ponsoldt. So…I don’t like “Best of” lists, or even the idea of “best” being used in regards to films (or any art). I mean, let’s be honest–there’s one reason why we have “Best of” lists: we like to argue. And that’s cool. Arguing is great. But isn’t “favorite” more appropriate than “best”? I think so. Does that sound precious? Eh, I don’t care. These are some of my favorite films, performances, and film moments of 2008. Favorite Film: MilkFavorite Documentary Film (Tie): South Main, Encounters at the End of […]

by Scott Macaulay on Dec 23, 2008

BLOGGERS ON THE ROAD

What is it about independent film and road trips at the moment? First there is Todd Sklar’s Range Life Tour, and now Sujewa Ekanayake takes indie film journalism to the streets with his doc, Indie Film Blogger Road Trip. He’s posted the first nine minutes, embedded below, containing interviews with Anthony Kaufman and Tambay Obenson.

by Scott Macaulay on Dec 20, 2008

THE DAILY GRIND

Daily Routines is an inspiring little blog that reports on the daily routines of various artists, writers, thinkers and public figures. The site culls its short entries from biographies, interviews and printed sources. Here’s the daily routine of writer Haruki Murakami: When I’m in writing mode for a novel, I get up at 4:00 am and work for five to six hours. In the afternoon, I run for 10km or swim for 1500m (or do both), then I read a bit and listen to some music. I go to bed at 9:00 pm. I keep to this routine every day […]

by Scott Macaulay on Dec 10, 2008

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