Open | Filmmaker Magazine

PAUL KRIK’S FAVORITE CONSPIRACY MOVIES, PART ONE

Paul Krik, writer/director of Able Danger, opens his independent conspiracy thriller in four cities on September 11. (In New York, you can see the film at the Pioneer Theater.) Krik was kind enough to give Filmmaker two lists of his favorite films. In this first part, he lists his favorite conspiracy movies. In the second, he’ll list his favorite films about 9/11. In general a conspiracy movie for me has to do with exposing. Chinatown – Greatest movie ever. Goebbel says, “If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. The […]

by Scott Macaulay on Sep 8, 2008

Chris Smith, The Pool

VENKATESH CHAVAN IN DIRECTOR CHRIS SMITH’S THE POOL. COURTESY VITAGRAPH FILMS. Chris Smith is an interesting conundrum, a filmmaker who brings a narrative verve and energy to his documentaries and approaches fiction films with the delicate restraint and remove of a documentarian. A graduate of University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee’s film program, Smith first appeared on the scene in 1996 with American Job, a low-key narrative feature loosely based on the work experiences of the film’s star and co-writer, Randy Russell. During the editing of that film, he met Mark Borchardt, an oddball wannabe horror filmmaker who became the subject of Smith’s […]

by Nick Dawson on Sep 3, 2008

STREAMING NO END IN SIGHT

During this election season I recommend taking a break from the cable talking heads and reviewing some of the independent media that has been produced over the last couple of years about American foreign policy. One of the best documentaries is Charles Ferguson’s Academy Award-nominated No End in Sight. As Ray Pride report at Movie City Indie, Ferguson is streaming the film free on YouTube. Pride reports: No End in Sight is being made available free to the public to reveal the facts about the Bush Administration’s invasion and occupation of Iraq to voters concerned with the issues of national […]

by Scott Macaulay on Aug 28, 2008

THE REALLY BIG SCREEN

Everyone’s talking about small screens — what it’s like to watch movies on mobile devices like cell phones and iPods. Mark Cuban’s musings about the Olympics and The Dark Knight, however, lead him in the opposite direction: Of course it would also not be a stretch to place the biggest screens in existence in open air locations where huge gatherings and related events can take place. Would families pay 50 bucks for a day of Olympics fun outside on 100 acres? Olympicsalooza anyone ? Why should it be any different than all the events that take place SuperBowl, or NBA […]

by Scott Macaulay on Aug 26, 2008

WHAT’S IN A NAME?

A couple of weeks after organizations for the disabled attacked Tropic Thunder for an epithet used in the movie, the Council on American-Islamic Relations is objecting to the title of Alan Ball’s new film, Towelhead, which opens next month. But Eric D. Snider at Cinematical argues that the film’s title shouldn’t be considered offensive as it can’t be separated from the intentions of the film itself: I think CAIR’s objections could be remedied by simply watching the movie. Over the course of it, the girl (played amazingly by Summer Bishil) comes to feel empowered and confident in who she is. […]

by Scott Macaulay on Aug 26, 2008

SECONDING MOMMA’S MAN

Nick Dawson’s Web Exclusive Director’s Interview this week is Azazel Jacobs, whose third feature, Momma’s Man, opens tomorrow. Of the movie, which details a few days in which a young, recent father, Mikey, travels home to his parents (played by Ken and Flo Jacobs, the director’s real-life parents) and is not able to leave, having become entangled in the crosscurrents of nostalgia for his childhood, Dawson wrote: …the film is particularly resonant and moving, as well as being funny and tender, and Ken and Flo Jacobs both give surprising, strong performances, despite never having acted before. But it is ultimately […]

by Scott Macaulay on Aug 21, 2008

MANNY FARBER, 1917 – 2008

Celebrated and influential film critic Manny Farber died yesterday at the age of 91. At Movie City Indie Ray Pride has a lovely, well-linked remembrance, which opens like this: Manny Farber, painter, brilliant writer, indelible critic and all-round original whom some aped and few grazed, died in his sleep last night at the age of 91. He had retired from writing and teacher and devoted himself to painting and drawing. To cite Barbara Stanwyck in The Lady Eve, which early Preston Sturges savant Farber would likely not frown upon, “What a life!” Glenn Kenny also has a long piece on […]

by Scott Macaulay on Aug 18, 2008

25 NEW FACES UPDATE #7

Alex Karpovsky, writer/director, 2006: Since being included in the list back in 2006, I teamed up with Indiepix to release my first feature, The Hole Story, on DVD. The film is now available at retail stores across the country, Netflix, and other outlets. I have also completed another feature, Woodpecker, which premiered at SXSW last March and is now bouncing along on the festival circuit. Currently, I am in post-production on my first feature-length documentary TJ and Dave, which focuses on America’s most revered long-form comedy improvisers, Tj Jagadowski and Dave Pasquesi. I’ve also done a bit of acting recently, […]

by Scott Macaulay on Aug 15, 2008

25 NEW FACES UPDATE #6

Here’s the sixth of our catch-ups with previous “25 New Faces” filmmakers. If you’ve been on the list and haven’t sent us an update, you can still email one to editor.filmmakermagazine AT gmail.com. David Russo, writer/director, 2003: I’m in post (special effects & animation) on my live action feature, The Immaculate Conception of Little Dizzle. I’d like to have it done for Sundance 2009 consideration, but I’m really taking advantage of both the Rockefeller and Creative Capital grants to make it thoroughly my own kind of vision. For me that just involves time, time & more time. The investors are […]

by Scott Macaulay on Aug 15, 2008

SAME TIME NEXT DECADE

The Long Now Foundation was established twelve years ago to “creatively foster long-term thinking and responsibility in the framework of the next 10,000 years.” One of its founding board members is Brian Eno, and he submitted a fascinating post to the site’s blog recounting the experience he had watching a theater piece in Oberammergau, in Upper Bavaria. From the post: In the early seventeenth century, as plague raced across Europe, the people of this small town made a deal with God: spare us and we’ll perform a Passion play every ten years. All of us. The whole town. True to […]

by Scott Macaulay on Aug 14, 2008

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