Open | Filmmaker Magazine

A Step Into the Mainstream

Canada’s Patricia Rozema has had an eclectic career, spanning films as diverse as her 1987 debut Cannes feature, I’ve Heard the Mermaids Singing to her Yo Yo Ma feature, Six Gestures: Suite No. 6 for Unaccompanied Cello to her 1999 Jane Austen adaptation, Mansfield Park. The themes and approaches of these films — Rozema’s concentration on adult eroticism, feminism, religious skepticism, and social revolution — would not seem to be the kind of interests which would speak to the upright members of the American Girl enterprise, protectorate of the indomitable Kit Kittredge and her wholesome doll sisters. Yet, the sweetly […]

by Jason Guerrasio on Jul 7, 2008

Scott Prendergast, Kabluey

SCOTT PRENDERGAST AND CHRISTINE TAYLOR IN KABLUEY. COURTESY REGENT RELEASING. Like his much buzzed shorts, Scott Prendergast’s debut feature brings to the screen his poignant outsider’s perspective and talent for creating vivid comic characters. Born in Galveston, Texas but raised in Portland, Oregon, Prendergast attended Columbia University and then pursued a career as a comic writer and improviser at L.A.’s Groundlings Theater. He went on to develop his own one man comedy improv show, UNman, which had a two-year run in NYC. In the late 90s, he started making short films – grounded as much in performance comedy as cinema […]

by Nick Dawson on Jul 4, 2008

LANCE HAMMER TRIES SELF DISTRIBUTION

Over at Indiewire Anthony Kaufman writes about Ballast director Lance Hammer’s decision to withdraw from a planned distribution deal with IFC to self-distribute via his own Alluvial Film Company along with Required Viewing. From the piece: “IFC is a really good company,” Hammer told indieWIRE last week. “The problem is the larger issue that’s plaguing every filmmaker right now: The distributors don’t really offer any money. That’s not that big of a deal if they would allow you to have control of your project, but they don’t.” If the current art-house climate isn’t challenging enough, Hammer’s decision highlights the harsh […]

by Scott Macaulay on Jul 3, 2008

RAY-BAN AD BLOCKERS

Remember that Phil Dick-ian John Carpenter movie, They Live? In it, a special pair of sunglasses allows you to see the world as it really is, with all of the government’s subliminal messages exposed. I thought of that film while reading this blog post at Seeking Alpha entitled “How Video is Going to Take Over the World.” It summarizes a Forrester research reporter claiming that we are entering an age of “Omnivideo,” in which video playback will occur on multiple surfaces all throughout our daily life. From the post, quoting Forrester: “Once video becomes this easy to produce, deliver, store, […]

by Scott Macaulay on Jun 23, 2008

POINTS OF IMPACT

I’ve posted before about Hammer to Nail, the website launched this year in which Michael Tully, Mike Ryan and others are posting opinionated, passionate and politically informed reviews and commentary on independent films and the indie film scene. Today I received an email from producer Ted Hope, who announces more content at Hammer to Nail, where he, Ryan, Tully and Corbin Day will try to make sense of today’s paradigm-shifting independent business. So, if you haven’t already, add Hammer to Nail to your list of bookmarks. And, below, is the entirety of Hope’s email: I was on a panel at […]

by Scott Macaulay on Jun 23, 2008

Cecilia Miniucchi, Expired

SAMANTHA MORTON AND JASON PATRIC IN DIRECTOR CECILIA MINIUCCHI’S EXPIRED. COURTESY MCR RELEASING. After observing and learning from some of the best directors around, writer-director Cecilia Miniucchi has put all her acquired wisdom to use in a distinctive and promising debut. Born in Rome, the multi-talented Miniucchi is notable for the number of mediums she has worked in: a prolific maker of documentaries and music videos, she has also written poetry, songs, plays and short stories, and is an accomplished photographer. While in Italy, Miniucchi worked with Federico Fellini and the Taviani brothers, and went on to serve an apprenticeship […]

by Nick Dawson on Jun 20, 2008

SUNDANCE DIRECTORS’ LAB, EPOCH TWO

Here’s writer/director John Magary’s (pictured here with Robert Redford and Vilmos Zsigmond) second dispatch from the Sundance Directors’ Lab: This is my first stab at blogging, okay? I’ve never been a self-starting chronicler, never had a personal essay phase, or a journal, or a sketchbook. I’m not wired that way. I don’t really know how to steal away time in bars or cafes, to reflect on my day in an endearingly scruffy little notebook—even a grocery list is a chore. Long story short, I’m finishing up my second week here, and I have no notes. It’s blurs on top of […]

by Scott Macaulay on Jun 13, 2008

PRIDE OF PLACE

If you are in Chicago this next month — or, perhaps, if you’ve got frequent flier miles or simple wanderlust — then I highly recommend checking out Enter Dream, a photo show by writer, photographer and critic Ray Pride, whose work is well known to readers of Filmmaker as well as those of his own Movie City Indie blog. Ray’s evocative photos are visually stunning and haunted by the idea of cinema — they contain potent traces of storytelling, whiffs of dramatic atmosphere, and suggestions of character. Here’s the official spam: The photographs in “Enter Dream” anatomize the geography of […]

by Scott Macaulay on Jun 12, 2008

Parvez Sharma, A Jihad For Love

GAY MUSLIM REFUGEES MEET IN DIRECTOR PARVEZ SHARMA’S A JIHAD FOR LOVE. COURTESY FIRST RUN FEATURES. After a distinguished career as a print and television journalist, Parvez Sharma has made a notable transition to documentary filmmaker. Born and raised in India, Sharma studied English at the University of Calcutta before gaining three film and journalism related masters degrees at universities in India, Britain and the U.S. He spent the nineties as a newspaper reporter in India and then moved on to working for his country’s premier news network, Star News Channel, using his position to draw attention to human rights […]

by Nick Dawson on May 21, 2008

EVEN HEDGE FUND MANAGERS STARTED SMALL

Brooks Barnes has a funny article in The New York Times about Sanjay Sanghoee, a novelist, hedge-fund employee, and would-be writer/director/producer, who is out there in the wilds of film finance trying to make an adaptation of his book Merger. Let’s just say that a rolodex full of multi-millionaire contacts can’t buy happiness — or an independent feature. An excerpt recounting Sanhoee’s arrival in L.A. to pitch his movie: Mr. Sanghoee landed in a boomtown. More than $12 billion was in the midst of flowing into 150 movies, according to trade estimates. Hedge funds, awash in cash, were eager to […]

by Scott Macaulay on May 19, 2008

Cookie	Duration	Description
cookielawinfo-checkbox-analytics	11 months	This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Analytics".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-functional	11 months	The cookie is set by GDPR cookie consent to record the user consent for the cookies in the category "Functional".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-necessary	11 months	This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookies is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Necessary".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-others	11 months	This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Other.
cookielawinfo-checkbox-performance	11 months	This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Performance".
viewed_cookie_policy	11 months	The cookie is set by the GDPR Cookie Consent plugin and is used to store whether or not user has consented to the use of cookies. It does not store any personal data.

Cookie	Duration	Description
cfmrk_cic		Used by Cloudflare to route user traffic for this Site.
sparrow_id		Installed by Cloudflare. Used to identify individual clients behind a shared IP address and apply security settings on a per-client basis. It does not store any personal identifiable information.

Cookie	Duration	Description
OAGEO		Installed by the Revive Ad Server. Used to cache geolocation (session, deleted when closing the browser)
OAID		Installed by the Revive Ad Server to distinguish users.

6294 Results for “Open ”