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When Jody Lee Lipes set out to follow his friend Brock Enright prepare a solo art show for the prestigious Perry Rubenstein gallery, he knew he wasn’t going to change anyone’s opinion about contemporary art. If you hate the art world, you might still hate it after watching Enright’s strenuous, stressful and altogether bizarre chronicle of several months putting a solo show together. But you have probably never seen art-making this up close; probably never witnessed the day-to-day negotiations for resources and time between an artist and gallery; probably never seen someone try to justify their art to their girlfriend’s […]
Even if you consider yourself a literate, well-viewed, cinema completist, you may not remember the name “Steven Prince.” I could jog your memory and tell you that he was influential to the films of Quentin Tarantino, Rick Linklater, and, most directly, Martin Scorsese, and the name still might not ring a bell. If that’s the case, don’t stress — I didn’t recognize the name either, even though I vaguely remembered that there exists a Scorsese film, American Boy, that I’ve never seen, and that Prince’s one scene in Taxi Driver, in which he plays Easy Andy, a fast-talking gun dealer, […]
It was a calculated move on Brett Gaylor’s part to not only make a movie about fair use, intellectual property and copyright, but to make a movie that you could dance to. It begins as a case study of the mashup musician Girl Talk, whose music is comprised of thousands of samples from artists as disparate as Madonna, Elton John, Rihanna, the Jackson 5 and Muddy Waters (and doesn’t hesitate to try to make you dance). Then Gaylor jumps off into his Remixer’s Manifesto, the points of which are: 1. Culture Always Builds on the Past. 2. The Past Always […]
KYÔKO KOIZUMI, INOWAKI KAI, TERUYUKI KAGAWA, AND YÛ KOYANAGI IN DIRECTOR KIYOSHI KUROSAWA’S TOKYO SONATA. COURTESY REGENT RELEASING. Over the past decade or so, Kiyoshi Kurosawa has established himself as one of the most interesting genre directors in world cinema. The Japanese writer-director was born in Kobe in 1955, and first made 8mm shorts while studying Sociology at Rikko University. He began directing features in the early 1980s, working on direct-to-video titles, including yakuza movies, and studied under the tutelage of directors Shinji Somai and Kazuhiko Hasegawa. He then had minor successes with films like the college-set drama The Excitement […]
SXSW kicks off today, and here at Filmmaker we’ve aggregated our coverage in a standalone page that you can reach by clicking here. Up now are a number of pieces, including Alicia Van Couvering’s interviews with Joe Swanberg, whose Alexander the Last premieres this weekend and is available nation-wide on IFC On Demand, and the team of Daryl Wein and Zoe Lister-Jones of the film Breaking Upwards. There’s also Ry Russo-Young’s conversation with editor Lance Edmands and a series of “Austin Survival Tips” we’ve collected from a number of SXSW vets. I’ll be moderating the DIY distribution panel Sunday at […]
A graduate of Bard College, filmmaker Tony Stone’s first feature, Severed Ways: The Norse Discovery of America, unleashes an almost-new genre – the indie historical drama. It might also be the ultimate heavy metal video. Based on historical research, Severed Ways follows two Vikings stranded in medieval America, encountering both Native Americans and monks, everyone trying to survive. It is deeper than an action film as the Vikings are complete characters, violent but missing their girlfriends. In a way, Old Joy with Vikings. Shot on mini-DV, the result is stunning, a period piece that looks like a painting but feels […]
Thinking of those of you who are heading to SXSW for the first time, we asked some festival vets about some of the really important stuff — like where to find the best barbecue and where to nab free Wi-Fi. (The Austin Convention Center Wi-Fi gets overloaded and is notoriously slow.) What follows are the answers we received, but if you’d like to add your own comments to the mix, email us at editor.filmmakermagazine AT gmail.com BEST BARBECUE– “There is no simple answer to that question.” – Mike S. Ryan, producer and contributor to Hammertonail.com – You have to leave […]
From Variety comes news of an executive reorganization at Fox, with the big news for independents that Peter Rice, president of Fox Searchlight, will be moving over to become chairman of Fox Broadcasting. Nancy Utley and Steve Gilula, formerly COO’s of the specialty label, will now jointly take over Rice’s job. From the press release as published at Deadline Hollywood Daily: “Peter Rice is one of our most talented creative executives, having championed such films as Slumdog Millionaire, Little Miss Sunshine, and Juno during his tenure at Fox Searchlight. As we increasingly look to apply unconventional approaches to our traditional […]
It doesn’t matter where we’re from, we all remember the way the place used to be. You know, before the local dive bar became a TGIF, the Kroger became the Whole Foods, and back when the scene was truly a scene. But, of course, as powerful as nostalgia can be, it is also self-generating. What’s around us right now will one day be a newcomer’s “way it was.” In terms of a filmmaker’s celebration of his hometown, Rick Linklater’s Slacker has, perhaps, no equal. It not only documented a place, Austin, but it grafted a sensibility onto that place, a […]
Film Independent announced today that producer and former executive and festival programmer Rebecca Yeldham has accepted the post of Director of the Los Angeles Film Festival. From the press release: “Rebecca has a wide range of experience in the industry and she’s an inspiring leader — her many talents make her a natural fit for the Los Angeles Film Festival,” said Dawn Hudson, Executive Director of Film Independent. “She has been intimately involved in the building of this festival and the organization over the last nine years as a Film Independent Board member. Rebecca shares our vision of expanding the […]