| Filmmaker Magazine

OUT OF AFRICA

Ever since he made the independent classic Killer of Sheep Charles Burnett has had more than his share of tough times finding financing for his films. But this news story in Variety may detail his strangest career moment yet: the crew shut-down of his latest feature, Where Others Wavered due to lack of payment by the government of Namibia, where the film is shooting. From the article: “Principal photography started April 25 in the capital of Windhoek on the movie about former freedom fighter Sam Nujoma ( played by “Alias” thesp Carl Lumbly), who helped Namibia gain independence from South […]

by Scott Macaulay on May 12, 2005

THE GLOBAL FAMILY

Writing in the New York Press, Matt Zoller Seitz (who recently spoke with Jeremiah Kipp for Filmmaker about his own debut feature, Home) uses the occasion of Jet Li’s trip to the U.S. to promote the Rogue Pictures release of Unleashed to pen a lengthy and thoughtful appraisal of the various martial arts genres in the age of globalism and the Internet. From the piece: “In the past decade, the rise of the internet and cheap DVD authoring technology made it harder for repressive governments to regulate pop culture’s ebb and flow. When a noteworthy new release comes out in […]

by Scott Macaulay on May 12, 2005

TRANS-CENDED

In Berlin I was walking to the premiere of Duncan Tucker’s Transamerica at the CineStar theaters this February with a friend, the head of a small indie distributor, when he got a phone call. The sellers of a film his company had bid on earlier in the festival had accepted his offer, and he had to turn back and meet them immediately to close the deal. I walked on and caught the film, which, if you’ve read my Berlin coverage in the print magazine this issue, I thought was sincere, empathetic and with an appealingly gentle humor. My only qualm […]

by Scott Macaulay on May 10, 2005

Z CHANNEL — YOU HAVE TO SEE IT

You can read about Xan Cassavetes’ doc on L.A.’s art-film cable pioneer The Z Channel (linked her via Nerve.com), but you should really watch it while it plays this month on IFC. The story of Z Prez Jerry Harvey’s murderous and suicidal demise is a captivating one, but what makes the doc really great viewing is its conveyance of a very specific brand of cinephilia that almost doesn’t exist anymore. Pre-internet, pre-DVD, the Z Channel’s generous scrambling of Euro greats, American auteurs and Euro-softcore — a mix that included everything from Berlin Alexanderplatz to Laura Antonelli festivals — undoubtedly shaped […]

by Scott Macaulay on May 10, 2005

U.S. DISTRIBUTORS IN CANNES

Anne Thompson files a fairly exhaustive survey of the American companies and their business objectives going into the Cannes Film Festival and Market. And even if you’re not headed to the Croisette, it’s worth reading as a summary of the state of the indie distribution business. Among the topics Thompson covers are the potential business partners of the Weinstein Brothers, the road ahead for Bob Berney in his new HBO/New Line theatrical distribution outfit, and the strategies of the smaller companies like ThinkFilms and Roadside Attractions. She also comments on likely pick-ups. From the piece: “Distributors who saw advance screenings […]

by Scott Macaulay on May 10, 2005

THE GULAGER INFLUENCE

Like many of you, I’ve been watching this season’s Project Greenlight with degrees of amusement, empathy and recognition. But it wasn’t until just now that I flashed on the tidbit of trivia that ties PGL director John Gulager and his dad Clu to today’s indie film scene. Father Clu, a veteran character actor who plays the bartender in his “contest-winner” son’s PGL horror movie Feast, has only one directing credit to his name, but it’s an evocative short that inspired the career of one of today’s most interesting filmmakers. In fact, Gulager’s 1969 A Day with the Boys, which d.p. […]

by Scott Macaulay on May 7, 2005

THE GUATEMALAN HANDSHAKE

Here’s a novel promotional e-mail we received today from Todd Rohal, director and sound engineer of The Guatemalan Handshake. We can’t vouch for the accuracy of the story, but we thought you might find it of interest: “As the news of Tom DeLay’s misuse of funds is talked about daily here in the nation’s Capital, we at The Guatemalan Handshake would like to clear the air about our involvement… “Early on in our search for funding we were set up to meet with a high-profile Washington lobbyist. I bought a brand new pair of pants for the occasion. This lobbyist […]

by Jason Guerrasio on May 5, 2005

A PRODUCER’S WORTH?

What is a producer worth? Well, for the film DUMPED! The Musical, it’s $19.95 Producer and co-director Josh Lewis and co-director Joey Garfield are selling Associate Producer credits to their indie film on eBay for a nickel shy of a twenty-dollar-bill. The duo are trying to raise money to get their film through post and to submit to Sundance. Below is an excerpt from their plea. “What is an associate producer ? The Producers Guild of America defines an Associate Producer as follows: ‘The Associate Producer credit is granted solely on the decision of the individual receiving the Produced By […]

by Scott Macaulay on May 4, 2005

FIND-ING OUT

Knowing that the IFP/Los Angeles was to announce its split from the Independent Feature Project and rebranding as Film Independent (FIND) today, I hit the search engines for the official press release and was startled to come across this news piece about the arrest of an IFP leader. Fortunately, the piece refers to the detaining of a South African Inkatha Freedom Party MP for “dagga possession” and has nothing to do with the independent film organization. For the official release via Movie City News detailing the IFP Los Angeles’s rechristening as FIND, click here. An excerpt: “‘Film Independent [FIND] will […]

by Scott Macaulay on May 3, 2005

NEVER MIND THE DOLLAR MENU

One thing about the film business that has really sunk home recently is just how long movies take to move from development to production. And sometimes a project you think is dead in the water, or one that seems like pure folly, suddenly receives a high-profile resurrection. Take Fast Food Nation, the film version of the best-selling expose. All around cultural provocateur Malcolm McLaren has been pitching this project for years, and today from Variety there’s news that it is one of the big titles on London-based foreign sales company HanWay’s Cannes slate. Rick Linklater will direct, and Maria Full […]

by Scott Macaulay on May 1, 2005

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