During the lead-up to the release of Rebeca Huntt’s first feature, BEBA, a raw documentary portrait of the artist as a young Afro-Latina filmmaker on a path towards self-acceptance and discovery, the filmmaker and DP Sophie Stieglitz led a one-day workshop on 16mm production at the cinema arts organization Mono No Aware. Presented by NEON (Beba’s distributor) and Ghetto Film School, six women of color filmmakers were invited to take place and attended “an intimate discussion around personal filmmaking” led by Huntt before being sent outside to the streets of Brooklyn with a roll of film and a Bolex camera. […]
One of the more surprising revelations in the provocatively titled six-part docuseries Mind Over Murder has nothing to do with the sad tale presented onscreen of the “Beatrice Six,” as the three men and three women convicted (and ultimately absolved) of killing a beloved grandma in Beatrice, Nebraska back in 1985 came to be known. Instead, the surprise comes when the end credits disclose the story is being revisited by none other than critically-acclaimed director Nanfu Wang (In the Same Breath, One Child Nation), not exactly a usual suspect for the sensationalist true crime genre. Then again, Wang doesn’t seem much interested […]
The Gotham, Filmmaker‘s publisher, announced today that Gotham Week, its annual conference and project market, will move to a new location: the Brooklyn Navy Yards. Taking place September 17 – 23, the ’22 edition marks the event’s return to in-person following two years of a virtual format. In addition, The Gotham announced a new component to Gotham Week, the inaugural Partner Expo, which will bring together, according to the press release, “partners from The Gotham’s Expanding Communities, Owning It, and Gotham EDU programs for the first time. The Expo will showcase thought leadership on the advancement of the film and […]
The day before the start of his 20-film retrospective at Film at Lincoln Center, Dario Argento talked with film historian Rob King in front of a small delegation at the Italian Cultural Institute. King started by pointing out that the director has now directed giallo films for 53 years, or “four years longer than John Ford made westerns.” Asked what the genre means, Argento said he’s been asked this question thousands of times and that “once more” he will answer—“I don’t know.” Asked if his approach to directing giallo has changed, he also answered as he always has—No. He simply […]
Luke Bracey didn’t dream about being an actor when he was a kid, he didn’t study the craft, and on his first job, which came from his very first audition, he didn’t even really know when he should start saying the lines. But with roles in films like Point Break, Hacksaw Ridge, Holidate and the soon-to-be-released One True Loves, he has built a career with his instinct, experience, and innate talent. Now he plays Jerry Shilling in the Baz Luhrmann blockbuster Elvis. He talks about what stopped him from getting overwhelmed by that “old school” big movie production, the value […]
The NBA Finals have just concluded, but the most popular film on Netflix remains Jeremiah Zagar’s basketball drama, Hustle. Adam Sandler (continuing his Happy Madison Productions partnership with the streamer) is Stanley Sugerman, a jetlagged international scout for the Philadelphia 76ers. In Spain, Sugerman discovers an exciting new talent, Bo Cruz (Juancho Hernangomez), dominating local competition on an outdoor court. Convincing this raw talent that he’s a star in the making, Sugerman brings Cruz to Philadelphia to prepare for the NBA Draft Combine. Unfortunately, greedy team owners, spiteful American prospects (including Minnesota Timberwolves star Anthony Edwards, giving a “I’m going […]
“We’re not sure how to describe it,” Bujalski told the Cambridge Day‘s Tom Meek of his seventh feature, the Tribeca premiere There There. “We’re just gonna put it on the screen and let everybody else tell us what we did.” That promised a strange film, and There There delivers. After a disorientingly shot-at-home sax solo from musician Jon Natchez (whose quarantine-vibes solo sets provide interludes between segments), There There begins the first of six narrative sequences centered around pairs of unnamed characters with Lennie James and Lili Taylor, who’ve spent the night together for the first time. They’re introduced in rigorously locked-off shots […]
I am a New Orleans based writer-director who is putting together a follow-up feature to my film Laundry Day. In 2021 I attached executive producer Corky Kessler and raised money to attend Sundance for the first time (I know, I know… overdue) with him as my defacto host. Of course, Sundance was canceled at the last minute, and I lost a big chunk of the money and what I thought was any hope of rubbing elbows with people who can help my new project, Drinking Music, get made at a substantial budget (my first seven-figure film). A few months later […]
When I last spoke to cinematographer Andrew Droz Palermo for The Green Knight, he detailed the learning curve for creating that film’s all-CGI fox. On his latest project, Moon Knight, the degree of difficulty has been raised from small woodland creature to towering, vaguely avian mummified Egyptian god. The Marvel adaptation stars Oscar Isaac in dual roles as a man suffering from dissociative identity disorder who oscillates between a meek museum gift shop employee and a mercenary serving as the human avatar of Khonshu, the aforementioned god of the moon. With the full series now streaming on Disney+, Palermo talked […]
Cine Gear Expo Los Angeles roared back over the weekend, as the multi-day tradeshow saw a number of key exhibitors return to its new home at the LA Convention Center. Attendees poured in by the thousands eager to get their hands-on the latest tech, soak up knowledge at a seminar or tune their skills during a masterclass. While cloud-based technology emerged as a theme at NAB Show 2022, Cine Gear had its share of companies showcasing turn-key virtual production solutions. Among them is NoitomVPS, which combines a 5×7 capture space and hybrid tracking markers with optical cameras. The motion capture data […]