6576 Results for “production”
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Previewing IFP Film Week and the Screen Forward Conference
I wonder what some time-traveling filmmaker would think of IFP’s Independent Film Week, which commences tomorrow up at the Bruno Walter Auditorium at the New York Performing Arts Library. The non-profit IFP — formerly “Independent Feature Project” and now “Independent Filmmaker Project” — has done some version of its Film Week for nearly the entirety of its 35-year history. For much of that time it wasn’t called “Film Week,” but, nonetheless, events occurred annually over a few days in the Fall, and these events served to advance the interests of independent filmmakers by, initially, providing them with a market for […]
by Scott Macaulay on Sep 19, 2015 -
The Seedy Side of LA: Michael Curtis Johnson on Hunky Dory at IFP Film Week
[This is the first of two guest blog posts from Michael Curtis Johnson, who will be participating in Independent Film Week with his feature Hunky Dory.] Los Angeles. Sunrise. Goodbye kisses. This will be the longest I’ve been away from my wife and two daughters since they were born. I’m catching a flight to New York for the second phase of IFP’s Narrative Filmmaker Labs and Independent Film Week with my first feature film Hunky Dory, a drama about a glam rock dilettante and his eleven-year-old son. IFP’s Filmmaker Labs are a year-long mentorship program that helps first-time directors and their teams […]
by Michael Curtis Johnson on Sep 18, 2015 -
Solving Crimes by Night, Fixing Septic Tanks by Day: Scott Christopherson & Brad Barber on Peace Officer
When Brad Barber and Scott Christopherson launched a Kickstarter in February to finish their documentary Peace Officer, I felt that they were on to something. The film is the first documentary since the deaths of Michael Brown and Eric Garner to deal with the growing militarization of the police in the United States, and it could not be more timely. The film follows William “Dub” Lawrence, the retired sheriff of Davis County, Utah — the sparse suburbs just north of Salt Lake City — who, in an attempt to protect citizens against high-risk situations like terrorists or hostage takers, created the county’s SWAT team […]
by Randy Astle on Sep 18, 2015 -
“I’m Not Qualified For Anything Else”: Writer/Director Steve Kloves on The Fabulous Baker Boys and Flesh and Bone
Twelve years before he became the screenwriter of the most successful franchise in film history, adapting all but one of the Harry Potter novels for the screen, Steve Kloves directed the first of two extraordinarily powerful and original films – movies all the more remarkable for how different they were from each other. Kloves had one produced screenplay to his credit, 1984’s Racing with the Moon, when he assembled the dream cast of Jeff Bridges, Michelle Pfeiffer, and Beau Bridges to create The Fabulous Baker Boys in 1989. Its story of two piano-playing brothers and the singer that upends years […]
by Jim Hemphill on Sep 17, 2015 -
Recreating ’50s NYC in Montreal: Director John Crowley on Brooklyn at TIFF 2015
Just like Colm Tóibín’s 2009 novel, which revolves around Eilis Lacey having to cope with the changes caused by her immigration from Ireland to America during the 1950s, the cinematic adaptation of Brooklyn encountered some alterations over the course of its development. Rooney Mara (The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo) was to play the lead female protagonist but delays in the production required a new actress to be cast (Saoirse Ronan) and a non-Irish filmmaker was sought for the project that ended up being directed by John Crowley, a native of Cork, Ireland. While attending the Toronto International Film Festival, Crowley shared […]
by Trevor Hogg on Sep 17, 2015 -
“We Were Doing a Scene Without a Camera”: Five Questions for Mustang Director Deniz Gamze Ergüven
The story of five young sisters locked up by overprotective guardians with predictably dire consequences, Deniz Gamze Ergüven’s first feature Mustang has prompted inevitable widespread comparisons to The Virgin Suicides. Despite the plot-level resemblance (Ergüven has said she’s both read the book and seen the movie but it’s not a meaningful influence), Mustang is its own distinctive debut, contextualized by a virulently patriarchal culture that barely disguises its controlling nature. After an afternoon frolic on the beach with male friends, five sisters arrive home to find themselves rigorously interrogated by their grandmother about what kind of sluttish hijinks they’ve been up to. In a scene resembling […]
by Vadim Rizov on Sep 15, 2015 -
TIFF 2015: Five Questions for Lace Crater Director Harrison Atkins
A world premiere in the Vanguard section at TIFF, Harrison Atkins’ Lace Crater traffics at the intersection of supernatural horror and that lo-fi millennial genre proliferated by its producer, Joe Swanberg. During a weekend trip to the Hamptons with friends, Ruth (Lindsay Burdge) has an unexpected dalliance with a burlap wrapped ghost, resulting in a strange STI that no doctor can diagnose. Ahead of Lace Crater‘s TIFF premiere tonight, Filmmaker spoke to Atkins about his interest in sci-fi tinged love stories, and his collaboration with Swanberg. Filmmaker: The geography of the house in the Hamptons is central to establishing the dynamics between your characters. Did you write […]
by Sarah Salovaara on Sep 15, 2015 -
Exclusive: Fandor Announces Second Round of Original FIXshorts, Including Tombstone Rashomon from Alex Cox
In March, Fandor announced the creation of their FIXshorts program, which funded and offered streaming distribution to 5 short form proposals from FIX filmmakers. For the second round of the initiative, Fandor is expanding their reach to include the likes of Alex Cox: his short Tombstone Rashomon (and six of his features) will receive an exclusive premiere on Fandor, along with four original short films from FIX filmmakers to round out the pack. Cox is currently funding his film on Indiegogo, while the other four projects will be partially financed by Fandor before raising the rest of their budgets on Kickstarter, with monthlong campaigns […]
by Sarah Salovaara on Sep 15, 2015 -
“I Wish Filmmakers Could Approach PR as Part of the Filmmaking Process”: Agata Burdzy on Festival Publicity
Athens was the first European Capital of Culture in 1985. For the 2016 title, Wroclaw, Poland and San Sebastian, Spain were both selected four years ago. Since then, various cultural projects and initiatives funded by the European Commission have been developed as both cities prepare for the tourism boosts and international attention in the coming year. One of the biggest arthouse cinemas in Europe called the New Horizons Cinema, for example, opened in Wroclaw as one these projects. And with more developments underway, city pride among local inhabitants, as well as possibilities of discovery for passing travelers, flourishes. I don’t […]
by Taylor Hess on Sep 15, 2015 -
TIFF 2015: 5 Questions for The Meddler Writer/Director Lorene Scafaria
Screenwriter-turned-director Lorene Scafaria burst onto the scene with her screenplay for Peter Sollett’s Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist. Since that 2008 film she has bounced between film and television, writing and directing episodes of New Girl while also debuting her first feature, Seeking a Friend for the End of the World. So it’s fair to ask Scafaria what made The Meddler, a comedy/drama about an intrusive widowed mom (played by Susan Sarandon) and her frazzled Angeleno daughter (Rose Byrne), a story for the large screen instead of the small. That’s just one of several questions she offers cogent answers to in the […]
by Scott Macaulay on Sep 14, 2015
