6580 Results for “production”
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Director Marc Simon on Unraveled
Putting a human face on the criminality of the financial crisis, Unraveled explores the downfall of Marc Dreier, a prominent Manhattan attorney who was arrested in 2009 for embezzling hundreds of millions of dollars from hedge funds. The documentary places us in the “guilded prison” of Dreier’s upper East Side apartment during his 60-day house arrest. In that time, he is interviewed by none other than one of his victims, Marc Simon, who, in addition to being an Oscar-nominated filmmaker, formerly worked as a lawyer at Dreier’s law firm, Dreier L.L.P. You wouldn’t know that from the film, however, as […]
by Daniel James Scott on Nov 25, 2011 -
LOST IN AMERICA: KELLY REICHARDT’S “MEEK’S CUTOFF”
Originally published in the Winter 2011 issue. Meek’s Cutoff is nominated for Best Feature. Before you see the first image of Meek’s Cutoff, you hear the film. Simultaneously swelling is the whoosh of rushing water and Jeff Grace’s unnerving, anxious score, which sounds like strings on guitar played backwards. Imagine a rusty fence gate slowly opening. That’s your invitation to the film. Then a title card — hand-stitched on what looks like the potato-sack material used to cover a wagon — announces that we’re in Oregon, and the year: 1845. This happens quickly, in less than 20 seconds, but by […]
by James Ponsoldt on Nov 23, 2011 -
What Lies Beneath: David Cronenberg’s A Dangerous Method
Originally published in the Fall 2011 issue. David Cronenberg is a Tribute honoree at this year’s Gotham Independent Film Awards. A Dangerous Method opens in theaters Nov. 23. David Cronenberg’s new film A Dangerous Method is a period piece dealing with the personal and historical relationship between Sigmund Freud (Viggo Mortensen), Carl Jung (Michael Fassbender) and Sabina Spielrein (Keira Knightly). It’s a work that in some ways feels out of place in the Canadian filmmaker’s filmography, and in other ways, perfectly Cronenbergian. The screenplay by Christopher Hampton (who also penned a stage play from which this was developed) is meticulously […]
by Peter Bowen on Nov 22, 2011 -
Gerard Ravel and the Super 8 Festival that Launched J.J. Abrams
In Super 8, writer/director J.J. Abrams (pictured) tells the story of a group of adolescent filmmakers in a small Ohio town whose big dream is to get their film into the fictional Cleveland International Super 8 Film Festival. The film never shows us if their movie makes it — the kids are sidetracked by an alien invasion, after all — but in real life Abrams was part of a real life band of teen filmmakers showcased at a festival titled “The Best Teen Super 8mm Films of ’81.” Held at L.A.’s Nuart Theater in March 1982, it helped launch the […]
by Todd Longwell on Nov 22, 2011 -
GUS VAN SANT CHATS WITH MIKE MILLS ABOUT “BEGINNERS”
Originally published in the Spring 2011 issue. Beginners is nominated for Best Feature and Best Ensemble. “There are no classes in life for beginners; right away you are always asked to deal with what is most difficult.”–Rainer Maria Rilke About the three characters in Mike Mills’s altogether winning second feature — Oliver, a sensitive yet romantically challenged graphic designer in his mid-30s (Ewan McGregor); Anna, a beautiful, single French actress (Melanie Laurent); and the designer’s father, Hal, a retired museum director and widower in his 70s, who has just come out of the closet (Christopher Plummer) — the film’s title, […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Nov 21, 2011 -
ACADEMY PICKS 15 DOCUMENTARY OSCAR FINALISTS
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Documentary Branch Screening Committee has announced the 15 film shortlist for the Best Documentary Oscar. The selections were culled from a list of 124 eligible titles. Some Filmmaker favorites, including films by 25 New Face Directors Danfung Dennis (Hell and Back Again) and Marshall Curry (If a Tree Falls: A Story of the Earth Liberation Front) are in the mix, as are Wim Wender’s Pina, Suki Hawley and Michael Galinsky’s Battle for Brooklyn, and Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky’s Paradise Lost 3. I was sad to see more experimental docs like Bombay […]
by Scott Macaulay on Nov 18, 2011 -
HOSSEIN KESHAVARZ, “DOG SWEAT”
Earnest and terse, Dog Sweat is a movie that feels like it was made by the skin of its teeth, pulled together through sheer force of will; what’s at stake for the filmmaker becomes an indelible part of the experience for the audience in a way few films accomplish. A sprawling drama with multiple protagonists, tracks several young Iranian adults who in their own quiet, and in some cases not so quiet ways, are running up against the rampant oppression of an authoritarian theocracy and a older generation grown stale with compromise, who have grown complacent about lowered expectations for […]
by Brandon Harris on Nov 17, 2011 -
Shooting Tiny Furniture
Originally published in the Summer 2010 issue. Only a few months after we selected her for last year’s “25 New Faces” list, writer-director Lena Dunham went into production on her second feature Tiny Furniture. Shot by fellow 2009 “25 New Faces” Jody Lee Lipes and produced by Filmmaker contributing editor Alicia Van Couvering and Kyle Martin, the film wound up winning the Grand Prize at 2010’s SXSW Film Festival and was picked up by IFC for distribution this fall. The film was shot on the Canon 7D, and we asked Lipes, focus puller Joe Anderson and Technicolor colorist Sam Daley […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Nov 17, 2011 -
25 NEW FACES: “DETROIT UNLEADED”‘S ROLA NASHEF
Originally published in the Summer 2011 issue. Detroit Unleaded is nominated for Calvin Klein Spotlight on Women Filmmakers “Live the Dream” Grant. When South Lebanon-born writer-director Rola Nashef started thinking about her film, Detroit Unleaded, there wasn’t much of a film scene in her home state of Michigan, independent or studio. Now, after several years of tax incentives and high-profile productions, she laughs, “I go to restaurants and hear people talking about their scripts.” But Nashef was inspired by Detroit long before the state’s recent production boom. The city didn’t just provide her debut feature’s location, but also its subject […]
by Scott Macaulay on Nov 17, 2011 -
Getting Started in 3D
I had the good fortune of attending a day-long workshop on 3D production this past weekend. It was notable because we had a chance to actually use the Panasonic AG-3DA1 camcorder and to view the results projected using Panasonic’s new home 3D projector, the PT-AE7000U. In the interests of full disclosure; I have previously written at some length about my suspicion and distrust of the whole 3D thing. I blame it on seeing Jaws 3D in 2D at a drive-in movie at a formative age. To me, 3D seems to be an effect that is useful now and again, but […]
by Michael Murie on Nov 17, 2011
