If you take a statistics class (or just take your fantasy baseball team really seriously), one of the first things you learn is that trends are largely a myth. When a team like the Red Sox starts the season 2-13, that’s probably nothing more than a few bad breaks strung together. Given enough time, they’ll right the ship. Unless their third starter is John Lackey. Then all bets are off. Our brains are wired to see patterns where none exist, to take statistical noise and turn it into something it isn’t (there’s a joke in there somewhere about movie critics, […]
Independent Film Week, the first day. Clearly I should have gotten more sleep last night. But to be honest, the insomnia wasn’t my fault. I was indeed in bed by 10pm but the Sandman refused to pay a visit so after a few hours of work, you can’t blame me for joining my fellow Transatlantic Partners for a nightcap in the hospitality suite. The morning came quickly as my flight from Halifax to Newark was at 8am. Unfortunately the flight was delayed two hours and I had to go directly to Manhattan for IFP industry meetings upon arrival. I’d arranged […]
Over the next six weeks director and Filmmaker contributor Alix Lambert is taking The Edit Center’s course in feature film editing. This is the first of her weekly blogs on her experience. — Editor As a director, I have sat in the editing room for the better part of two decades. My long-time friend and brilliant editor, Hannah Neufeld has talked my off the ledge, dissuaded me from many bad ideas, and brought her own keen eye and internal rhythm to projects that we have worked on together over the years. Other editors (notably David Ritsher) have done the same […]
My name is Madeleine Sackler, and I’ll be blogging on my first time bringing a film to IFW’s Spotlight on Documentaries. I’m looking forward to seeing how the week goes! For now, a little on the film. Unstable Elements is my second feature, and it’s been an entirely different experience than any film I’ve worked on in the past. Of course, every documentary is different, which is one of the reasons I love what I do, but this has been a particularly challenging process. Unstable Elements tracks an underground resistance group called the Belarus Free Theater, which exposes problems with the […]
(After world premiering at the 2011 South By Southwest Film Festival where it won an Audience Award, Weekend was picked up for distribution by Sundance Selects. It opens theatrically in New York City on Friday, September 23, 2011, before expanding to more cities in the coming weeks. It’s also available through cable VOD for three months beginning on September 30th. Visit the film’s official website to learn more.) It is Independent Film Week in New York City. As this is the first time that I’ve personally been involved in IFP’s annual program to the extent that I have (I’m pitching […]
Set in the stark middle-of-nowhere town of Nottingham, Andrew Haigh’s Weekend tells a love story that is destined never to happen. Russell (Tom Cullen), a gay man who works as a lifeguard at the local municipal pool, had no real plans for the weekend: Hang out with his straight friends on Friday, work on Saturday, go to his goddaughter’s birthday party on Sunday. That was before he picked up Glen (Chris New) at a gay club Friday night, and the two fall — at first warily, and then headlong — into a romance with an expiration date. On Sunday […]
This post was originally published when Shit Year premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in 2010. The film opens today at the IFC Center. It is both accurate and reductive to call Cam Archer’s Shit Year, which premiered at this year’s Cannes Film Festival in the Director’s Fortnight section, the story of a retiring actress grappling with the emotions produced by her move away from the Hollywood spotlight. Of course, on narrative terms, that is what it’s about. Ellen Barkin plays the actress, who has just given her final talk-show interview, moved to a cabin in the woods, and now […]
Prolific independent director Joe Swanberg announced today a new distribution plan for his next four films. Partnered with Factory 25, Swanberg is offering fans a four-film, one-year subscription to his work. For $99.95 subscribers will receive a box that will fill up each quarter with not only DVDs but also bonus material, including 45rpm records, photo books and posters. “I’m in the nice position right now of having so many [completed] films I’m trying to get out into the world, so I’m taking the plunge and doing something interesting,” says Swanberg.The four films are Silver Bullets and Art History (both […]
Our innovation is stagnant. Stagnant and boring. Really. Boring. The movies themselves are one thing having long been locked into a race to the bottom with their Hollywood counterparts in an often times futile effort to just be noticed, but most stagnant and boring is the proliferation of new ‘platforms’ on which filmmakers can ‘launch’ their careers. Everywhere I look there is some new upstart looking to get into the digital distribution realm touting how their platform puts the power in your hands and provides a direct gateway for your film to reach an audience. A claim which, of course, […]
A year ago, I was banging my head against the wall of my Brooklyn apartment asking myself “Why?” Why another documentary film I knew would consume my entire life and prevent me from financial stability? Why a film made in the grittiest part of Newark, New Jersey, one of the country’s most problematic urban areas? Why not a film about Michelin-starred restaurants in Paris or cheese making in Rome? The answer was, of course — because I had to tell THIS story. Best Kept Secret is the story of a Newark public high school teacher who struggles to prepare her students with autism to survive […]