Moon director Duncan Jones’ second feature, Source Code, will open the 2011 SXSW Film Festival, it was announced today. Excerpted from the press release: The smart action thriller is the second feature from SXSW Alum Duncan Jones (Moon), and stars Jake Gyllenhaal (Love and Other Drugs, Brokeback Mountain), Michelle Monaghan (Eagle Eye, Due Date), Vera Farmiga (Up in the Air, The Departed) and Jeffrey Wright (Quantum of Solace, Syriana). The South by Southwest Film Conference and Festival runs March 11 – 19, 2011 in Austin, Texas. When decorated soldier Captain Colter Stevens (Gyllenhaal) wakes up in the body of an […]
In a recent edition of his ongoing online column “Movie Answer Man,” Roger Ebert was faced with the following reader-submitted query: “Since good movies can now be cheaply made, why aren’t we seeing more of the kind of arthouse films that were so influential in the ’60s and ’70s?” Ebert’s response, while relatively curt, was two-fold. “1.) It is very expensive to release, promote, and advertise any movie,” he began. Fair enough — as any independent filmmaker knows, simply getting your movie made is just one small initial hurdle…and as any viewer who watches contemporary independent films can sadly attest, […]
Several of the films that will appear in Competition at this year’s Berlin Film Festival were announced today, and I couldn’t be happier to see two anticipated films by two of our “25 New Face” filmmakers on the list. Miranda July will be traveling from Sundance to Berlin with her new movie, The Future, and first-time filmmaker Victoria Mahoney will be debuting with her Yelling to the Sky. I’m particularly thrilled to see Victoria’s film there because the project was part of the IFP Narrative Lab this year, for which I was a mentor. I saw the film at the […]
(Editor’s Note: This essay contains spoilers.) In literature or in oratory, where rhetoric arose from, it’s somewhat difficult to separate the argument’s mode of persuasion from its substance. In order to make an entirely skilled rhetorical point, the writer or speaker will have to present a series of assumptions and assertions, facts and hypotheses, in such a way that makes the argument’s substance apparent. That’s why literature lends itself to the intellectual: it’s founded upon a progression of ideas. Cinema is often referred to as a different kind of linguistic medium (the “language of film”), but a linguistic one nevertheless, […]
Before arriving, invitees traveling to this 10th anniversary edition of the Marrakech Film Festival were presented with an eye-popping list of stars — actors and directors both — who would be in attendance. Keanu Reeves, Martin Scorsese, Susan Sarandon, Eva Mendes, Francis Ford Coppola, Harvey Keitel (the subject of a retrospective), the Dardennes Brothers… the list went on and on. Some of these stars showed up to promote their films — Reeves, for example, arrived with James Caan (also the subject of a tribute) to support their opening night picture, Henry’s Crime. Coppola and the Dardennes along with Lee Chang-dong […]
Last year I ran the below post, “So You Didn’t Get Into Sundance.” As the Sundance list came out this week, I thought I’d give it a once over and pen a new version for ’11. But after reading it again, I’m not sure what I’d change. Once, more then… So you didn’t get into Sundance…. I’m sorry. Trust me, I feel your pain. As a producer I’ve received both the acceptance calls as well as the rejection ones. (Actually, the rejection call is sometimes not even a call, but a form email or letter.) In some cases, I’ve known […]
The following first appeared in Filmmaker‘s Winter 2010 edition. —Editor Although fashion and film have always been closely intertwined, Tom Ford may be the first fashion designer to cross over to the role of filmmaker. To be sure, his debut feature, an adaptation of Christopher Isherwood’s A Single Man, reflects his immaculate sense of style. But its story, a melancholy tale of a day in the life of a middle-aged college professor (Colin Firth) who is still mourning the unexpected death of his longtime lover Jim (Matthew Goode), is a far cry from the sex-saturated tableaus that Ford created for […]
Benazir Bhutto, the two time Pakistani prime minister who in 2007 was assassinated just days after she returned from military imposed exile in Dubai to once again attempt to take control of the country, was the countries’ most significant civilian political figure of her generation. Using the tragic life and times of the Muslim world’s most dynamic and successful female politician as a lens through which to capture the larger political machinations and social upheaval that has led to the sixty-seven year old Pakistani state constantly being handed back and forth between an imperiled civilian government and a conservative military establishment, […]
Via Mashable comes notice of Agents of Secret Stuff, a slickly-shot, 35-minute high school spy comedy film by Wong Fu Productions. After only a week or so, the group’s latest film has been seen by 2.3 million people on YouTube. Here’s Wang talking about the picture: Written in a couple days, the 35-minute movie was shot in one intense week this past summer. Drawing from the talents of a few dedicated friends, the crew was no bigger than 10 and was usually just the three of us from Wong Fu Productions (WFP), plus the actors. There was no big budget, […]
Coming in over the transom is this trailer for I Like You, a film by Jamie Heinrich. Heinrich hails from Reno, Nevada, and, based on this trailer, the self-described micro-budget film boasts some pretty striking cinematography and a good deal of heart. A few sites seem to have been given an early look. From Todd Brown at Twitch: The sort of naturalistic indie drama that Gus Van Sant and Larry Clark got their start with, I Like You is the feature debut not only of director / editor Heinrich and star Benna but also, seemingly, of just about everybody else […]