In Denzel Washington’s second directing effort, the Oprah Winfrey produced The Great Debaters, he takes what he learned from his debut, Antwone Fisher, and uses it to make the inspirational true story of one small all-black school’s rise to the top of the college debating ranks in the Jim Crow South. Washington also stars in the film as the rebellious Melvin B. Tolson. Known for his American Modernist poetry and a contemporary of the Harlem Renaissance, in the ‘30s Tolson was a professor at Wiley College in Marshall, Texas. There he coached the debate team and in 1935 his team […]
I want to take a moment and tell you guys about a new website that Peter Bowen, Nick Dawson and I from Filmmaker are involved with. First, the history. In the late Spring of this year Peter and I had several conversations with Focus Features president James Schamus about film websites — what’s good out there, what’s not, and, most specifically, what’s missing from the film blogosphere. James talked to us about his vision of a site that would be dense with original content appealing to both cineastes as well as a more general audience enthusiastic about specialty film. Intrinsic […]
Sadly, this just in from Adrienne Jones, Treasurer and Membership Director of the Black Documentary Collective: We regret to inform everyone that St Clair Bourne, our founder, has passed away. Details of his passing will follow. Also, information about his memorial service will be sent as soon as we have it. Members have expressed interest in making donations to the family. We would like to contribute money through our BDC/St Clair Bourne fund. If you wish to make a donation, please forward payment to: BDCP.O. Box 610Hamilton Grange StationNew York, NY 10031. In the memo line please write BDC/St Clair […]
Last winter in a Filmmaker article recapping 2006’s most notable trends in independent film, I used as my lede a discussion of metrics — how, in every business, there’s some kind of unit of evaluation, but how in independent film that yardstick is often hopelessly confused. First-time filmmakers exorcising personal demons or doc makers espousing outside-the-mainstream viewpoints are later shocked and disheartened when their films don’t get picked up by a mini-major and gross Michael Moore numbers. Why don’t, I wrote, filmmakers consider things like the importance of transmitting the film’s message and their own enjoyment and personal growth as […]
CHRISTIAN SLATER IN DIRECTOR FRANK CAPPELLO’S HE WAS A QUIET MAN. COURTESY MITROPOULOS FILMS. Whether he’s writing, directing, creating special effects, playing music, or simply recounting anecdotes, Frank Cappello seems to have a compulsive need to entertain. He honed his storytelling skills as a kid reading out his imagined motocross adventures to classmates, and then spent years writing spec scripts while working in special effects. Though the first script he sold, Suburban Commando (1991), became a derided Hulk Hogan vehicle, it was a launchpad for Cappello to direct two genre pictures. American Yakuza (1993) and No Way Back (1995) both […]
Sundance announced the films in their Premieres, Spectrum, New Frontier and Midnight sections today. Included in the list is the closing night film, Neil Young‘s documentary CSNY Deja Vu, on Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young’s “Freedom of Speech Tour” and The Salt Lake City Gala will feature the world premiere of The Great Buck Howard, directed by Sean McGinly and stars Colin Hanks, John Malkovich and Emily Blunt. Other notable names in the pack are Michel Gondry, Brad Anderson, Barry Levinson, Stacy Peralta, Morgan Spurlock, the Duplass brothers and (wait for it…) Michael Keaton in his directorial debut. Full list […]
A few years ago producer Ted Hope was at the forefront of the indie campaign against the major studios’ “screener policy” — the edict that specialty film companies could not use mailed promotional screeners in their Academy campaigns. Hope, along with producer Jeff Levy-Hinte and a group of allied production companies, won a court battle and the studio policy was reversed. Now, Hope has emailed about another issue concerning screeners — specifically, their impact on the environment. While other parts of the industry are going green, the mailed output of two companies in particular are not. From Ted Hope: After […]
IFP‘s 17th annual Gotham Awards were handed out last night at Brooklyn’s Steiner Studios with Sean Penn‘s Into The Wild winning the Best Feature prize. The other winners include Michael Moore‘s Sicko for Best Doc; Best Ensemble Cast went to two films, Sidney Lumet‘s Before The Devil Knows You’re Dead, and Kasi Lemmons‘s Talk To Me; director Craig Zobel walked away with the Breakthough Director prize, his debut film The Great World of Sound received three Gotham Award nominations; Juno‘s Ellen Page won Breakthrough Actor and Ronald Bronstein‘s Frownland won The Best Film Not Playing at a Theater Near You […]
Here’s a collection of links to some things I’ve found interesting in the last week but which, because of the holiday, I wasn’t able to post here as their own separate entries. Filmmaker AJ Schnack has written an excellent post on the yearly disappointment that is the Academy Award doc shortlist. (For the complete list, click here). Typically, the Academy overlooked the most artistically risk-taking films, movies like Manda Bala and Billy the Kid, and went, mostly, for worthy films dealing with serious subjects that also happened to subscribe to long accepted methods of documentary practice. (Nominees included such strong […]
The Financial Times reports on a new anti-piracy and filesharing proposal being endorsed by President Nicholas Sarkozy. An excerpt from the piece by Ben Hall: Internet users in France who download music and films without paying for them could find their web access shut down by a government body, under a ground-breaking industry agreement backed by President Nicolas Sarkozy. The plan, which Mr Sarkozy is to endorse in a speech on Friday, will put France at the forefront of the battle against internet piracy with a three-strikes-and-you-are-out policy against repeat offenders. The proposed enforcement body would use information collected by […]