25 New Faces
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Life’s Lessons: Patrick Wang Discusses In the Family
Joey Williams almost always seems calm. He maintains a consistent position when standing, slouched slightly forward with his hands in his pockets. He looks comfortable, but also concentrated. His eyes never break focus from the person he’s addressing, and when he speaks the Tennessee-accented words drift measuredly out of one side of his mouth. Joey doesn’t command attention so much as he gradually, patiently draws it his way. Joey is the main character of Patrick Wang’s directorial debut feature, the American independent film In the Family (2011), which will be released on Blu-ray and DVD this Tuesday. The general contractor, […]
by Aaron Cutler on Jun 21, 2013 -
25 New Face Brent Bonacorso’s West of the Moon Premieres Online
Filmmaker selected director Brent Bonacorso for our 2011 25 New Faces list on the basis of his absolutely stunning short, West of the Moon. After playing the festival circuit, it recently premiered on Vimeo, where it became a Staff Pick and quickly scored over 65,000 views — “WAY more views than in the festivals,” Bonacorso notes with amusement in an email. The film is above, and below is Eric Kohn’s write-up on the director from the Summer, 2011 print issue. — SM When asked to cite their influences, many filmmakers reference icons. Brent Bonacorso avoids that tendency. True to his […]
by Eric Kohn on Jun 9, 2013 -
Now Online: Jillian Mayer and Lucas Leyva’s Life and Freaky Times of Uncle Luke
One of the most brilliantly out-there shorts of recent years, Jillian Mayer and Lucas Leyva’s Life and Freaky Times of Uncle Luke has finally made it online, and you’d be a fool not to check it out. It’s the film that put the pair on the map when it played at the festival circuit in 2012, and then later justified their inclusion our “25 New Faces” list last year. Calling the film “both very smart and gleefully nuts,” this is what Scott wrote on Life and Freaky Times of Uncle Luke in his profile of Mayer and Leyva for the […]
by Nick Dawson on May 29, 2013 -
A Hidden Gem in Eastern Oregon
La Grande, Oregon, is the country’s largest fully enclosed valley and the second largest in the world. The geographical term for this is a continental depression, but there is absolutely nothing depressing about the incredible mountain views that dominate just about every conceivable vantage point in this quintessentially Western town. The same could be said for La Grande’s extraordinary Eastern Oregon Film Festival, which unspooled its fourth event in five years this past weekend. Captained by Christopher Jennings, who unlike many ambitious young locals has stayed in this former gold-mining, sugar-processing and lumber mill town of just over 13,000, the […]
by Brandon Harris on Mar 8, 2013 -
Frankie Latina’s Killer Kickstarter Campaign
I’ve been a huge fan of Frankie Latina’s since I saw his awesome debut feature, the new wave-tinged exploitation flick Modus Operandi, at CineVegas in 2009. Scott shared my love of the movie and that same summer put Latina on Filmmaker‘s “25 New Faces” list. Modus Operandi came out in 2010, and since then Latina has been somewhat quiet. Until now, that is. Yesterday he launched a Kickstarter campaign for his new film, Snap Shot, with an excellent, attention-grabbing video starring Danny Trejo, who’s one of the leads in Operandi and will also appear in this upcoming project. Latina’s $75,000 target […]
by Nick Dawson on Feb 28, 2013 -
“25 New Faces” Alums Our Nixon and Blue Caprice Bookend New Directors/New Films
The current class of “25 New Faces” continues to make headlines, this time bagging opening and closing night spots at the upcoming New Directors/New Films being works by 2012 alums. Penny Lane and Brian L. Frye‘s archival doc Our Nixon kicks off the MoMA/FSLC-housed festival, while Alexandre Moors‘ Beltway sniper drama Blue Caprice closes the event. Other U.S. indies at the 2013 edition of ND/NF include Joshua Oppenheimer’s buzz doc The Act of Killing, Shane Carruth’s Upstream Color and Shannon Plumb’s Towheads, while additional standouts include festival favorites like Tobias Lindholm’s A Hijacking and Sarah Polley’s Stories We Tell. The […]
by Nick Dawson on Feb 22, 2013 -
25 New Faces Update: At SXSW and Beyond
There’s been a lot going on with our current crop of 25 New Faces, so I thought I’d do a quick catchup of recent goings on. Firstly, four feature projects by 2012 alums are playing at this year’s SXSW Film Festival: there’s a world premiere for Ornana’s first narrative feature, Euphonia, while Bassam Tariq and Omar Mullick’s evocative documentary These Birds Walk (a world premiere at True/False later this month), Hannah Fidell’s A Teacher (which was actually shot in Austin) and Penny Lane and Brian L. Frye’s archival doc Our Nixon will continue their fest circuit runs there. (Incidentally, Lane and […]
by Nick Dawson on Feb 7, 2013 -
Trailer Watch: Kick Me
Gary Huggins made our 25 New Faces list in 2006 on the basis of his excellent Sundance short, First Date. After a successful Kickstarter raise, he’s back now with his first feature, Kick Me. Here’s the synopsis, and the video is above. A fancy high school guidance counselor (Santiago Vasquez) ventures into unknown territory – Kansas City, Kansas – and learns crucial lessons about community, prejudice and brotherhood the hard way.
by Scott Macaulay on Feb 6, 2013 -
Ingrid Jungermann Launches New Web Series F to 7th
Ingrid Jungermann, one half of the team behind The Slope and a “25 New Faces” alum from 2012, has just launched her new very funny web series, F to 7th. It’s a “homoneurotic” sequel of sorts to The Slope, again featuring Jungermann’s screen alter ego Ingrid, and exploring further comic territory that pokes fun at the LGBT community and Park Slopers. The first two episodes are online now and feature guest appearances by Michael Showalter (in “Off-Leash Hours”) and Compliance actress Ashlie Atkinson (in “Tweener”). Go here to check out the show.
by Nick Dawson on Jan 28, 2013 -
Paper Co-Creator Andrew Allen about his Award-Winning iPad App of the Year
Back in April I published this interview with Andrew Allen, filmmaker and developer with the software company 53, about his newly launched Paper app. This week the app was named by Apple as its #1 app of the year for iPad. Our original conversation about Paper’s development, and Allen’s journey from filmmaker to developer, is detailed below. — SM Andrew Allen, one of Filmmaker‘s “25 New Faces of 2011,” had a big premiere this month, but it’s not a film. Allen is part of FiftyThree, the company behind Paper, an iPad drawing app that made Apple’s App Store “App of […]
by Scott Macaulay on Dec 15, 2012
