From a new YouTube account, BanksyNY, graffiti’s greatest talent has posted a new video, entitled “Rebel rocket attack.” We’re deep into production on our Fall issue of Filmmaker, so I’ll post this with a minimum of comment and say only this: Watch.
by Nick Dawson on Oct 7, 2013Here outside Zoom following BMI’s annual seat-switching dinner are elusive rock icon Rodriguez and Malik Bendjelloul, the director of his doc, Searching for Sugar Man. At the dinner, I asked Bendjellaul whether he was a fan of Rodrgiuez’s before the film. No, he said. He was looking for a story and hear about the Rodriguez saga from a private detective. The film was acquired at Sundance by Sony Pictures Classics. Left behind after the Sundance premiere of Exit to the Gift Shop was this Banksy artwork, nicely framed by the good folks in Park City. Caught checking out the artwork […]
by Scott Macaulay on Jan 26, 2012Filmmaker Victoria Mahoney premiered her first feature,Yelling to the Sky, in Competition at the Berlin Film Festival this month, and arriving in the city with her was British graffiti artist Robbo. And by the time of the film’s premiere, the city was the richer for a wall-sized mural of the film’s lead character, Sweetness (Zoe Kravitz). Below, Mahoney writes about the process of finding a home for Robbo’s work. Her story has an ironic coda given Robbo’s recent street rivalry with Banksy. Read on. I always knew I’d be mounting a graffiti piece in tandem with the premiere of Yelling […]
by Scott Macaulay on Feb 26, 2011At an awards ceremony at the Museum of the Moving Image in Queens, Cinema Eye handed out honors to the best of this year’s documentary films. The top award, the Outstanding Achievement in Nonfiction Filmmaking, when to Banksy’s Exit Through the Gift Shop, produced by Jaime D’Cruz. Laura Poitras was named Outstanding Director for The Oath, and Jeff Malmberg Outstanding Debut for his Marwencol. Matt Porterfield’s Putty Hill won the first Filmmaker-sponsored Heterodox Award. One of the most moving moments of the night was a tribute to editor Karen Schmeer, who was killed last year in a hit-and-run, and one […]
by Scott Macaulay on Jan 19, 2011Scott Kirsner and Peter Broderick are bringing their Distribution U. to New York and Los Angeles November 13 and 20, respectively. Among the various presentations dealing with independent marketing and distribution in New York will be a case study of Banksy’s Exit Through the Gift Shop. In L.A., singer-songwriter Jill Sobule will be talking about how she reinvigorated her recording career through crowdfunding and an online community. I’ll be leading one of the seminars in New York. Here is how the event is described: Designed and presented by leading distribution strategist Peter Broderick and cutting-edge author and tech analyst Scott […]
by Scott Macaulay on Oct 29, 2010Artist Banksy, whose Exit to the Gift Shop is one of the best films of the year, storyboarded and directed the opening “couch gag” sequence of tonight’s The Simpsons. It references the fact that much of the Simpsons animation is outsourced to South Korea. Check it out.
by Scott Macaulay on Oct 11, 2010Cinetic Media powerhouse John Sloss took to the stage on Wednesday morning at the Independent Filmmaker Conference in a conversation moderated by indieWIRE’s Eugene Hernandez (who announced today that he is leaving indieWIRE to take a new role as Director of Digital Strategy at the Film Society of Lincoln Center). Sloss began the conversation by acknowledging that we all stand on the shoulders of giants, pointing to the influence of John Pierson on his career, “His heart wasn’t in the business side of things but mine was.” Everyone should read Pierson’s book Spike, Mike, Slackers and Dykes he declared. He […]
by Ingrid Kopp on Sep 23, 2010Looks like Banksy’s Exit to the Gift Shop is influencing folks out there. This viral campaign by a group of San Francisco artists, Freedom From Porn , who are protesting the ban on adult material within Apple’s walled garden, clearly cops a few licks from the British artist’s great new movie. Freedom From Porn from Freedom From Porn on Vimeo.
by Scott Macaulay on Jun 10, 2010Sparrow Songs is a documentary project by filmmaker Alex Jablonski and d.p. Michael Totten, who are making and posting one short doc film per month on their site for a whole year. They are six episodes in, and the films are quite wonderful. Averaging about eight minutes, they are poetic essays that capture the essences of specific places, people, and moments, and that then, without pretension, build these observances into larger statements about love, truth, community, and the ways we are choosing to live our lives. The films include Porn Star Karoke, about the crowd that gathers weekly at an […]
by Scott Macaulay on Apr 29, 2010This was was favorite film at Sundance this year — pretty much from the opening notes of the Richard Hawley song that adorns its opening credits. See it here. (Hat tip: Movie City Indie.)
by Scott Macaulay on Apr 7, 2010