Christmas Again
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Holiday Recommendations
Trust, as in all things, is important in film-going. I trusted my best friend Tim when, in middle school, he told me to see The Net. I trusted Janet Maslin when she raved about The Straight Story. Elaine famously trusted Vincent the video store clerk when he recommended Pain and Yearning (a fictitious title) in Seinfeld. But in this golden age of technology and information hoarding, more and more entities are demanding, and abusing our trust. I am of course referring to the A-word — algorithm. Now, I’m not going to say all algorithms are bad. I trust Rotten Tomatoes, […]
by Charles Poekel on Dec 14, 2017 -
When the Film Festival Comes to Town
Regional film festivals all start to feel the same after a while. There’s at least one feature dramatizing the life of a white guy in Brooklyn. The organizers tell you about a farm-to-table restaurant down the street from the movie theater with craft beer you just have to try. When you ask the volunteer driving you around if they grew up in town, they answer, “sort of,” and give the name of some nearby suburb. And usually there’s a VIP party in an antique store or a mansion owned by the town’s historical society where you meet white-haired locals wearing […]
by Whitney Mallett on Apr 21, 2016 -
Building a Christmas Tree Stand to Make a Movie: Charles Poekel on Christmas, Again
From day one there wasn’t much about the making of Christmas, Again that you could describe as “traditional.” So, when it came to releasing the film, it only felt natural to explore the less “traditional” routes. I use “traditional” in quotes because in 2015 I can safely say that non-“traditional” strategies are the new norm, if not the only viable option for any film, big or small (we’ve seen quite a few high-profile, big-budget “traditional” releases tank this year). So moving forward, I’ll refer to our strategy as “individualized,” which I think is a more accurate way of describing this norm. […]
by Charles Poekel on Nov 25, 2015 -
“I Want to Direct Films, But Can I Actually Do It?”: Christmas, Again | Director Charles Poekel
What fear — whether it’s personal, or one related to the development, financing, production or distribution of your film — did you have to confront and conquer in the making of your movie? The biggest fear I had to confront, which I suppose is every first-time director’s fear, was the issue of confidence–simply, “Can I do this?” Can I follow my instincts and make something that actually makes sense, and people find engaging? I’ve wanted to direct films since I was in middle school, and I’ve directed plenty of weird mediocre low-budget films that I was never really proud of. So in […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Jan 29, 2015 -
Sundance ’15: Cinematographer Sean Price Williams on Shooting Christmas Again
In an interview elsewhere on this site, director Charles Poekel said he wanted his feature Christmas, Again to look like a “Christmas tree ornament from your attic.” With that directive, what better D.P. to hire than Sean Price Williams? His love of and delicate touch with celluloid — its textures, its organic feel — shine through in such films as Listen Up, Philip and The Black Balloon. And his mobile camerawork and ability to shapeshift to whatever the production environment dictates made him an ideal collaborator for Poekel, who was shooting his first feature in his own Christmas tree stand […]
by Scott Macaulay on Jan 23, 2015 -
“I Wanted the Film to Feel Like a Christmas Tree Ornament from your Attic”: Charles Poekel on Sundance NEXT Film Christmas Again
With Charles Poekel’s charmingly melancholy debut, Christmas, Again, the independent film maxim “write what you know” gains a corollary: “write what you can learn.” For his tale of a withdrawn Christmas tree salesmen just trying to get through the season, again, Poekel gained knowledge of his protagonist’s trade by opening and operating his own stand in Greenpoint — a job he’s still doing five years later. Defiantly non-melodramatic and with the well-worn feel of a ’70s New York character study, Christmas, Again has both poetry and an unprepossessing air. In other words, it’s a perfect holiday visitor. Christmas, Again premiered […]
by Scott Macaulay on Jan 23, 2015
