Jamie Stuart and I visited Josh and Benny Safdie at their Red Bucket Films studio on Tuesday to talk about their new film Daddy Longlegs, guerrilla marketing, and other things. He shot and edited, I interviewed, and this is our conversation. Click here to download through Jamie’s site.
by Scott Macaulay on May 14, 2010Benny Safdie hits the streets to promote Daddy Longlegs, opening Friday at the IFC Center in New York and in homes on VOD.
by Scott Macaulay on May 12, 2010Who says there is no clever independent film marketing? As Eric Kohn observed, Daddy Longlegs‘ Benny Safdie this weekend wore a sandwich board in midtown that, underneath the come-on, “We Buy Gold,” proclaimed, “This movie exists!” Has there ever been a more honest cry for attention from any independent filmmaker? And now, directors Josh and Benny Safdie have created a charming animated trailer, posted below, that in a completely different filmmaking medium captures some of their movie’s madcap energy. If you haven’t guessed, I love this film and urge you all to see it at the IFC Center this weekend.
by Scott Macaulay on May 10, 2010In its 12th year the Sarasota Film Festival has established itself as an important regional festival stop. Wedged between SXSW and Tribeca, Sarasota’s 10-day event is filled with festival circuit favorites, access to industry folk for the area filmmakers and lots of parties. [Full disclosure: I’m on the jury for the Independent Visions award this year.] Kicking off last night with Shari Springer Berman and Robert Pulcini‘s The Extra Man, the film stars Kevin Klein and Paul Dano as unlikely roommates living in Manhattan, one an aging playboy (Klein) the other a dreamer trying to find his place in life […]
by Jason Guerrasio on Apr 10, 2010When I was asked by The Huffington Post to comment on New York movies premiering in Sundance, the first film that popped into my mind was Josh and Bennie Safdie’s Daddy Longlegs. Now, as you may know, I’m a big fan of the Safdie brothers, selecting Josh for our 25 New Faces for the film he directed, The Pleasure of Being Robbed in 2008. That picture is a delightfully freewheeling romance of sorts involving a young woman, played with depth and originality by Eleonore Hendricks, who casually steals, not out of maliciousness or for greed but simply because of a […]
by Scott Macaulay on Jan 28, 2010[PREMIERE SCREENING: Friday, Jan. 22, 8:30 am — Prospector Square Theatre, Park City] Jeesh, the amount of decisions that go into making a movie… the words “the amount” are so heavy because the list is heavy, breathing is a decision, but to quantify them seems like the scariest task with such a daunting overhead. Of course the best decisions are the ones that you don’t have to make but are forced into. During Daddy Longlegs, we were so preoccupied with constantly providing stimuli from the writing process all the way through editing: for ourselves, for the actors, the non-actors, the […]
by Jason Guerrasio on Jan 22, 2010