On this blog we’ve posted the line-ups of the various Sundance sections, but we forgot to include the shorts. So, to make up, Max Friend in the Filmmaker office has compiled this exhaustive post listing not only all the shorts but also hyperlinks taking you to info on the films, the filmmakers and sometimes the films themselves. Enjoy. U.S. Dramatic Shorts Abbie Cancelled (Directors: Dumb Bunny) — Two couples who have never met find themselves engaged in an awkward dinner after their mutual friends cancel at the last second. Acting for the Camera (Director: Justin Nowell; Screenwriter: Thomas Nowell) — […]
by Scott Macaulay on Jan 13, 2009Let me weigh in quickly on the imbroglio surrounding the deletion of Kevin Lee’s YouTube account. On the account Lee had posted his series of critical video essays on a number of recent and classic films, and in the course of arguing the aesthetic merits of each picture the videos included clips from the movies themselves. Apparently, YouTube received a complaint from the copyright holder of one of the clips and deleted his entire account. Matt Zoller Seitz has the complete story along with a comments thread that is also a must read, and Karina Longworth originally covered the story […]
by Scott Macaulay on Jan 13, 2009What’s the mood heading into the 25th Sundance Film Festival? Overall, the sense of a across the board scaling back is palpable. Almost no one will talk about their own company’s downsizing publicly, for fear of appearing financially unstable, but it’s no secret that the economic catastrophes have hit everyone’s travel and promotional budgets. Besides fewer sponsored parties – Motorola, for instance, will not be in attendance — the rumor is that some photo agencies have majorly scaled back their coverage, sticking to the red carpet only, and usually ubiquitous publications aren’t sending their film critics. “The party grid is […]
by Scott Macaulay on Jan 10, 2009Here Roger Ebert reprints his review of the deficit documentary I.O.U.S.A., which CNN airs this weekend. From Ebert’s blog post: I’m reprinting my review of the nonpartisan doc I.O.U.S.A. again because it will be televised on CNN at 1 p.m. CST Saturday, Jan. 10, and 2 p.m. CST Sunday, Jan 11. Co-hosts will be CNN financial experts Ali Velshi and Christine Romans. Their panelists will include Pete Peterson, ormer U.S. Commerce Secretary; Dave Walker, former U.S. Comptroller General; Alice Rivlin, former Director of the Office of Management and Budget; and Bill Bradley, former U.S. Senator. Okay, I’m going to reprint […]
by Scott Macaulay on Jan 9, 2009[PREMIERE SCREENING: Friday, Jan. 16, 6:15 pm — Holiday Village Cinema IV, Park City] Afghan Star is a documentary about a TV show of the same name. It’s a powerful TV format we all know — a version of Pop Idol — but in a country that most of us don’t: Afghanistan. With the backdrop of warfare and Taliban repression (they banned music and used to impale TVs on spikes) you certainly wouldn’t expect to find a TV music talent contest. But Afghan Star: The Series is now one of the most potent forces of change the country has. You […]
by Jason Guerrasio on Jan 8, 2009[PREMIERE SCREENING: Friday, Jan. 16, 3:00 pm — Temple Theatre, Park City] The story of my film, Boy Interrupted, was not affected much by recently changing digital technology. If anything, the film is a throwback to conventional documentary filmmaking; straightforward chronological storytelling – no tricks. Authenticity was our guide. The goal was to tell the story of my son Evan’s bipolar illness and suicide in as factual a manner as possible, with home movies and first-hand interviews bearing witness to our experience as a family. I love the self-contained and mostly humorous videos I see on YouTube and Facebook and […]
by Jason Guerrasio on Jan 8, 2009[PREMIERE SCREENING: Friday, Jan. 16, 9:00 am — Temple Theatre, Park City] The hardest thing about making documentaries is finding a story inside your material — it’s just so much harder than scripted material. And so what you find are a lot of documentaries that are written in advance; that is to say that the filmmaker knew what he or she wanted to say before beginning shooting. So you feel a kind of steering going on, and therefore a falseness. The other extreme is that you see documentaries that have no story at all. The filmmaker saw something interesting, they […]
by Jason Guerrasio on Jan 8, 2009[PREMIERE SCREENING: Friday, Jan. 16, 8:30 am — Prospector Square Theatre, Park City] Johnny Mad Dog is based on a novel by Emmanuel Dongala. At first, I wrote a faithful adaptation of the book following the same narrative construction, which was centered on two main characters: Johnny, a 15-year-old child soldier, and Laokolé, a 13-year-old girl who runs away with her family. They are in the same situation in the last days of a civil war in Africa. The same unit of time, place and space. Two roads which cross paths, two different points of view, two destinies. Once this […]
by Jason Guerrasio on Jan 8, 2009On my “best of ’08” list is a sub-category for the best films I saw on the fest circuit that have distribution in ’09, and one of my favorites of these is Astra Taylor’s Examined Life. It’s a documentary in which the director takes eight philosophers to the streets and explores the way in which their ideas bleed back and forth between the world and their consciousnesses. It’s a smart, heady film that is also an especially warm, engaging, and high-spirited viewing experience. Here is the just released official trailer.
by Scott Macaulay on Jan 6, 2009I just came across on the Interview magazine site this talk between director Harmony Korine and artist photographer William Eggleston, whose “William Eggleston: Democratic Camera, Photographs and Video, 1961- 80” is up now and essential at New York’s Whitney Museum. (A slide show of some of his images is above.) An excerpt: HK:?Would you take photos of a Kroger today? WE:?Certainly. HK:?And do you think it would have that same effect looking at it 20 years from now? WE:?I think so. HK:?So you think time makes things more exotic? WE:?I don’t think exotic is the word. HK:?So what do you […]
by Scott Macaulay on Jan 3, 2009