Documentary

THE NEW YORKER DISCOVERS MUMBLECORE

A bit late to the Dance Party USA, David Denby discovers mumblecore in this week’s New Yorker, devoting his entire film column to the genre. From the piece: You’re about twenty-five years old, and you’re no more than, shall we say, intermittently employed, so you spend a great deal of time talking with friends about trivial things or about love affairs that ended or never quite happened; and sometimes, if you’re lucky, you fall into bed, or almost fall into bed and just enjoy the flirtation, with someone in the group. This chatty sitting around, with sex occasionally added, is […]
by Scott Macaulay on Mar 9, 2009
KEN BURNS LOSES GM FINANCING

The economic crisis has hit filmmaker Ken Burns. As reported in the Detroit News, General Motors, which has been a major funder of the director, is ceasing its support due to its own economic woes. From the piece by Robert Snell: The cash crunch ends a 22-year relationship between GM and Burns, a graduate of Ann Arbor’s Pioneer High School and award-winning filmmaker who has created documentaries for public television about the nation’s wars, jazz and baseball, among others. Under a 10-year deal that started in 1999, GM paid for 35 percent of each film’s budget and funded educational outreach […]
by Scott Macaulay on Mar 9, 2009
Leos Carax And Michel Gondry, Tokyo !

DENIS LAVANT IN “MERDE,”DIRECTOR LEOS CARAX’SEGMENT OF TOKYO!. COURTESY LIBERATION ENTERTAINMENT. French directors Leos Carax and Michel Gondry – both born in the early 1960s, during the first blush of the Nouvelle Vague – so far have had markedly different career paths. Carax, a boy from the Parisian suburbs, became a film critic and short film director before announcing himself as a major talent with his first two features, Boy Meets Girl (1984) and Bad Blood (1986). Carax’s distinctive visual style, outsider sensibility and preoccupation with modern romance was also on show in his third film, Lovers on the Bridge […]
by Nick Dawson on Mar 6, 2009
IGGY POP’S HOUELLEBECQIAN DOG LOVE

Via Pitchfork comes this unexpected but delightful news that Iggy Pop is making an album of New Orleans-styled jazz songs inspired by the French writer Michel Houellebecq’s quite excellent latest novel, The Possibility of an Island. Entitled Preliminaires, the album is an outgrowth of a songs Pop made for a documentary about the French author’s making of his novel into a film. Pop has made a wonderful video trailer for the album, which can be seen here. From Pitchfork: A bulletin sent out via the Stooges’ MySpace page says that Preliminaires is “NOT a rock album, more jazzy stuff.” In […]
by Scott Macaulay on Mar 2, 2009
DOC FILMMAKER WINS FIRST AMENDMENT SUIT

From the law firm Frankfurt, Kurnit, Klein and Selz comes a press release announcing the New York State Court dismissal of case brought against doc filmmaker Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi’s Youssou Ndour: I Bring What I Love. It’s great to see a filmmaker challenging such a seemingly frivolous lawsuit and winning. Excerpted from the press release: The film centers on the controversy surrounding Grammy-award winning musician Youssou Ndour’s release of his acclaimed album “Egypt.” Plaintiff, a former attorney for Mr. Ndour, appears briefly in archival footage taken at a press conference. “Vexatious right of publicity claims often hamstring documentary filmmakers,” said […]
by Scott Macaulay on Feb 25, 2009
Astra Taylor, Examined Life

CORNEL WEST IN DIRECTOR ASTRA TAYLOR’S EXAMINED LIFE. COURTESY ZEITGEIST FILMS. Still in her twenties, documentarian Astra Taylor has already brought a philosophical bent to non-fiction filmmaking and is looking to push the form in new and exciting directions. Taylor was born in Winnipeg, Manitoba, in 1979 and grew up in Athens, Georgia. She studied first at the University of Georgia and then got an MA in sociology, philosophy and cultural theory at the New School for Social Research in New York. In 2001, she co-produced and co-directed the 45-minute documentary Miracle Tree: Moringa Oleifera, about infant malnutrition in Senegal, […]
by Nick Dawson on Feb 25, 2009
BETWEEN THOUGHT AND EXPRESSION

Okay, here’s a pull quote you won’t often get from me: this film is good for your soul. I’m referring to Astra Taylor’s Examined Life, which opens tomorrow at the IFC Center in New York and which is so engaging, hopeful and against-the-grain that it becomes a must-see cinematic tonic for these confusing times. Examined Life is Taylor’s documentary about the related acts of thinking and walking. Using the history of mobile thought as her springboard (for more on this, read Rebecca Solnit’s Wanderlust), Taylor (pictured) follows eight philosophers as they stroll through their hometown environments engaging in a series […]
by Scott Macaulay on Feb 24, 2009
“THE WHOLE SHOOTIN’ MATCH”

Unavailable for at least two decades, Eagle Pennell‘s landmark film has been lost in the conversation of influential American independent films. But with its low-budget filming, engaging yet hapless characters and Pennell’s semi-doc handheld shooting of Central Texas, The Whole Shootin’ Match is a precursor to almost any indie made today. The film, shot on B&W 16mm, follows two slacker cowboys who spend their time chasing women and getting drunk while trying to cook up get-rich-quick schemes. Legend has it when Pennell screened the film at the U.S. Film Festival in 1978, where it won the Audience Award, Robert Redford […]
by Jason Guerrasio on Feb 22, 2009
THE WRESTLER WINS BIG WITH THREE SPIRIT AWARDS INCLUDING BEST FEATURE

Film Independent‘s Spirit Awards just concluded in Santa Monica with Darren Aronofsky‘s The Wrestler walking away with Best Feature, Cinematography and Best Male Lead for Mickey Rourke, who did not disappoint when accepting the award (hopefully he kept some material for tomorrow night). Milk won Best Supporting Male (James Franco) and Best First Screenplay (Dustin Lance Black), Frozen River took home the Producer Award (Heather Rae) and Female Lead (Melissa Leo), Vicky Cristina Barcelona also took home two awards (Best Supporting Female for Penélope Cruz and Best Screenplay for Woody Allen) while Tom McCarthy received Best Director for The Visitor. […]
by Jason Guerrasio on Feb 21, 2009
Morgan Dews, Must Read After My Death

MORGAN DEWS’ SECRET FAMILY HISTORY IS REVEALED IN THE DIRECTOR’S MUST READ AFTER MY DEATH. COURTESY GIGANTIC RELEASING. Good things can always be salvaged from even the worst of circumstances, and that has seldom been more true than in the case of documentarian Morgan Dews. He was born in New Haven, Connecticut, in 1968 after his mother had run away from a troubled family situation to get married. He grew up oblivious to the difficult circumstances from which his mother had escaped, and then attended Rutgers University, where he studied History, graduating in 1990. Subsequently, he decamped to Spain where […]
by Nick Dawson on Feb 20, 2009

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