Documentary

ONLY CONNECT

Over at Cinema Echo Chamber, Evan Louis interviews filmmaker Celia Maysles, whose debut, Wild Blue Yonder, deals with her father, documentary filmmaker David Maysles, and her relationship to him. From the interview: The whole idea behind Blue Yonder [for David] was trying to figure out who his greatest influences were in his life, and who he was, through making a film. He was closest with his father and his cousin Alan, who was a real risk taker, a fighter pilot. But his father never missed a day of work for thirty years. He worked in a dayjob, postal service, in […]
by Scott Macaulay on Oct 27, 2008
BALLAST LEADS NOMINATIONS AT THIS YEAR’S GOTHAMS

IFP announced today the nominees for this year’s 18th Annual Gotham Independent Film Awards. Lance Hammer‘s self-distributed first feature Ballast received the most nominations with four, including for Best Feature and Breakthrough Director. The awards will be handed out on Tuesday, Dec. 2 at New York City’s Cipriani Wall Street. Full list of nominees are below. Best Feature BallastLance Hammer, director; Lance Hammer, Nina Parikh, producers (Alluvial Film Company) Frozen RiverCourtney Hunt, director; Heather Rae, Chip Hourihan, producers (Sony Pictures Classics) Synecdoche, New YorkCharlie Kaufman, director; Anthony Bregman, Charlie Kaufman, Spike Jonze, Sidney Kimmel, producers (Sony Pictures Classics) The VisitorTom […]
by Jason Guerrasio on Oct 20, 2008
Abel Ferrara, Mary

JULIETTE BINOCHE IN DIRECTOR ABEL FERRARA’S MARY. COURTESY ABEL FERRARA & ANTHOLOGY FILM ARCHIVES. After more than 30 years as a director, Abel Ferrara shows no sign of losing any of the raw intelligence, energy and vitality that have made him a continuing force in American cinema. The Italian American Bronx-born director, now 57, began directing shorts as a film student at SUNY Purchase in the early 1970s and made his feature debut in 1976 with the porn film 9 Lives of a Wet Pussy under the pseudonym Jimmy Laine. His debut proper was the legendary DIY grindhouse movie The […]
by Nick Dawson on Oct 17, 2008
WEATHER UNDERGROUND DIRECTOR ON BILL AYRES

“One truism of being a documentary filmmaker is that your subjects often continue to make news long after your film has wrapped and is widely seen,” writes AJ. Schnack at his All These Wonderful Things blog. “Kicking off a new feature here at the blog, Sam Green, the co-director of the Oscar-nominated THE WEATHER UNDERGROUND, writes about Ayers’ return to prominence and the mixed feelings it provokes for the director.” What follows are Green’s thoughts about Ayres, who he got to know through the making of his documentary, his sudden emergence as an issue in the Presidential campaign, and both […]
by Scott Macaulay on Oct 14, 2008
KIRSNER REPORTS FROM THE DOC VANGUARD

CinemaTech’s Scott Kirsner sent me an email alerting me to a really interesting project he’s done with ITVS. From his email: Earlier this year, ITVS asked me to interview a group of documentary filmmakers who were working on the vanguard. Specifically, we wanted to focus on three things: 1. Opening up production in new ways, communicating and collaborating with the audience while a film is still in the works. 2. Distributing in new ways, through avenues like iTunes or downloads on a filmmaker’s own Web site 3. Marketing and cultivating an audience for the work in new ways, and figuring […]
by Scott Macaulay on Oct 13, 2008
Matt Wolf, Wild Combination: A Portrait Of Arthur Russell

A REENACTED SHOT OF ARTHUR RUSSELL ON THE STATEN ISLAND FERRY FROM DIRECTOR MATT WOLF’S WILD COMBINATION: A PORTRAIT OF ARTHUR RUSSELL. COURTESY PLEXIFILM. Some people age more quickly than others, and Matt Wolf – both in person and in his work – displays a confidence and maturity that belie his tender years. Twenty-six-year-old Wolf was born and raised in San Jose, California, and spent much of his teenage years watching movies. He won a full-tuition fellowship to study film at NYU, where he made a number of shorts including Smalltown Boys (2003), an experimental biopic about AIDS activist David […]
by Nick Dawson on Sep 26, 2008
SHEILA NEVINS AWARDED TRIBUTE AT THIS YEAR’S GOTHAMS

IFP has announced their final Tribute honoree for this year’s Gotham Awards: President of HBO Documentary Films Sheila Nevins. Nevins will be recognized for her contributions to the art of the documentary. She is responsible for overseeing the development and production of all documentaries for HBO and Cinemax and their multiplex channels. As an executive producer or producer, she has received 22 Primetime Emmy Awards, 25 News and Documentary Emmys and 28 George Foster Peabody Awards. Nevins was also presented with a Personal Peabody in recognition of her work and ongoing commitment to excellence. She holds a BA from Barnard […]
by Jason Guerrasio on Sep 23, 2008
Irena Salina, Flow

There are many paths to cinematic success, some of them direct, some of them not, and it is fair to say that Irena Salina has taken a more meandering route than some to reach her current position. Born in Paris in the wake of May ’68, she grew up in a theatrical family (her uncle was the late, great French actor Philippe Noiret) and initially aspired to becoming an actress. When her adolescence was disrupted by her parents’ divorce, she chose to drop out of school and became a radio reporter at the age of just 15. After a stint […]
by Nick Dawson on Sep 12, 2008
FILMCATCHER INTERVIEWS

Beginning today over at Filmmaker Videos is a series of interviews from Toronto provided by Filmcatcher.com. Up now is Jeffrey-Levy Hinte‘s much talked about documentary Soul Power, about the 1974 Zaire music festival. Keep checking the page daily as we’ll be posting interviews through next week.
by Jason Guerrasio on Sep 11, 2008
GUS VAN SANT TO BE HONORED AT GOTHAMS

IFP announced today that Gus Van Sant will be presented with a Gotham Awards Tribute at the 18th Annual Gotham Awards on Tuesday, December 2nd in New York. Van Sant’s next project is the bio pic, Milk, about the first openly gay man elected to major public office in the United States, Harvey Milk. Starring Sean Penn as Milk along with Emile Hirsch, Josh Brolin, Diego Luna and James Franco, the film will be released by Focus Features in select cities on Wednesday, November 26th, 2008 and then expand in December. IFP also announced that they will be teaming with […]
by Jason Guerrasio on Sep 10, 2008

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