Documentary

Jennifer Venditti, Billy The Kid

BILLY PRICE, THE STAR OF DIRECTOR JENNIFER VENDITTI’S DOCUMENTARY BILLY THE KID.COURTESY ELEPHANT EYE FILMS. You might say that Jennifer Venditti is a people person. After starting out as a fashion stylist, she moved on to casting where she distinguished herself as someone with an eye for the unconventional as well as the beautiful. In 1998, she started JV8inc, a New York-based casting company working in fashion, commercials and film, which has become known for its use of street scouting, finding “real” people for campaigns or movies by going out and pounding the pavements. Since starting JV8, Venditti has worked […]
by Nick Dawson on Dec 7, 2007
SLAMDANCE ’08 TITLES ANNOUNCED

The Slamdance Film Festival announced the titles for its 14th year. The festival will run alongside Sundance in Park City, Utah Jan. 17-25. This year’s Opening Night Film is Randall Cole‘s Real Time. The full list is below. Narrative Feature Competition FIX, (USA) Written/Directed by Tao Ruspoli This darkly comedic road movie journeys from Beverly Hills to Watts over the course of 12 hours, as documentary filmmakers Bella and Milo race to get Milo’s brother Leo from jail to rehab before 8 p.m. – or Leo goes to prison for three years. FROST, (USA) Written/Directed by Steve ClarkWhen a Manhattan […]
by Jason Guerrasio on Dec 5, 2007
SUNDANCE ’08 PREMIERES, SPECTRUM, NEW FRONTIER AND MIDNIGHT FILMS ANNOUNCED

Sundance announced the films in their Premieres, Spectrum, New Frontier and Midnight sections today. Included in the list is the closing night film, Neil Young‘s documentary CSNY Deja Vu, on Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young’s “Freedom of Speech Tour” and The Salt Lake City Gala will feature the world premiere of The Great Buck Howard, directed by Sean McGinly and stars Colin Hanks, John Malkovich and Emily Blunt. Other notable names in the pack are Michel Gondry, Brad Anderson, Barry Levinson, Stacy Peralta, Morgan Spurlock, the Duplass brothers and (wait for it…) Michael Keaton in his directorial debut. Full list […]
by Jason Guerrasio on Nov 29, 2007
2008 SUNDANCE FILM FESTIVAL LINE-UP

The Sundance Film Festival has announced their films in competition for the 2008 edition. Leafing through the line-up you’ll notice there are many first-timers (including DP Ellen Kuras) in this year’s bunch. Though there are a few familiar names: Alex Gibney, Jonathan Levine, Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck. There’s also a doc on the great Hunter Thompson and an adaptation of Fight Club author Chuck Palahniuk‘s novel, Choke. The full list titles are below. The festival will run Jan. 17-27. Documentary Competition AN AMERICAN SOLDIER (Director and Screenwriter: Edet Belzberg)Uncle Sam wants you! A compelling exploration of army recruitment in […]
by Jason Guerrasio on Nov 28, 2007
Greek Tragedy

As a filmmaker, Oscar winner Jessica Yu is smart, adventurous, and utterly fearless. You’d have to be to make a talking-head documentary inspired by the 5th century B.C. playwright Euripides (an idea proposed by the Carr Foundation) and then decide to outfit key scenes with wooden rod puppets speaking ancient Greek. But her new film, Protagonist, which was nominated for the Grand Jury Prize at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival and gets a theatrical release November 30 from IFC Films, is not high-concept marionette theater, it’s a fascinating investigation of what drives passionate people to acts of radical self-negation—and of […]
by Damon Smith on Nov 28, 2007
GOTHAM AWARDS WINNERS

IFP‘s 17th annual Gotham Awards were handed out last night at Brooklyn’s Steiner Studios with Sean Penn‘s Into The Wild winning the Best Feature prize. The other winners include Michael Moore‘s Sicko for Best Doc; Best Ensemble Cast went to two films, Sidney Lumet‘s Before The Devil Knows You’re Dead, and Kasi Lemmons‘s Talk To Me; director Craig Zobel walked away with the Breakthough Director prize, his debut film The Great World of Sound received three Gotham Award nominations; Juno‘s Ellen Page won Breakthrough Actor and Ronald Bronstein‘s Frownland won The Best Film Not Playing at a Theater Near You […]
by Jason Guerrasio on Nov 28, 2007
SPIRIT AWARDS ANNOUNCED

2008 Film Independent’s Spirit Awards were announced this morning with I’m Not There, Juno, The Savages and The Diving Bell and the Butterfly leading the way with four nominations including Best Feature. The full list of nominees are below. Awards will be handed out the day before the Oscars, Feb. 23. BEST FEATURE The Diving Bell and the ButterflyI’m Not ThereJunoA Mighty HeartParanoid Park BEST DIRECTORTodd Haynes, I’m Not ThereTamara Jenkins, The SavagesJason Reitman, JunoJulian Schnabel, The Diving Bell and the ButterflyGus Van Sant, Paranoid Park BEST MALE LEADPedro Castaneda, August EveningDon Cheadle, Talk To MePhilip Seymour Hoffman, The SavagesFrank […]
by Jason Guerrasio on Nov 27, 2007
WEEKEND LINK CATCH-UP

Here’s a collection of links to some things I’ve found interesting in the last week but which, because of the holiday, I wasn’t able to post here as their own separate entries. Filmmaker AJ Schnack has written an excellent post on the yearly disappointment that is the Academy Award doc shortlist. (For the complete list, click here). Typically, the Academy overlooked the most artistically risk-taking films, movies like Manda Bala and Billy the Kid, and went, mostly, for worthy films dealing with serious subjects that also happened to subscribe to long accepted methods of documentary practice. (Nominees included such strong […]
by Scott Macaulay on Nov 25, 2007
ANOTHER WORLD

Because it’s laid out at the bottom of the home page, you may have missed Rak Razam’s interview with French director Jan Kounen. Razam’s was a fascinating over-the-transom submission that explains what the talented Gallic director has been up to the last few years. I first came across Kounen’s filmmaking many years ago when I saw his short Vibraboy. A friend and aesthetic colleague of directors like Gaspar Noe and Marc Caro, Kounen attracted international buzz with the film and then went on to make a hyperviolent and stylish crime movie, Dobermann, that starred Vincent Cassell and Monica Bellucci. The […]
by Scott Macaulay on Nov 12, 2007
Julien Temple, Joe Strummer: The Future Is Unwritten

THE LATE, GREAT JOE STRUMMER IN JULIEN TEMPLE’S JOE STRUMMER: THE FUTURE IS UNWRITTEN. COURTESY IFC FIRST TAKE. For 30 years, Brit Julien Temple has combined his dual passions of film and music, and worked with greats in both fields along the way. He first came to prominence with The Great Rock ‘n’ Roll Swindle (1979), the Sex Pistols’ madcap cinematic offering, and from there went on to become an important figure in the fledgling pop video medium as well as pioneering the feature-length promo with the Human League’s spy-themed Mantrap (1983) and Mick Jagger’s Running Out of Luck (1987). […]
by Nick Dawson on Nov 2, 2007

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