Documentary
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Gerardo Naranjo, Drama/Mex
DIANA GARCIA IN GERARDO NARANJO’S DRAMA/MEX. COURTESY IFC FIRST TAKE. Not many people can genuinely claim that cinema is their savior, but Gerardo Naranjo is probably one of the few. Growing up in the small Mexican town of Salamanca, he frequently got into trouble and was forced to move from school to school as a result of his problems with authority, but managed to escape his difficulties while watching movies. He ended up studying at the Universidad Iberoamericana in Mexico City, where he founded a cinema club called Zero for Conduct, — named after the Jean Vigo movie, a favorite […]
by Nick Dawson on Jul 11, 2007 -
Renew Media Celebrates 20 Years
Initially it might appear that filmmakers Godfrey Reggio (Koyaanisqatsi) and Jonathan Caouette (Tarnation) have little in common with directors Kelly Reichardt or Rob Epstein. Caouette’s intensely self-referential experimental documentary footage or Reggio’s dreamlike visual-image essays differ considerably from Reichardt’s well-received narrative feature Old Joy or Epstein’s award-winning political documentaries. Behind the scenes, however, these filmmakers and nearly 500 more have obtained funding and support from the nonprofit organization Renew Media (formerly known as National Video Resources), established in 1990 by the Rockefeller Foundation to administer the annual Media Arts Fellowships. In 2003 Renew Media assumed full responsibility for managing the […]
by Jason Guerrasio on Jul 10, 2007 -
FILMMAKER HOSTS BEESLEY AT THE IFC
If you’re in NYC today, come check out the first of three evenings Filmmaker is hosting with the IFC of new work and personal appearances by idiosyncratic documentary filmmakers. The first is tonight and we’ll be screening the work of talking with Bradley Beesley. Here’s more info: Filmmaker and IFC Center are pleased to announce the debut of “Dialogues on Film,” a new series of screenings and discussions with directors, moderated by Filmmaker’s Scott Macaulay; the series launches Monday, July 9 at 7:30pm with “An Evening with Bradley Beesley.” The program includes Beesley’s cult classic documentary OKIE NOODLING, along with […]
by Scott Macaulay on Jul 9, 2007 -
Cherie Nowlan, Introducing The Dwights
BRENDA BLETHYN AND KHAN CHITTENDEN IN CHERIE NOWLAN’S INTRODUCING THE DWIGHTS. COURTESY WARNER INDEPENDENT PICTURES. Australian director Cherie Nowlan grew up in the small town of Singleton, New South Wales, and segued from a brief career as a journalist to working her way up the ladder in television and film. Her first film, God’s Girls (1991), about the nuns who taught her in high school, won the Best Documentary prize at the Australian Film Institute Awards, and prompted her to go to film school to study screenwriting. After making the short Lucinda 31 (1995), Nowlan directed her first feature, romantic […]
by Nick Dawson on Jul 4, 2007 -
Asger Leth, Ghost Of Cité Soleil
2PAC AND HIS SOLDIERS IN ASGER LETH’S GHOSTS OF CITÉ SOLEIL. COURTESY THINKFILM. Asger Leth grew up with film as a way of life. His father, Danish film giant Jørgen Leth, featured him in Life in Denmark (1971) before young Asger could even walk or talk, and he also appeared in two more of his father’s documentaries, Good and Evil (1975) and Moments of Play (1986). Keen to escape his father’s shadow, Leth initially considered a career as a lawyer but ultimately could not resist the lure of filmmaking. He started directing short films in the mid-1990s, while simultaneously working […]
by Nick Dawson on Jun 27, 2007 -
Sundance Labs: “There is no end. Everything that’s happened will be carried forward.”
[ Filmmaker concludes its exclusive look inside the Sundance Directors and Screenwriters Labs (which wraps up at the end of the week) with a final entry from Filmmaker Braden King [pictured above], who’s been posting weekly stories on his experience at the Labs. His project is titled Here, co-written by himself and Dani Valent, and follows an American mapmaker charting the Armenian countryside who’s traveling with an adventurous landscape photographer revisiting her homeland. King has directed music videos and short films for Sonic Youth, Will Oldham and Yo La Tengo. He co-directed the film Dutch Harbor: Where The Sea Breaks […]
by Jason Guerrasio on Jun 25, 2007 -
CELEBRATING MELVIN
Out on DVD today is Joe Angio’s documentary, How to Eat Your Watermelon in White Company (And Enjoy It), on the life and work of Melvin Van Peebles. I saw the film at its premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival a few years back and when I watched it again on IFC not too long ago I was reminded by how well done the film is. Angio not only examines how Van Peebles’ Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song invented the Blaxploitation genre, but spotlights his renaissance life which includes working on Broadway and the New York Stock Exchange. But I think […]
by Jason Guerrasio on Jun 5, 2007 -
IRAQ VETS ON VIDEONATION
Filmmaker Astra Taylor (Zizek!), who was one of our “25 New Faces of Independent Film” last year, and producer Laura Hanna are producing clips for VideoNation, the new web documentary component of The Nation magazine. Their first has just been posted, a short piece on Iraq Veterans Against the War. The link to the new Nation video page is here and the piece itself is also embedded below. Taylor says to check back in a couple of weeks for her second piece, an animation about industrial food pollution.
by Scott Macaulay on Jun 2, 2007 -
Judd Apatow, Knocked Up
KATHERINE HEIGL AND SETH ROGEN IN JUDD APATOW’S KNOCKED UP. COURTESY UNIVERSAL. After 15 years rising up through the Hollywood ranks, comedy’s underdog is on top of the world. At the moment, studios are scrambling to work with Judd Apatow (there are no less than seven films he’s currently involved with which he has written and/or produced), but this is a stark contrast to the rejection he became used to. It is ironic that the projects now being snapped up are the same ones that were repeatedly passed on previously. Apatow began as a writer on The Ben Stiller Show […]
by Nick Dawson on Jun 1, 2007 -
Lars Von Trier, The Boss Of It All
JENS ALBINUS AND IBEN HJEJLE IN LARS VON TRIER’S THE BOSS OF IT ALL. COURTESY IFC FIRST TAKE. Lars von Trier, the enfant terrible of world cinema, is always looking for the next thing to surprise or wrongfoot audiences. He made only three features in the first decade of his career, and though The Element of Crime (1984), Epidemic (1987), and Zentropa (1991) were all critical successes that ably demonstrated von Trier’s cinematic gifts, it is since then that he has truly excelled. In this period, not only has he founded the revolutionary Dogme 95 movement, but completed the Gold […]
by Nick Dawson on May 23, 2007
