Documentary
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JEM COHEN EVENING AT THE IFC CENTER
If you’re in New York tomorrow night come and check out an evening we are co-hosting with the IFC Center that’s dedicated to one of the most vital film artists working in New York City today: Jem Cohen. Here’s what the press release says: “An Evening with Jem Cohen” features the acclaimed filmmaker of Chain, Benjamin Smoke, and Lost Book Found in person to present the New York premiere of his new documentary BUILDING A BROKEN MOUSTRAP, a portrait of the Dutch band The Ex, which Cohen describes as “Concert film. City film. Protest film.” With a stylistically unique but […]
by Scott Macaulay on Jul 23, 2007 -
CHINATOWN FILM PROJECT KICKOFF PARTY
The Museum of Chinese in Americas (MoCA), with New York’s premiere event promoters, Elements Nightlife, will be celebrating the launch of the MoCA’s Chinatown Film Project this Saturday at Jade Terrace in NYC. Hosting the event are actors Sung Kang, of the upcoming Undoing and previously of 2 Fast 2 Furious and Roger Fan, of the upcoming Finishing the Game and previously of Annapolis. Special guests include Chris Chan Lee, director of Undoing and Phil Yu of AngryAsianMan.com. Proceeds from the event will benefit MoCA/Chinatown Film Project. The Chinatown Film Project is a three-part film and interactive media program that […]
by Jason Guerrasio on Jul 18, 2007 -
Criterion: Ace In The Hole
Watching Billy Wilder’s Ace In The Hole, which has been beautifully re-mastered by Criterion in a 2-disc package ($39.95) available this week, two things come to mind: 1) How forward thinking Wilder was and 2) how the movie ever got released. Kirk Douglas plays Chuck Tatum, a despicable newspaper reporter who stumbles upon a man trapped inside an old Indian burial cavern in Albuquerque, N.M. and creates a sideshow out of it. Though Tatum has a nose for scoops, his ego and determination to escape the desert and get back to the big city causes him to destroy everything in […]
by Jason Guerrasio on Jul 15, 2007 -
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
