Documentary
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Director Jeff Kusama-Hinte on Charlotte
We are filmmakers. We are artisans. Or so we forget. With filmmaking so often abstracted from the actual work of making a film, so enmeshed in conversations about new models and plans and strategies, we sometimes lose touch with what should be the main reason we make movies in the first place: to take pride in works of art made beautifully and with love. It is precisely the love of artisanal creation that is celebrated in Jeffrey Kusama-Hinte’s Charlotte: A Wooden Boat Story, a verite doc chronicling the making of a 50-foot gaff rigged schooner, “Charlotte,” by a team of […]
by Scott Macaulay on Feb 20, 2012 -
CALL ME BERLINALE: A KUCHU CHRONICLE
It’s opening night of the 62nd Berlinale, and we’re tottering down the gleaming red carpet, tipsy with exhaustion after a marathon three-week final push to finish our documentary Call Me Kuchu for its world premiere at the festival. The black tie affair has women dripping in mink and jewels, and men tightly bound in waistcoats and cummerbunds. Just 48 hours prior, we were dripping in sweat and bound by a serious time crunch as we raced to the airport, gripping two newly-minted HDCAMs, still toasty-warm from the tape deck. Our run at the Berlinale marks the culmination of two years documenting the work […]
by Malika Zouhali-Worrall and Katy Fairfax Wright on Feb 17, 2012 -
Director Marius Van Neikerk on My Heart of Darkness
The journey of an international documentary to the United States is an uncertain one. Make its subject a lesser-known foreign war and the post-traumatic effects thereof, and you’ve got what an American agent calls a “hard sell.” My Heart of Darkness, a brooding foray into four veterans’ pasts, has been traveling the international festival circuit since premiering at IDFA in 2010. The years between then and now, where it’s having its U.S. premiere at L.A.’s Pan African Film Festival (PAFF), has been marked by all manner of revelations and misunderstandings—appropriate for a film about the reconciliation of four former enemies […]
by Daniel James Scott on Feb 11, 2012 -
INTERVIEWING MALDIVES PRESIDENT MOHAMED NASHEED
While at the Toronto Film Festival this year I interviewed Maldives President Mohamed Nasheed and director Jon Shenk about their climate change doc, The Island President. The film is focused entirely on Nasheed’s efforts combating climate change and greenhouse emissions, showing how his stewardship of the environmentally fragile island state can be a model for others looking to enact more progressive policies. One question I had while watching the doc was how well his environmental activism played at home. The domestic policies of the Maldives are largely absent from the doc. Today, reports the BBC, Nasheed has resigned amidst widespread […]
by Scott Macaulay on Feb 7, 2012 -
An Interview with D.P. Martina Radwan
I started working with DP Martina Radwan about a year ago on the feature documentary, Mentor (addressing bullying and teen suicide in Mentor, Ohio) I further had the pleasure of working with her on a recent music video for the band Shearwater. It is a gift, as a director, to find a DP who you can quickly fall into a shorthand with, creating your own visual language, and trusting in the collaborative process. Radwan and I found this with each other. Her narrative work includes Flannel Pajamas, by Jeff Lipsky; Singapore Dreaming, one of the first Singaporean feature productions and […]
by Alix Lambert on Feb 6, 2012 -
“CHINA HEAVYWEIGHT” RINGS IN SUNDANCE’S YEAR OF THE DRAGON
The Year of the Dragon calls for boldness, passion and power. What better way for Sundance to usher in the new year than a dragon dance up and down the aisles of the Yarrow Theatre? Cavorting to drums and cymbals, the dragons were introducing the world premiere of the documentary, China Heavyweight. China Heavyweight is the second feature-length doc from Montreal’s Yung Chang, who helmed the award-winning Up The Yangtze. Chang follows coach Qi Moxiang and his two boxers, Zongli He and Yunfei Miao, in southwestern China as they train for the championships. The area they come from is poor, […]
by Allan Tong on Jan 27, 2012 -
Five Questions with The Imposter Director Bart Layton
More and more often different mediums and genres of filmmaking are being meshed together and Bart Layton’s newest documentary The Imposter is no different. The film’s official synopsis declares, “Documentary meets Film Noir in this astonishing true story which has all the twists and turns of a great thriller.” But this is not just a hoax to get people into the theatre. Based on an extremely bizarre story of a young man who infiltrates a family by posing as their missing son, the film follows an intricate plot of testimonies that aim to recreate the story’s noir-ish tone. Just as […]
by Alexandra Byer on Jan 23, 2012 -
Wim Wenders, Pina
German filmmaker Wim Wenders started taking photographs at the age of seven. Over the years he has turned his attentions to medicine, philosophy, painting, and engraving, but it is his four decades directing that has most often caught the publics’ attention. I first saw and loved his films with Wings of Desire; later I could be found carrying around a copy of his book Once religiously. His new film Pina, is a loving tribute to his 20-year friendship with, and admiration of, the dancer and choreographer Pina Bausch. It is a documentary that uses new 3D technology to exquisite effect. […]
by Alix Lambert on Dec 21, 2011 -
KICKSTARTER: JANE WEINER’S “RICKY ON LEACOCK”
“In 1972, Ricky put a Super 8 synch-sound camera in my hand and said, ‘If you want to become a filmmaker, you have to shoot,’” writes filmmaker Jane Weiner on the Kickstarter page for her project, Ricky on Leacock. “Turning my lens on him, I was suddenly transported into another universe: What began as a filmic conversation developed into a filmic adventure that traces the roots of Leacock’s cinematic quest and his role in documentary-making over the last century.” Four decades later, and less than a year after Leacock passed away, Weiner is finishing her documentary on the legendary filmmaker […]
by Scott Macaulay on Dec 11, 2011 -
CAM ARCHER LAUNCHES CRIME DOC ON KICKSTARTER
Boundary-busting filmmaker Cam Archer — one of Filmmaker‘s 25 New Faces and director of, most recently, Shit Year — is making his first doc, Criminal Thoughts. He talks about it and his career in an unguarded video for Kickstarter. In the video, Archer is up-front about the exploratory nature of his project, which appeals to me. As more and more Kickstarter campaigns seem like pre-buys for existing products/projects, Cam’s appeal to us to assist him during his creative process is striking. From the page: CRIMINAL THOUGHTS, my first feature length documentary, will be an exciting, creative departure for me. in […]
by Scott Macaulay on Dec 9, 2011
