Documentary
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Jared Leto’s 30 Seconds to Mars Battles Record Companies at TIFF’s Artifact
Rock “documentaries” are self-serving films that fawn over their subjects so their record companies can move more product. The typical rock doc strings together concert highlights with studio clips and innocuous musician quotes that add up to a fun, but facile movie. The L.A. band 30 Seconds To Mars turns this formula upside-down in Artifact, which enjoyed its world premiere at TIFF on Friday. Actor/musician Jared Leto’s band wants to leave their record label, EMI, when multimillionaire British tycoon Guy Hands devours the ailing company and sues 30 Seconds To Mars for $30 million. Artifact tells their battle as they struggle to […]
by Allan Tong on Sep 17, 2012 -
Angela Davis on Free Angela Davis and All Political Prisoners
“When the doors slid open, furious flashes of light jolted me out of my reflections. That’s why they had cuffed by hands in front. As far as I could see, reporters and photographers were crowded into the lobby. Trying hard not to look surprised, I lifted my head, straightened my back and between the two agents, made the long walk through the light flashes and staccato questions toward the caravan waiting outside.” These lines from Angela Davis’s 1974 autobiography, written at the age of 28 and edited by Toni Morrison, describe the way she remembers a humiliating perp walk four […]
by Livia Bloom Ingram on Sep 15, 2012 -
Ken Burns, Sarah Burns and David McMahon’s The Central Park Five at TIFF
It was horrific. One April night in 1989, a woman was jogging through New York’s Central Park when she was beaten and savagely raped. She lost 75% of her bodily fluids, lay in a coma for days and her face was pulverized so badly that friends identified her by a ring on her finger. Police picked up five black and Latino teenagers, secured confessions and launched one of the ugliest trials in New York’s history. Newspaper pundits and Donald Trump called for the death penalty. Even the African-American community turned their backs on the teens. After all, they were savages. […]
by Allan Tong on Sep 14, 2012 -
Five Questions with Mark Lombardi: Death-Defying Acts of Art and Conspiracy Director Marieke Wegener
In the years since his death in 2000, the work of artist Mark Lombardi has seemed even more prescient and relevant than it had during his lifetime. Lombardi’s finely-etched drawings, filled with annotated lines, circles and squiggles, traced the flow of capital and political power between various government, private and underworld actors. His subjects were American foreign policy, crime, corruption and conspiracy, and his artwork consisted of not only his drawings but the investigative work required to create them. Lombardi’s drawings reference the drug wars, the BCCI scandal, Charles Keating and the savings and loan scandal, and Iran contra, but […]
by Scott Macaulay on Sep 13, 2012 -
Director Maiko Endo on Kuichisan
Easily the most out-there film I saw at last year’s CPH:DOX was one touted by the programmers as “the discovery of the festival”: Maiko Endo’s Kuichisan, receiving its New York debut tomorrow as part of the LaDiDa Festival. Previously, Endo was a vocalist in the band Battles and co-produced Jessica Oreck’s documentary Beetle Queen Conquers Tokyo. Now, Oreck has produced Endo’s debut picture, with Beetle Queen d.p. Sean Price Williams behind the camera. Stunningly shot in both black-and-white and color, Kuichisan is a tumbling collection of images, organized as much by feeling, sensation and the rhythms of its experimental soundtrack […]
by Scott Macaulay on Sep 13, 2012 -
“WEST OF MEMPHIS” WITH DEPP IN TORONTO
West of Memphis is a testament to the power of documentary–and celebrity–to effect social change. If that sounds grandiose then consider that Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky’s Paradise Lost documentaries inspired Johnny Depp (pictured at the Toronto International Film Festival press conference) to campaign for the release of three convicted child murderers. Rock stars Eddie Vedder and Henry Rollins performed benefit concerts and produced a CD to raise awareness and funds for them. Peter Jackson, known for directing fantasy blockbusters like Lord of The Rings and King Kong, financed a new investigation. In 1993, three teenage boys were sentenced to death for […]
by Allan Tong on Sep 8, 2012 -
JORGE HINOJOSA ON “ICEBERG SLIM: PORTRAIT OF A PIMP”
Premiering in Toronto this year is Iceberg Slim: Portrait of a Pimp, director Jorge Hinojosa’s portrait of the legendary black author and pimp, whose work influenced generations of rap artists as well as urban fiction — or Street Lit — writers. Making his directorial debut, Hinojosa has been Ice-T’s manager for the past 28 years and previously executive produced the features Urban Menace, The Wrecking Crew and Something from Nothing: The Art of Rap. In the below video, offered by Hinojosa to Filmmaker, he discusses the origins of the film, his interest in Slim and how he and his collaborators […]
by Scott Macaulay on Sep 7, 2012 -
How I Rediscovered My Passion for Film with Blood Brother
Once I had a dream to make a documentary in some sort of third world or developing third world country setting. I had no direction, no story and no clear vision, so unfortunately that dream died. Nearly a decade later, I had moved on to building a career in the music video and commercial world. By this time I had no desire to travel to any third world country, but my best friend Rocky Braat did. After sharing an apartment and parallel lives for about seven years, Rocky had gone off on a much different path. He had stumbled upon […]
by Steve Hoover on Aug 29, 2012 -
Frontline’s Post-Production Schedule
Episodes of Frontline have an average eight-to-twelve month gestation period from the time they are awarded to the time they go to air. “We might have some programs that go two or five years, and we have some programs that are done in a matter of weeks, but the average is eight to 12 months” explains Tim Mangini, Frontline’s Director of Broadcast. In broad strokes, this translates to four-to-five months of research, a month of shooting, followed by two-to-three months of post-production work. The typical number of shooting days is 20 to 25. Post-production is done offline; Frontline still uses […]
by Michael Murie on Aug 29, 2012 -
Tim Mangini on Documentary Production at Frontline
Part Two of our interview with Tim Mangini, the Director of Broadcast for WGBH’s Frontline: (Read part 1 here) Filmmaker: Do you feel like you’re now moving away from DSLRs at Frontline? Mangini: When Canon made the 5D they added the video capability almost as an afterthought. It was not, “Hey, let’s revolutionize filmmaking.” Well little did they know, they revolutionized filmmaking. Along the way, people started asking for things like, “It would be really great to be able to record audio that was worthwhile, or it would be really good if the files could be transferred easily, or it […]
by Michael Murie on Aug 29, 2012
