Documentary
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FILMMAKER PRESENTS PETE SILLEN TONIGHT AT THE IFC CENTER
If you’re in New York, come out tonight for an evening with Pete Sillen at the IFC Center. Filmmaker is hosting a screening of Pete’s short-form work, and I’m moderating the Q & A. The evening begins at 7:00, and here’s the description: Tonight at 7:00pm! We’re proud to welcome critically acclaimed director Peter Sillen Tuesday December 14 discussing his works with Filmmaker Magazine Editor-In-Chief Scott Macaulay. Sillen will present screenings of a number of his short films, including Speed Racer: Welcome to the World of Vic Chesnutt, Grand Luncheonette, Branson: Musicland U.S.A., and a short working cut of his […]
by Scott Macaulay on Dec 14, 2010 -
WHAT’S IN MY INSTAPAPER: SUNDAY MORNING LINKS
I haven’t done one of these in a while, so a few of these links are less than current. In any case, here are some links of interest from my Instapaper archives. First, Instapaper itself, and its founder Marco Arment, got some love from today’s New York Times. In The Paris Review, filmmaker Michael Almereyda collects largely unseen and uncollected photographs by William Eggleston. He writes: William Eggleston’s color photographs are among the most widely viewed, and widely admired, in the medium. But I wanted to survey Eggleston’s unseen, unpublished work—his B-sides, bootlegs, unreleased tracks—and to that end I made […]
by Scott Macaulay on Dec 12, 2010 -
The Perfect Swan
(Editor’s Note: This essay contains spoilers.) In literature or in oratory, where rhetoric arose from, it’s somewhat difficult to separate the argument’s mode of persuasion from its substance. In order to make an entirely skilled rhetorical point, the writer or speaker will have to present a series of assumptions and assertions, facts and hypotheses, in such a way that makes the argument’s substance apparent. That’s why literature lends itself to the intellectual: it’s founded upon a progression of ideas. Cinema is often referred to as a different kind of linguistic medium (the “language of film”), but a linguistic one nevertheless, […]
by Zachary Wigon on Dec 10, 2010 -
SUBMISSIONS OPEN FOR “THE ECONOMIST FILM PROJECT”
The Economist magazine and PBS NewsHour have teamed to create The Economist Film Project, an initiative that will “showcase independent documentary films from around the world,” according to its website. Segments from selected films will air regularly on PBS NewsHour in a national primetime feature through 2011-2012. Thompson on Hollywood spoke to The Economit‘s deputy editor, Gideon Lichfield, who says the project “will bring viewers new perspectives and insights in the form of films they might not otherwise see on the kinds of issues that The Economist itself covers.” The Economist Film Project is currently seeking submissions of completed documentary films […]
by Jason Guerrasio on Dec 6, 2010 -
SUNDANCE ’11 SHORT FILMS ANNOUNCED
The Sundance Institute has announced the short films that will be screening at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival. The full list of titles are below. See the complete list of competition titles here and out-of-competition titles here. The festival will take place Jan. 20-30, 2011 in Park City, Salt Lake City, Ogden and Sundance, Utah. U.S. NARRATIVE SHORTS After You Left (Director: Jef Taylor; Screenwriters: Jef Taylor and Michael Tisdale) – A man in his mid-thirties searches for meaning in the aftermath of a relationship. Andy and Zach (Director and Screenwriter: Nick Paley) – When Zach decides to move out, […]
by Jason Guerrasio on Dec 6, 2010 -
SUNDANCE ’11 OUT-OF-COMPETITION SLATE REVEALED
The Sundance Institute has released the films screening in the out-of-competition sections of the Sundance Film Festival and have announced that the closing night film will be Dito Montiel‘s The Son of No One (pictured right). The film, set in a post-9/11 New York, follows two men as their lives unravel due to incidents from their past. It stars Channing Tatum, Al Pacino, Katie Holmes, Tracy Morgan, Ray Liotta and Juliette Binoche. Other highlights from the list include George Ratliff‘s Salvation Boulevard, Morgan Spurlock‘s The Greatest Movie Ever Sold, Joshua Leonard‘s The Lie (which will play in the fest’s NEXT […]
by Jason Guerrasio on Dec 2, 2010 -
Sundance 2011 Competition Lineup Announced
The Sundance Institute announced today the competition films for its 2011 edition of the Sundance Film Festival. At first glance, it looks like an exciting list with quite a few filmmakers we follow here at the magazine premiering their work, including Rashaad Ernesto Green’s Gun Hill Road, Sean Durkin’s Martha Marcy May Marlene, Andrew Okpeaha MacLean’s On the Ice, Dee Rees’ Pariah, Azazel Jacobs’ Terri and Marshall Curry’s If a Tree Falls: A Story of the Earth Liberation Front to name just a few. In the release sent out today, festival director John Cooper commented, ““The Festival is a challenge […]
by Jason Guerrasio on Dec 1, 2010 -
UNDERGROUND MODES OF DISTRIBUTION #1
1. make a extreme documentary that almost drives you insane 2. go to airport 3. accidentally film naked woman in wheelchair with cat 4. convince security that its not performance art, keep camera 5. put on youtube 6. wait til CNN calls you (less than 24 hrs later) to air the video 7. promote upcoming DVD release John Maringouin (Running Stumbled, Big River Man) captured this scene in Oklahoma City yesterday. TSA eventually covered her up and then questioned John as they thought he staged the whole thing. There’s something funny about John – he got arrested while filming Steve-O […]
by Mike Plante on Dec 1, 2010 -
Duane Baughman, Bhutto
Benazir Bhutto, the two time Pakistani prime minister who in 2007 was assassinated just days after she returned from military imposed exile in Dubai to once again attempt to take control of the country, was the countries’ most significant civilian political figure of her generation. Using the tragic life and times of the Muslim world’s most dynamic and successful female politician as a lens through which to capture the larger political machinations and social upheaval that has led to the sixty-seven year old Pakistani state constantly being handed back and forth between an imperiled civilian government and a conservative military establishment, […]
by Brandon Harris on Dec 1, 2010 -
“SURVIVING HITLER” AT STRANGER THAN FICTION
Documentary fans have survived many things — Academy shortlists that ignore the year’s best films, the end of the Stranger Than Fiction fall season — but few can claim to have survived as much as the subjects of either Letters Home or Surviving Hitler: A Love Story, the final films of programmer Thom Power’s IFC series. A nine-minute montage created around letters and archival materials, Letters Home tells the story of director Melissa Hacker’s great aunt Freda, a woman who traveled through Germany and Austria in 1945 as a member of the American Army Women’s Army Corps. Hacker, a longtime Stranger […]
by Mary Anderson Casavant on Dec 1, 2010
