Documentary

WHAT I’M LOOKING FORWARD TO IN TORONTO

Toronto, the IFP Filmmaker Conference hot on its heels, the New York Film Festival, and, for us, the close of our Fall issue — the season has begun. We’ve already begun work on the magazine, and I’m getting ready to go Toronto, where I’ll join Howard Feinstein and Livia Bloom contributing to the magazine and blog. Of course, the best part of any festival experience is the serendipitous discovery, the word-of-mouth gem you were tipped to or the film you randomly walked into that turned out to be great. I hope to be telling you about some of those over […]
by Scott Macaulay on Sep 9, 2010
FRANÇOIS OZON, “HIDEAWAY”

Ten years ago, François Ozon’s dark, Hitchcock-tinged melodrama See the Sea caught the attention of American film critics. The New York Times’ Janet Maslin marked him as “an impressive new filmmaker with a flair for implicit mayhem.” In the 12 features since then, Ozon has expressed his mayhem in various genres (musicals, fairy tales, magical realism, period romances, etc.), with different cinematic influences (Chabrol, Fassbinder, Renoir, Pasolini, etc.) and in a range of production scales. But central to all his films is a deep sense of the essentially conflicted nature of emotional relations, be it the comic sadomasochism of Water […]
by Peter Bowen on Sep 8, 2010
WHAT’S IN MY INSTAPAPER: SUNDAY MORNING LINKS

Here are a few articles, links and videos that caught my eye this week: The shape of documentaries to come may be revealed by Prison Valley, which won the second FRANCE24-Radio France International Web Documentary Award last week. From France 24’s article about the new media doc by David Dufresne and Philippe Brault: Created by David Dufresne and Philippe Brault, the striking multimedia production takes viewers to the heart of Canon City, “a distant place that is home to 36,000 souls and 13 prisons.” Produced by the French company Upian and distributed by Arte.tv, Prison Valley, is an interactive journey […]
by Scott Macaulay on Sep 5, 2010
SUNDANCE DOC CREATIVE PRODUCING LAB DIARY #2: RACHEL LIBERT

Here is part two of Rachel Libert’s diaries from the Sundance Labs. Read part one here. The busloads of people arriving at the Sundance Resort for the Creative Producing Summit signaled the end of the Creative Producing Lab. Twenty narrative producers, twenty documentary producers and dozens of high-level industry representatives are sequestered in the privacy of the Wasatch Mountains. We’re participating in an information marathon. We are a think tank in which our collective brainpower evaluates the industry and its future. For the Documentary Creative Producing Lab fellows there’s a palpable shift from our tight knit group discussions about the […]
by Scott Macaulay on Aug 28, 2010
SUNDANCE DOC FILM CREATIVE PRODUCING LAB DIARY: RACHEL LIBERT

Here is the first of two diaries from Rachel Libert, a producer and director who brought her project Semper Fi: Always Faithful to the Sundance Doc Film Creative Producing Lab. I’m on my way home from the Sundance Documentary Film Creative Producing Lab and Summit and struggling to describe the experience. Nearly four years ago I was researching a documentary film about a public health organization and, while the idea was intriguing, it was becoming increasingly obvious that it was an impossible film to make. Before I graciously made my exit from the project I went to lunch with the […]
by Scott Macaulay on Aug 27, 2010
Sundance Creative Producers Lab Diary: Amy Lo, Part Two

Producer Amy Lo with Producing Advisor Ron Yerxa Here’s part two of Amy Lo’s Sundance Creative Producer’s Lab Diary. Part One can be read here. Back in New York, a director I’d just met the other day told me, “You’re really nice for a producer.” Have we sunk so low? He was surprised that I was…nice? In fact, at the Sundance Creative Producing Summit, there was nothing but niceness all around. It began on Friday; specifically, after lunch. Pre-lunch, we were still ensconced in our intimate, small-group sessions for the Feature Film Creative Producing Lab, which had started five days […]
by Scott Macaulay on Aug 26, 2010
SUNDANCE CREATIVE PRODUCERS LAB DIARY: AMY LO

Here is the first of two filmmaker reports filed from the just-finished Sundance Producer’s Lab. Reporting back here is Amy Lo. The Sundance Lab was my rehab. In the most transformative, astonishing way. Here we are, Day One, four fellow Fellows and me gathered up from parts east, west and south, hurtling up the hill, forward-pressing and fueled by anxious hope. We come to a sudden stop, a moment to inhale and exhale. High-elevation, low-oxygen. Rising disorientation. The Sundance Creative Producing Lab spans five days of project-focused tough love, naked honesty, catharsis and renewal. All framed by breath-taking mountainous isolation. […]
by Scott Macaulay on Aug 25, 2010
IFP’s FILMMAKER CONFERENCE TO INCLUDE NEVINS, SLOSS & ROSENTHAL

The IFP announced today their line up for this year’s Filmmaker Conference, which will take place during their Independent Film Week Sept. 19 – 23. Sheila Nevins, President of HBO Documentary Films, John Sloss, founder of Cinetic Media, and cross-media and digital film expert Liz Rosenthal of Power to the Pixel will headline their “Conversations With…” series. There will also be daily case studies featuring the Duplass Brothers’ Cyrus, Lena Dunham’s SXSW winner Tiny Furniture and Sundance 2010 Grand Jury Prize winners Debra Granik’s Winter’s Bone and Restrepo by Tim Hetherington and Sebastian Junger. And for the first time the […]
by Jason Guerrasio on Aug 19, 2010
FILMMAKER FLASHBACK: SPRING, 1996

Spring, 1996. It’s so strange now to look back at a piece in this issue by David Leitner on the new digital camera technology and read this bit of breaking news: 1996 will witness the inauguration of prerecorded films on CD-sized Digital Versatile Disks or “DVDs” (you and I will call them Digital Video Disks). DVDs not only doom VHS but also CD-ROMs as we know them for the mere reason that single-sided DVDs store 8.5 gigabytes compared to the puny 680 megabytes of CDs while manufacturing costs are the same. Also in this issue was filmmaker John Landis (yes, […]
by Scott Macaulay on Aug 17, 2010
150 FILMS SLATED FOR IFP’s PROJECT FORUM

Project Forum, part of IFP‘s Independent Film Week which will take place Sept. 19-23, is the centerpiece of IFW, designed specifically as a place for industry to meet with new talent, as well as discover fresh projects from emerging and veteran filmmakers. 150 projects have been selected for this year’s Project Forum, and will be spread out over its four section — Emerging Narrative, Independent Filmmaker Labs, No Borders International Co-Production Market and Spotlight on Documentaries. Some of the established names showing new work this year include producers like Howard Gertler & John Cameron Mitchell (Shortbus), Lynette Howell (Half Nelson), […]
by Jason Guerrasio on Aug 15, 2010

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