Documentary

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
FILMMAKER FLASHBACK: SUMMER, 1993

Leading up to our 18th birthday, I’ll be revisiting on the blog one issue of Filmmaker a day. Today’s is Summer, 1993. Summer, 1993 is another issue whose content didn’t make it over to WordPress. Our cover story was Alison Maclean’s Crush. Sande Zeig interviewed Sally Potter about her Orlando, which was just reissued by Sony Pictures Classics. John Woo, John Greyson, and Ross McElwee were all in the book along with an article tracking the development status of several beloved cult novels’ film adaptations. We also ran a great how-to by Strand Releasing’s Marcus Hu on guerilla marketing your […]
by Scott Macaulay on Aug 5, 2010
FILMMAKER FLASHBACK: SPRING 1993

Leading up to our 18th birthday, I’ll be revisiting on the blog one issue of Filmmaker a day. Today’s is Spring, 1993. For whatever reason, nothing from our third issue — Spring, 1993 — made it over when we ported to WordPress. Ted Hope had a lot of material in this issue: an interview with producer-turned-NYC film commissioner Richard Brick; a profile of up-and-coming d.p.’s; and a tutorial on how to break down a script. Also in this issue was Peter Bowen with our cover story on Nick Broomfield’s doc, Aileen Wuornos, a story that in its dramatic retelling would […]
by Scott Macaulay on Aug 4, 2010
FILMMAKER FLASHBACK: WINTER, 1993

Leading up to our 18th birthday, I’ll be revisiting on the blog one issue of Filmmaker a day. Below is Winter, 1993. In our second issue of Filmmaker, attorney Robert Siegel interviewed Steven Starr, former head of the motion picture department at William Morris who left the agency to produce Tom DeCillo’s Johnny Suede (the first motion picture to star Brad Pitt) and direct his first feature, Joey Breaker. (Subsequently, Starr launched the web video site Revver and produced the documentary FLOW.) Peter Broderick interviewed Alex Cox, and I wrote the cover story on Abel Ferrara’s Bad Lieutenant, interviewing Ferrara, […]
by Scott Macaulay on Aug 3, 2010
SPARROW SONGS LAUNCHES KICKSTARTER CAMPAIGN

I was happy to see Adam Daniel Mezei on his new PMD for Hire blog respond to the work of the Sparrow Songs team of Alex Jablonski and Michael Totten from this year’s “25 New Faces” list. Like me, he found something special in the tone and execution of these monthly short documentary pieces. (Check out Mezei’s post for detailed musings on five of the episodes.) Now, Jablonski and Totten are launching a Kickstarter campaign to allow them to cover the expenses of the project and to shoot three particularly ambitious final episodes. Check out their work on their own […]
by Scott Macaulay on Aug 2, 2010
VENICE COMPETITION TITLES ANNOUNCED

The Venice Film Festival have announced their slate of competition films vying for the Golden Lion. Included in the list is the opening night film, Darren Aronofsky’s Black Swan as well as Kelly Reichart‘s Meek’s Cutoff and Sofia Coppola‘s Somewhere. Also announced are out of competition titles The Town, directed by Ben Affleck; little brother Casey Affleck’s documentary on Joaquin Phoenix, I’m Still Here; and Robert Rodriguez’s Machete. The festival runs Sept. 1-11. The full list of titles are below. “Attenberg,” Athina Rachel Tsangari, Greece “Barney’s Version,” Richard J. Lewis, Canada/Italy “Black Swan,” Darren Aronofsky, USA “Black Venus,” Abdellatif Kechiche, […]
by Jason Guerrasio on Jul 29, 2010

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