Documentary
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“TAKING ON THE KENNEDYS” AT STRANGER THAN FICTION
Ever since the great documentarian Robert Drew turned his camera on then Presidential candidate John F. Kennedy in the 1960 documentary, Primary, the campaign film has been one of the great genres of documentary filmmaking. So, it was no small compliment to director Josh Seftel when Thom Powers introduced Seftel’s 1996 film Taking on the Kennedys as “one of the great campaign documentaries” at Stranger than Fiction last night. Made when Seftel was only twenty-six years old, Taking on the Kennedys follows the Republican doctor Kevin Vigilante as he runs for Congress against Patrick Kennedy, Ted Kennedy’s youngest son. Despite […]
by Mary Anderson Casavant on Oct 27, 2010 -
“OPEN FIVE” WINS THE 13TH MEMPHIS FILM FESTIVAL
Congrats to Filmmaker 25 New Face Kentucker Audley for winning Best Narrative Feature at the Memphis Film Festival with his latest, Open Five. As I blogged last week, Audley has made the entire feature available for a limited time on his site (or, embedded below). Also winning awards were films by three other “25 New Face” filmmakers — The Colonel’s Wife (Brent Stewart), Mars (Geoff Marslett), and Blackmail Boys (under a pseudonym, Morgan Jon Fox). The complete awards are below. Jury Awards Announced for 13th annual Indie Memphis Film Festival Category: Uncategorized — admin @ 12:58 pm NARRATIVE FEATURE AWARDS […]
by Scott Macaulay on Oct 25, 2010 -
This Gun for Hire
Both a Cannes sensation and a hit television miniseries in France, Olivier Assayas’s Carlos, an incisive and exciting look at left-wing mercenary Ilich Ramírez Sánchez and the political culture that sustained him, now comes Stateside.
by Brandon Harris on Oct 25, 2010 -
Poetry in Motion
by Peter Bowen on Oct 25, 2010
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Fraud Alert
Charles Ferguson follows up his hard-hitting Iraq War documentary, No End in Sight, with another investigative look at a complicated and controversial subject: the global economic crisis. In Inside Job, Ferguson indicts the growth of the banking industry for causing the global economic crisis, asking why not a single person has gone to jail because of it. By Scott Macaulay
by Scott Macaulay on Oct 25, 2010 -
New Model Army
by Filmmaker Staff on Oct 25, 2010
Making a business out of independent film is harder than ever. But still, great films are being made. In this series of short profiles, Filmmaker asked a number of leading independent producers about their producing models and how they’re finding everything from financing to material to office space. -
Culture Hacker: Rebooting the Doc Experience
by Lance Weiler on Oct 23, 2010 -
All Eyes on Me
Lena Dunham and Caveh Zahedi are among a surprisingly small group of filmmakers who make themselves the subjects of their own films. Whether it’s a man dealing with his sexual urges (Zahedi’s I Am A Sex Addict) or a girl searching for her place in a post-collegiate world (Dunham’s Tiny Furniture), their sometimes painful honesty makes audiences both laugh and cringe. We had them sit down to talk about the joys, frustrations and creative rewards of making autobiographical films.
by Filmmaker Staff on Oct 23, 2010 -
WHERE ARE THE INDIE HORROR HAUNTED HOUSES?
I was fascinated by this article in the New York Times about haunted houses — no, not real ones, but the theatrical funhouse kind that pop up around the country in the lead-up to Halloween. As Jason Zinoman writes, this spookhouse tradition is now drawing not just the usual carnival workers and the more recent Christian scaremongers featured in George Ratliff’s documentary Hellhouse but theater companies, writers and directors. Here’s Zinoman on the experience crafted by the Vortex Theater Company: In terms of design and production, the Vortex’s “NYC Halloween Haunted House” — from the creators Joshua Randall and Kristjan […]
by Scott Macaulay on Oct 22, 2010 -
“HE/SHE/HE” EXPLORES TRANSEXUALITY ON KICKSTARTER
Director Alix Lambert and producer Jill Peters have launched a fascinating new documentary project, He/She/He and are fundraising on Kickstarter. From their project description: Over the past decade, transsexuality and gender dysphoria have become hot topics, but what few Westerners realize is that in many parts of the world, a woman living as a man or a man living as a woman isn’t boundary busting – it’s tradition. A cinematic journey through the rituals of two very different cultures, He/She/He will change the way the viewer thinks about gender. Our journey begins with the sworn virgins of Albania, a group […]
by Scott Macaulay on Oct 21, 2010
