Documentary
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CAMERON YATES’ “THE CANAL STREET MADAM”|
By Alicia Van Couvering
What’s it like to get out of jail and try to rebuild your life when that life was running a hugely successful brothel in the middle of New Orleans and the Lifetime movie of your experience is about to air? Cameron Yates’ new documentary, The Canal Street Madam, asks that question of Jeanette Maier and generates even more questions than answers. Was Maier a dangerous criminal, transporting women across state lines for the purposes of her own profit and their vicitimization as sex workers, or was she herself the victim of a hypocritical system that convicted and exposed her but […]
by Alicia Van Couvering on Mar 15, 2010 -
SXSW BLOG: MRIDU CHANDRA, PRODUCER, “THE CANAL STREET MADAM”
So here we are at SXSW for the world premiere of a documentary I produced, The Canal Street Madam. My badge, accordingly, identifies me as Mridu Chandra, “The Canal Street Madam.” I can’t say that we thought of that when we named the film, but it’s definitely my favorite film festival badge so far! We landed in Austin Friday afternoon with what seemed like enough time to rent our car, ditch our winter coats, and get to the Filmmaker Lunch at Troublemaker studios. We drove up to the studio to find that the weren’t letting more people in, because it […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Mar 14, 2010 -
SXSW BLOG: ANNA HIGGS, PRODUCER, “THE PEOPLE VS. GEORGE LUCAS”
Swinging in to SXSW This is my first SXSW, which feels odd for me as I’ve worked as a producer in digital media & film for more than a decade, but shoots & life got in the way of coming before. But this year I’ve got a great reason to be here – I’m one of the producers of the innovative feature documentary The People Vs. George Lucas, here with director Alexandre O. Philippe, fellow prods Kerry Roy & Vanessa Philippe and DOP Robert Muratore. I’m based in the UK, so it was a long flight over here, and I […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Mar 13, 2010 -
SXSW BLOG: “THE WEIRD WORLD OF BLOWFLY” DIRECTOR JONATHAN FURMANSKI
My Arrival. Well, I made it. I’m in Austin for SXSW 2010 to premiere my documentary film, The Weird World of Blowfly. About 2-1/2 years of shooting and editing, endless phone calls, countless emails, and probably 50,000 airline miles to get to this moment. Probably there’s still more work to do on the film — I can already tell you half a dozen places where I want to tweak the color or adjust the mix — but I made it and I’m ready to introduce the film to the world. It’s a coming out party for 93 minutes of HD […]
by Scott Macaulay on Mar 13, 2010 -
IFP JOINS SHOOTING PEOPLE AND NYWIFT IN FIRST U.S. DELEGATION TO HOT DOCS
The IFP have announced they have teamed up with fellow organizations Shooting People and New York Women in Film & Television to lead the first-ever U.S. delegation to Hot Docs. The members of these organizations will get to attend the Toronto Documentary Forum, International Co-Production Day, and be featured in the Digital Doc Shop market. In addition, the delegation will receive other perks: access to all 255 screenings, Digital Doc Shop screenings, and all Hot Docs discussions, including the Kickstart panels, Hot Docs Talks, CoffeeTalks, and Micro Meanings. There will be over 1,900 documentary professionals from around the world, over […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Mar 12, 2010 -
Marwencol’s Jeffrey Malmberg
By Alicia Van Couvering
Mark Hogencamp was an illustrator living in Kingston, NY, and one night in 2000, he walked out of a bar and was followed by a group of teenagers who beat him mercilessly and left him for dead. Hogencamp was in a coma for nine days, suffered massive brain damage, and lost most of his memory and ability to move and write. Unable to afford therapy, he came up with his own: Marwencol. A 1/6 scale World War II-era town set someplace in Belgium, Marwencol’s inhabitants are dolls painstakingly painted and clothed by Mark, most representing a person from his real […]
by Jason Guerrasio on Mar 10, 2010 -
COMPETITION TITLES ANNOUNCED FOR TRIBECA ’10
Announced earlier today, the 9th annual Tribeca Film Festival announced their Competition roster and films in their Showcase category for this year’s fest, which takes place April 21 – May 2 in New York City. Some of the highlights include Alex Gibney‘s work-in-progress screening of his doc on Eliot Spitzer and (get this) Vincent Gallo lending his voice in the animated film, Metropia. Full list of films are below. World Narrative Feature Competition “Buried Land,” directed by Geoffrey Alan Rhodes and Steven Eastwood, written by Geoffrey Alan Rhodes, Steven Eastwood, and Dzenan Medanovic. (USA, UK, Bosnia and Herzegovina) – World […]
by Jason Guerrasio on Mar 10, 2010 -
SXSW TRAILER WATCH: “THE LIVING ROOM OF THE NATION”
Receiving its U.S. premiere at SXSW is Jukka Karkkainen’s The Living Room of a Nation, a documentary about six Finnish living rooms. From the production company’s website: The documentary film The Living Room of the Nation opens a portrait-like view into six Finnish living rooms. A collage of everyday events, the film is a story of changes, loneliness, responsibilities and the unavoidable passing of time. The trailer is below. The film plays Saturday, March 20, at 6:15 PM at the Alamo Lamar 3.
by Scott Macaulay on Mar 9, 2010 -
BEFORE I WAS SO RUDELY INTERRUPTED…
One of the most puzzling moments from last night’s Oscars came during the Best Documentary acceptance speech. When it came time for The Cove director Louie Psihoyos to speak he found himself in front of a dead mic. Here’s Psihoyos’s acceptance speech, which AJ Schnack at All These Wonderful Things (always on top of the doc news) posted. We made this film to give the oceans a voice. We told the story of The Cove because we witnessed a crime. Not just a crime against nature, but a crime against humanity. We made this movie because through plundering, pollution and […]
by Jason Guerrasio on Mar 8, 2010 -
“PRECIOUS” SWEEPS THE 2010 SPIRIT AWARDS
It was a big night for Lee Daniels’ Precious at the 2010 Spirit Awards. The film picked up awards for Best First Screenplay (Geoffrey Fletcher), Supporting Actress (Mo’Nique), Actress (Gabourey Sidibe), Director (Lee Daniels) and Picture. The only other film to win more than one award was Crazy Heart, which picked up Best First Screenplay and Actor (Jeff Bridges). Hosted by Eddie Izzard and presented by Film Independent, the awards were the first Spirits held in downtown L.A. on a Friday night rather than Saturday afternoon at the Santa Monica beach. The Spirits’ gently irreverent tone remained the same — […]
by Scott Macaulay on Mar 6, 2010
