Documentary

Don Hahn, Peter Schneider on Waking Sleeping Beauty

As filmmakers, we are genetically programmed to look to the future. The next script, the next movie, the next deal. After all, the films — on DVD, on hard drives, in canisters stacked in our closets — are their own memories. Except, of course, that a film only tells part of the story. They are the ends of their tales, not the beginnings, and they only tell their own stories, and not the dramas of their making. If at all, those stories that circle around a film are only sometimes relayed in magazine profiles or in books written by people […]
by Scott Macaulay on Mar 26, 2010
LOVE, HATE, LABUTE AND “HEAVY RAIN”

I took note of the videogame Heavy Rain after reading Seth Schiesel’s wildly positive review in the New York Times. Here are the first two grafs: The big storm has been raging for days. The winds around the eaves make me lonely, melancholy, and yet my guilt forces me forward in search of redemption. I have probably spent 10,000 hours playing various sorts of electronic games. But no single-player experience has made me as genuinely nervous, unsettled, surprised, emotionally riven and altogether involved as Heavy Rain, a noir murder mystery inspired by film masters like Hitchcock, Kubrick and David Lynch. […]
by Scott Macaulay on Mar 22, 2010
TRIBECA ANNOUNCES SHORT FILM SELECTIONS

The Tribeca Film Festival announced today its line-up of short films. The Festival has selected 47, including Joachim Back’s 2010 Academy Award-winning film for Best Live Action Short, The New Tenants. They will be presented in six thematic programs with 21 world premieres, a record number for the festival. Selections include shorts directed by Ken Jacobs, Max Hoffman, James Cromwell, Joshua Bell, and returning TFF directors include Jacobs, Domenica Scorsese, Rodney Evans, Mark Street, Jean-Gabriel Periot, Tal Rosner, Bill Morrison, Thomas Hefferon and Sara Zandieh. Learn more at tribecafilm.com/festival. Full list of titles are below. HARD CORE Bedford Park Boulevard, […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Mar 18, 2010
Marco Bellocchio, Vincere

An operatic look at the largely forgotten life and times of Benito Mussolini’s first wife Ida Dalser (Giovanna Mezzogiorno), veteran Italian helmer Marco Bellocchio’s Vincere is a tragedy on scales both intimate and national. Il Duce’s transformation from a anti-war journalist to socialist rebel rouser to brutal fascist dictator is glimpsed through the lens of his misbegotten first marriage to Dalser, a beautiful and politically conscious Milano hair dresser who, enraptured by his charms and ideals, sells off her business and belongings to fund his early publishing efforts. However, in the wake of their marriage and the birth of their […]
by Brandon Harris on Mar 17, 2010
THE SXSW 2010 WINNERS

The winners of the SXSW Film Festival in Austin, Texas were announced tonight. Here is a complete list of the awards: DOCUMENTARY FEATURE – Marwencol (Director: Jeff Malmberg) Runner-up: War Don Don (Director: Rebecca Richman Cohen) NARRATIVE FEATURE – Tiny Furniture (Director: Lena Dunham) Special Jury Award – Best Ensemble: Myth of the American Sleepover (Director: David Robert Mitchell) SPECIAL JURY AWARD – Best Individual Performance: Brian Hasenfus in Phillip the Fossil (Director: Garth Donovan) Feature Film Audience Awards DOCUMENTARY FEATURE – For Once in My Life (Directors: Jim Bigham & Mark Moormann) NARRATIVE FEATURE – Brotherhood (Director: Will Canon) […]
by Scott Macaulay on Mar 16, 2010
SXSW IS ALL SMILES

Hangin’ at the Austin Chronicle party at Lazona Rosa last night, everyone was in fine spirits: …tall person Zachery Levy, a panelist this year whose Strongman played the festival last year, towering over short person Ben Kasulke, DP of Humpday, The Freebie, Nights and Weekends and more… … A New York minute: Greencard Pictures’ Nick Kadner, here supporting IFC TV’S Food Party, Olivia Thirlby of Juno fame, David Call of Tiny Furniture, and Catfish director Henry Joost… …Gabriele Caroti of Bam Cinematek, who is approaching his deadline to lock the program for BAM Cinemafest, enjoying the rainy evening with Jim […]
by Alicia Van Couvering on Mar 16, 2010
MORE TRIBECA TITLES ANNOUNCED

The 2010 Tribeca Film Festival today announced its remaining out-of-competition feature film selections in the Encounters, Discovery, Cinemania and Spotlight sections. The Festival will run April 21 to May 2. The Encounters section, comprised of 14 films, include selections include new works by Academy Award-winning filmmakers Alex Gibney and Chuck Workman, Academy Award nominee Dana Adam Shapiro, and featuring actors like Ellen Barkin, Liev Schreiber, Melissa Leo, Rashida Jones, Tilda Swinton, and many more. The Discovery section include documentaries showcasing everything from the North Pole and Congressional redistricting to a comedy tour of the Middle East. Its narrative films feature […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Mar 15, 2010
SXSW BLOG: MRIDU CHANDRA, PRODUCER, “THE CANAL STREET MADAM,” PART 2

Cameron and I went to pick up Jeanette Maier (the subject of our documentary, and the former high end madam of New Orleans) from the airport in our “Madam-mobile” which is what we’re now calling the 8 passenger van that we ended up renting when we got to town. It’s all they had left, because there are so many folks in town for SXSW and of course everyone had already booked the more subtle smaller cars. While we were waiting, the airport cop grilled us about what we were doing there, because apparently last year there were unmarked vans trying […]
by Scott Macaulay on Mar 15, 2010
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

Cookie	Duration	Description
cookielawinfo-checkbox-analytics	11 months	This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Analytics".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-functional	11 months	The cookie is set by GDPR cookie consent to record the user consent for the cookies in the category "Functional".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-necessary	11 months	This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookies is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Necessary".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-others	11 months	This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Other.
cookielawinfo-checkbox-performance	11 months	This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Performance".
viewed_cookie_policy	11 months	The cookie is set by the GDPR Cookie Consent plugin and is used to store whether or not user has consented to the use of cookies. It does not store any personal data.

Cookie	Duration	Description
cfmrk_cic		Used by Cloudflare to route user traffic for this Site.
sparrow_id		Installed by Cloudflare. Used to identify individual clients behind a shared IP address and apply security settings on a per-client basis. It does not store any personal identifiable information.

Cookie	Duration	Description
OAGEO		Installed by the Revive Ad Server. Used to cache geolocation (session, deleted when closing the browser)
OAID		Installed by the Revive Ad Server to distinguish users.