Documentary

THE HURT LOCKER TAKES HOME TOP PRIZE AT GOTHAMS

Kathryn Bigelow‘s The Hurt Locker won Best Ensemble Performance and Best Feature at IFP’s Gotham Independent Film Awards, which was held last night in downtown Manhattan at Cipriani Wall Street. Bigelow was also given one of the evening’s Tribute awards. Also receiving Tributes were Natalie Portman, Stanley Tucci and Working Title Films’ Tim Bevan and Eric Fellner. Other winners include Ry Russo-Young‘s You Wont Miss Me, which received the Best Film Not Playing at a Theater Near You Award (which is chosen by Filmmaker Magazine); Robert Siegel, director of Big Fan, won Breakthrough Director and Robert Kenner‘s Food, Inc. won […]
by Jason Guerrasio on Dec 1, 2009
“GOMORRAH”

Matteo Garrone’s masterwork Gomorrah is notable for what it is not. There is no macho camaraderie amongst thugs in social clubs as seen on The Sopranos. And there is nothing romantic about ‘the life’ of mobsters. While American audiences have been accustomed to the portrayal of gangsters having facile access to money, power and women with seeming impunity, they will be treated to a coarser, realistic depiction of the Naples crime syndicate known as the Camorra. Based on the eponymously named novel by Roberto Saviano, Garrone’s film bears more than a passing resemblance to socio-economic and cultural milieu of Luis […]
by Rupert Chiarella on Nov 23, 2009
OSCAR DOC SHORTLIST: THE COVE & FOOD, INC. IN; TYSON & CAPITALISM OUT

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences have announced the 15 films that have made the shortlist for Best Documentary. Two of the most prised docs of the year made the list: Louie Psihoyos‘s The Cove and Robert Kenner‘s Food, Inc., as well as a few lesser known titles like Anders Ostergaard‘s Burma VJ and Matt Tyrnauer‘s Valentino: The Last Emperor. But surprisingly excluded were Michael Moore‘s Capitalism: A Love Story and James Toback‘s Tyson. The 82nd Academy Awards nominations will be announced on February 2. Best Documentary Shortlist: The Beaches of AgnesAgnes Varda, director Burma VJAnders Ostergaard, director […]
by Jason Guerrasio on Nov 18, 2009
ARE YOU OBJECTIFIED?

2ND UPDATE: We have our winners. Thanks, all! UPDATE: To win a digital copy of Objectified, answer the question below and email editor.filmmakermagazine AT gmail.com. Almost three years ago I decided to check out what seemed to be an obscure little documentary about graphic design at SXSW and was surprised to find the line to get in stretching all the way down the length of the convention hall. As the editor of a magazine, the subject matter of Gary Hustwit’s Helvetica — an examination of the historical, communicative and ideological meanings of that ubiquitous typeface — interested me. I hadn’t […]
by Scott Macaulay on Nov 6, 2009
SUNDANCE BRINGS 2010 FESTIVAL TO A CITY NEAR YOU

The Sundance Institute announced today the creation of Sundance Film Festival U.S.A. where direct-from-festival films from the upcoming 2010 festival will be screened nationwide in theaters in eight cities on the Thursday of the festival (Jan. 28). This will conincide with events and premiere screenings back at the festival, including the North American premiere of the socio-political documentary The Shock Doctrine, from directors Michael Winterbottom and Mat Whitecross. The Sundance Film Festival runs January 21-31, 2010. From the release: On January 28, eight filmmakers and their films will be dispatched from Park City to cities across America, for the first […]
by Jason Guerrasio on Nov 4, 2009
Chris Smith, Collapse

Ex-LAPD Detective, investigative journalist, 9/11 truther, foreteller of the coming apocalypse — these are just some of the roles Michael C. Ruppert has inhabited in his fascinating life, one that versatile filmmaker Chris Smith (American Movie, The Yes Men) has chosen to examine in his newest film Collapse. It is a return to documentary films for Smith, who has oscillated between disparate narrative and documentary work with a rare deftness. His most recent film The Pool (2007), a naturalistic narrative which Smith photographed himself, tracks a rural teenager working in a Panjim hotel to support his family who becomes obsessed […]
by Brandon Harris on Nov 4, 2009
GONE BUT NEVER FORGOTTEN

Before the tragic sudden death of John Hughes this past summer four filmmakers from Toronto — Michael Facciolo (producer) , Kari Hollend (producer), Lenny Panzer (co-creator) and Matt Austin Sadowski (director) — spent four years making a tribute documentary about the reclusive director, nabbing interviews with some of the main actors from his films (Andrew McCarthy, Ally Sheedy, Judd Nelson to name a few), directors who have been influenced by his iconic work (Kevin Smith and Jason Reitman) and traveling to Illinois last year to find Hughes. After Hughes’s death the project suddenly became a hot commodity and got a […]
by Jason Guerrasio on Nov 3, 2009
THE WINDMILL MOVIE ON HBO TONIGHT

We here at Filmmaker have been big fans of Alexander Olch‘s experimental memoir/documentary The Windmill Movie since seeing it at the New York Film Festival in ’08. If you missed it in theaters over the summer it will premiere on HBO2 tonight @ 8pm. For those who don’t know about it, the film is about the 300 hours of autobiographical footage left behind by filmmaker/professor Richard P. Rogers after his death in 2001. Olch (who was a student of Rogers’s) was calling in to look over the footage and finish the film his mentor never could. What he delivers is […]
by Jason Guerrasio on Oct 28, 2009
THE LATEST IN OUR FIRST-PERSON DIY STORIES: STRONGMAN’s ZACHARY LEVY

You may have noticed that I’ve been posting in our Web Exclusives a number of first-person pieces by filmmakers discussing their distribution saga. We have already had producer Jake Abraham on distributing his film, Lovely by Surprise, and then writer/director Rob Perez on making the transition from studio distribution to DIY distribution with his nobody. The latest in our informal series is from Zachary Levy, director of the documentary Strongman. His piece, “Making our DIY Moment Matter,” is a refreshingly thoughtful take on what the trend towards alternative distribution should mean for our filmmaking. Check it out, and look for […]
by Scott Macaulay on Oct 27, 2009
Making Our DIY Moment Matter

Aw man, I am thinking. Last Thursday’s New York Times is up on my computer screen and I’m looking at the virtual front page, just below what would be the fold. The headline: INDEPENDENT FILMMAKERS DISTRIBUTE ON THEIR OWN. It’s turf I’ve become increasingly familiar with in the last couple of months since I started plotting a DIY course for my documentary Strongman and I dig in to the article. I don’t get too far before I realize I have a serious problem—Sacha Gervasi took out a second mortgage on his house to pay for the distribution on Anvil. I […]
by Jason Guerrasio on Oct 27, 2009

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