Documentary
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ACADEMY AWARDS NOMINATIONS REVEALED
Moments ago the nominations for the 82nd Academy Awards were announced. Though most of the obvious choices did come through, there were some nice surprises on the indie side, including multiple nominations for The Messenger, including Best Supporting Actor for Woody Harrelson and The Last Station (Helen Mirren for Best Actress and Christopher Plummer for Best Supporting Actor). Colin Firth received a nomination for his moving lead performance in A Single Man, and another surprise was Maggie Gyllenhaal receiving a Best Supporting Actress nomination for Crazy Heart. And for the first time since the late 30s the Academy is recognizing […]
by Jason Guerrasio on Feb 2, 2010 -
COLLEAGUES REMEMBER EDITOR KAREN SCHMEER
I didn’t know documentary film editor Karen Schmeer, but I certainly knew her work. Her first credited feature, Errol Morris’s Fast, Cheap and Out of Control, is one of my all-time favorite documentaries and a Filmmaker magazine cover story. Brilliantly constructed, it weaves portraits of four oddball individualists and dreamers into a single meditative essay on creativity, self-worth and man’s desire for legacy. The film would be an incredible feat for even the most seasoned of editors; that she cut it early in her career is astounding to me. She also edited The Fog of War and Mr. Death (again, […]
by Scott Macaulay on Feb 2, 2010 -
WHY YOU SHOULD BUY OUR PRINT ISSUE
An apology for this brief plug, but now that Sundance is over I wanted to write this short blog post on the difference between Filmmaker in print and Filmmaker online. As most of you know from reading this site, we make about 50% of each issue available online. (We also put up a lot of stuff — this blog, the Director Interviews, our Videos, our Web Exclusives — which is not in the magazine.) Here’s a breakdown of articles in the current issue that aren’t available online: 1. The longest article we’ve ever published — almost 10,000 words — is […]
by Scott Macaulay on Feb 1, 2010 -
SUNDANCE WINNERS ANNOUNCED
Announced moments ago, the Sundance Film Festival awards were given out in Park City. The dramatic Grand Jury prize went to Debra Granik‘s Winter’s Bone (pictured), which was picked up by Roadside Attractions earlier in the day. Sebastian Junger and Tim Hetherington‘s look at a platoon stationed in Afghanistan, Restrepo, won the Grand Jury doc prize. Josh Radnor‘s relationship dramedy happythankyoumoreplease took the dramatic audience award, and Davis Guggenheim‘s Waiting For Superman, which was the first big acquisition of the fest, won the documentary audience award. And winning the first ever best of the NEXT films was Todd Barnes & […]
by Jason Guerrasio on Jan 30, 2010 -
Banksy Revealed? Parsing a Sundance Mystery
Sundance documentaries have developed a strong track record. Hits out of recent festivals include Man on Wire, The Cove and We Live in Public, each of which captures an element of society and finds the human connection within. This year, however, the human connection in some of the more talked about nonfiction entries is highly suspect. At the center it all: Banksy. Exit Through the Gift Shop, the alleged directorial debut of the anonymous street British street artist, wound up with a surprise slot in the Spectrum section of the festival. Banksy’s enigmatic career and life beyond the film world […]
by Eric Kohn on Jan 27, 2010 -
“HIS AND HERS”‘ KEN WALDROP | By Alicia Van Couvering
Ken Waldrop’s His & Hers is a documentary focusing on 70 women from the Irish Midlands, arranged chronologically from age 0 to 90, telling small stories about their lives. Irish Midlands women, being funny, sarcastic, charming and warm, are good subjects; Waldrop knew that because he grew up the son of one of very funny and sarcastic Irish Midlands mother. He constructed the film to mirror his own mother’s life; the women speak of their marriages in their twenties, their sons, and, finally, their husbands and these men’s deaths. Some of the interviews are about tiny things (who controls the […]
by Scott Macaulay on Jan 27, 2010 -
“ODDSAC” | director, Daniel Perez
[PREMIERE SCREENING: Tuesday, Jan. 26, 8:30 pm — Prospector Square Theatre, Park City] Deciding not to do a tour documentary on the band, which was what was first proposed. I have strong feelings about the distance between performer and audience, and I didn’t want to contribute anything more to this gap. I wanted to make something that I would be psyched to see and here it is. That and deciding which kid to kill in a scene were pretty difficult. In the end it was a combination of his hair and fake blood that did it.
by Jason Guerrasio on Jan 26, 2010 -
SUNDANCE SENIOR PROGRAMMER SHARI FRILOT TALKS NEW FRONTIER | By Alicia Van Couvering
Tasked with “celebrating experimentation and the convergence of art and film,” the New Frontier section at Sundance has been exhibiting feature films and installations for the last four years. Shari Frilot is the programmer, and spent the entire year reviewing work from new artists, figuring out which part of the ground being broken she wants to put in front of the Sundance audience. How to show film art in an art film context? Frilot tries to make sure that the artists all “speak the same language” as cinema. This year, the spotlight artist is Pipilotti Rist, who creates video work […]
by Scott Macaulay on Jan 25, 2010 -
“JOAN RIVERS: A PIECE OF WORK” | director, Ricki Stern & Annie Sundberg
[PREMIERE SCREENING: Monday, Jan. 25, 9:00 pm — Temple Theatre, Park City] Well let’s just say this, making a film about Joan Rivers was not easy. Phew! There’s Darfur, Afghanistan and then there’s Joan Rivers! Our producer Seth Keal reminded me of truly the hardest decision we had to make during the filming process. It came during the editing process when we were faced with whether or not to leave in the vagina fart jokes. It almost came to fisticuffs in the editing room, seriously! You think Obama had it tough when he decided to send in 30,000 additional troops […]
by Jason Guerrasio on Jan 25, 2010 -
“JEAN-MICHEL BASQUIAT: THE RADIANT CHILD” | director, Tamra Davis
[PREMIERE SCREENING: Monday, Jan. 25, 3:00 pm — Temple Theatre, Park City] All the decisions that I thought were hard choices seem so obvious when I look back. While making my documentary I wrestled with the idea of putting myself in the film. I felt awkward studying this idea. I didn’t want the film to be about my personal journey but about the story of my subject, Jean-Michel Basquiat. Now when I watch and show the film I see that the personal texture I added has become one of its strongest narrative elements.
by Jason Guerrasio on Jan 25, 2010
