Documentary

IGGY POP’S HOUELLEBECQIAN DOG LOVE

Via Pitchfork comes this unexpected but delightful news that Iggy Pop is making an album of New Orleans-styled jazz songs inspired by the French writer Michel Houellebecq’s quite excellent latest novel, The Possibility of an Island. Entitled Preliminaires, the album is an outgrowth of a songs Pop made for a documentary about the French author’s making of his novel into a film. Pop has made a wonderful video trailer for the album, which can be seen here. From Pitchfork: A bulletin sent out via the Stooges’ MySpace page says that Preliminaires is “NOT a rock album, more jazzy stuff.” In […]
by Scott Macaulay on Mar 2, 2009
DOC FILMMAKER WINS FIRST AMENDMENT SUIT

From the law firm Frankfurt, Kurnit, Klein and Selz comes a press release announcing the New York State Court dismissal of case brought against doc filmmaker Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi’s Youssou Ndour: I Bring What I Love. It’s great to see a filmmaker challenging such a seemingly frivolous lawsuit and winning. Excerpted from the press release: The film centers on the controversy surrounding Grammy-award winning musician Youssou Ndour’s release of his acclaimed album “Egypt.” Plaintiff, a former attorney for Mr. Ndour, appears briefly in archival footage taken at a press conference. “Vexatious right of publicity claims often hamstring documentary filmmakers,” said […]
by Scott Macaulay on Feb 25, 2009
Astra Taylor, Examined Life

CORNEL WEST IN DIRECTOR ASTRA TAYLOR’S EXAMINED LIFE. COURTESY ZEITGEIST FILMS. Still in her twenties, documentarian Astra Taylor has already brought a philosophical bent to non-fiction filmmaking and is looking to push the form in new and exciting directions. Taylor was born in Winnipeg, Manitoba, in 1979 and grew up in Athens, Georgia. She studied first at the University of Georgia and then got an MA in sociology, philosophy and cultural theory at the New School for Social Research in New York. In 2001, she co-produced and co-directed the 45-minute documentary Miracle Tree: Moringa Oleifera, about infant malnutrition in Senegal, […]
by Nick Dawson on Feb 25, 2009
BETWEEN THOUGHT AND EXPRESSION

Okay, here’s a pull quote you won’t often get from me: this film is good for your soul. I’m referring to Astra Taylor’s Examined Life, which opens tomorrow at the IFC Center in New York and which is so engaging, hopeful and against-the-grain that it becomes a must-see cinematic tonic for these confusing times. Examined Life is Taylor’s documentary about the related acts of thinking and walking. Using the history of mobile thought as her springboard (for more on this, read Rebecca Solnit’s Wanderlust), Taylor (pictured) follows eight philosophers as they stroll through their hometown environments engaging in a series […]
by Scott Macaulay on Feb 24, 2009
“THE WHOLE SHOOTIN’ MATCH”

Unavailable for at least two decades, Eagle Pennell‘s landmark film has been lost in the conversation of influential American independent films. But with its low-budget filming, engaging yet hapless characters and Pennell’s semi-doc handheld shooting of Central Texas, The Whole Shootin’ Match is a precursor to almost any indie made today. The film, shot on B&W 16mm, follows two slacker cowboys who spend their time chasing women and getting drunk while trying to cook up get-rich-quick schemes. Legend has it when Pennell screened the film at the U.S. Film Festival in 1978, where it won the Audience Award, Robert Redford […]
by Jason Guerrasio on Feb 22, 2009
THE WRESTLER WINS BIG WITH THREE SPIRIT AWARDS INCLUDING BEST FEATURE

Film Independent‘s Spirit Awards just concluded in Santa Monica with Darren Aronofsky‘s The Wrestler walking away with Best Feature, Cinematography and Best Male Lead for Mickey Rourke, who did not disappoint when accepting the award (hopefully he kept some material for tomorrow night). Milk won Best Supporting Male (James Franco) and Best First Screenplay (Dustin Lance Black), Frozen River took home the Producer Award (Heather Rae) and Female Lead (Melissa Leo), Vicky Cristina Barcelona also took home two awards (Best Supporting Female for Penélope Cruz and Best Screenplay for Woody Allen) while Tom McCarthy received Best Director for The Visitor. […]
by Jason Guerrasio on Feb 21, 2009
Morgan Dews, Must Read After My Death

MORGAN DEWS’ SECRET FAMILY HISTORY IS REVEALED IN THE DIRECTOR’S MUST READ AFTER MY DEATH. COURTESY GIGANTIC RELEASING. Good things can always be salvaged from even the worst of circumstances, and that has seldom been more true than in the case of documentarian Morgan Dews. He was born in New Haven, Connecticut, in 1968 after his mother had run away from a troubled family situation to get married. He grew up oblivious to the difficult circumstances from which his mother had escaped, and then attended Rutgers University, where he studied History, graduating in 1990. Subsequently, he decamped to Spain where […]
by Nick Dawson on Feb 20, 2009
NEW DIRECTORS/NEW FILMS ’09 SLATE ANNOUNCED

The line up for this year’s New Directors/New Films was announced moments ago. The opening film will be Cherien Dabis’s Amreeka and Lee Daniels’s Sundance Grand Jury Prize winning film Push: Based on the Novel by Sapphire is the closing film. The full list of titles are below. ND/NF will be held at NYC’s Museum of Modern Art and The Film Society of Lincoln Center March 25 – April 5. OPENING NIGHT Amreeka Cherien Dabis, USA/Canada/Kuwait, 2009; 96m Cherien Dabis’s humanist miracle of a first film chronicles the bittersweet adjustment to a multicultural way of life after Muna, a single […]
by Jason Guerrasio on Feb 12, 2009
Veit Helmer, Absurdistan

MAX MAUFF AND KRISTYNA MALÉROVÁ IN DIRECTOR VEIT HELMER’S ABSURDISTAN. COURTESY FIRST RUN FEATURES. German writer-director Veit Helmer is a true oddity, a creative mind whose films might well have been unearthed from a time capsule buried during the era of silent comedy. Born in Hanover in 1968, Helmer spent much of his childhood watching Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton and Harold Lloyd and by the age of 14 had already made his first film. He studied at Munich’s School of Television and Film, and made quirky shorts throughout his time there, such as the highly inventive Surprise! (1995). When Wim […]
by Nick Dawson on Feb 6, 2009
2ND BABELGUM FEST KICKS OFF

Babelgum, the free-to-view independent Web TV service, announced this week that the finalists of their 2nd annual Online Film Festival is now available for public screening and voting. Heading the festival jury this year is Spike Lee, who will award the top films in each category (Short Film, Animation, Documentary and Mini Masterpiece) with a cash prize of $27,000. Screening and voting are currently available at: http://www.babelgum.com/online-film-festival
by Jason Guerrasio on Feb 3, 2009

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