Over at the Shadow and Act blog Tambay Obenson has post two clips from one of the favorites from this past Sundance, Dee Rees‘ Pariah. Opening Dec. 28 through Focus Features, the film highlights the impressive talents — and relentlessness — of its writer-director (who along with being a 25 New Faces alum is nominated for Breakthrough Director at this year’s Gotham Awards) and star Adepero Oduye; as you’ll see in the clips and the trailer below. If you’re a reader of this site you already know a lot about Pariah. One of my favorite pieces on the film is […]

You may have noticed over on our VOD Calendar the last few months the emergence of Focus Features titles. Though they’ve been quiet about it, Dana Harris at indieWIRE posted yesterday that Focus has in fact started a VOD division called Focus World. The most recent title is the Sundance doc Resurrect Dead. Focus plans to release 8 to 15 straight-to-VOD titles a year. We’ll begin including the Focus World titles in our VOD calendar so be sure to keep an eye out for that.

Dee Rees’ powerful gay-themed drama has been one of our favorite film projects of the last few years. The film went through the IFP Narrative Lab, and two of its principals — writer/director Rees and d.p. Bradford Young — appeared on our “25 New Faces” list. So, we were thrilled when the film was picked up at Sundance by Focus Features and Rees was given a development deal. Focus has just released the trailer, which I’ve embedded below. And see my piece on Rees from the 2008 25 New Faces list and Jason Guerrasio’s on Young from the 2009 list.

Over at FilmInFocus, screenwriter Howard Rodman picks up on the vino intelligence of Lisa Cholodenko’s The Kids are All Right to riff on wines that would go well with specific films. Here’s his recommendation for Far from Heaven: The elegance and depth of Far From Heaven deserves an expression of fruit, tannin, poignance, melancholy, and regret. A wine that satisfies on first sip, then opens up in the glass to reveal tastes and emotions far more profound. Giacomo Conterno’s Barolo Monfortino is such a wine. A bottle of the 1982 will take you to the precipice, then gently guide you […]

Leading up to the release this weekend of Thomas Balme’s Babies, FilmInFocus (which, full disclosure, I am a co-editor of) asked four independent filmmakers to make one-minute films about their own babies. The shorts are unexpected and diverse and scope, and I decided to post two here. The first, Dada, is from Caveh Zahedi (I am a Sex Addict), who wrote about his filmmaking experience, “My wife was against it but I prevailed. This said, it was the longest minute of my life.” And second, Untitled, is from experimental filmmaker Jennifer Reeves, who wrote: While capturing the exuberance and wonder […]