IFC
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Happy Christmas Director Joe Swanberg on the Financial Life of the Independent Filmmaker
“Transparency benefits everybody.” That’s Joe Swanberg, whose recommended Happy Christmas opens today, talking about distribution dealmaking, but he might just as well have been talking about all aspects of his career and financial life. Indeed, Swanberg is nothing but transparent in this long interview with producer, director and ArtHome founder Esther Robinson focused specifically on making a living as a writer/director — precisely the subject most directors won’t issue a comment on. The interview was conducted for Robinson’s current piece in the new print edition of Filmmaker, “Still on the Job,” in which she revisits several directors featured in an […]
by Esther B. Robinson on Jul 25, 2014 -
Meeting IFP’s Milton Tabbot
In the late spring of 2000, I found myself across a desk from one Milton Tabbot (currently IFP’s Senior Director of Programming, for the unfamiliar) in an office plastered with movie posters in the West Twenties. I was a few months away from finishing college and, unsure of what exactly to do with myself, had applied on a whim to a position at an organization called the IFP. I wasn’t sure exactly what this shadowy group did, but I knew I’d heard of it; the job was a marketing gig, and involved a big upcoming event called the Independent Feature […]
by Jeff Reichert on Sep 20, 2012 -
TRAILER WATCH: SWANBERG AND WINGARD’S “AUTOEROTIC”
In recent months, Joe Swanberg has been making movies. A lot of movies. I don’t know how many, but I think his unreleased films could outnumber other filmmakers’ back catalogs. And, I think he’s thinking of interesting new ways to get them out. Hopefully there will be more news on that front soon, but in the meantime, here, via Indiewire, is the trailer (NSFW, by the way) for Autoerotic, his latest film premiering via IFC Midnight. The ensemble cast features the talented Kate Lyn Sheil (Green), and the film is co-directed by Adam Wingard. According to IFC Midnight: Autoerotic follows […]
by Scott Macaulay on Jul 12, 2011 -
JIM MICKLE AND NICK D’AMICI, “STAKE LAND”
In so many ruined, dystopian futures, ravenous beings stalk the burned out countryside, praying on the flesh and/or blood of humans, while a small band of tough survivors, almost always including a grim professional killer, a protege and a young refugee, desperately try to escape this world overrun. This basic conceit resembles Jim Mickle’s somber, post-apocalyptic tone poem fashioned as a late night, grindhouse B movie, Stakeland, which proves altogether more satisfying than any of the recent cable and multiplex ready vampire narratives or dystopian dramas (The Road, Time of the Wolf, One Hundred Mornings or Children of Men). Despite […]
by Brandon Harris on Apr 20, 2011 -
SXSW TRAILER WATCH: JAMES GUNN’S “SUPER”
James Gunn’s Super is a demented real-life superhero action picture with a committed, out-there performance by Ellen Page and an engaging, improbably heartfelt one by Rainn Wilson. The film receives its U.S. premiere at SXSW and opens a few weeks later from IFC. Check out the trailer.
by Scott Macaulay on Mar 6, 2011 -
Uncle Kent Director Joe Swanberg
Since Joe Swanberg’s first feature film, Kissing on the Mouth, premiered at SXSW in 2005, he’s managed to make at least a feature a year, multiple web-series, and found regular launch-pads at SXSW and IFC Films. When Swanberg directs a film, he really functions as a craftsman of the entire work: while he eschews screenplays in favor of improvisation, he works as cinematographer, editor, and usually acts in the film. As the nexus of a low-budget film movement stressing honesty, stories chronicling the lives of people in their twenties, and improvisation (this movement begins with an “M,” ends with “core,” […]
by James Ponsoldt on Jan 23, 2011 -
SIMON RUMLEY, “RED WHITE & BLUE”
Lurking about the less reputable precincts of Texas’ capital, Erica (a terrific Amanda Fuller) at first seems like another aimless, sexually adventurous young woman who in the city that embraced mumblecore would find herself in a pedestrian drama of mid twenties malaise. Living for free in a dusty co-op, she trolls the seedy side of Austin, scoring a new suitor every night for a bout of casual, unprotected sex. Clad in denim cut-offs and white cowboy boots, she drifts through days and nights with an anomie that is only enhanced by the arty, elliptical rhythms of Veteran UK helmer Simon […]
by Brandon Harris on Oct 6, 2010 -
IFC TAKES “HARVEY WEINSTEIN PROJECT”
In a release today, IFC Films has announced they have acquired the worldwide rights (excluding Canada) to Barry Avrich‘s documentary, Unauthorized: The Harvey Weinstein Project. The release touts the film as a “powerful, uncensored, no-holds-barred account that traces Weinstein’s path from concert promoter on the cold streets of Buffalo to his first trip to the Cannes Film Festival, where he arrived with one pair of pants and closed his first movie deal, to winning an Oscar, and breaking the bank with his first $100 million film. It examines his complex relationships with his brother, his staff, and the Hollywood community […]
by Jason Guerrasio on Sep 16, 2010 -
BUSY DAY AT TIFF WITH “SUPER” & “DIRTY GIRL” LANDING DEALS
The first weekend of the Toronto International Film Festival comes to a close with two films finding distribution deals. Earlier today IFC landed the first major deal of the fest with a seven-figure deal for the James Gunn-directed wannabe superhero dark comedy Super, starring Rainn Wilson, Ellen Page, Kevin Bacon and Liv Tyler. And just announced moments ago, The Weinstein Company inked a U.S. deal (and some foreign territories) north of $3 million for Dirty Girl. Starring Juno Temple, Dwight Yoakam, Milla Jovovich and Willam H. Macy, the film, directed by Abe Sylvia, follows a young girl through her journey […]
by Jason Guerrasio on Sep 12, 2010 -
JOSH AND BENNY SAFDIE EXIST!!!
Jamie Stuart and I visited Josh and Benny Safdie at their Red Bucket Films studio on Tuesday to talk about their new film Daddy Longlegs, guerrilla marketing, and other things. He shot and edited, I interviewed, and this is our conversation. Click here to download through Jamie’s site.
by Scott Macaulay on May 14, 2010
