IFP Week
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‘Nobody Wanted This Story’: Paula Eiselt And Heidi Reinberg On Making 93Queen At IFP Week 2018
Here’s a typical story about a documentary (or an indie, or occasionally even an experimental film): It cruises the festival circuit, likely at Sundance. It builds up buzz. Perhaps it collects some awards. It scores a distributor. Several months — or even a year, now and then even years — later it opens in theaters, riding on hazily recalled accolades and hopefully at least polite reviews. It is or isn’t a success, and there’s a chance it spends eternity lost in the vast bowels of iTunes. Some people (and a few reviewers) assume this is the tale of 93Queen, Paula […]
by Matt Prigge on Sep 19, 2018 -
‘We Know You, But You Guys Don’t Know Us’: Female Filmmakers Talk Diversity And Inclusivity At IFP Week
Gender and inclusivity are two key buzzwords floating about the film world these days, but how are these ideas being implemented? Are they being implemented? And are these issues always binary, black and white? Talking to filmmakers who aren’t Caucasian, male and/or cis, you don’t get clear-cut answers. You don’t always get encouraging answers, though you sometimes do. One gets the impression that this is an industry struggling with ideas that may change it radically, and that some people — even well-meaning allies — are still glomming onto old traditions. These issues were confronted directly during IFP Week, particularly at the […]
by Matt Prigge on Sep 19, 2018 -
Projecting the IFP: IFP Week’s Original Technical Director David Leitner on His Celluloid Nailbiters
I was technical director of the Independent Feature Film Market from 1986 to 1993, and a member of the Independent Feature Film Market Committee from 1989 to 1993. I attended all prior IFP markets too, starting with the first one, a sidebar to the New York Film Festival. Those early IFFMs were a DIY affair, as scrappy, often broke indie filmmakers maneuvered to squeeze every advantage out of this novel new showcase, navigating its opportunities and inventing new ones. Nothing like it had existed before on the American indie scene. Two memories in particular are dear to me. The first […]
by David Leitner on Sep 14, 2018 -
Head Over to Instagram to Win Tickets to IFP’s Screen Forward Talks on Sunday
The 40th anniversary edition of IFP Week is coming up, and we have 10 free tickets to give away to the opening day of Screen Forward Talks, which include luminaries like Boots Riley and Nina Yang Bongiovi (Sorry to Bother You), Julie Dash (Daughters of the Dust), Terence Nance (Random Acts of Flyness), Cathy Yan (Dead Pigs, upcoming Birds of Prey), Lauren Wolkstein (The Strange Ones), Julie Cohen & Betsy West (RBG), Nicholas Ma (Won’t You Be My Neighbor?). (Oh, and I’ll be moderating a panel on producing that includes some luminaries as well: Josh Braun, Julie Goldman, Riva Marker, […]
by Scott Macaulay on Sep 11, 2018 -
Queen Sugar and Time for Action Forum: IFP Announces IFP Week Public Programming
IFP, Filmmaker’s parent organization, announced today the public events for the upcoming 40th anniversary edition of IFP Week, its signature event. Taking place from September 15-20, 2018, the programs will include public screenings and talks, “all centered on cutting-edge independent content for the big screen, the small screen, and now your headphones.” From the press release: Under the leadership of Head of Programming Amy Dotson and Programming Producer Bill Curran, the IFP Week public talks and events take place in and around Brooklyn, NY at BRIC, The William Vale Hotel, the Brooklyn Army Terminal, DUMBO Loft, and IFP’s headquarters, the Made in […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Aug 15, 2018 -
Waking Up After a Wild Ride: Z Behl Reflects on the Foggy Haze of IFP Week
Awakening from a foggy haze, a wet dream of sorts, filled with opportunities more immense than I could daydream, I find myself writing follow-up emails that can only signify Film Week is over. Over 160 filmmakers, curated into a database cross-referenced by production companies, sales companies and distributors, as well as every other industry intersection imaginable, the Project Forum is a four-day event where filmmakers meet interested parties (kind of like a dating service) and parlay over films in every stage of production. A word of advice: bring your producer! Without Carlos Zozaya I would have been lost! What was […]
by Z Behl on Sep 30, 2017 -
Personal Doesn’t Mean Small: IFP Week Filmmakers On Tackling Big Issues With Intimate Stories
“I think we have this profound misrepresentation around personal films being small,” said Cecilia Aldarondo, one of three filmmakers of personal docs who spoke at IFP Week 2017. The panel was called “When the Personal Gets Political and the Political Gets Personal.” In the case of all three filmmakers’ films, they’re both. “I’ve gotten so many responses from potential funders of people who think that way. They hear ‘personal’ and they hear ‘small.’ They think it won’t have an audience. With these projects, I think we’ve demonstrated that’s not the case. If we’re dealing with questions of social change and […]
by Matt Prigge on Sep 22, 2017 -
“Women Don’t Always Get to Play the Funny Parts”: Julie Klausner Talks Making Difficult People Herself at IFP Week
If there’s a common thread that runs through any truly original work, it’s this: The creators saw something that wasn’t in the world, so they created it themselves. You hear that a lot in independent films. You also hear it, increasingly, in TV now too. The lines separating cinema and television are getting blurrier. For further proof, witness Julie Klausner’s appearance at IFP Week 2017. Klausner is the creator of Difficult People, which is not a movie but a hit TV show on Hulu. But the way she approached her TV show sounds a lot the way indie filmmakers talk […]
by Matt Prigge on Sep 21, 2017 -
“Find a Small, Possibly Unsexy Job You Can Do Well”: At IFP Week, Directors and Producers on Getting Started in Indie Film
So you’ve made a film. Congrats, but you’re not out of the woodwork yet. You may never be. The four filmmakers and one producer who appeared on the IFP Week panel called “On Working (and Staying) in Indie Film Today” had vastly different stories to tell about how they turned movie-making into an actual job. The biggest name on the panel was Gillian Robespierre. Having directed and co-written the indie hits Obvious Child and this summer’s Landline, she has more stability than most in her field, having parlayed those successes into TV work on top of a future making her […]
by Matt Prigge on Sep 21, 2017 -
“Gain the Trust of the Audience”: Cenk Uygur Talks Trump, News and the Internet at IFP Week
Cenk Uygur isn’t happy Trump got elected, but he is fine with stealing parts of his playbook. Not the bad moves — just the ones that are, arguably, good. As the main host and co-creator of The Young Turks, a progressive show which began on Sirius and now lives online, Uygur is after the same slice of the populist pie as the president he so despises. Cenk Uygur isn’t a household name, but perhaps he should be. He is, literally, internet-famous. The Young Turks gets 200 million views a month, meaning he has more fans than a Wolf Blitzer or a Joe Scarborough. […]
by Matt Prigge on Sep 21, 2017
