Mike Ott
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Tribeca Critic’s Notebook: Socks on Fire, Sweet Thing, Kokoloko and Unemployable
What’s the point of a film festival if there’s no … festival? That’s the existential question we’re all asking ourselves right now, as organizations scramble to offset cancellations and postponements of physical gatherings in the wake of the global COVID-19 outbreak. In a bid to at least offer filmmakers some exposure, the Tribeca Film Festival is among those fests that made a pivot to online screenings for press and industry, representing maybe a quarter of its feature programming (supplemented by work in shorts, episodic and other categories). The funny thing is, this is how I often have experienced Tribeca – […]
by Steve Dollar on Apr 28, 2020 -
Lensing the Real Unreal: DP Adam J. Minnick on Shooting Actor Martinez
“It’s a job.” –Arthur Martinez I had two features as a cinematographer under my belt by late June of 2015, both close and comfortable collaborations with a single director: Joel Potrykus (Buzzard, The Alchemist Cookbook). It seems fitting that he made the phone call I received only a week and a half before Actor Martinez began principal photography. Joel eagerly informed me that two directors, Nathan Silver (Stinking Heaven, Uncertain Terms) and Mike Ott (Lake Los Angeles, Littlerock), had contacted him asking about my nearly immediate availability. I didn’t know them personally, but I certainly had been aware of their […]
by Adam J. Minnick on Mar 28, 2017 -
Exclusive Clip: Mike Ott’s SXSW Comedy Doc, California Dreams
Straight from Berlin, Mike Ott’s California Dreams has its North American premiere at the SXSW premiere on March 11 in the Visions Program. Courtesy of the filmmakers and the Film Sales Company, which is handling world sales, Filmmaker has this exclusive clip from the film. From the filmmakers: In this clip from Mike Ott’s comedy doc California Dreams, various subjects recite monologues at the beginning of the film – all in pursuit of their own dreams. Director Mike Ott’s film is about the dreams we all have — of being something else, or somewhere else, or someone else. Director Bio: […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Mar 9, 2017 -
Trust Fund Kids in Hollywood: Mike Ott on California Dreams
In Mike Ott’s California Dreams (which I reviewed here), five aspiring actors are shown giving auditions and later acting out scenes in a film-within-the-film. Although this nested film is supposed to be a fiction, and also looks like one thanks to the gorgeous work of cinematographer Mike Gioulakis, the script is drawn – or appears to be drawn – directly from the actors’ biographies. One of the fascinating aspects of California Dreams is that Ott never allows you to know for certain how much is real and how much is fabricated. It was therefore a pleasure to be able to […]
by Giovanni Marchini Camia on Feb 15, 2017 -
Berlin Critic’s Notebook #1: somniloquies, El mar la mar, California Dreams
Some lines from Véréna Paravel and Lucien Castaing-Taylor’s somniloquies: “I don’t wanna see your ass, Mrs. Dangerfield.” “Welcome to Midget City. Yes, we built it from the ground up. We have our own police.” “I’ve seen the past. I hate it, I hate it, I hate it! I want the future. The present is squalid!” “Kill the cunt! KILL THE CUNT!!” These are all spoken by Dion McGregor, a musician from New York described in the film’s opening titles as “the world’s most prolific sleep-talker.” Over a period of six years, McGregor’s flatmate recorded hundreds of his elaborate, vividly narrated […]
by Giovanni Marchini Camia on Feb 13, 2017 -
Polish Progress: American Indies in Wroclaw
If any one moment encapsulated the fervor for U.S. independent cinema among the young cinephiles of Wroclaw (pronounced Vrot-swof, by the way), it arrived at around 11:00 PM on my final night of attendance at the 4th edition of the city’s American Film Festival (22-27 Oct, 2013). I was strolling back to my hotel in the company of Killer Films honcho Christine Vachon and Tennessee-based producer Ashley Maynor when a lissome young Polish fellow with rosy cheeks, Kurt Cobain hair, and a T-shirt bearing the legend ‘Hipsters Don’t Wear Frames’ suddenly appeared. With a shallowness of breath that suggested he’d […]
by Ashley Clark on Nov 4, 2013 -
Critic’s Notebook: In Rotterdam, a Strong Crop of American Indies
With its famously catholic tastes and sprawling slate, the International Film Festival Rotterdam is a place to get lost. A week into its 10-day run, a fairly subdued 42nd edition of the International Film Festival Rotterdam has unfurled a smattering of buzz-worthy world premieres and its usual mix of budding talents from unusually farflung spots on the globe, high-art provocations, exhaustive considerations of an emerging national cinema or two and obscure auteur retrospectives. However, I’ve found that it’s always the surprises here that grab you, little films you’d otherwise never see except in this context, that make the trip worthwhile. I […]
by Brandon Harris on Jan 30, 2013 -
“LITTLEROCK”‘S ATSUKO OKATSUKA AND MIKE OTT
Tonight at the HSBC offices in midtown was the IFP’s Independent Film Week launch party. Attending were participating filmmakers, several of our 25 New Faces, and many folks from the New York production community. But flying in from L.A. were Mike Ott and Atsuko Okatsuka, whose Littlerock — winner of the Filmmaker-sponsored “Best Film at a Theater Playing Near You” Gotham Award — premieres today at Cinema Village. Read Ray Pride on the movie here, and then check out the film. It’s highly recommended.
by Scott Macaulay on Aug 12, 2011 -
“BLACK SWAN” WINS BIG AT SPIRIT AWARDS
The Film Independent Spirit Awards just wrapped (see it on IFC tonight @ 10ET) and Darren Aronofsky‘s thriller Black Swan was the big winner taking home four awards, including Best Feature, Best Director for Aronofsky and Best Female Lead for Natalie Portman. Winter’s Bone won the supporting acting prizes with John Hawkes taking it for actor and Dale Dickey for actress while James Franco won Best Male Lead for 127 Hours, Banksy‘s Exit through the Gift Shop won Best Documentary and Lisa Cholodenko and Stuart Blumberg won Best Screenplay for The Kids Are All Right. Also, “25 New Face” alum […]
by Jason Guerrasio on Feb 26, 2011 -
TOURIST SEASON
With his second feature, the Gotham Award-winning Littlerock, California native Mike Ott explores the dreams of a small California town through the eyes of a visiting pair of young Japanese tourists. By Ray Pride.
by Ray Pride on Jan 24, 2011
