Slamdance Film Festival 2013
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Critic’s Notebook: Slamdance 2013, Part Two
The Dirties may very well be some kind of terribly depressing cautionary tale or it may just be that the joke is on us, but this debut film from Matt Johnson, who also stars and co-wrote, couldn’t be more topical. It’s bound to cause much discussion should it find larger audiences, and perhaps even if it doesn’t, as the spectre of school shootings hangs heavy in many hearts this winter.The most talked about film at this year’s Slamdance even before winning the festival’s Grand Jury Prize at a ceremony last night at Park City’s Treasure Mountain Inn, Johnson’s film is […]
by Brandon Harris on Jan 25, 2013 -
Slamdance Winners Announced
Last night, the winners of the Slamdance Film Festival were announced. The Grand Jury Prize on the narrative side was awarded to Matt Johnson’s The Dirties, arguably the buzz title of the festival, in which two teens set out to make a movie about the bullies who are making their lives a misery. In the doc section, the main award went to Nicole Teeny’s Bible Quiz, about a lovelorn teen hoping to win the National Bible Quiz Championship and the love of her team captain, which stood out to a jury which included Filmmaker‘s own Dan Schoenbrun. The audience awards for narrative and […]
by Nick Dawson on Jan 25, 2013 -
Five Questions for Joy de V. Writer/Director Nadia Szold
Writer/director Nadia Szold dubs her debut feature Joy de V. “a dark Bildungsroman,” compressing as it does into a few short days a maelstrom of yearning, confusion and ultimately acceptance. As the film opens, Joy (Josephine de la Baume) abruptly walks out on her young marriage to Roman (Evan Louison), who has been living on government mental disability payments. Roman’s got another problem too, when he learns these checks are being cut off. So, while searching for his wife, Roman decides to perform “a public act of lunacy” that will demonstrate to the world his craziness. Roman crisscrosses the five […]
by Scott Macaulay on Jan 20, 2013 -
Slamdance Film Festival Competition Lineup Announced
Directly following a week of Sundance announcements, the Slamdance Film Festival, which takes place in Park City between January 18 to 24, has revealed its competition lineup. The narrative competition features films from five different countries — including, interestingly, three from Germany — and the film that I will definitely try to catch from that strand is Nadia Szold’s Joy de V., which stars both Evan Louison (the lead in Filmmaker contributor Brandon Harris’ feature debut Redlegs) and the legendary Claudia Cardinale. In the doc section, Where I Am (whose logline reads, “The courageous story of Gay American writer Robert Drake and his […]
by Nick Dawson on Dec 5, 2012
