Summer 2020
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Civic Youth: Amanda McBaine and Jesse Moss on Boys State
One week each summer, a thousand-plus bright and accomplished U.S. teenage boys gather at their respective state capitals. Randomly divided into two parties (the Nationalists and the Federalists), they establish party platforms and select party leaders. At the end of the week, they go head-to-head in a mock election. The program they’re participating in, Boys State, was created in 1935 by the American Legion as a way of counteracting a burgeoning socialist movement (the American Legion Auxiliary launched Girls State in 1937). In the years since its inception, this nationwide initiative has introduced the concept of U.S. democracy to countless […]
by Chris Boeckmann on Jul 7, 2020 -
Editor’s Letter
Welcome to the summer 2020 issue of Filmmaker. We began working on this issue shortly after shipping our spring edition, with Eliza Hittman’s Never Rarely Sometimes Always on the cover. I finished my editorial work on it from Berlin, where I attended the festival, stayed for a few days to see friends and the city, then returned home. Shortly thereafter, stay-at-home orders were issued. About that spring issue: Many copies didn’t even make it to bookstores and newsstands, which shuttered just as it was due to arrive. We decided to share a PDF of the issue, so that’s how many […]
by Scott Macaulay on Jul 7, 2020 -
The Beautiful Stubborn Loneliness of the Filmmaker-Shooter
Folks who go to artist residencies fall into one of three categories. There are the artists for whom the time and space is more an experiential tool (we’re looking at you, social practitioners), those who strike a healthy balance between socializing and accomplishing an elevated amount of creative work, and those who disappear into an antisocial work bunker, popping up only for communal feedings, knowing upon exiting into the real world they’ll be back in the trenches of freelance gigs, copyediting, teaching work and the reply-all emails that accompany them. I fall into the latter category. Not long ago, I […]
by Mitch McCabe on Jul 7, 2020 -
Shadowplay: The Artistic Benefits and Technical Challenges of Ozark‘s HDR Workflow
Ozark is a “dark” show in every meaning of the word. The story of a criminal Missouri clan laundering Mexican cartel money through their riverboat casino is literally, metaphorically and photographically bleak. “Ozark is about what happens in the shadows of our society, in the underbelly, and the fear and anxiety that permeates that environment,” said cinematographer Armando Salas, ASC. “Everyone can relate to that feeling on some level—the feeling in the pit of your stomach that comes with knowing you’re doing something wrong. We try to embed that feeling in the look of the show.” Sunlight rarely reaches the […]
by Matt Mulcahey on Jul 7, 2020 -
The Next Day: Writer/Director Amy Seimetz and Actress Kate Sheil on the Eerie, Darkly Comic Anxiety Dream of She Dies Tomorrow
“It’s so great that you own a house,” biologist Jane (Jane Adams) says to sister Amy (Kate Lyn Sheil) by phone early in Amy Seimetz’s trippy drama of psychological contagion, She Dies Tomorrow. “This is the best thing you could have done.” Amy has only just moved in, boxes are everywhere, but a new L.A. mortgage hasn’t quelled whatever demons have pushed her to a tremulous and despairing state—Jane can hear it in her voice. “I’ll come over,” Jane says. “Don’t do anything you might regret. Go for a walk. Or why don’t you try watching a movie?” “A movie’s […]
by Scott Macaulay on Jul 7, 2020 -
Lights Bouncing Off the Ceiling
COVID has made it so that new films, for the time being, can only be released via streaming platforms, not in movie theaters. We all know this is not optimal, but it’s the way it has to be for now. For most film critics, seeing films before they open is the main part of the job. These days, trying to see new movies before they come out has gotten weird. Not only do I not want to write about films I can only see on my laptop, I don’t want to watch movies on my laptop at all. A TV […]
by A.S. Hamrah on Jul 7, 2020 -
Quantum Entanglement: Creator Alex Garland on the Battle Between Determinism and Free Will in His Hulu Series, Devs
“I throw a spear into the darkness. That is intuition. Then I must send an army into the darkness to find the spear. That is intellect.” These words were spoken by 62-year-old Ingmar Bergman to drama students at Southern Methodist University in 1981, but they’ve been true for artists throughout the ages. And it’s this timeless creative method—throw and retrieve—that writer/director Alex Garland deployed for his FX Hulu science fiction series, Devs. Garland—who began his career as a novelist with the bestselling The Beach and more recently has made his mark as a director with Ex Machina and Annihilation—doesn’t underestimate […]
by A.E. Hunt on Jul 7, 2020 -
Survival in Crisis
The challenges faced by a global film industry attempting to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic are often described, like so many things in this new reality, as “unprecedented.” Filmmakers must find approaches to working under conditions that can feel insurmountable—restricted movement, the digitization of film festivals and filmmaking communities and stunted distribution channels, among others. Strategies for staying productive, connected and solvent in a time of isolation and uncertainty are newly forming. But for a Chinese independent filmmaker like Zeng Jinyan, who works outside state systems of censorship and distribution, filmmaking under adverse circumstances is nothing new. The producer of […]
by Maya E. Rudolph on Jul 7, 2020 -
Risk Aware Filmmaking: Devising New Documentary Security Protocols for David France’s Welcome to Chechnya
Despite its ironically inviting title, Welcome to Chechnya, a new documentary by director David France, depicts a harrowing tale of escape. The film, which is being released by HBO on June 30, follows a group of Russian activists working to rescue LGBTQ people from a vicious anti-gay government campaign in Chechnya. Beginning in 2017, Chechen authorities detained, tortured and, in some cases, forcibly disappeared more than 100 (likely many more) members of the gay community, according to reports by journalists and human rights groups. Paced like a spy thriller, the documentary captures the Chechens’ perilous journey, aided by the Russian […]
by Sara Rafsky on Jul 7, 2020 -
How a War Never Ends: Spike Lee Fights the Old New Fight in Da 5 Bloods
In the opening montage of the new Spike Lee Joint, Da 5 Bloods, Neil Armstrong—sporting his white A7-L spacesuit, Old Glory patch on the left shoulder—descends from Apollo 11’s lunar module, cast into relief by the black shadow of the spacecraft on the moon. From there, Lee cuts to a black-and-white photo of Reverend Ralph Abernathy protesting the Apollo 11 launch on the steps of a lunar module mockup with a sign that reads: “$12 a day to feed an astronaut. We could feed a starving child for $8.” Not shown in the film: the 500 or so predominantly Black […]
by A.E. Hunt on Jun 11, 2020
