Sundance Film Festival 2012
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Five Questions with Arbitrage Director Nicholas Jarecki
This Friday, Roadside Attractions releases Nicholas Jarecki’s debut feature, Arbitrage. The following interview was originally published on the eve of the film’s Sundance Film Festival premiere. Currently best known for his documentary The Outsider, Nicholas Jarecki is poised for reevaluation with Arbitrage, his narrative directorial debut. Jarecki spent a long time ruminating over what kind of story he wanted to tell, ultimately deciding on a thriller set within a world he knew quite a bit about. Set amidst today’s tumultuous economic terrain, Arbitrage considers the ethics of a hedge-fund mogul. The film has already garnered attention thanks to its A-list ensemble, […]
by Alexandra Byer on Sep 11, 2012 -
2 Days in New York — A Hammer to Nail Review
(2 Days in New York world premiered at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival and was picked up for distribution by Magnolia Pictures. It is available through various VOD outlets—Amazon, iTunes, etc.—on July 6, 2012, and opens theatrically on August 10, 2012. Visit the film’s official website to learn more.) I’ve been known to knock the French, toodling around on bicycles with their phallic baguettes, vin rouge, and perennial boredom with all things Americain. But is there any way to withstand the Julie Delpy charm offensive? She had me at bonjour in this witty comedy, a sequel to her earlier film 2 Days in Paris. Delpy (who wrote and directed the film) […]
by Susanna Locascio on Aug 9, 2012 -
Five Questions with Searching For Sugar Man Director Malik Bendjelloul
When Swedish director Malik Bendjelloul first came across the story of ’70s singer/songwriter/cult-hero Rodriguez, it must have seemed too good to be true, especially for a music-focused documentarian. Sixto Rodriguez, the Detroit-based troubadour who blended street-savvy folk, rock, and socially conscious soul on two under-the-radar early-‘70s albums, was completely unknown in America (and almost everywhere else) for decades. But in a twist worthy of an O. Henry story, Rodriguez (who has always worked solely under his surname), somehow ended up an iconic figure in South Africa, where his reputation assumed Bob Dylan-esque dimensions. The catch: most South Africans have long […]
by Jim Allen on Jul 25, 2012 -
GHOSTHUNTING AT SUNDANCE
Take that, SyFy Channel! Producer, distributor, Cinemad founder, Sundance programmer and occasional Filmmaker contributor has passed along the second of his “Mike Plante’s Home Movie Show.” In the show notes, he writes: “Sundance 2012 filmmakers Brent Green, Don Hertzfeldt, Nicholas McCarthy and David Zellner go searching for ghosts in Park City. We find some ghosts but learn more about people who want to see ghosts.” If you are paranormally-inclined, check it out.
by Scott Macaulay on Mar 30, 2012 -
JAMIE STUART DISASSOCIATES SUNDANCE
For Jamie Stuart, Sundance 2012 was a schizophrenic affair. Find out why in this video he made while covering the festival for Cinelan’s Focus Forward initiative. Appearances by Filmmaker‘s founding publisher, Karol Martesko-Fenster, Filmmaker correspondent, d.p. and director David Leitner, Morgan Spurlock, Jessica Yu, Frank Langella and more. Sequelized from Focus Forward Films on Vimeo.
by Scott Macaulay on Mar 20, 2012 -
STANDING KNEE-DEEP IN WATER — THE AFTER-SUNDANCE BLOG
I empty my pockets of biz cards, coffee receipts and contacts written on scraps of napkins and sing-think to myself, ala Rosemary Clooney – “Is that all there is?…” “Let us know when you want to have dinner” a filmmaker Sundance vet texts. “The post Sundance blues are real. Believe it.” These thoughts must be truthfully reported in this blog even though reading about luxury problems like this would typically make me want to punch the writer. I was secretly expecting that once you got into Sundance you simply had to hand out butcher tickets to distributors and dig out […]
by Erin Greenwell on Feb 6, 2012 -
VIDEO: “ARBITRAGE” DIRECTOR NICHOLAS JARECKI
Stephen and Patrick from the National Film Society are back with one last Sundance interview. And they’re going in style, sitting down with Nicholas Jarecki, director of the hedge-fund thriller Arbitrage, for what Jarecki refers to as “without a doubt the weirdest interview I’ve ever done.” One of the big hits of this year’s festival, Arbitrage sold to Lionsgate and Roadside Attractions for a deal reportedly in the $2.5 million range. Video Highlight: Jarecki hilariously describing some unexpected sexual tension during his first meeting with actor Richard Gere. Watch that, and more, below:
by Jane Schoenbrun on Jan 31, 2012 -
VIDEO: TERENCE NANCE AND NAMIK MINTER OF “AN OVERSIMPLIFICATION OF HER BEAUTY”
Sundance 2012 is in the wind, but Stephen and Patrick from the National Film Society are back with another interview they filmed during the festival. This time out, the duo sit down with director Terence Nance (An Oversimplification of Her Beauty) and actress Namik Minter. Minter and Nance, who spent over half a decade readying Oversimplification, are good sports, answering Stephen and Patrick’s questions about their favorite part of being in love, their least favorite part of being in love, and how to get into Sundance parties. Watch the interview:
by Jane Schoenbrun on Jan 30, 2012 -
“BEASTS OF THE SOUTHERN WILD” TOPS SUNDANCE AWARD WINNERS
With Sundance wrapping up tomorrow, this year’s award winners were announced at a ceremony tonight in Park City. Perhaps unsurprising considering the amount of critical acclaim it’s been garnering this past week, Benh Zeitlin’s Beasts of the Southern Wild took home the Dramatic Grand Jury Prize. Meanwhile, Eugene Jarecki’s War on Drugs critique The House I Live In won this year’s Documentary Grand Jury Prize, and Mark O’Brien’s crowd-pleasing drama The Surrogate took home the Dramatic Audience Award. The full list of winners: Grand Jury Prize, Dramatic: Beasts of the Southern Wild Grand Jury Prize, Documentary: The House I Live […]
by Jane Schoenbrun on Jan 29, 2012 -
PAUL SIMON, JAMES MURPHY AND THE RESPONSIBILITY OF THE MODERN ARTIST
Does the culture make the artist, or does the artist make the culture? Two Sundance documentaries — Shut Up And Play the Hits, which follows James Murphy through the last concert of his band LCD Soundsystem in 2010, and Under African Skies, Joe Berlinger’s history of Paul Simon’s seminal Graceland – might seem to be unlikely bedfellows. Both films are brilliantly executed portraits of musicians walking the tightrope of cultural relevance and personal expression. The differences between the two stories illustrate fundamental changes in our popular culture over the last 30 years. Both films seek to explore “a moment in […]
by Alicia Van Couvering on Jan 27, 2012
