Sundance Film Festival
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“AMERICAN SPLENDOR” AT STRANGER THAN FICTION
At last night’s Stranger Than Fiction, a weekly documentary series at the IFC, host Thom Powers paid tribute to underground comic icon Harvey Pekar, who died in July of this year, by screening American Splendor, the dramatization of Pekar’s celebrated autobiographical comic series about his life as a file clerk. A comics fanatic who became friends with the writer while working in the underground comic scene, Powers described discovering Pekar’s work as “a truly transformative experience.” Powers almost did not attend a screening of the film at Sundance in 2003, terrified it would do something horrible to something “so precious.” […]
by Mary Anderson Casavant on Oct 6, 2010 -
Sundance Creative Producers Lab Diary: Amy Lo, Part Two
Producer Amy Lo with Producing Advisor Ron Yerxa Here’s part two of Amy Lo’s Sundance Creative Producer’s Lab Diary. Part One can be read here. Back in New York, a director I’d just met the other day told me, “You’re really nice for a producer.” Have we sunk so low? He was surprised that I was…nice? In fact, at the Sundance Creative Producing Summit, there was nothing but niceness all around. It began on Friday; specifically, after lunch. Pre-lunch, we were still ensconced in our intimate, small-group sessions for the Feature Film Creative Producing Lab, which had started five days […]
by Scott Macaulay on Aug 26, 2010 -
FILMMAKER FLASHBACK: WINTER, 1995
Winter, 1995, was a great issue. Our cover story was Rick Linklater’s Before Sunrise. Andrew Hindes interviewed Linklater, Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy, while Jean-Christopher Castelli detailed the film’s use of Austrian tax funds for its financing. Paula Bernstein interviewed James Gray about Little Odessa, and then there was one of the best pieces we’ve ever run: development executive (and, later, Oscar-winning short film director) Barbara Schock’s “The Write Stuff: Intelligent Screenplay Development.” Technology and methods of financing may change, but these notes on working with writers don’t date. From the piece: One of the biggest impediments I’ve encountered in […]
by Scott Macaulay on Aug 11, 2010 -
The New Year Writer/Director Brett Haley
A young woman works at the shoe counter at a Pensacola, Florida bowling alley. Having abandoned the ambitions of her youth, she takes care of her ailing father, who painfully struggles with cancer. With the return of a rival from high school into her long-standing social circle, the stillness that has taken over her existence breaks, leaving her to consider the possibility of a new direction, one which seems tantalizingly close and yet ever elusive. This is subject matter than might seem too comfortably within American independent cinema’s wheelhouse, but in thoughtful hands, even the most seemingly pedestrian yarns can […]
by Brandon Harris on Jul 28, 2010 -
TODAY IS CALL TIME FOR “LIFE IN A DAY”
In New York City at least, it is unbearably horrible outside. Whatever you do you will be suffering. So why not shoot some footage for Sundance’s “Life in a Day” project? Today, July 24, is the day during which you must shoot, and you have a few days after to send it in. You will definitely be in good company. Joe Berlinger, Marianna Palka, Peter Sollett, Caleb Deschanel, So Yong Kim, and Brad and Todd Barnes have all agreed to participate. Here’s Sundance’s John Cooper with more details. And before shooting, go here for more guidelines, the questions you must […]
by Scott Macaulay on Jul 24, 2010 -
THE DUPLASS BROTHERS TALK STUDIOS AND SNUGGLING
Alica Van Couvering’s interview with Mark and Jay Duplass in the current issue of Filmmaker was conducted at the Sundance Film Festival, where their latest film, Cyrus, premiered. Starring John C. Reilly, Marisa Tomei and Jonah Hill, the film is a comedy/drama about mid-life romance and the borderline aggro-child that stands in its way. Alicia’s interview was filmed by Zak Forsman, Kevin Shah and the Sabi Pictures team, and here’s an edit of their conversation. See more videos on our YouTube channel. The film opens Friday, June 18.
by Scott Macaulay on Jul 7, 2010 -
FOREVER CONTRABAND: WENDELL B. HARRIS JR.’S “CHAMELEON STREET”
Perhaps it goes without saying that the world of independent film missed the boat on Wendell B. Harris Jr. No one, especially this author with the same surname as the now fifty-six year old Michigan native, wants to play the woulda, shoulda, coulda game. Yet whenever I think about the career I would have liked to have seen Mr. Harris have, it’s hard not to turn a bit melancholy. I guess being in the right place in the right time with the right people and a large enough sum of money counts for something, but if being at the podium […]
by Brandon Harris on Jul 6, 2010 -
SUNDANCE DIRECTOR’S LAB DIARY: SAODAT ISMAILOVA
The Sundance Director’s Lab is currently wrapping at the Sundance Institute in Utah, and we have two filmmakers blogging about their experience. First up is Uzbekistan writer/director Saodat Ismailova, whose project, 40 Days of Silence, is described like this: “Four generations of women under one roof in Uzbekistan look to each other for comfort as they try to overcome their destinies.” Yesterday, June 19th, the director’s lab came to the end. When I look back at the past three weeks of my life it already seems like it was more than a year ago… I will simply divide the process […]
by Scott Macaulay on Jun 24, 2010 -
DEEP BACKGROUND ON THE SUNDANCE INSTITUTE AND FESTIVAL
At The Film Stage, Kristin Coates has a long and impressively detailed take on the early days of the Sundance Institute and Festival, tracing the social, political and industry currents that lead to the formation of what is now one of the dominant institutions in the world of independent film. The Directors Lab is currently unfolding at Redford’s Sundance Institute in Utah, and Coates’ article is not only a timely tale of Sundance but also a history of the transition from the “New Hollywood” of the mid-’70s to a self-identifying American independent film movement that gathered steam in the ’80s. […]
by Scott Macaulay on Jun 12, 2010 -
Shirin Neshat, Women Without Men
Shirin Neshat doesn’t shy away from complexity. Her internationally lauded photography and video installation work takes as its primary subject matter the epistemology that informs how we view Muslim women and the real world forces which shape there lived experiences. She challenges stereotypes and received knowledge in all of her works, a quality that has not gone unnoticed by the international art world. A pair of major installations in the late 1990’s, Turbulent (1998) and Rapture (1999), both of which received prizes at the Biennial of Venice, long ago cemented her place as one of the world’s most compelling visuals artists. That claim […]
by Brandon Harris on May 5, 2010
