Every cinephile knows the curatorial bliss of a great double feature. A flexing of film nerd muscles while sitting on your ass for three to five hours, a double bill brings two films into dialogue with one another based on style, subject, theme, or whatever connective tissue you can find. Double features, like well-sequenced mixtapes, require the instincts of a programmer. Thanks to streaming, digital rentals, and the perennial ease of sneaking into a second film at your local AMC, the work of making a double bill happen has never been easier. Below, I rally through 10 great double features from […]
by Soheil Rezayazdi on Jan 5, 2016[Editor’s note: The Mend writer/director John Magary has written for Filmmaker before in a critical capacity. Today he contributes an essay about the making of his debut feature, with bonus oral history appended. For information on playdates, click here.] “This movie…it’s a quilt!” — Russell Harbaugh, exiled roommate Over about five weeks in September and October of 2013, an unusually sustained period of bright and pleasant weather, we shot The Mend in New York City. The idea early on, before the first index card was pinned up, was to make something makeable. “Makeable” is a funny word, an aspirational spin on “possible,” […]
by John Magary on Aug 20, 2015Hilarious, confrontational and compellingly disorienting, John Magary’s The Mend is one of the most striking independent films of the past couple of years. A SXSW ’14 standout, it reaches theaters this week with a run at the IFC Center in New York. Check out the trailer for this comedy of dysfunctional siblings and lost weekends, and return later this week for more on the film.
by Scott Macaulay on Aug 15, 2015