Tribeca Film Festival
-
Five Questions with The Revisionaries Director Scott Thurman
Every ten years, the Texas Board of Education revises its textbook standards, leaving the curriculum decisions up to a staggeringly small council of fifteen members. And while this practice has been critiqued on a national level before, The Revisionaries shines a particularly introspective light on the entire procedure. Focused around Board of Education member, devout Evangelical Christian, and all-around complex figure Don McLeroy, this new documentary from director Scott Thurman and the Silver Lining Film Group is sure to stir up debate at the Tribeca Film Festival and beyond. Filmmaker: What originally interested you about the Texas Board of Education? […]
by Jane Schoenbrun on Apr 19, 2012 -
Five Questions with First Winter Director Ben Dickenson
To properly evoke the apocalyptic landscape and tone of his directorial debut, filmmaker Benjamin Dickinson lived like he filmed – amidst the chilling rural winter that his characters find themselves trapped within. Opting to forgo electricity and even food while filming the movie’s most desperate sequences, Dickinson and his crew lend what should prove to be a hard won authenticity to First Winter. Premiering in competition this Thursday at the Tribeca Film Festival, First Winter stars Lindsay Burdge, Paul Manza, and Kate Lyn Sheil. Filmmaker: Talk to me a bit about the genesis of First Winter. Where did the idea […]
by Jane Schoenbrun on Apr 19, 2012 -
Five Questions with Nancy, Please Director Andrew Semans
Sometimes the simplest premises can be the most devastating. Andrew Semans’ debut feature Nancy, Please follows Paul (Will Rogers), a Yale PhD student as he tries (or, kind of tries) and utterly fails to complete his dissertation. His excuse for this lack of productivity? He’s accidentally left an essential annotated copy of Dickens’ Little Dorrit at his old apartment. Worse still, the book is now in the care of his ex-roommate Nancy (Eléonore Hendricks), a woman who he views as something of a sociopath. As Paul’s attempts to get the book back grow more and more desperate, Semans plumbs the […]
by Jane Schoenbrun on Apr 17, 2012 -
Five Questions with Rubberneck Director Alex Karpovsky
Over the last few years, actor Alex Karpovsky has slowly grown into one of the most recognizable faces in American indies. And with a recurring role on Girls, Lena Dunham’s upcoming HBO series, he stands poised to break through to a wider audience. As if he wasn’t busy enough, Karpovsky has found time to migrate behind the lens for Rubberneck, his directorial followup to 2009’s Second City improv documentary Trust Us, This is All Made Up. A psychological thriller about an unhinged scientist (Karpovsky, directing himself) who grows increasingly obsessed with a co-worker he’s recently had a one-night stand with, […]
by Jane Schoenbrun on Apr 16, 2012 -
Artificial Paradises — A Hammer to Nail Review
(Artificial Paradises world premiered at the 2011 International Film Festival Rotterdam before screening at the 2011 Tribeca Film Festival. It opens theatrically in New York City at the reRun Gastropub on Friday, March 30, 2012. Visit the film’s official website to learn more.) Yes, Yulene Olaizola’s Artificial Paradises is about drug addiction. But not only does Olaizola take her time in revealing this agenda, her patient filmmaking and reverence for the gorgeous natural environment in which she shoots keeps that agenda from elbowing its way into the foreground. It’s this gentle approach that distinguishes Artificial Paradises from the rest of […]
by Michael Tully on Mar 29, 2012 -
TRAILER WATCH: HARMONY KORINE’S “THE FOURTH DIMENSION”
An anthology film with bizarre “rules” that was produced by Vice Films and Grolsch FilmWorks and directed a trio of international auteurs including Harmony Korine, The Fourth Dimension was always destined to be decidedly odd. But, on the evidence of this newly released trailer, it looks like it could be pretty great too. Korine’s contribution to the film features Val Kilmer as a motivational speaker (called Val Kilmer!) trying to get people to harness their “awesome secrets,” while the rest of the film is comprised of segments from Russian director Alexey Fedorchenko and Poland’s Jan Kwiecinski about a time travel-obsessed scientist […]
by Nick Dawson on Mar 28, 2012 -
David Gelb, Jiro Dreams of Sushi
Jiro Ono, the world’s most acclaimed sushi chef, is not one to rest. As hard working an octogenarian as you’re ever likely to encounter on screen, Jiro is a celebrity in Japan, but little known here in the States. That is likely to change thanks to director David Gelb’s portrait of the man, his two sons and the philosophy of diligence, hard work and perfectionism they demonstrate in Jiro Dreams of Sushi. A hit at last year’s Berlinale and Tribeca Film Festival, it depicts the rigorous work ethic that Jiro, who began making sushi professionally shortly after World War II, […]
by Brandon Harris on Mar 7, 2012 -
BLACKHOUSE FOUNDATION STRESSES STRATEGY AND COMMUNITY IN THE FESTIVAL PROCESS
Last night at HSBC’s corporate headquarters in New York, The Blackhouse Foundation celebrated the launch of the 2012 film festival season with a networking event and panel discussion focused on festival strategy. Now in its fifth year, Blackhouse is a non-profit organization set up to support communities of black filmmakers throughout the festival process. The Foundation has had a presence at many of the top North American festivals, including Sundance, Tribeca, Toronto, and the LA Film Festival. Blackhouse exists to help black filmmakers at all stages in their careers, a fact made clear by the event’s attendees. The talent in the […]
by Jane Schoenbrun on Oct 28, 2011 -
Alma Har’el, Bombay Beach
Stunningly shot and formally audacious, Bombay Beach, the first feature of Israeli-born music-video director and cinematographer Alma Har’el, is a rare bird, the type of film that seems to be building its own cinematic language from the ground up. Sure, it embraces some stylistic and thematic similarities with a whole host of filmmaking luminaries, but it is dancing to its very own tune, both literally and figuratively. Har’el, as we discuss below, quickly entered the lives of various people living around the California hamlet of Bombay Beach, a derelict precinct that was once a haven for zealous developers in the ’60s, […]
by Brandon Harris on Oct 12, 2011 -
TIFF 2011: THE YEAR OF THE DOC?
The buzz word at this year’s TIFF is “doc.” For the first time in its 35-year history, the Toronto International Film Festival opened with a documentary: Davis Guggenheim‘s From The Sky Down, which profiles the world’s most popular rock band, U2. Filmgoers and critics are also buzzing over Crazy Horse, by verite legend Frederick Wiseman; Samsara (by Baraka‘s Ron Fricke); Tony Krawitz‘s The Tall Man,; and Girl Model by Ashley Sabin and David Redmon. The doc vibe was in the air on Monday morning at a breakfast launch for Focus Foward. Sponsored by Cinelan and GE, Focus Forward invites big-name documentarians such as Morgan […]
by Allan Tong on Sep 17, 2011
