Today our friend S.T. Van Airsdale premieres the relaunch of The Reeler, his blog/website devoted to New York City cinema and cinephilia. Stu is now on his own and he's enlarged the site by adding two new blogs, film reviews and other news to a now bustling main page.

From today's editor's letter:

As mentioned previously, nothing much has changed except that I have accrued extra piles of crap that I will never get done. But it all still pertains to the sphere of New York cinema that you have (hopefully) been following here for a while now, where the city's films, filmmakers and events will receive an increasingly comprehensive look as the site accommodates extra contributors and content.

Check out The Reeler today and give Stu a blast of traffic on his opening day!

# posted by Scott Macaulay @ 9/29/2006 02:36:00 AM

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Over at Indiewire Eugene Hernandez has an appreciation of and excerpts from Christine Vachon's new book, A Killer Life. There are many film books out there these days, but Vachon is one of the few people writing them who actually has the real-world experience and successes to back up her advice and opinions.

Here's an excerpt from the book:

My strategy is to stay a moving target. I've got a reputation for "edgy," "dark" material -- the kind of movie where you're maybe rooting for the bad guy. I'm also frequently accused of operating with a political agenda. A gay agenda. An aggressive-New Yorker agenda. When I go to L.A. for meetings, sometimes I feel like I have to put on my "uniform" -- black pants, black T-shirt, combat boots -- so that nobody gets confused and thinks I've come over to the bright side. Yes, I go for the kind of stories that challenge viewers, and I like to approach a story from an unexpected place. But my films aren't all about gay people, they aren't necessarily dark, and I'm not trying to peddle an ideology. I think that in order to realize the artistic possibilities of film, you've got to be in tune with the social and political realities of the times: the ravages of AIDS, or the complexity of gender, or social anomie, American-style. This is why I'm attracted to scripts inspired by true stories. When you stop retreading the conventional fairy tales -- when you quit with the fairy tales entirely -- you make better art. You also make people a little nervous.

# posted by Scott Macaulay @ 9/27/2006 02:33:00 PM

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There's a great point/counterpoint going on over at The Onion's A.V. Club Blog having to do with whether or not Kelly Reichardt's Old Joy and Andrew Bujalski's Mutual Appreciation (pictured) are the future of independent cinema. Or, actually, whether we should be scolded for not ensuring that they are considered as such.

First Scott Tobias's original post, which is entitled "Mutual Appreciation, Old Joy and the Current State of American Independent Film." An excerpt:

...If you care at all about American independent films, you’re required to see these movies.... Watching these movies in short succession was a pretty bracing experience for me, as was seeing Bujalski’s debut feature Funny Ha Ha several years ago (Old Joy is the first Reichardt film I’ve seen, and I’m told that her feature River Of Grass and her shorts are equally stunning). And that’s not simply because I was being introduced to singular talents, either, but also because they drummed up some troubling questions about the state of American independent film in general. Such as: Why aren’t we seeing more independent films like these? Are there more Bujalskis and Reichardts in hiding somewhere? After the studios co-opted the independent movement with their specialty divisions (Fox Searchlight, Warner Independent Pictures, Focus Features, etc.), has the door completely closed for true independent films? Are directors who could be making low-key films such as Mutual Appreciation and Old Joy having to tailor their art in order to appeal to these studio divisions?

A reply by a poster dubbed Cougarfunderberg who says he "programs for a three-screen arthouse theater" kicks up the debate with a very long reply. Another excerpt:

To be clear: these films are not great. [The poster is talking about Bujalski's two films here; he says he hasn't seen Old Joy.] Would you really put either of these films on the level with something like Stranger than Paradise? Or even a film that time hasn't been so kind to (but was huge in its day) like Return of the Secaucus Seven? Are you really going to say either of these films are as exciting, interesting, intelligent, emotionally textured or aesthetically valuable as Days of Being Wild? Because that's how they're being positioned. Maybe the Cassavetes comparisons are more apt, but are these films anywhere in the league with Husbands? To be more fair, are they on the level with an early Cassavetes like Shadows? Cassavetes isn't even a favorite of mine, but it's clear he's playing on an entirely different level from Bujalski.

So, maybe these comparisons are unfair and they're too much of a burden for these slight and personal films to bear, but that's the load that's being put on them: they are THE important new artworks to many serious film-lovers. I've been trying to think of the art films in the past few decades that have really mattered as both commercial and artistic force. And all of them have far more virtues (even if they all have significant flaws) than either Bujalski film: Eraserhead, My Dinner with Andre, She's Gotta Have It, Stranger than Paradise, Sex Lies and Videotape, etc. That's even disregarding for comparison all of the great films that were commercially insignificant, the films made after the rise of the mid-majors in the 90's and international cinema altogether....

But my point in bringing up Stranger than Paradise and Shadows is not that things used to be better back in the good old days, but that Bujalski's films aren't in the same league artistically. Watching Funny Ha Ha you don’t get that sense of discovery that’s comes with experiencing an exciting new talent. She's Gotta Have It announces a stunning (and hugely entertaining) new voice from an (at the time) cinematically under-represented group. Mutual Appreciation announces a more artsy variation on Kevin Smith.

Why I'm harping on it is this: there is no reason to expect an audience to particularly like Bujalski's films. Most folks will leave them with a shrug. They'll assume they don't "get it" and that critics/academics see something in them that is invisible to the normal viewer. That's why critical praise is such a dangerous force - over-praise is just as likely to hurt a film as help it (from backlash to indifference to future critical assessment)....

It's not Little Miss Sunshine's fault that Mutual Appreciation is not so great. The audience that sees Little Miss will get exactly what they paid for. The audience for Mutual Appreciation will get the hollow receptacle of our fears about the current state of cinema as an artform. Sorry to go on for so long, but I am genuinely terrified about the future of film in general, as a business and as an artform. I don’t know that I even have a suggestion for a solution. I wish the solution to the continuing dearth of serious cinema was as simple as "they are good films no one is seeing and if you go see them, things will start to get better," but that's not the case here. I think in the long run urging people to see Mutual Appreciation, recommending it without serious reservation, presenting it as a significant achievement and true alternative to Little Miss Sunshine will hurt the cause of art cinema more than it will help it.

Another poster, George Camrose, comes to Bujalski's defense:

I think Manohla Dargis's Times review of MUTUAL hit the nail on the head by comapring AB's work not to Casavettes (can we now downgrade that comparison to once specific, now overused and meaninglessly general buzzword status like "noir" "psychedelic" and "rockabilly"?) but to Jean Eustache, a similarly rigorous crafter of seemingly effortless, naturalistic stories of the young, the smart, and the vain. It's a lot of work making a movie that hangs so loosely and so tightly together. I can't wait to see what Bujalksi does next - a novel adaptation for Scott Rudin, I believe. Rudin's supposedly one of the most test-screening happy, hands-on producers out there, so I hope it doesn't end in tears.

The thread continues further, including another post by Cougarfunderberg who notes that Old Joy's great opening weekend at the Film Forum means that it will come to his theater when it expands to the suburbs next month so he can form his own opinion about it.

# posted by Scott Macaulay @ 9/25/2006 07:22:00 PM

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Here at Crooks and Liars is the Fox News Bill Clinton clip, which Ray Pride says this about:

Why does Fox News' Chris Wallace hate America? (Rhetorical question.) Every writer who's been on a beat for years or decades has a few tropes, fixations and straw men they fall back upon on a morning with a touch of the flu: pudding-headed political commentators love to describe dark turns in a pol's career as "Shakespearean," which, unless it's coming from a studied, articulate, passionate former theater critic like Frank Rich, is usually so much bumf drawn from a dip into the Bartlett's Familiar Quotations. I don't have a stock phrase to describe the fifteen minutes linked here, but former President Clinton's reaction to a dishonest set-up by Fox News' Wallace is the most dramatic thing I've seen anywhere in too long. (Maybe Clinton should have advised Steven Zaillian on All the King's Men instead of James Carville.) At the link, the art of countering the art of the devious interview, without the help of writers or prompters.

# posted by Scott Macaulay @ 9/24/2006 09:22:00 PM

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Over on the main page Annie Nocenti interviews the directors of Jesus Camp,, the incredibly fascinating documentary that opened this weekend from Magnolia Pictures. In the piece, co-director Heidi Ewing discusses Magnolia's strategy to position the film as something of interest to both Christian evangelical audiences and godless hipsters in the big city:

Ewing: Eamonn wants to bring the film to Christian strongholds before it hits L.A. or New York. Colorado Springs, Kansas City — they get the movie first. Magnolia is withholding the film from the secular world for one or two weeks. The Evangelicals have time to embrace or reject the film on their own terms. New York’s not going to be mad that Springfield had it first, whereas it might matter to the Christians if they don’t see it first. If New York and L.A. have gotten the movie and are criticizing the Evangelicals, that’s going to put them on the defense, and they’re not going to go see the film.

The film did open in certain regional markets one week before New York, but is Magnolia's strategy working? Are Christian audiences embracing the film?

Here's Jeffrey Overstreet in Christianity Today who quotes both Magnolia's Eammon Bowles as well as conservative critics of the film in a piece on just how the film is playing in the heartland:

Some Christian media personalities are speaking out against the movie, but for differing reasons. A few accuse the filmmakers of trying to discredit Fischer and her camp, and they rush to the defense of the film's subjects, saying that their methods of worship and education are to be celebrated. Others are criticizing the film by saying that this documentary footage severely misrepresents Christianity, and that it has been framed to draw viewers into viewing Christians as lunatics....

An uncredited writer at MovieGuide calls it "a sarcastic documentary that paints evangelical, fundamentalist, charismatic, and politically concerned Christians as very shrill, warlike, and dangerous." The same writer questions whether radio personality Mark Papantonio, who plays a prominent role in the film, and his callers are Christians at all. "Mark claims to be a Christian. Let us pray that he be filled with God's Holy Spirit and be delivered from the evil demons that have made him so hateful toward the Christian leaders of America." The article concludes by telling readers how to contact Magnolia Pictures with comments.

Even one of the film's cast members is responding. Ted Haggard, President of the National Association of Evangelicals, who makes a brief appearance near the end of the film, wrote a letter to all 42 NAE denominational leaders that read, in part: "I am concerned that we are seeing the initial attempts to characterize Evangelical practices as extreme and, in some cases, similar to the practices and beliefs of Islamic Fundamentalists. No doubt, we all need to learn to communicate the Gospel more clearly in our globalized world, realizing that our words can be interpreted very differently than intended because of the evolving global situation ….

"I didn't like [Jesus Camp] for two reasons. (1) It portrayed the training of kids at the camp as militaristic, extreme, and scary and (2) It forces non-Charismatic evangelicals to say, "That's not us, it's them!" My concern is that the movie will reverse the growing respect that has been growing between Pentecostal and non-Pentecostal Evangelicals for the past three decades, and that those on the far left will use it to reinforce their most negative stereotypes of Christian believers. … It's one more 'documentary' that seems to miss the point intentionally."

Magnolia president Eamonn Bowles is surprised at the uproar. In a statement, Bowles says, "We're frankly surprised and a little disheartened by the efforts of prominent members of the evangelical community to clamp down on Jesus Camp. Whether or not the children and camp depicted in the film represents the 'mainstream' of the Evangelical movement is beside the point: they exist, the film documents them, and the subjects feel they've been treated fairly. Why a community that's so quick to attack discrimination from secular Americans would then turn and do the same to other Evangelicals is unexpected, to say the least."

What do Christian film critics think of the film? So far, very few have published reviews.

Cliff Vaughn (EthicsDaily) doesn't take sides on whether the film is fair or not, but he does recommend the movie. "Jesus Camp could be part of a provocative trilogy of similar documentaries that include The Education of Shelby Knox and Hell House. All peel back a layer of American Christianity and reveal a rawness that is simply worth watching and certainly worth discussing afterward. No matter where you stand politically or theologically, Jesus Camp has something to offer. You're guaranteed not to leave indifferent."

# posted by Scott Macaulay @ 9/24/2006 06:22:00 PM

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Over at Ticklebooth Ajit Anthony Prem gets ready for Martin Scorsese's The Departed by trolling YouTube for homemade renditions of Robert DeNiro's classic scene from Taxi Driver.

From Prem's post:

There are were many impersonations of De Niro on Youtube, mostly of the notorious “You talking to me?” scene. The scene was largely improvised by De Niro who clearly was “living the role.” The scene is not as powerful as it once used to be. When Taxi Driver was first released, films resisted getting into its character’s head, to spend alone-time with someone. Before Taxi Driver, scenes were clearly part of a bigger picture, if the character spoke in private, it was usually consisted of an intelligent monologue. Unlike the mess that comes out of Bickle’s mouth.

With podcasts and even recent films, talking in private has become common. Scoresese has gone in the opposite direction, when is the last time where we have seen one of his characters just ‘be’ in front of the camera?

Click on the link above for Prem's curated selection of clips, which include a Spanish-language version, an animated version, and even one performed by a dog!

# posted by Scott Macaulay @ 9/24/2006 05:29:00 PM

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At a luncheon celebrating the end of the IFP Market and Filmmaker Conference at NoHo's Chinatown restaurant this Thursday, a number of awards were given to films and filmmakers who were part of the IFP's various programs.

The winners are:

The Fledgling Fund Award for Emerging Latino Filmmakers ($10,000): Vivian Lesnik Weisman.

IFP Market Emerging Narrative Screenplay Award ($5,000, presented by Artists Public Domain): I Hate to See That Evening Sun Go Down, Scott Teems.

IFP Market Documentary Completion Award ($5,000, presented by Artists Public Domain, and $25,000 in-kind support from Alpha Cine, Analog Digital International, Mercer Media, Showbiz Software/Media Services and Splash Studios): Waiting For Hockney, Julie Checkoway.

The Fledgling Fund Award for Socially Cosnscious Documentaries ($10,000): Promised Land, Yoruba Richen.

IFP/Current TV -- VC2 Competition (broadcast license for Current TV): In the Frame, Leah Hamilton; More Than 41 Shots, Derek Koen; Parkour NYC, Shirley Petchprapa.

And then there's the big prize (or big, at least in terms of dollar value): the Chrysler Film Project award was given to Derek Cianfrance and his Blue Valentine, a feature he's been trying to get financed for years. Chrysler and partner Silverwood Pictures awarded Cianfrance and his producers Hunting Lane Films $1 million, and at the lunch, Cianfrance promised that "every dollar would go up on screen."

Here's The Reeler on Cianfrance and the award:

"I've been working on my film for like nine-and-a-half years--hustling it, trying to get it going," he told The Reeler after the awards' ritualistic Giant Fake Check ceremony. "It's been set up like three different times, and in that time of waiting, you prepare. So I'm prepared. I'm ready to go. I feel like I've been in the gym training and I've been hitting that punching bag a million times. Now this is my shot at the title, you know?"

And how! Cianfrance said Valentine --based on the director's short Lately There Have Been Many Misunderstandings--is about the juxtaposition of a couple's happy past with its tenuous future and the prospect of a non existant future. "The physicality of youth versus young adulthood," he explained. "More of a cerebral time of being trapped inside your head. It's all about how when you're young, you have an opportunity to become anything and you make decisions and choices and become something.

# posted by Scott Macaulay @ 9/23/2006 03:11:00 PM

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If you're in the habit of just bookmarking this blog page, check out the main page for two new online features of films opening this weekend: American Hardcore and Jesus Camp.

# posted by Scott Macaulay @ 9/23/2006 03:04:00 PM

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Filmmaker Jamie Stuart, who is working on an article upcoming for Filmmaker, met Michel Gondry recently at New York's Regency Hotel. The picture at left is the result of that meeting, which Stuart explains below:

"I thought this was one of those ideas so obvious and so attuned to the subject that I became paranoid somebody was going to beat me to it. Photo Booth is basically gimmick software that comes with all new Macs -- and it seems everybody plays around with it for maybe 5 minutes, then they forget about it. When I met Michel recently to discuss The Science of Sleep, I thought it might be fun to see what he'd do with the various stretch and mirror effects. He already knew Photo Booth, so I slid over my MacBook Pro, he took right over and created these five cool original self-portraits."

Click this link to see more Gondry/Photo Booth pics or submit Photo Booth pics of your own.

# posted by Scott Macaulay @ 9/17/2006 11:17:00 PM

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Our friend and former Managing Editor of FilmMaker Magazine Liz Ogilvie sent us a press release that further demonstrates the growing power of documentaries. Docurama, which hitherto had constrained itself to dvd and home entertainment, has now entered the world of theatrical distribution with Alexandra Lipsitz's Air Guitar Nation, an hilarious piece that chronicles emergence of the US Air Guitar Championships and a new power strumming victor. If you would like play along, check out clips of expert air guitar technique. You'll see that there is a lot more to air guitar than just helicoptoring in front of your bedroom mirror in your underwear.

# posted by Peter Bowen @ 9/15/2006 01:55:00 PM

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Over at The Daily Reel I've been following the online mystery of Lonelygirl15. Today, Virginia Heffernan of the New York Times has near the final word on the subject. Homeschooler Bree is actually a "twentyish" actress named Jessica Rose and "the masterminds of the Lonelygirl15 videos are Ramesh Flinders, a screenwriter and filmmaker from Marin County, Calif., and Miles Beckett, a doctor turned filmmaker."

The real mystery now is whether Bree's fanatical cyber audience will love her as much as she morphs into a purely fictional character in whatever future projects her creators have planned for her.

# posted by Scott Macaulay @ 9/13/2006 10:57:00 AM

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If you're in NYC tomorrow night, here's news of a panel event sponsored by the IFP which is free to readers of the Filmmaker blog. And also take note of next week's Independent Film Week promotion, in which tickets to a bunch of NYC independent theaters are discounted to only $6.

IFP and The New York Times present a Special TimesTalks Panel with Independent Filmmakers

FREE for Friends of Filmmaker Magazine!

“COMING OF AGE ON SCREEN”

Don't miss this conversation with independent filmmakers whose own rites of passage inspired their films and captured an era. Moderated by David Carr, New York Times culture and business writer, with panelists Catherine Hardwicke, director of "Thirteen," "Lords of Dogtown," and the upcoming "The Nativity Story," Dito Montiel, director of "A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints," (Winner, Best Director, 2006 Sundance Film Festival) and Peter Sollett, director of “Raising Victor Vargas” (which premiered at the 2002 Cannes Film Festival).

Followed by a reception with the filmmakers.

September 13th @ 6:30-8:00pm
Walter Reade Theater
70 Lincoln Center Plaza
(65th Street between Broadway and Amsterdam)

FREE FOR FRIENDS OF FILMMAKER MAGAZINE
Reservations required. To RSVP, email rsvp@ifp.org with “timestalks” in the subject.

Independent Film Week is a four-day promotional campaign to help draw new audiences to independent films and the theaters which show them year-round. It includes a first of its kind reduced-price ticket promotion at 10 independent theaters in NYC, including the Walter Reade. Featuring $6 admission to all shows Monday, September 18th through Thursday, September 21st.

For specific details about the promotion, and to see a list of participating theaters, visit: www.independentfilmweek.com

# posted by Scott Macaulay @ 9/12/2006 08:20:00 PM

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The term “buzz” refers, of course, to those hushed conversations in which the most recent tidbits of financial and other news are exchanged in film festival hallways and theater lobbies. Who bought what for how much? (“Newmarket nabbed Gabriel Range’s Death of a President”); who passed on what film (“wouldn’t you like to know”), and who didn’t make it back to their hotel room until 7 am (“a certain blond who supposedly has a boyfriend”) are standard conversational commodities. But in the age of Treos and Blackberries such conversations are handled electronically. Every screening one notices in the theater a fluttering of glowing lights, like so many lost fire flies, filling the dark room. People reading emails, scanning Indiewire, checking schedules, and I.M.ing in the dark is now standard operation procedure. What are people saying? I often eavesdrop in the dark, reading the other people’s screens to learn that they are “in Varsity 5..boring!” Or interested in the needs of others, as in “Hungry?” or “Need cocktail?”

As such, pre-screening small talk is a actually more relaxed and more often than not on what they thought of a movie and not “what the buzz is.” Tarsem’s The Fall, a strange, visually immaculate epic as an anti- Scheharazade, for example, has generated a range of emotions. Set in a Los Angeles hospital at the advent of silent film, a heartbroken stunt man (Lee Pace) with broken legs weaves a fantastic story for a little girl. But his tale, rather than prolonging his life, is meant to get the girl to steal morphine so the crippled lover can kill himself. What follows is a switching back and forth the between a hospital drama and a lush narrative fantasy that employs nearly every great landscape in India for its narrative purposes. The film’s look, if such a thing can be said, is too perfect. Every grain of sand in a pink desert seems intentionally art designed. On the other hand, the film’s script seems entirely incomplete seems sketchy at best.

Sarah Price and Bradley Beesley’s documentary Summercamp! has generated the same heated debate. For some, this look into the pint-sized denizens of a Wisconsin nature camp is a poignant examination of American childhood, those shared traumas of campfires, mosquito bites, best buddies, and burning the roof of your mouth with a burnt marshmallow. For others, myself included, the film was ultimately so many quirky characters in search of story. Like a few other docs here, such as Liz Mermin’s globalization drama Paper Tigers about an outsourcing company in India, the filmmakers have culled hours of wonderful observational footage but have never found a story to tell.

The benefit of such films is the conversations they generate. Of course, in the press room, critics still trade in the snide and the scurrilous. One critic dismissed one film as being “uplifting,” which I had to remind him is not necessarily a bad thing in and of itself.

# posted by Peter Bowen @ 9/12/2006 08:19:00 AM

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The Paris Review has scored the first published interview with Laura Albert, the "woman who was JT LeRoy."

There's only a small excerpt on the website from Nathaniel Rich's interview with Albert, which I've quoted in its entirety below. To read the rest, we'll have to pick up the magazine. The quote below details that "Eureka!" moment in which a young Albert developed a strategy that she would finetune in later years.

From the interview:

INTERVIEWER: Did you have many friends at school—kids your own age?

LAURA ALBERT: I was friends with all the nerd guys. And the popular kids liked me because I made them laugh. I made up funny stories and I was the best at prank phone calls. In sixth and seventh grade girls started having serious crushes on boys, and we started calling them on the phone. There was this one guy that everyone really liked, but no one could speak to him on the phone because they’d giggle too much. So one day, with the other girls listening, I called him using a Swedish accent, and he fell for it. I kept calling him—and the other girls didn’t know this. I made up a whole character, Katrin. I went to the library to research Sweden, and I studied Swedish to make sure my accent was right. Katrin was living with Laura, with me, but her parents were very strict and she wasn’t allowed to leave the house. So no one ever saw her. I found I had this skill over the phone—which I think a lot of women discover—this idea of, Wow, I have this personality, but I’m not allowed to expose it, because my physical appearance doesn’t match it. The boy fell in love with Katrin. And I fell in love with him.
Our phone relationship went on for months. It got really elaborate. And then one day I met him, as Katrin’s friend Laura, and we started to hang out together. I cut out a picture of a pretty girl from an old yearbook to show him. He had friends that were into her and would talk to her on the phone. And they would hang out with me also, but they didn’t know that I was Katrin. It got to the point where the whole neighborhood had fallen in love with her. And I felt love for this guy, in the way that you do when you’re twelve, where it’s safe. It was very real, and it had taken me over. I didn’t know how to stop it, but I realized it had to end. So I discovered this kind of cancer that could develop pretty fast, and I gave that to Katrin, and one day when the boy called the house, I told him that Katrin had died.
The next morning the boy’s mother showed up at our door. The boy’s family was upset, and they wanted to know what had happened. And my mother was like, What the fuck are you talking about? I remember hearing them talking in the other room, and feeling heartbroken. I hadn’t meant for any of this to happen.

# posted by Scott Macaulay @ 9/12/2006 03:13:00 AM

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Toronto has never been a city synonymous with excitement, which is why it is such a great place for a film festival. There has never been much competition for the excitement dollar. So far this year, however, the Toronto International Film Festival has mirrored its host city in terms of cinematic thrills. When I ask guests, critics, filmmakers and the ilk on the sidewalks and escalators around town what they have liked so far, I am more often than not greeted by a range of guttural sounds, which translates more or less into, "I don’t have a clue." Then most people will grimace and say, "“not a whole lot.”

It is not that the films are bad; just not exciting. Last night's screening of Christopher Guest's For Your Consideration felt like eating a slightly stale eclair. You knew exactly what its pleasures would be -- Guest and company (Jennifer Coolidge, Eugene Levy, Michael McKean, Parket Posey, Catherine O'Hara, etc.) vamping -- but there was nothing remarkable in its production. The only change is that this is not a mockumentary, just a comedy about the ridiculousness of Hollywood. Talk about shooting fish in a barrel.

For me, the festival has begun to feel a bit like a Christopher Guest comedy, with the films, guests and city playing out their cliches with perfect pitch. Torontonians, usually known for the high-toned approach to film culture, descended into the realm of "Entertainment Tonight" as crowds clogged the streets around Four Seasons Hotel and the Hotel Intercontinental, straining to catch a glimpse of Brad Pitt (here with Babel) or Wyclef Jean (here with Ghosts of Cite Soleil). Or maybe there were out for the other celebs up here for no other reason than to get photographed being here, like ex-'N Sync, now-out Lance Bass.

And the films fell into categories that seemed, while perfectly fine, somewhat expected. There was that European art film about the sexual hypocrisy of the bourgeoisie (Stefan Krohmer's Sommer '04 an der Schlei). And the high-concept star-studded Hollywood comedy (Marc Forster Stranger than Fiction with Will Ferrell, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Dustin Hoffman, Queen Latifah, Emma Thompson). The bloated “quality” picture (this year's would have to be Sir Ridley Scott's A Good Year with a seemingly contrite Russell Crowe). The return of the master (Werner Herzog's Rescue Dawn).

And yet as dawn's rosy fingers spread over the bland cityscape of Toronto this morning, I can't help admit that I am excited to get up and go see movies.

# posted by Peter Bowen @ 9/11/2006 06:52:00 AM

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David Hudson over at GreenCine has his usual comprehensive round-up of the opinions on this year's fest. Critics seemed most impressed by Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck's The Lives of Others and Kevin Macdonald's The Last King of Scotland. Scotland is Macdonald's first fiction film -- he previously made the award-winning documentaries One Day in September and Touching the Void. Other festival-related news include the retirement of co-founder Bill Pence.

# posted by Matthew Ross @ 9/05/2006 01:42:00 PM

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I've vowed not to link to James Ponsoldt's blog too much since I produced his feature Off the Black, but he's a prolific writer who is frequently posting pieces that are interesting and useful enough to other filmmakers. So, here I'm busting my conflict-of-interest self-censorship to note his comments on shrinking Tim Orr's widescreen compositions to 1:1.35 for our video transfer:

On Tim's off-days, he and I met at Technicolor to begin the color-timing process (for video/DVD) with the brilliant MIKE UNDERWOOD. Mike's a colorist, and worked with Tim on both "All the Real Girls" and "Undertow." The two of them have a short-hand and trust between each other, and that's invaluable when you're paying by the hour.

The way the timing worked was like this: in a suite at Technicolor, the three of us watched each scene of the film, and discussed the look of every shot--whether it was too dim, too green, too bright, not warm enough, etc. Then, when Tim had seen the entire film and given extensive notes, he went back to the set of "Year of the Dog." And then it was just Mike and I.... The color-timing process was slow, but actually seemed like "movie magic." I know that sounds geeky, but it really felt that way. We were creating something beautiful with fun tools, and there's something a bit scientific--but also a bit magical--to the way it works.

Now, the pan and scan process wasn't nearly as pleasurable. I sort of wished I had some morphine for that part.

Here's a simple explanation of a pan and scan, as it related to "Off the Black":

We shot our film in anamorphic 35mm (a 2.35:1 aspect ratio). That means gorgeous wide-screen, perfect for movie theaters...when you see it you feel like you're having a slightly epic experience, perhaps dreamlike, certainly different than everyday life.

But...when the DVD of the film comes out, it will offer several options: one will be be letter-boxed, and that's the ONLY way a film should be watched at home. If you're not watching that version, you're not seeing what the director/cinematographer intended.

Unfortunately, many people don't get to see a film like that.

They see it on a plane, a bus, or most likely, on cable television. The aspect ration for television is 1.33:1 or, as it's often referred to, 4:3. Which mean, in a nutshell, if you watch at 2.35:1 film on television in a 4:3 format, you're LOSING ABOUT 45 PERCENT OF THE IMAGE!

That's incredible. It's a completely different film...

James goes on to describe that process of making a "completely different film" in the piece linked to above.

# posted by Scott Macaulay @ 9/05/2006 01:43:00 AM

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Via Brian Newman's blog this movie trailer timed to the release of Chris Anderson's new book, The Long Tail.




Historical point of reference: Richard Serra and Carlotta Schoolman's 1973 video, Television Delivers People.

# posted by Scott Macaulay @ 9/05/2006 12:53:00 AM

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Here's Bob Dylan's new music video, "When the Deal Goes Down," directed by Capote helmer Bennett Miller and starring Scarlett Johannson.

# posted by Scott Macaulay @ 9/05/2006 12:38:00 AM

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The Toronto Film Festival doesn't start until later this week, but already its new doc blog is off to a great start. It's both an online destination to update yourself on festival news as well as a place for Festival filmmakers to write about everything from the making of their films to other films at the festival they've been compelled by.

There are a bunch of great pieces already up. Here, for example, is Sophie Fiennes on her Pervert's Guide to Cinema, a three-part documentary in which Slavoj Zizek analyzes films by such favorite directors as Hitchcock, Lynch and Tarkovsky:

I am trying to trace the seeds of The Pervert's Guide To Cinema from a personal point of view. It has something to do with a combination of my lack of any formal academic education (something that I both regret and enjoy) and the utter thrill I find in Zizek's approach to thinking (here I am not alone). This is also undeniably a documentary about cinema; about reading moving images, about the art of watching films, which is probably a prerequisite to making them.

Making this film has also been one fantastic excuse to go into the psychoanalytic labyrinth, and I don¹t want to leave! It is completely altering my understanding of the world and I am still reading. (At present Lacan, The Silent Partners, a brilliant collection of essays).

Here's director Liz Mermin on the subject of her new doc, Office Tigers:

Offices are the factories of the 21st century, rapidly spreading around the globe; this may soon be the experience over which people from all parts of the world will bond. I was burying my head in the sand. My training is in observational cinema, films that immerse you in unknown worlds for the sake of the experience without spelling out arguments or conclusions, and so I spent three months watching this strange world go by, day and night, in all its frenetic tedium.

Basic characteristics of the corporate mentality began to emerge. The real pleasure many took in their work, their affection for their colleagues and their admiration of their bosses, was evident, as were the economic needs the jobs fulfilled; but the constant urging on to do more in the name of self-improvement, the demand that your job be your identity and the company be your family, modeled to perfection by the American CEO – this emerged as the heart of the corporate ethos, revealing itself through the mundane comedy of daily life.

Here's Lucy Walker on the cinematography of her new doc Blindsight (pictured), the story of six blind teenagers who climb Mount Everest:

We chose the Panasonic AJ-HDC27 VariCam because it was full-on sumptuous High Def, while still being relatively portable and light - but that's only when you're comparing it to a cumbersome and labor-intensive 35mm film rig. It was about four times bigger than your average mini-DV-pro type camera, for example. It was brand-new at that time and so something of a shot in the dark - but all our research suggested this was the technology we needed, even if it had only just come along in time for us. And the image quality is stunning - as Petr says "I was particularly impressed with the colors, depth of film possibilities and the film-like look" - and I agree whole-heartedly. It gives me goose-bumps, actually. And I challenge all but the geekiest of techheads to spot that it wasn't shot on 35mm after our beautiful blow-up (courtesy of St. Anne's Post in London).

Finally, the blog points to this new documentary fund by Working Films created to honor the memory of filmmaker Garrett Scott, who died earlier in the year.

# posted by Scott Macaulay @ 9/04/2006 07:13:00 PM

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Sujewa Ekanayake emailed with a couple of good links. The first is Alison Wilmore's piece on IFC.com detailing three filmmakers -- Ekanayake plus Andrew Bujalski (Mutual Appreciation) and Lance Weiler (Head Trauma -- who have gone the self-distribution route. "September may be the month self-distribution comes into its own," she writes.

And then there's Ekanayake's interview with Michael Tully on the eve of his Cocaine Angels New York premiere.

Check them out and support these filmmakers as their films get released this month.

# posted by Scott Macaulay @ 9/03/2006 09:07:00 PM

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