tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-55768533107555821822008-05-05T10:39:19.946-04:00The Director InterviewsWebmasterBlogger60125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5576853310755582182.post-52407267346966744182008-05-07T10:37:00.000-04:002008-05-05T10:39:20.040-04:00NICK BROOMFIELD, BATTLE FOR HADITHA
Immediately distinguishable by his understated good looks, laid-back, drawling English voice and, of course, the boom mike seemingly always in his hands, Nick Broomfield is an iconic figure in documentary filmmaking, as well as one of the form’s most talented artists. The son of English photographer Maurice Broomfield and a Czech refugee, Broomfield went to a Quaker boarding school before Nick Dawsontag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5576853310755582182.post-15792743938988353482008-05-02T14:41:00.008-04:002008-04-30T09:46:32.052-04:00GARTH JENNINGS, SON OF RAMBOW
When you meet Garth Jennings, it is immediately apparent where much of the energy, enthusiasm and imagination in his films comes from. The effervescent Jennings, born in Essex, England in 1972, attended the Central St. Martin's College of Art & Design in London where he met Nick Goldsmith with whom he formed the creative partnership Hammer & Tongs. Though the pair have always collaborated Nick Dawsontag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5576853310755582182.post-40882797764855449092008-04-25T13:35:00.011-04:002008-04-23T00:06:01.065-04:00YUNG CHANG, UP THE YANGTZE
At a time when the popularity of documentaries is at an all-time high, Canadian director Yung Chang is not only telling stories as compelling as his peers', but doing so with a truly cinematic sensibility that is often lacking in his field. Born in Whitby, Ontario, to first generation Chinese immigrant parents, Chang studied film production at Concordia University, graduating in 1999. He was Nick Dawsontag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5576853310755582182.post-65605108293690362002008-04-18T14:18:00.007-04:002008-04-30T09:47:46.530-04:00SCOTT HICKS, GLASS: A PORTRAIT OF PHILIP IN TWELVE PARTSPHILIP GLASS IN DIRECTOR SCOTT HICKS' GLASS: A PORTRAIT OF PHILIP IN TWELVE PARTS. COURTESY KOCH LORBER FILMS.
Best known for his fiction films, Scott Hicks has returned to another form in which he has also distinguished himself: documentary. Usually identified as an Australian, Hicks was in fact born in Uganda and lived in Kenya until the age of 10, before his family moved to England and then Nick Dawsontag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5576853310755582182.post-54647051271516999202008-04-09T14:18:00.010-04:002008-04-22T23:43:00.884-04:00STEPHEN WALKER, YOUNG@HEARTTHE YOUNG@HEART CHORUS IN DIRECTOR STEPHEN WALKER'S YOUNG@HEART. COURTESY FOX SEARCHLIGHT PICTURES.
Television directors often go through their careers dreaming of striking cinematic gold like Stephen Walker has. The 46-year-old Brit is a veteran of the small screen who plied his trade at the BBC before setting up his own production company, Walker George Films, with his producer and life Nick Dawsontag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5576853310755582182.post-41698214114956047822008-04-04T11:08:00.006-04:002008-04-16T01:17:01.677-04:00ETGAR KERET AND SHIRA GEFFEN, JELLYFISHNICOLE LEIDMAN AND SARAH ADLER IN ETGAR KERET AND SHIRA GEFFEN'S JELLYFISH. COURTESY ZEITGEIST FILMS.
After proving their mastery of the written word, Israel's first couple of literature, Etgar Keret and Shira Geffen, have now turned their attention to film. Keret was born in 1967 in Tel Aviv, Israel, and started writing in 1992. He has since written graphic novels, plays and children's books, Nick Dawsontag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5576853310755582182.post-72980249849563642012008-03-26T23:25:00.011-04:002008-04-07T11:24:16.708-04:00JEFF NICHOLS, SHOTGUN STORIESDOUGLAS LIGON, MICHAEL SHANNON AND BARLOW JACOBS IN WRITER-DIRECTOR JEFF NICHOLS' SHOTGUN STORIES. COURTESY INTERNATIONAL FILM CIRCUIT AND LIBERATION ENTERTAINMENT.
The North Carolina School of the Arts film program has, during its relatively short existence, produced a wealth of cinematic talent. Prominent alums includes writer-directors David Gordon Green, Craig Zobel, Michael Tully, Aaron Nick Dawsontag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5576853310755582182.post-79526252965035712522008-03-21T23:22:00.011-04:002008-04-02T00:43:23.978-04:00CHRISTOPHE HONORÉ, LOVE SONGSLUDIVINE SAGNIER, CLOTILDE HESME AND LOUIS GARREL IN DIRECTOR CHRISTOPHE HONORÉ'S LOVE SONGS. COURTESY IFC FILMS AND RED ENVELOPE ENTERTAINMENT.
Occasionally a filmmaker comes along who truly remind us why we love cinema. Christophe Honoré is not only one of those people, but also finds multiple other ways of expressing his seemingly endless creativity. He was born in Finistere (literally “The Nick Dawsontag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5576853310755582182.post-70385808619498580502008-03-14T23:20:00.009-04:002008-03-31T00:58:54.171-04:00MICHAEL HANEKE, FUNNY GAMES U.S.NAOMI WATTS AND TIM ROTH WITH UNWELCOME VISITORS MICHAEL PITT AND BRADY CORBETT IN DIRECTOR MICHAEL HANEKE'S FUNNY GAMES U.S. COURTESY WARNER INDEPENDENT PICTURES.
Michael Haneke is a director who makes films strictly on his terms, and — as his new movie demonstrates — writes his own rules if he doesn’t like the existing ones. The son of an actor-director father and an actress mother, Haneke wasNick Dawsontag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5576853310755582182.post-19922376916698813962008-03-05T17:04:00.001-05:002008-03-19T12:02:41.029-04:00LUCY WALKER, BLINDSIGHTBLIND CLIMBER DACHUNG IN DIRECTOR LUCY WALKER'S BLINDSIGHT. COURTESY ROBSON ENTERTAINMENT.
The projects Lucy Walker has chosen to take on in her career demonstrate an admirable desire to tell difficult and important stories. The British documentarian was born and raised in London, and during her childhood lost the sight in one of her eyes. However, if anything this only further fueled her Nick Dawsontag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5576853310755582182.post-26131404823313985612008-02-27T14:12:00.008-05:002008-03-12T01:25:14.669-04:00RAMIN BAHRANI, CHOP SHOPALEJANDRO POLANCO IN DIRECTOR RAMIN BAHRANI'S CHOP SHOP. COURTESY KOCH LORBER FILMS.
Ramin Bahrani's films are what one could term “outsider cinema,” and yet they are made with the quiet confidence of someone who knows he belongs. Iranian-American Bahrani was born and raised in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, and moved to New York to study film at Columbia University. After making the short filmsNick Dawsontag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5576853310755582182.post-38354663035735777962008-02-22T14:07:00.012-05:002008-03-05T09:06:21.877-05:00STEFAN RUZOWITZKY, THE COUNTERFEITERSAUGUST DIEHL, KARL MARKOVICS, VEIT STÜBNER AND AUGUST ZIRNER IN DIRECTOR STEFAN RUZOWITZKY'S THE COUNTERFEITERS. COURTESY SONY PICTURES CLASSICS.
It is the natural desire of critics to put films and their directors into neat categorizations, and yet there are some directors, such as Stefan Ruzowitzky, whose work simply cannot be summed up in a simple all-encompassing description. Born in Nick Dawsontag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5576853310755582182.post-44704315750692023402008-02-15T23:45:00.006-05:002008-02-25T08:59:12.482-05:00GEORGE A. ROMERO, DIARY OF THE DEADJOSHUA CLOSE MAKES HIS VERITÉ ZOMBIE MOVIE IN DIRECTOR GEORGE A. ROMERO'S DIARY OF THE DEAD. COURTESY THE WEINSTEIN COMPANY.
No matter how you look at it, George A. Romero will always be remembered as the godfather of the zombie movie. Born in 1940 in New York City, Romero graduated from Carnegie Mellon in the early 60s and stayed in Pittsburgh to set up a commercial production company. In 1968,Nick Dawsontag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5576853310755582182.post-3822329212840444932008-02-08T14:08:00.001-05:002008-02-19T23:50:21.663-05:00PAUL ANDREW WILLIAMS, LONDON TO BRIGHTONLORRAINE STANLEY AND GEORGIA GROOME IN DIRECTOR PAUL ANDREW WILLIAMS' LONDON TO BRIGHTON. COURTESY OUTSIDER PICTURES.
A rare handful of people are born to make movies, and new British writer-director Paul Andrew Williams is undoubtedly one of those few. Born in 1973 in the Southern coastal town of Portsmouth, Williams initially studied as an actor at LAMDA and spent the latter part of the 1990s Nick Dawsontag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5576853310755582182.post-37856000445133905052008-02-01T13:37:00.002-05:002008-02-13T09:17:24.870-05:00NADINE LABAKI, CARAMELWRITER-DIRECTOR-STAR NADINE LABAKI IN A SCENE FROM CARAMEL. COURTESY ROADSIDE ATTRACTIONS.
As role models, few filmmakers are more inspirational than Nadine Labaki. On top of the inherent difficulty of succeeding as a writer-director, Labaki grew up in Lebanon's war-ravaged capital, Beirut, in a Middle Eastern culture where women are essentially second-class citizens. However, Labaki's passion Nick Dawsontag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5576853310755582182.post-32280883006526762392008-01-23T23:34:00.000-05:002008-02-06T12:57:25.944-05:00CATHERINE OWENS, U2 3DBONO AND THE EDGE IN CATHERINE OWENS AND MARK PELLINGTON'S U2 3D. COURTESY NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC ENTERTAINMENT.
Though her body of work is famous, Catherine Owens — the woman behind the visual design of U2's legendary stadium tours of the past 15 years — until now has maintained a much lower profile. Beginning with the band's revolutionary ZooTV tour in 1992, Irish artist Owens used her expertise Nick Dawsontag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5576853310755582182.post-63101107984585561462008-01-18T13:16:00.000-05:002008-01-30T00:24:09.976-05:00BRYAN GUNNAR COLE, DAY ZEROCHRIS KLEIN, JON BERNTHAL AND ELIJAH WOOD IN DIRECTOR BRYAN GUNNAR COLE'S DAY ZERO. COURTESY FIRST LOOK PICTURES.
It is common for directors to have a background in theater, documentary filmmaking or editing, but Bryan Gunnar Cole is almost unique for having made a mark in all three fields. Cole was one of the founders of the Annex Theatre, a fringe company based in his native Seattle which Nick Dawsontag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5576853310755582182.post-64254699960278027812008-01-09T20:32:00.000-05:002008-01-21T08:28:14.541-05:00ABBY EPSTEIN, THE BUSINESS OF BEING BORNAN EXPECTANT MOTHER IN DIRECTOR ABBY EPSTEIN'S THE BUSINESS OF BEING BORN. COURTESY RED ENVELOPE ENTERTAINMENT.
After years as a theater director, Abby Epstein has transitioned into being one of the most important new female voices in documentary film. Epstein began directing plays in the 1980s in Chicago where she started her own theater company, Roadworks Productions. In the late 1990s, she Nick Dawsontag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5576853310755582182.post-76222525852868382562008-01-02T11:19:00.000-05:002008-01-15T23:51:53.695-05:00ANDREW PIDDINGTON, THE KILLING OF JOHN LENNONJONAS BALL AS MARK CHAPMAN IN DIRECTOR ANDREW PIDDINGTON'S THE KILLING OF JOHN LENNON. COURTESY IFC FILMS.
After spending the majority of his career working in television, 54-year-old Brit Andrew Piddington has committed the rest of his career to being an independent film director. He began his career working with poetic filmmaker Brian Lewis in 1980, and directed his first solo project as a Nick Dawsontag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5576853310755582182.post-55998397808418484862007-12-28T11:13:00.000-05:002008-01-07T01:27:21.186-05:00JUAN ANTONIO BAYONA, THE ORPHANAGETHE GHOSTLY TOMÁS (ÓSCAR CASAS) IN DIRECTOR JUAN ANTONIO BAYONA'S THE ORPHANAGE. COURTESY PICTUREHOUSE.
Though he looks and dresses like he's still a teenager, behind Juan Antonio Bayona's youthful appearance hides a mature and sophisticated cinematic sensibility. The 32-year-old Barcelona native has a passion for movies that first led him to become a precocious journalist, and then to study Nick Dawsontag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5576853310755582182.post-83855002174196339562007-12-21T19:09:00.000-05:002008-01-03T23:46:39.933-05:00JAKE KASDAN, WALK HARD: THE DEWEY COX STORYJENNA FISCHER AND JOHN C. REILLY IN DIRECTOR JAKE KASDAN'S WALK HARD: THE DEWEY COX STORY. COURTESY COLUMBIA PICTURES.
Our perception of a director hinges heavily on the most recent film they've made. Jake Kasdan's last movie, The TV Set, was a smart, sardonic satire of the process of creating a hit series that drew on Kasdan's own bitter experiences in network television. Though Kasdan had Nick Dawsontag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5576853310755582182.post-73280726078316616322007-12-14T21:31:00.000-05:002008-01-03T23:44:48.796-05:00ESTHER ROBINSON, A WALK INTO THE SEA: DANNY WILLIAMS AND THE WARHOL FACTORYANDY WARHOL AND DANNY WILLIAMS IN DIRECTOR ESTHER ROBINSON'S A WALK INTO THE SEA: DANNY WILLIAMS AND THE WARHOL FACTORY. COURTESY ARTHOUSE FILMS.
Esther Robinson has an effusive passion for cinema that is infectious, and has led her to dedicate her career to helping artists and filmmakers. She studied film and television at NYU's Tisch School for the Arts, and at the age of only 24 produced Nick Dawsontag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5576853310755582182.post-49518618996089403512007-12-07T11:14:00.001-05:002007-12-19T08:38:33.675-05:00JENNIFER VENDITTI, BILLY THE KIDBILLY PRICE, THE STAR OF DIRECTOR JENNIFER VENDITTI'S DOCUMENTARY BILLY THE KID.COURTESY ELEPHANT EYE FILMS.
You might say that Jennifer Venditti is a people person. After starting out as a fashion stylist, she moved on to casting where she distinguished herself as someone with an eye for the unconventional as well as the beautiful. In 1998, she started JV8inc, a New York-based casting company Nick Dawsontag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5576853310755582182.post-32964013081366024272007-11-30T12:55:00.000-05:002007-12-12T08:04:17.659-05:00FRANK CAPPELLO, HE WAS A QUIET MANCHRISTIAN SLATER IN DIRECTOR FRANK CAPPELLO'S HE WAS A QUIET MAN. COURTESY MITROPOULOS FILMS.
Whether he's writing, directing, creating special effects, playing music, or simply recounting anecdotes, Frank Cappello seems to have a compulsive need to entertain. He honed his storytelling skills as a kid reading out his imagined motocross adventures to classmates, and then spent years writing specNick Dawsontag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5576853310755582182.post-70307005453924170532007-11-21T17:43:00.000-05:002007-12-05T01:46:07.174-05:00CRISPIN HELLION GLOVER, IT IS FINE! EVERYTHING IS FINE.STEVEN C. STEWART AND CARRIE SZLASA IN DIRECTOR CRISPIN HELLION GLOVER'S IT IS FINE! EVERYTHING IS FINE.
Put simply, Crispin Glover is not from here: there is an otherworldly quality to the actor-turned-director's appearance, manner and aesthetics that make even his friend and mentor David Lynch seem pretty normal. The son of actors Bruce and Marie Glover, he came to prominence in the mid-1980s Nick Dawson