Posted Feb 22, 2012, by Dan Schoenbrun
Over at Hammer to Nail, Michael Tully has announced the winner for the inaugural edition of his monthly Short Film Contest. This month’s winner, Kelly Sears’ Once It Started It Could Not End, is available to watch online, and it’s unforgettable; a nightmare-ish collage of refracted high school memories, manipulated yearbook photos, and an escalating sense of dread.
You can stream Once It Started It Could Not End over at Vimeo. My advice – don’t watch it at work unless you want your coworkers to see your terrified face.
Previously supported by Rooftop’s Filmmakers’ Fund, Sears’ short was chosen by a panel of judges including filmmaker David Gordon Green, reRun Gastropub curator Aaron Hillis, and Hammer to Nail editor Michael Tully. As part of her prize, Sears will receive fee waivers to several major US film festivals, as well as a full review on Hammer to Nail (which you can read here.)
Submissions are open through March 1st for the contest’s second edition. This month’s judges include Compliance director Craig Zobel, critic Alison Willmore, and producer Mike S. Ryan (Think of Me, The Comedy.) Submit now here.… Read the rest
Posted Feb 22, 2012, by Dan Schoenbrun
The Independent Feature Project is now accepting applications for two of its international programs.
The Cannes Producer’s Network, a week-long immersion program, runs concurrently with the Cannes International Film Festival in May. The program is specifically designed for experienced producers looking to build their international networks and share expertise on the international production, financing, and packaging marketplace. Recent participants have included Howard Gertler (Shortbus), Anita Onadine & Lance Weiler (Head Trauma, Pandemic), Mike Ryan (Choke), Susan Stover (Laurel Canyon), and Ron Simons (Gun Hill Road, Night Catches Us).
To apply, please send a resume and one-page letter of interest to John Sylva (jsylva@ifp.org), by Tuesday, March 6th. Five producers
will be selected to attend the Producers Network and two emerging producers will attend the Producer’s Lab. All applicants must be
IFP members at any level to be considered for the program.
Applications are also open for the 2012 Trans Atlantic Partners Fellowship, an intensive three-week film training program for U.S., Canadian, and European producers seeking co-production/co-venture professional development. The three modules happen throughout the year, first with a week-long session in Berlin this June, then in Halifax this September (with a session that leads directly into Strategic Partners, Canada’s international co-production market) and finally, at Independent Film Week in New York. Previous participants have included Cora Olson and Jennifer Dubin (Good Dick), and Nekisa Cooper (Pariah).
The TAP application is available online here. The deadline to apply is March 21, 2012.… Read the rest
Posted Feb 22, 2012, by Nicholas Rombes
Second #3854, 64:14
“I saw The Yellow Man come out and meet up with a well-dressed man carrying an alligator briefcase,” Jeffrey tells Sandy, as we see him snapping a picture with his rigged-up camera-in-a-shoebox, a strange, analog echo of the Lumière brothers’ early motion picture camera. The sequence is reminiscent of a similar one (also involving doubles) in Brian De Palma’s Dressed to Kill, when Kate’s (Angie Dickinson’s) son Peter (Keith Gordon) has suspicions about Dr. Elliott (Michael Caine) and concocts a camera set-up to photograph the entry to his office. The whole operation is so dead-on: the detective’s determination in Jeffrey’s face, the elaborate string contraption he uses to snap the pictures, the hushed seriousness of his voice as the narrates to Sandy what he’s seen.
What’s easy to forget during this sequence is that what we’re being shown in this frame isn’t what Jeffrey saw, but what the camera filming Blue Velvet saw, as opposed to the shot from the previous post, which actually depicts Jeffrey’s flashback from his point of view. This shot at second #3854 is what we might call implied memory information; it reflects how Jeffrey—as he retells the story to Sandy at Arlene’s later that day—might have imagined himself as he took the photos. It’s interesting: Sandy can’t see these flashbacks. She simply hears what Jeffrey says. But is it implied that Jeffrey can see them? Are we to understand that, as he’s talking to Sandy about what happened, he’s picturing what we, as the audience, are seeing? Or is this visual information outside of both Jeffrey and Sandy, existing for our sake alone, to help give a settled shape and form to the narrative?
In a sense, what does it matter? We are woven so tightly into the narrative fabric of the film that that whether this is an image of Jeffrey remembering and picturing himself or simply a shot originating outside his psychological world (or some combination of both) seems to be a meaningless distinction. And yet, in a film about what lies beneath the surface of things and … Read the rest
Posted Feb 22, 2012, by Daniel James Scott
Ask a filmmaker how to go about making your first film, and 99% of them will impart the easier-said-than-done advice, “Just go and make it.” The technology is there, filming and editing equipment have never been more affordable, and the internet has broken down the barriers between filmmakers and distributors. Few of those filmmakers, however, can give that advice as genuinely as Marshall Curry, who did just that with remarkable results.
While working at a New York multimedia design firm, Curry decided to pursue a latent desire to make documentary films. With no prior experience in filmmaking, he bought a Sony PD150 and started filming Newark’s 2002 mayoral race between Corey Booker and then-four-time incumbent Sharpe James. That film became Street Fight, and was nominated for an Oscar in 2005. Fast forward to today, where Curry has received his second Oscar nomination for his latest film, If A Tree Falls: A Story of the Earth Liberation Front, and you could do a lot worse for a self-taught filmmaker with just three films under his belt.
Between Curry’s first and his latest film falls Racing Dreams, which has its television premiere on PBS on February 23rd at 9PM. Just because it lacks an Oscar nomination doesn’t mean it’s a film to be slighted. Like its oft-cited comparison Hoop Dreams, Racing Dreams locates a multi-character, coming of age story within a sport where the players literally grow up before your eyes. The film was crafted from around 500 hours of footage, and, different from Hoop Dreams, unfolds over a brisk hour and a half.
Racing Dreams explores the so-called “Little League” of NASCAR racing, the World Karting Association, where pre-teens from around the country race go karts at speeds of up to 70 mph. Curry zeroes in on three young drivers — Annabeth (11 years old), Josh (12), and Brandon (13) — and watches them compete for the league’s National Championship. Bearing in mind an urban viewer’s possible ignorance to the sport, he sidesteps the generic, competition film approach and treats racing more as an entry … Read the rest
Posted Feb 21, 2012, by Brian M. Cassidy and Melanie Shatzky
We made it to Berlin and back in one piece. Melanie and I were at the Berlinale for the world premiere of Francine, our first narrative feature starring Melissa Leo. We couldn’t have possibly predicted the response to the film, which has been overwhelmingly positive. Francine showed in the festival’s Forum section, and sold out all four of its screenings before we even premiered. Melissa made the trip out to Berlin, and we were fortunate enough to have had several lively and very engaged Q&A sessions. Seeing the film together for the first time with an audience, especially after a very intense period of shooting, was gratifying beyond words. We want to thank IFP & Filmmaker Magazine for allowing us this space to share some of our festival experiences as well as inviting us to speak on the New Talents, New Trends panel alongside Producer Mike S. Ryan (Think of Me), filmmakers David and Nathan Zellner (Kid-Thing) and Olivia Silver (Arcadia).
Next, Francine heads Austin, TX for South by Southwest (SXSW) where American audiences will have their first chance to see it.
If you want to know more about Francine, the film’s official website is: www.francinethefilm.com
Here is the synopsis:
Academy Award winner Melissa Leo gives a fierce and restrained performance as Francine, a woman struggling to find her place in a downtrodden lakeside town after leaving behind a life in prison. Taking a series of jobs working with animals, Francine turns away others and instead seeks intimacy in the most unlikely of places. Gritty, elliptical, and voyeuristic, Francine is a portrait of a near-silent misfit and her fragile first steps in an unfamiliar world.
And some snapshots from the Berlinale:
L-R: Melanie Shatzky, Melissa Leo & Brian M. Cassidy.
Finalizing the layout for the Francine poster.
Suit shopping for the premiere.
Melanie asleep at the airport, post-Rotterdam / pre-Berlin.
We were invited to a luncheon at the American Embassy in Berlin. In retrospect, I should have used a coaster for my champagne.
Francine is a Canada/US co-production. We were delighted to discover … Read the rest
Posted Feb 20, 2012, by Scott Macaulay
At the Daily Telegraph, Adrian Hon, Founder of the online games company Six to Start, writes a modest proposal providing an answer to the controversies over copyright, remixing, piracy, filesharing, etc: eternal copyright. In 1710, the Statue of Anne decreed that the term of copyright last from 14 – 28 years. In the 300 years since, that term has only increased to 70 years from the death of the author. Swift implementation of an eternal copyright law would not only spur creative innovation but redress societal wrongs. From the piece:
Imagine you’re a new parent at 30 years old and you’ve just published a bestselling new novel. Under the current system, if you lived to 70 years old and your descendants all had children at the age of 30, the copyright in your book – and thus the proceeds – would provide for your children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, and great-great-grandchildren.
But what, I ask, about your great-great-great-grandchildren? What do they get? How can our laws be so heartless as to deny them the benefit of your hard work in the name of some do-gooding concept as the “public good”, simply because they were born a mere century and a half after the book was written? After all, when you wrote your book, it sprung from your mind fully-formed, without requiring any inspiration from other creative works – you owe nothing at all to the public. And what would the public do with your book, even if they had it? Most likely, they’d just make it worse.
No, it’s clear that our current copyright law is inadequate and unfair. We must move to Eternal Copyright – a system where copyright never expires, and a world in which we no longer snatch food out of the mouths of our creators’ descendants. With eternal copyright, the knowledge that our great-great-great-grandchildren and beyond will benefit financially from our efforts will no doubt spur us on to achieve greater creative heights than ever seen before.
Read the entire piece for more of Hon’s proposal, including its implications on Hans Christian Anderson, Shakespeare and the Bible.… Read the rest
Posted Feb 20, 2012, by Nicholas Rombes
Second #3807, 63:27
1. “Today,” Jeffrey tells Sandy at Arlene’s, as we see a flashback of what he’s describing, “I staked out Frank’s place with a camera. Now, there’s another man involved in all this. I call him The Yellow Man.” These shots, in the bright of day, are some of the most quietly beautiful in the film with their burnt-orange 1940s-era Allied Vans, as if Walker Evans photographs had switched to color.
2. In Derek Raymond’s novel The Devil’s Home On Leave, the nameless Detective Sergeant recalls a terrible dream:
But in the night I dreamed that two figures appeared at the foot of my bed in Earlsfield. The one in front was a thickset, middle-aged man, heavy-featured and dressed in a cap and a thick grey coat. He made as if to chop at me with his hand. Black matter seeped out of his mouth and nose and he had been dead for years. The figure behind was so evil that one glance was all I could stomach. It was very small, a collection of what looked like old peeled sticks wrapped in a sack; it radiated hell’s own malice and groaned to get at me.
3. The frame at second #3807, too, has its own malice, in the form of the black window to the right of the gas pump, its upper pane boarded over, the irrational sense (in the way that nightmares are) that there may be someone inside watching Jeffrey, who is himself watching Frank. The window recalls, as imperfectly as memory, the Man in the Planet at the window in Eraserhead.
4. A few moments after this frame, once Jeffrey has described more of what he saw, he asks, “Now the trouble is, what does that prove?” Sandy’s response is “Nothing, really, but it’s interesting.” Just like a dream, or a nightmare.
Over the period of one full year — three days per week — The Blue Velvet Project will seize a frame every 47 seconds of David Lynch’s classic to explore. These posts will run until second 7,200 in August 2012. … Read the rest
Posted Feb 20, 2012, by Scott Macaulay
We are filmmakers. We are artisans.
Or so we forget.
With filmmaking so often abstracted from the actual work of making a film, so enmeshed in conversations about new models and plans and strategies, we sometimes lose touch with what should be the main reason we make movies in the first place: to take pride in works of art made beautifully and with love.
It is precisely the love of artisanal creation that is celebrated in Jeffrey Kusama-Hinte’s Charlotte: A Wooden Boat Story, a verite doc chronicling the making of a 50-foot gaff rigged schooner, “Charlotte,” by a team of craftsmen working in a Martha’s Vineyard Boatyard. Focusing particularly on boat builder Nat Benjamin, Kusama-Hinte observes the painstaking and quiet work involved in building such an elegant craft over the several years required. In doing so, he eschews many of today’s accepted documentary strategies — pinning narrative on conflict, or allowing a character-based story to assume center stage. Instead, Kusama-Hinte focuses on the work, and he pushes us, the audience, to concentrate on its pleasures as well as its vexations, on the focus required to sustain it and the quiet satisfaction achieved by its final completion. With a lovely, Satie-like score by Paul Brill, Charlotte has a gentle, meditative power.
Charlotte is the second feature by Kusama-Hinte, whose Soul Power documentary was half glorious concert film and half exhilarating behind-the-scenes chronicle of the famed concert accompanying the “Rumble in the Jumble” boxing match. The two films are quite different, but they share a respect for their subject matters and a resolve to find the cinematic styles most suited to them. Kusama-Hinte is also a well known producer, whose credits include The Kids are All Right, Thirteen and Mysterious Skin, as well as — full disclosure — the Board Chair of IFP, the publisher of Filmmaker.
I spoke to Kusama-Hinte about making Charlotte, the work required to place it before audiences, and the DIY techniques he’s using to promote and distribute it.
Filmmaker: So, tell me about how you began this documentary, Charlotte.
Kusama-Hinte: I … Read the rest
Posted Feb 17, 2012, by Malika Zouhali-Worrall and Katy Fairfax Wright
It’s opening night of the 62nd Berlinale, and we’re tottering down the gleaming red carpet, tipsy with exhaustion after a marathon three-week final push to finish our documentary Call Me Kuchu for its world premiere at the festival. The black tie affair has women dripping in mink and jewels, and men tightly bound in waistcoats and cummerbunds. Just 48 hours prior, we were dripping in sweat and bound by a serious time crunch as we raced to the airport, gripping two newly-minted HDCAMs, still toasty-warm from the tape deck.
Our run at the Berlinale marks the culmination of two years documenting the work of Uganda’s first openly gay man and activist, David Kato, who was brutally murdered midway through our shoot and just weeks after winning a landmark lawsuit in Uganda’s High Court. The film closely follows Kampala’s LGBT activist community, so we felt it was crucial to have someone present at the screenings to speak for the kuchus. After weeks of nerve-wracking uncertainty trying to wrangle visas and travel permission, we were able to do just that – Naome Ruzindana, an LGBT activist, a key player in the film and a good friend, joined us in Berlin just in the nick of time before the premiere.
Walking into the theater, Naome’s eyes widened with ours as we passed a line of Berliners hoping for eleventh hour entry to the sold-out screening. We settled into our seats, and gave each other a quick hand-squeeze as the lights went down.
When the lights came back up, we were invited down to the front of the theater with our composer Jon Mandabach and Naome, who followed a few steps behind. As she stepped in front of the audience the applause swelled significantly and she gave an outstretched wave with a sheepish grin.
After eons of friends-and-family-only screenings (the only dedicated souls willing to sit through a three-hour cut) the eager responses from the crowd of strangers was a welcome kick-off to the dialogue we hope this film will launch. As we discussed how the Anti-Homosexuality Bill, which David fought tooth and nail, was … Read the rest
Posted Feb 17, 2012, by Scott Macaulay
Kirby Ferguson’s epic and informative web serial, Everything is a Remix, comes to an inspiring conclusion with part four, to my mind the best of the series. In “Part Four: System Failures,” he looks at the historical roots of copyright and patent protection and examines how today’s system has drifted so far away from the original goals of furthering the public good while still protecting creators. I can’t recommend Ferguson’s series more highly, and if you find yourself in an argument with someone about legislations like SOPA, PiPA and ACTA, point them towards these videos for a succinctly argued treatise on intellectual property in the age of the internet.
On the basis of the episodes he had done so far, I selected Ferguson for Filmmaker‘s 2011 “25 New Faces” list. Here’s how I began his profile:
It’s hard to create something original about the remix. Okay, that would seem to go without saying, but I’m not referring to the subject of the remix — I’m talking about the discourse surrounding it. From Lawrence Lessig’s book Remix to Brett Gaylor’s feature doc, RIP: A Remix Manifesto, the creative, social and political issues surrounding the rise of remix culture have been debated with brio. Paradoxically, then, the familiarity we have with the issue of remixing is precisely what makes Kirby Ferguson’s four-part Web series, Everything is a Remix, so compelling. Rather than push a copy-left agenda or hype the latest mash-up artist, Ferguson uses the subject of the remix to discuss the history and nature of creativity. Everything is a Remix deconstructs the idea of originality, exploring the creative but also technological and business memes that recombine from one generation to the next, making us feel that we are encountering something “new” along the way. And it does so in bite-size, six-minute segments that have become a self-sustaining enterprise for its New York-based director.
“The idea for the series started a few years ago, when there were [plagiarism] lawsuits against Coldplay, J.K. Rowling and Dan Brown,” says Ferguson. “I thought they were kind of far-fetched. Why does someone
… Read the rest
