Archive for July, 2009
Friday, July 31st, 2009
ARTA DOBROSHI IN LUC AND JEAN-PIERRE DARDENNE’S LORNA’S SILENCE. COURTESY SONY PICTURES CLASSICS.From Auguste and Louis Lumière onwards, filmmaking partnerships with last names like Coen, Duplass, Hughes, Maysles, Polish, Quay, Wachowski, Taviani, Zellner and Zucker – just to name a few – have been proving that siblings and cinema go well together, and Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne are certainly no exceptions. The Belgian filmmakers, born in Liège in 1951 and 1954 respectively, have been making films as a duo since 1975, when they formed the production company Dérives. After a decade of making documentaries, they shifted to doc-style fiction filmmaking with Falsch (1986), but it was not until La Promesse, about a slum landlord, his son and an illegal immigrant tenant, that they became widely known. The film, starring Dardenne regulars Olivier Gourmet and Jérémie Renier, won prizes worldwide and established the brothers as gifted social realists. Their 1999 follow-up about a struggling teen, Rosetta, consolidated their standing within world cinema when it won the Palme D’Or, as well as Best Actress for its lead Emilie Dequenne. Since then, they have regularly appeared every three years at Cannes with a new film: The Son played there in 2002, winning Best Actor for Gourmet, and in 2005 L’Enfant won them their second Palme D’Or, putting them in an elite group of auteurs who have been awarded Cannes’ main prize twice.
Their 2008 Cannes entry Lorna’s Silence, which is released this week, is a return to their preferred territory, stories of young outsiders, crime and poverty in contemporary Belgium. The movie’s central character is Albanian immigrant Lorna (Arta Dobroshi), who is in a fraudulent marriage to junkie Claudy (Jérémie Renier) that has gained her Belgian citizenship. Her ultimate aim is to start a snack bar with her boyfriend Sokol (Alban Ukaj), however the men who paid Claudy to marry her now want her to marry a Russian gangster to grant him citizenship – which means getting Claudy out of the picture. Lorna’s Silence shows the Dardennes at their best, creating realistic situations with true dramatic and emotional … Read the rest
Friday, July 31st, 2009
In “A Filmmaker’s Glamorous Life,” online and in our latest print edition, Esther Robinson surveyed a number of filmmakers about the jobs they’ve taken to support themselves when they are not making films. In this blog series we’ll run the unedited responses we received that were then condensed for the piece. Below: Tze Chun.
Filmmaker: How did you support yourself during the production of your last movie/movies? What was good/not good about this kind of job(s)?
Chun: I didn’t go to grad school, but was committed to making films. So I opted to do a bunch of short-term work rather than something that would have me in an office from 9-5 so I could focus on that. For the first three or four years out of school I sold abstract paintings and did portrait painting on commission as well as random event videography and DVD authoring work. What’s nice about painting is that it uses a totally different part of your brain, and you never really have to worry about getting financing or raising co-production money etc. You just need a paintbrush and a canvas. And for commissioned portrait painting especially, once the undercoat was done, I found I could let your mind wander and think about film work. I’m big on multi-tasking that way. Event videography was nice, because you do it and it’s done and you never think about that job again. I taught myself DVD Studio Pro, so I knew how to use it before most people did, and back in 2002-2004, that was kinda in demand. For about a year in 2004, I helped my mom open a real estate company in Boston. I did everything from designing the inside, to overseeing construction, to setting up the furniture and computers. I also painted the 15′x6′ sign in front of the building, which I am really not qualified to do.
As for what was bad about those jobs, I was getting paid, and I really have no complaints since they allowed me to do film in my free time.
Now, though I still do some … Read the rest
Friday, July 31st, 2009
The following email was passed along to us by the NYC Dept. of Cultural Affairs:
Dear colleagues:
A national survey entitled “Artists and the Economic Recession” is being undertaken to assess conditions for working artists in the current economic climate. The survey has been commissioned by Leveraging Investments in Creativity (LINC), a non-profit advocacy and service organization.
The goal is to generate a meaningful national census of the conditions that individual artists currently face, and to conduct a baseline assessment of this vital population, for use by funders, advocates and other stakeholders.
To help ensure robust participation among New York City’s artist community, please consider forwarding the link below to individual artists, including teaching artists, with whom your organization works.
The survey is being supervised by Princeton Survey Research Associates International and is available online. It will take about 15 minutes to complete, and is offered in both English and Spanish.
This survey is not a project of the Department of Cultural Affairs, and participation is completely voluntary. Anyone wishing to participate should click on the link below, and enter the user name provided.
Survey web site: http://survey.confirmit.com/wix/p938893825.aspx
User name: ART371
Technical questions should be addressed to techsupport AT psra.com.
Thank you.
… Read the rest
Thursday, July 30th, 2009
In “A Filmmaker’s Glamorous Life,” online and in our latest print edition, Esther Robinson surveyed a number of filmmakers about the jobs they’ve taken to support themselves when they are not making films. In this blog series we’ll run the unedited responses we received that were then condensed for the piece. Below: Sam Green.
Filmmaker: How did you support yourself during the production of your last movie/movies? And what was good/not good about these jobs?
Green: I’ve done a bunch of different things to support myself while making films. I started off doing freelance editing. I did some terrible outdoors/nature shows when I was getting started. The worst was an outdoor cooking show. In other words, some shmoe cooking over a campfire. The guy was terrible. It was quite an editing challenge to come up w/ good takes.
For a while, I edited docs for the History Channel. Also, pretty low quality stuff. America’s Psychic Past — one of my masterworks. This was actually really good work — I would crunch on a project for six or eight weeks and make what was for me a lot of money. Then I could not work for two or three months and edit my own stuff.
After a while, I started teaching at universities, and that I actually love. It doesn’t pay great, but I really do enjoy working with the kids.
I think it’s a balance between making money that will allow you to do your own work, but also not completely sapping your spirit or creativity or integrity. I now direct commercial stuff from time to time and that’s the challenge.
Sam Green is a San Francisco-based documentary filmmaker. Green received his master’s degree in journalism from the University of California, Berkeley, where he studied documentary with acclaimed filmmaker Marlon Riggs. His film The Weather Underground was nominated for an Academy Award in 2004, broadcast nationally on PBS, and included in the Whitney Biennial. His other award-winning documentaries include lot 63, grave c, The Rainbow Man/John 3:16, N-Judah 5:30, and Pie Fight ’69. Mr. Green currently teaches … Read the rest
Wednesday, July 29th, 2009
Up on the main page are three web-only interviews of particular interest. The first, posted moments ago, is David Lowery’s interview with Chris Fuller, director of Loren Cass. This no-budget indie (nominated for a Filmmaker-sponsored Gotham Award) is in theaters now from Kino and scored a surprise rave from Nathan Lee in the New York Times. I saw the film a couple of years ago at Cinevegas and was intrigued by its blend of art film aesthetics and documentary style realism. Lowery’s interview really gets at these issues and I recommend it; it’s a great read. Also up is Nick Dawson’s interview with the Dardenne Brothers, whose Lorna’s Silence opens this week. And then, finally, is Dawson’s interview with director Armando Iannucci, whose In the Loop is sleeper hit currently playing at the IFC Center and available on IFC’s VOD platform.… Read the rest
Wednesday, July 29th, 2009
There’s something to be said about not being eager to please. Chris Fuller’s Loren Cass is an aggressively confrontational debut, all the more so because it is so resolutely restrained in its approach. So seemingly oblique is Fuller’s approach that one feasibly could make it through the entire film and not realize that its subject matter is the aftermath of the 1996 St. Petersburg riots; but on the other hand, that subject matter is so deeply ingrained in the film’s form that it doesn’t matter. Loren Cass doesn’t so much deal with its themes as it ingests them, and then – through the juxtaposition of gorgeously photographed tableaux, depicting the various intersections of wayward youths in a shellshocked city; and through the use of poetry and political speeches on the soundtrack; and through stock footage depicting myriad public woes – it recapitulates them.
This is a strikingly formalist work, with echoes of the old masters as well as more recent cause celebres like Tsai Ming Liang and Harmony Korine. Fuller’s intent, though, is so intensely personal and tightly wound that all comparisons are ultimately irrelevant. This is, for better or worse, his vision, and Loren Cass an entirely unique – and uniquely American – art film with a capital A.
Two years after premiering at CineVegas and being nominated for a Gotham Award, Loren Cass opened in New York on July 24th. Kino International will be releasing it theatrically in additional markets in the coming months (it is also available digitally through iTunes and Amazon).
Filmmaker: The movie starts with a temporal bang, as a single voice-over utterance takes us back to the late 90s. How old were you when the St. Petersburg riots occurred? Clearly they made a big impression on you.
Fuller: I was 15 at the time and I think it made an impression on everyone around here. It was sort of a backdrop to what was going on in my life and on my side of town and kind of colored everything during that particular time. I was working on the script and it … Read the rest
Wednesday, July 29th, 2009
In “A Filmmaker’s Glamorous Life,” online and in our latest print edition, Esther Robinson surveyed a number of filmmakers about the jobs they’ve taken to support themselves when they are not making films. In this blog series we’ll run the unedited responses we received that were then condensed for the piece. Below: Natalia Almada.
Filmmaker: How did you support yourself during the production of your last movie/movies?
Almada: I was very lucky with El General because I was able to support myself with funding for the film for the most part of the production. It was only in the very beginning that I took an editing job for about six months — editing someone else’s feature doc.
Filmmaker: What was good/not good about this kind of job(s)?
Almada: Good — I love editing. The director was a pleasure to work with. The pay was good. Bad – it was all consuming for six months so didn’t leave me any energy or time for my film.
Filmmaker: What is the best second job you ever had?
Almada: I really love editing as I think it makes me a better filmmaker and it is creative. (I’ve only edited docs so that’s the kind of editing I’m referring to)
Filmmaker: What made it the best?
Almada: It was creative. The other thing which seems to be a really good gig is doing the academic artist lecture tours… These seem to pay well, they’re really rewarding in terms of the feedback and energy from students, they don’t take up all your time, they’re flexible… I just need to figure out how to do more of them. Say, if I could do about 12-15 a year it would be perfect.Teaching isn’t a bad option either. I’ve done that a little. But it ties you down to a place which can be hard. It is also pretty tough getting a teaching job in NYC.
Filmmaker: What was the worst?
Almada: My fear is having to wait tables again as I did through school. Or make corporate … Read the rest
Tuesday, July 28th, 2009
Here is producer Thomas Woodrow’s final post wrapping up his experience at this year’s Sundance Creative Producing Lab.
When last we met, I was on my way to the Sundance Creative Producing Lab to answer a few pressing questions about my upcoming project, The Skeleton Twins, as well as creative producing in general.
The Lab was an amazing experience, not only on the level of the exchange of information (which was a veritable fire hose) but also, and at least as importantly on the depth of the conversation in which we engaged together. It is one thing to swap war stories over a beer and and entirely different thing to spend four days, for ten hours a day, sitting around a table with the same people, drilling deep into the most interesting and troubling questions we’re all facing as independent producers in the toughest and most dynamic landscape for feature film finance, production and distribution we’ve practically ever seen. And also, to raise candid questions about how we’re supposed to survive and indeed, carry on making content, in a distribution landscape that is more cash-strapped and fragmented than ever.
In my prior blog post, I posed a few key questions that were on my mind as I went into the Producing Lab. I hereby report back to you with my answers.
• What are the best ways of financing an independent film in this rough economy? The answer to this question has a couple of parts. During one extraordinary afternoon session, advisors led us through the process of assessing both what a film “can cost” and what that film “should cost.”
Arriving at the former number is straightforward: either you have the skill set yourself to do so or you hire an experienced line producer, but in any case, you make a calculation as to what the film would cost to make. You’ll end up with a “high” estimate as well as a “low” estimate, wherein without compromising any of the key creative elements that make the movie what it most essentially is, you crunch the budget as far … Read the rest
Tuesday, July 28th, 2009
Here’s our final Sundance Creative Producing Lab blog from producer Mynette Louie, who collects her thoughts after a night’s sleep back in New York.
I flew home from the Sundance Resort late last night and just woke up after a 10-hour slumber. The weeklong experience of the Creative Producing Lab and Summit was intense, to say the least! Each day of the four-day Lab and 2.5-day Summit started at 8am and ended at 11pm, and we barely had any breaks.
The range of what we covered with our producing advisers — Lynette Howell, Paul Mezey, Mary Jane Skalski, Jay Van Hoy — guests, and the Sundance staff was vast: the writer-director relationship, specific creative feedback on our scripts, the producer-financier relationship, communication issues, the indie marketplace today, the festival circuit, distribution issues, the producer-attorney relationship, costing your project, strategic planning, music in film, the art of pitching, how to survive as an indie film producer, and how to strike the work/life balance. That’s a lotta stuff! Which leads me to the first of my five key takeaways from the Lab:
1. The range of what a producer needs to know today is gigantic. Lynette Howell kept telling us this. Like me, she calls herself a “soup-to-nuts” producer. I think today, you have to be more like a “soup-to-nuts-to-soup-to…NUTS!!!” producer. The job of a producer has always been tough, but now that we can’t rely on the old models of financing and distribution, it’s tougher than ever. You have to know how to read a contract, do a schedule, do a budget, project revenue, talk to financiers, understand tax incentives, keep pace with distribution, promote your movie, reach your audiences, and oh yeah, talk about story. It’s daunting, for sure, but as people who have a natural inclination for knowing a lot about many different things, we should embrace the fact that we must make it our business now to know everything about everything.
2. The producer is the last man (woman) standing. Paul Mezey says the “first in/last out” mantra that applies to a producer on set applies to the … Read the rest
Tuesday, July 28th, 2009
When a film is labeled controversial on its release, often times with the passage of time things that made it risqué become tamer, leaving the story less effective. Abel Ferrara’s Bad Lieutenant is not one of those films.
17 years after being released, Ferrara’s disturbing look at a dirty cop (played by Harvey Keitel in one of his most powerful performances) running rampant on the streets of New York City is still as gritty, horrifying and powerful as when it premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in 1992. Receiving a much needed special edition, out this week through Lions Gate, the film has grown in popularity through the years, as a new generation of filmmakers and film lovers, too young to have seen the film when it first came out, have embraced its honesty and amazing, no-holds-barred filmmaking.
Written by Ferrara and actress Zoe Lund (who stars in the film), the film examines the mortality of man and how power can be one of the most intoxicating vices. But it also explores a New York that no longer exists, as Ferrara calls it in the disc’s commentary, “a cowboy, shoot ‘em up time.”
Guided through the late night New York City streets by LT (Keitel), dazed and confused most of the time, Ferrara’s use of sports talk show host “Mad Dog” Russo in the opening credits sets a feel that’s as tense and unsettling as the Dog’s patented rambling, high-pitched voice.
The film’s plot is very basic. LT is on a big case trying to solve who rapped a nun in Spanish Harlem while having a huge debt over his head from a bookie on the Mets/Dodgers League Championship Series (a fictitious event).
But the plot isn’t what keeps you glued to the screen. It’s Keitel’s tour-de-force performance in which he portrays the most despicable anti-hero ever to be put on screen. (In the documentary special feature it notes that Christopher Walken was offered the role of LT first, but quickly bowed out stating he could never play this kind of part.) Like Ferrara’s King of New York, … Read the rest
ARTA DOBROSHI IN LUC AND JEAN-PIERRE DARDENNE’S LORNA’S SILENCE. COURTESY SONY PICTURES CLASSICS.
