LEARNING FROM MANNY FARBER

Scott Macaulay
In Summer, 2005, the filmmaker Barbara Schock wrote a spirited piece for Filmmaker about studying film with critic and artist Manny Farber, who died on Tuesday. Mirroring Farber's rapid-fire thinking, Schock makes you feel like you're in his classroom as she writes about the man, his syllabus, and his teaching style. We've posted it in our Web Exclusives. Here's the intro: The phenomenal [continue]

TRAJAN HORSES

Scott Macaulay
A year ago Gary Hustwit came out with Helvetica, showing how the typeface became the ubiquitous graphic signifier for... just about everything in the post-'60s era. Well, everything except one thing. As this web video demonstrates, when it comes to movie marketing, a font called Trajan rules. Watch this great clip for a glimpse at how unimaginative our movie marketing has become. (Hat tip: Ted Hope [continue]

WATCHMEN STUDIO GRUDGE MATCH

Scott Macaulay
Far away from the world of indie film one of the most dramatic show business stories is unfolding. As Nikki Finke and Variety are both reporting, a high-stakes showdown is occurring in court as Fox is suing Warner Brothers over the release of 300 director Zach Snyder's upcoming The Watchmen. From Dave McNary and Tatiana Siegel's piece: A judge has denied a Warner Bros. motion to dismiss [continue]

ROOFTOP FILMS ON IFC.COM

Laura Perez-Harris
Rooftop Films' shorts from their summer festival series are now on IFC.com. A mixture of eclectic narratives, animation and documentaries, each week three new shorts will be posted to the site. On there so far is Arthur Des Pins's animated Revolution of the Crabs and Sam Fleischner's drama Cave Flower.

GOTHAM AWARDS TO HONOR CRUZ

Jason Guerrasio
The IFP announced today that Penelope Cruz will be presented with a Gotham Award Tribute at the 18th annual Gotham Awards on Dec. 2 at NYC's Cipriani Wall Street. Cruz can recently be seen in Elegy opposite Ben Kingsley and Woody Allen's Vicky Cristina Barcelona (pictured right). Additional Tribute receipients will be named next week and nominees for this year's Gothams will be announced on [continue]

MANNY FARBER, 1917 - 2008

Scott Macaulay
Celebrated and influential film critic Manny Farber died yesterday at the age of 91. At Movie City Indie Ray Pride has a lovely, well-linked remembrance, which opens like this: Manny Farber, painter, brilliant writer, indelible critic and all-round original whom some aped and few grazed, died in his sleep last night at the age of 91. He had retired from writing and teacher and devoted himself [continue]

CARA MERTES

Filmmaker Steve James (Hoop Dreams, Stevie) speaks to the Director of the Sundance Institute Documentar Program about her plans in her new position at Sundance.

MICHELLE SATTER

Scott Macaulay speaks with the Founding Director of the Sundance Institute’s Feature Film Program about, among other things, the rhythms, rituals and successes of the Sundance Filmmaker Labs.

KEN BRECHER

Scott Macaulay speaks with the Executive Director of the Sundance Institute about Sundance the institution, its programs, and the future of its audience.

GEOFF GILMORE

Holly Willis speaks to the Director of the Sundance Film Festival about the Festival, the future, and the press’s “scorecard mentality.”

JOHN COOPER

Sundance’s Director of Festival Programming tells us what to expect at this year’s fest. By Holly Willis. From the Winter 2007 issue.

Click here for a digital version of our special section on Sundance’s 25th Anniversary. Featuring essays on Sundance from key figures in the industry, a behind-the-scenes look at the creative process of the Sundance Labs, and profiles/interviews with many of the top people in the independent film community. This special section was made possible with the support of Hewlett-Packard.

WHITE PLASTIC FLOWER

1/29/07
Jamie Stuart takes on the Sundance Film Festival in his latest short. Click above to watch. Click here to download.

SNAKE EYES

Visualizing the world of Black Snake Moan.
By Bob Fisher
1/25/07
In Black Snake Moan Christina Ricci plays Rae, a nymphomaniac wracked by vivid memories and dreams of being sexually abused during her childhood. Also in Craig Brewer’s follow-up to his Sundance-hit Hustle and Flow is Samuel L. Jackson, who plays Lazarus, a God-fearing farmer who picks at his guitar, sings blues songs about sin, and, after a chance encounter, attempts to oversee Rae’s salvation. [continue]

CHRISTOPHER ZALLA

writer/directors: PADRE NUESTRO.
By James Ponsoldt
1/25/07
Padre Nuestro exemplifies the modern, international face of American independent cinema: the first-time director, Christopher Zalla, was born in Kenya, raised overseas (and is fluent in Spanish), schooled at Columbia, and created a stylish thriller that begins in Mexico and winds up in New York City. A smart film that — one could argue — uses its border-hopping protagonist’s stolen identity as a metaphor for globalization, Padre Nuestro will certainly spark debate at Sundance. [continue]

DAVID KAPLAN

writer/directors: YEAR OF THE FISH.
By James Ponsoldt
1/24/07
A veteran of Sundance with his short films — including the cryptic, menacing fairy tales, Little Red Riding Hood (starring Christina Ricci and Quentin Crisp!), Little Suck-A-Thumb, and The Frog King — which are regularly shown to film students as examples of exemplary short-form filmmaking, David Kaplan returns to the festival with his first feature, Year of the Fish. [continue]

DAN BUSH/DAVID BRUCKNER/JACOB GENTRY

writer/directors: THE SIGNAL.
By James Ponsoldt
1/24/07
Making a feature film, independent or otherwise, isn’t easy (understatement of the century). The seemingly impossible hurdle of gaining financing — not to mention the tiny details of actually executing the film and then seeking distribution — seem Herculean enough to scare off most would-be filmmakers.
Now imagine directing a feature film with two other directors. [continue]

ANOCHA SUWICHAKORNPONG

writer/director: GRACELAND.
By James Ponsoldt
1/24/07
Anocha Suwichakornpong, known by her friends as Mai, is at home on a film set. Case in point: while most filmmakers would kill to watch their film screen in front of a Sundance audience, Mai is on the other side of the world, shooting her next short film, Days and Days and Days and Days. [continue]

JAMES C. STROUSE

writer/director: GRACE IS GONE.
By James Ponsoldt
1/20/07
Certain films arrive at Sundance with a special type of anticipation, whether it’s due to star presence, subject matter, timeliness, or some ineffable quality that is the stuff of buzz. At Sundance 2007, Grace is Gone is one of those films. The directorial debut of James C. Strouse, who wrote Lonesome Jim (the Steve Buscemi-directed film screened at Sundance in 2005), the film tells the heart-wrenching story of a father, played by John Cusack, who must find a way to tell his children that their mother has been killed in Iraq. [continue]

CHERIEN DABIS

writer/director: MAKE A WISH.
By James Ponsoldt
1/20/07
Supported by numerous prestigious grants — including the Jerome Foundation’s New York City Media Arts Grant, the New York State Council on the Art’s Electronic Media and Film Distribution Grant, and National Geographic’s All Roads Film Project Seed Grant — Itmanna (Make a Wish), the most recent short film by writer/director, Cherien Dabis, will quickly follow its Sundance bow with screenings at Berlin and the Clermont-Ferrand Short Film Festival. [continue]

FELLIPE BARBOSA

writer/director: SALT KISS.
By James Ponsoldt
1/19/07
Salt Kiss, the second short film by writer/director Fellipe Barbosa to screen at Sundance (following last year’s La Muerte Es Pequena), has none of the tropes commonly associated—by Americans—with “Latin American” cinema. That means no knife-fights, gambling, gang violence, or overt poverty. Yet Salt Kiss is absolutely a Latin American film—Brazilian, to be exact—because its creator told a film straight from his heart, and yes, he happens to be from Brazil. [continue]

NANOBAH BECKER

writer/director: CONVERSION.
By James Ponsoldt
1/19/07
Conversion, the ambitious second short film by Nanobah Becker, clocks in at only nine minutes, and is described simply tantalizingly as: “Christian missionaries make a catastrophic visit to a Navajo family.” Becker’s first short, Flat, has screened in festivals internationally, and she is a recipient of a 2005 Sundance Institute Ford Fellowship and a 2006 Media Arts Fellowship for her feature screenplay, Full. [continue]

HOPE DICKSON LEACH

writer/director: THE DAWN CHORUS.
By James Ponsoldt
1/19/07
Hope Dickson Leach’s short film, The Dawn Chorus, tells the story of two siblings who annually reenact—with other survivors—the plane crash that killed their parents. An MFA thesis film for Columbia University’s Film program (where Hope graduated with honors), The Dawn Chorus explores the process of grieving and, hopefully healing. [continue]

IAN OLDS

writer/director: BOMB.
By James Ponsoldt
1/19/07
It isn’t easy to glean a sense of Ian Olds’ identity from his films — they’re too diverse, too global. From Occupation: Dreamland (short-listed for an Academy Award), a breathtaking documentary that avoids simple political interpretation by opting to tell the story of the Iraq War from the perspective of the entire city of Fallujah — including both native Iraqis and U.S. troops — to Bomb, his most recent film, which explores teenage heartache against the backdrop of a decrepit bombing range and junkie malaise, Olds seems to be imbued with an unusual sense of humanism and empathy for individuals stuck in agonizing situations. [continue]

LILAH VANDERBURGH

writer/director: BITCH.
By James Ponsoldt
1/19/07
Bitch, the kinetic, black-and-white, Harold Lloyd-meets-Jello Biafra love story, is one of the most visually sophisticated and stylized films to emerge from that Sundance short film-factory, Columbia University’s MFA Film Program (eight shorts screening at the festival this year!). The film’s director, Lilah Vanderburgh, is obsessed with skater culture, punk-rock, underground comics, and displays the hip film literacy of another director with an encyclopedic knowledge of pop culture.[continue]