BEIJING TAXI: THE METER IS RUNNING

Scott Macaulay
Filmmaker Miao Wang, a Beijing native now based in Brooklyn, is currently racing to finish her feature doc Beijing Taxi in time for SXSW, where it's scheduled to world premiere. She needs to raise $11,000 to cover post-production expenses and is just under half way there with five days left to go at Kickstarter. From the Kickstarter page: BEIJING TAXI is a feature length documentary that [continue]

A DIFFERENT KIND OF CLIP REEL

Scott Macaulay
Most movie-moment montages work an A-B-A structure in which "A" is sentimental uplift. This montage by Paul Proulx goes for something different. (Hat tip: Anne Thompson.) the films of the 2000s from Paul Proulx on Vimeo.

DAVID LYNCH ON MAKING A GOOD MOVIE

Scott Macaulay

HOW COOL IS INDIE FILM?

Scott Macaulay
Indie film champions are often fond of comparing what we do to indie music. If bands can tour, why can't we? If bands can sell merch, then we should too. If recording artists can form boutique labels, then why can't film distributors? Like, for example, Oscilloscope, the film label of Beastie Boy Adam Yauch. At Flavorwire, Judy Berman takes this assumption to task in a piece called "Why is Indie Film Dying While Indie Music Thrives?" [continue]

PAOLA MENDOZA ON BIG ART, LITTLE DEBT

Scott Macaulay
In the new issue of Filmmaker, Esther Robinson penned "The Big Art/Little Debt Plan," which discusses the relation of filmmakers to risk, their films, and their money. She reached out to several filmmakers by email, and their responses helped shape her article. We are running several of the responses Esther received here on the blog. Below is the one from Paola Mendoza, director of Entre Nos. [continue]

MASSIVE ATTACK COLLABORATES WITH GEORGINA SPELVIN, HOPE SANDOVAL

Scott Macaulay
As Scott posted earlier today, 3-D is not just on the minds of the majors. And with the news that JP Morgan has raised millions to finance the digital conversion of around 12,000 screens, it's a first step for one day indie filmmakers to share their own 3-D projects with studio fare in theaters. According to the Los Angeles Times piece, the investment bank raised close to $700 million. The [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]