From the basement of dingy jam sessions in Akron, Ohio, to arena rock success, a multiplatinum career, and multiple Grammy wins, “This is a Film About The Black Keys” tracks the unlikely rise of one of rock’s biggest duos. Directed by Jeff Dupre, the largely conventional rock doc doesn’t break the mold but engages, nonetheless, telling a captivating story of brotherhood, slow-grinding perseverance, weathering many personal storms, and the heavy tolls that success enacts.
Continue reading ‘This Is A Film About The Black Keys’ Review: Conventional, But Engaging Rock Doc Considers The Price Of Success [SXSW] at The Playlist.
Continue reading ‘This Is A Film About The Black Keys’ Review: Conventional, But Engaging Rock Doc Considers The Price Of Success [SXSW] at The Playlist.
- 3/12/2024
- by Rodrigo Perez
- The Playlist
One of the most iconic scenes in Oliver Stone‘s 1991 classic “JFK” involves Donald Sutherland as a mysterious operative filling Kevin Costner‘s Jim Garrison in on the forces behind the 1963 assassination of President John F. Kennedy. In an exhilarating tour de force performance for which Sutherland should have been Oscar-nominated, the actor tells a mesmerizing story packed with dense information that blows Garrison’s — and by extension, the viewer’s — mind, shifting the movie into an intense higher gear that propels the film’s final hour. The scene is unthinkable without Sutherland, and yet it could have gone a very different way.
At a live edition of IndieWire’s Filmmaker Toolkit podcast presented by the American Cinematheque in Los Angeles, writer, producer, and director Stone revealed that he had discussed the role Sutherland eventually played with one of his childhood heroes. “I had been dumb enough to go to Marlon Brando,...
At a live edition of IndieWire’s Filmmaker Toolkit podcast presented by the American Cinematheque in Los Angeles, writer, producer, and director Stone revealed that he had discussed the role Sutherland eventually played with one of his childhood heroes. “I had been dumb enough to go to Marlon Brando,...
- 8/31/2023
- by Jim Hemphill
- Indiewire
London-based Sideways Film has taken world sales on British director Carey Born’s “Cyborg: A Documentary” about a man who was born color blind and has an antenna embedded in his head to help contend with this condition.
Filmed in the U.K., Spain, Denmark, Australia and across the U.S. in New York, Los Angeles, San Jose and New Jersey, the doc about the world’s first officially recognized cyborg premiered last month at the Cph:dox festival in Copenhagen and was selected by the fest to screen online on its Para:dox platform.
“Cyborg” centers on “cyborg artist” Neil Harbisson who was born with a rare condition called achromatopsia, which means he sees only in black and white. In 2003 Harbisson had an illegal operation. A so-called “eyeborg” antenna was implanted in the back of his head enabling him to “hear colour” as waves that are translated into sound frequencies and transmitted to his auditory cortex.
Filmed in the U.K., Spain, Denmark, Australia and across the U.S. in New York, Los Angeles, San Jose and New Jersey, the doc about the world’s first officially recognized cyborg premiered last month at the Cph:dox festival in Copenhagen and was selected by the fest to screen online on its Para:dox platform.
“Cyborg” centers on “cyborg artist” Neil Harbisson who was born with a rare condition called achromatopsia, which means he sees only in black and white. In 2003 Harbisson had an illegal operation. A so-called “eyeborg” antenna was implanted in the back of his head enabling him to “hear colour” as waves that are translated into sound frequencies and transmitted to his auditory cortex.
- 4/26/2023
- by Nick Vivarelli
- Variety Film + TV
Just before the end of the seventh episode of Season 2 of “Perry Mason,” the writers expose the mastermind behind the murder that Mason’s defendants — a pair of poor Mexican brothers — were paid to commit. It’s the perfect reveal in that the villain’s identity feels shocking yet inevitable upon reflection, given how intricately it’s interwoven with everything that has come before. Yet according to Michael Begler, who took over showrunning duties on “Perry Mason” this season with his writing partner Jack Amiel, the identity of the antagonist came fairly late in the process. “I think the last part [we figured out] was who done it,” Begler told IndieWire’s Filmmaker Toolkit podcast. “When I really think about how we broke the season, we were rewriting and rewriting. It was changing constantly.”
Coming on to the show, Begler’s desire was to expand the series’ vision of Los Angeles. Giving “Perry...
Coming on to the show, Begler’s desire was to expand the series’ vision of Los Angeles. Giving “Perry...
- 4/25/2023
- by Jim Hemphill
- Indiewire
Twenty years ago, musician-turned-filmmaker Rob Zombie combined two types of horror films that he loved — Universal monster movies and the down-and-dirty ’70s provocations of Tobe Hooper and Wes Craven — to create “House of 1000 Corpses,” a film disowned by its original studio that went on to become a cult classic. The tale of two young couples who stumble across a demented backwoods family that engages in torture, cannibalism, and satanic rituals, it’s darkly hilarious and genuinely horrifying, packed with the kind of outrageous nightmare-inducing imagery that would characterize later Zombie works like “The Devil’s Rejects,” “The Lords of Salem,” and “3 From Hell.”
For fans of the film, the jarring juxtaposition of tones is a strength, but according to Zombie, it was less a grand plan than a byproduct of his inexperience as a director. “For a lot of years I was dissatisfied with it because you go in...
For fans of the film, the jarring juxtaposition of tones is a strength, but according to Zombie, it was less a grand plan than a byproduct of his inexperience as a director. “For a lot of years I was dissatisfied with it because you go in...
- 4/11/2023
- by Jim Hemphill
- Indiewire
It only takes about five minutes of conversation with Chad Stahelski, the director of all four “John Wick” movies, to realize that he’s a passionate cinephile whose unique combination of influences is what gives the “Wick” franchise its distinct look. While Stahelski’s devotion to Sam Peckinpah, Sergio Leone, and other action directors might be expected, it’s an entirely different genre that provides the most important — and perhaps most surprising — basis for his work. “Everybody laughs when I say it, but I love musicals,” Stahelski told IndieWire. “Bob Fosse is a huge inspiration. Gene Kelly in ‘Singin’ in the Rain.’ We didn’t reinvent action or anything with ‘John Wick’ — we just spent all our money and time preparing Keanu to be our Gene Kelly.”
Read More: Why ‘John Wick: Chapter 4’ Earns Its Almost 3-Hour Running Time
All of the “John Wick” movies use Stahelski favorites like...
Read More: Why ‘John Wick: Chapter 4’ Earns Its Almost 3-Hour Running Time
All of the “John Wick” movies use Stahelski favorites like...
- 3/23/2023
- by Jim Hemphill
- Indiewire
There’s an iconic image of a director on set: active hands pointing where something goes, framing a shot, demonstrating a desired motion. You don’t have to look hard to find plenty of behind-the-scenes photos and footage of Justin Lin doing just that over the course of directing five of the “Fast and Furious” films — each a showcase for his distinct, often virtuoso ability to create both ballet and logic out the madness of cars racing, crashing, exploding, and flying at top speeds.
But the reality is no director, including Lin, can be on the ground conducting each element. In fact, while Lin was on a soundstage in the U.K. with Vin Diesel and the “F9” cast, stunt coordinator Spiro Razatos’ second unit squad was in Thailand shooting huge action sequences that traverse through a jungle minefield and then down the side of mountain and, eventually, off a cliff.
But the reality is no director, including Lin, can be on the ground conducting each element. In fact, while Lin was on a soundstage in the U.K. with Vin Diesel and the “F9” cast, stunt coordinator Spiro Razatos’ second unit squad was in Thailand shooting huge action sequences that traverse through a jungle minefield and then down the side of mountain and, eventually, off a cliff.
- 6/25/2021
- by Chris O'Falt
- Indiewire
For “P-Valley” creator and showrunner Katori Hall, going to strip clubs was simply part of her Southern coming-of-age experience growing up in Memphis. When Hall was on the Filmmaker Toolkit podcast, she explained how those experiences were the polar opposite of how strip clubs are commonly portrayed in popular culture, especially in movies and television.
“You saw athletes on the pole, you didn’t see sad broken women,” Hall said. “And so, for me, that was like, ‘Boom, I know this an art form, and yet people don’t understand this particular art form comes from these Black women down in the South.’ It is this culture, it is this vibe, is truly something to be explored and discovered.”
Hall first creatively explored this side of stripping — especially how it can often be a source of economic freedom and self-expression — in her play of the same name (except the p-word...
“You saw athletes on the pole, you didn’t see sad broken women,” Hall said. “And so, for me, that was like, ‘Boom, I know this an art form, and yet people don’t understand this particular art form comes from these Black women down in the South.’ It is this culture, it is this vibe, is truly something to be explored and discovered.”
Hall first creatively explored this side of stripping — especially how it can often be a source of economic freedom and self-expression — in her play of the same name (except the p-word...
- 6/9/2021
- by Chris O'Falt
- Indiewire
There are layers in the subversive storytelling of “Promising Young Woman.” While on the Filmmaker Toolkit podcast, director Emerald Fennell talked about how, like her protagonist Cassie (Carey Mulligan), she made specific choices to guide the viewer through her black comedy to its unexpected ending.
That applied to the film’s careful use of color, and Fennell’s collaboration with costume designer Nancy Steiner and production designer Michael Perry (who joins Fennell on the second half of the podcast). The DGA-nominated director also made it clear these were also colors and images she personally liked.
“I like ‘Sweet Valley High,’” Fennell said. “I like Paris Hilton, and I like Britney [Spears, making reference to older music videos], and I like pink. I think we still have a very specific idea of how serious things look, how serious people look, how they dress, how serious movies look — you know, wet streets, cigarette smoke, sort of a blue filter...
That applied to the film’s careful use of color, and Fennell’s collaboration with costume designer Nancy Steiner and production designer Michael Perry (who joins Fennell on the second half of the podcast). The DGA-nominated director also made it clear these were also colors and images she personally liked.
“I like ‘Sweet Valley High,’” Fennell said. “I like Paris Hilton, and I like Britney [Spears, making reference to older music videos], and I like pink. I think we still have a very specific idea of how serious things look, how serious people look, how they dress, how serious movies look — you know, wet streets, cigarette smoke, sort of a blue filter...
- 3/10/2021
- by Chris O'Falt
- Indiewire
“Minari” is, in many ways, an autobiographical film. Based on writer/director Lee Isaac Chung’s experience as the child of two Korean immigrants who up on an Arkansas family farm in the 1980s, the details of the film reflect Chung’s own upbringing. But as a piece of storytelling, the film is rooted more in memory than an attempt to document a specific time and place.
When Chung was recently on IndieWire’s Filmmaker Toolkit podcast, he discussed how he reached for a more impressionistic reverence as he tried to capture the feeling of what this world felt like as a child.
“I don’t think a realistic approach to this film would have really worked, because it is an act of remembrance,” said Chung. “So I tried to dig into that when it came to the production. … I thought it needed to take on the feeling of a fable,...
When Chung was recently on IndieWire’s Filmmaker Toolkit podcast, he discussed how he reached for a more impressionistic reverence as he tried to capture the feeling of what this world felt like as a child.
“I don’t think a realistic approach to this film would have really worked, because it is an act of remembrance,” said Chung. “So I tried to dig into that when it came to the production. … I thought it needed to take on the feeling of a fable,...
- 3/9/2021
- by Chris O'Falt
- Indiewire
What does it feel like when your relationship to the world around you unexpectedly and dramatically alters? It’s a question “Sound of Metal” writer/director Darius Marder had to think through at every step of the process of telling the story of Ruben (Riz Ahmed), a recovering addict and hardcore drummer who loses his hearing.
While on the Filmmaker Toolkit Podcast, Marder and Ahmed discussed how the key to tuning the audience into Ruben’s experience was to first create an immersive and realistic experience for the actor on set. “It all boils down to the same thing, which is veracity,” explained Marder. “When we look upon truth and we feel truth. … I think we recognize something fundamentally human when that happens.”
To prepare for the role, Ahmed learned American Sign Language (Asl) and how to drum. He even wore a custom device in his ears that emitted white noise,...
While on the Filmmaker Toolkit Podcast, Marder and Ahmed discussed how the key to tuning the audience into Ruben’s experience was to first create an immersive and realistic experience for the actor on set. “It all boils down to the same thing, which is veracity,” explained Marder. “When we look upon truth and we feel truth. … I think we recognize something fundamentally human when that happens.”
To prepare for the role, Ahmed learned American Sign Language (Asl) and how to drum. He even wore a custom device in his ears that emitted white noise,...
- 3/4/2021
- by Chris O'Falt
- Indiewire
In a 2018 interview for Criterion’s “Under the Influence” series, director Chloé Zhao broke down her appreciation of Terrence Malick’s 2005 “The New World.” The “Nomadland” director discussed how Malick’s spirituality, and how the viewer got sense of a bigger world beyond the characters and frame, came through in how he approached nature.
“The filmmaker’s curiosity of trying to talk about humanity through nature because it’s not just us and nature, we’re the same thing,” Zhao told Criterion about “The New World.” “And he’s really asking us to think that way in his filmmaking, and that dictates how he works with his actors and how his cinematography works.”
While she was on the Filmmaker Toolkit podcast to discuss her third feature film, the Oscar frontrunner “Nomadland,” IndieWire asked Zhao if her description of Malick doesn’t also apply to her own approach to story and filmmaking.
“The filmmaker’s curiosity of trying to talk about humanity through nature because it’s not just us and nature, we’re the same thing,” Zhao told Criterion about “The New World.” “And he’s really asking us to think that way in his filmmaking, and that dictates how he works with his actors and how his cinematography works.”
While she was on the Filmmaker Toolkit podcast to discuss her third feature film, the Oscar frontrunner “Nomadland,” IndieWire asked Zhao if her description of Malick doesn’t also apply to her own approach to story and filmmaking.
- 2/22/2021
- by Chris O'Falt
- Indiewire
There was something about that haunting melody of jazz legend Rahsaan Roland Kirk’s “The Inflated Tear” that spoke to director Shaka King. It just captured what he was reaching for with “Judas and the Black Messiah,” his film about Fred Hampton (Daniel Kaluuya) and informant William O’Neal (Lakeith Stanfield) who helped the FBI murder the Black Panther leader.
“I was bringing that song, ‘Inflated Tear,’ into pitch meetings,” said King when he was guest on the Filmmaker Toolkit podcast. “[Executive producer] Ryan [Coogler] was like, ‘You really want to play that for the studio?’”
King is very familiar with how off-putting Kirk’s screeching saxophone can be for some people. After one test screening, it was decided the track wouldn’t stay in the film unless it was warmed up with a contrabass clarinet. But King, initially, wasn’t bringing the track to distributors because he intended to actually use it in his film.
“I was bringing that song, ‘Inflated Tear,’ into pitch meetings,” said King when he was guest on the Filmmaker Toolkit podcast. “[Executive producer] Ryan [Coogler] was like, ‘You really want to play that for the studio?’”
King is very familiar with how off-putting Kirk’s screeching saxophone can be for some people. After one test screening, it was decided the track wouldn’t stay in the film unless it was warmed up with a contrabass clarinet. But King, initially, wasn’t bringing the track to distributors because he intended to actually use it in his film.
- 2/19/2021
- by Chris O'Falt
- Indiewire
‘Boys State’: How ‘Son of Saul’ Influenced the Documentary’s Up-Close Subjectivity — Toolkit Podcast
Since 1935, the American Legion has hosted Boys State, a week-long program in which high school juniors learn about civics by building their own state government. Teenage boys forming a mock government might sound like the definition of low-stakes drama, but the race for Boys State Texas governor, as captured in Amanda McBaine and Jesse Moss’ documentary, is every bit as intense and bare-knuckled as the real-life elections we just witnessed.
On IndieWire’s Toolkit Podcast, the “Boys State” co-directors talked about how they created a cinematic style to match that intensity.
“I’ve covered political campaigns as a filmmaker before,” said Moss. “And usually, you’re in the back of the room on a press raiser on a telephoto lens, and it feels very distant.”
That is decidedly not the case in “Boys State.” As you can see in the video essay below, even when McBaine and Moss’ star subject,...
On IndieWire’s Toolkit Podcast, the “Boys State” co-directors talked about how they created a cinematic style to match that intensity.
“I’ve covered political campaigns as a filmmaker before,” said Moss. “And usually, you’re in the back of the room on a press raiser on a telephoto lens, and it feels very distant.”
That is decidedly not the case in “Boys State.” As you can see in the video essay below, even when McBaine and Moss’ star subject,...
- 11/10/2020
- by Chris O'Falt
- Indiewire
A shameful piece of Atlanta’s history is now the subject of two major television series. Sometimes known crudely as the Atlanta child murders, the story follows the murders of at least 30 African American teenagers that decimated Atlanta during the ’70s and ’80s. The semi-unsolved case was the subject of David Fincher’s “Mindunter” Season 2, which offered little in the way of answers but brought renewed attention to the horrific events. In spring 2019, the city of Atlanta announced it was re-opening the case.
HBO will explore the tragedy and the new investigation in a five-part documentary series, “Atlanta’s Missing and Murdered: The Lost Children,” which just released its first official trailer.
More from IndieWireMTV Nabs Ex-hbo Documentary Czar Sheila Nevins'What's My Name: Muhammad Ali' Review: LeBron James' HBO Doc on 'The Greatest' Is a Real Gut Punch
The official synopsis reads: “‘Atlanta’s Missing and Murdered: The Lost Children...
HBO will explore the tragedy and the new investigation in a five-part documentary series, “Atlanta’s Missing and Murdered: The Lost Children,” which just released its first official trailer.
More from IndieWireMTV Nabs Ex-hbo Documentary Czar Sheila Nevins'What's My Name: Muhammad Ali' Review: LeBron James' HBO Doc on 'The Greatest' Is a Real Gut Punch
The official synopsis reads: “‘Atlanta’s Missing and Murdered: The Lost Children...
- 3/13/2020
- by Jude Dry
- Indiewire
Being pregnant with her son affected how documentary filmmaker Nanfu Wang saw the world — particularly the One Child Policy she knew while growing up in China. From 1979 to 2015, the government only allowed families one offspring.
“It was that sense of protection, and fear that anything bad would happen to him, made me start thinking about the One Child Policy, and the women and children,” said “One Child Nation” director Wang, when she was guest on IndieWire’s Filmmaker Toolkit podcast. “I couldn’t imagine living under that kind of fear, as a woman not knowing if you can protect your child, whether during pregnancy or after it was born, what that would be like.”
Wang started asking her mother and the women of her generation what they experienced. She returned to her village with her baby boy to interview family members and neighbors. She started to uncover stories of forced abortions,...
“It was that sense of protection, and fear that anything bad would happen to him, made me start thinking about the One Child Policy, and the women and children,” said “One Child Nation” director Wang, when she was guest on IndieWire’s Filmmaker Toolkit podcast. “I couldn’t imagine living under that kind of fear, as a woman not knowing if you can protect your child, whether during pregnancy or after it was born, what that would be like.”
Wang started asking her mother and the women of her generation what they experienced. She returned to her village with her baby boy to interview family members and neighbors. She started to uncover stories of forced abortions,...
- 11/12/2019
- by Chris O'Falt
- Indiewire
Robert Eggers was in his third year of trying to get “The Witch” made when his brother Max told him he was working on a ghost story.
“I was very envious of that idea,” said Eggers when he was a guest on IndieWire’s Filmmaker Toolkit podcast. “It was a contemporary story about a guy repairing a haunted lighthouse with his dog. A couple months later, I asked him how that was going, he said, ‘Sucks.’ So I asked if I can take a crack at the concept, which I then immediately turned into a period movie.”
Like “The Witch,” making a period film intrigued Eggers for the visuals as well as for the lure of forensic research. By digging into the lives of men who were lighthouse caretakers over a hundred years ago, he found a constant flow of inspiration.
“I don’t get a lot of writer’s block,...
“I was very envious of that idea,” said Eggers when he was a guest on IndieWire’s Filmmaker Toolkit podcast. “It was a contemporary story about a guy repairing a haunted lighthouse with his dog. A couple months later, I asked him how that was going, he said, ‘Sucks.’ So I asked if I can take a crack at the concept, which I then immediately turned into a period movie.”
Like “The Witch,” making a period film intrigued Eggers for the visuals as well as for the lure of forensic research. By digging into the lives of men who were lighthouse caretakers over a hundred years ago, he found a constant flow of inspiration.
“I don’t get a lot of writer’s block,...
- 10/31/2019
- by Chris O'Falt
- Indiewire
In the early 1980s, Francis Ford Coppola was one of the biggest names in filmmaking. After box office and awards success with two “Godfather” films, he had also gone to hell and back making “Apocalypse Now,” betting his vineyard and personal fortune on the biggest arthouse war movie ever made, and somehow ended up winning big. He would never make another film, “Cotton Club” included, without having final cut.
And yet the story of making the original “Cotton Club” was one of the director under tremendous pressure and losing sight of his movie by making edits that compromised his original vision.
“It was a long production of a lot of warfare going on on the set, you’ve gone through a cut, a director is pretty exhausted by the time the movie is coming out,” said Coppola when he was guest on IndieWire’s Filmmaker Toolkit podcast. “And very well...
And yet the story of making the original “Cotton Club” was one of the director under tremendous pressure and losing sight of his movie by making edits that compromised his original vision.
“It was a long production of a lot of warfare going on on the set, you’ve gone through a cut, a director is pretty exhausted by the time the movie is coming out,” said Coppola when he was guest on IndieWire’s Filmmaker Toolkit podcast. “And very well...
- 10/12/2019
- by Chris O'Falt
- Indiewire
All too often in today’s big budget tentpoles, the visual effects can feel painted on to the frame — a distinct layer separate from the live action caught on camera. According to 14-time Oscar nominee Roger Deakins, whose new film “The Goldfinch” opened this past weekend, the problem often stems from the cinematographer not being involved in the visual effects process.
“You’ve got one pair of eyes creating a kind of lighting and palette on a frame and then somebody else comes on,” said Deakins, a recent guest on IndieWire’s Filmmaker Toolkit podcast. “It’s like two painters, Jackson Pollock doing an addition to Turner painting. It’s not going to work is it? Even though both are technically great artists – that’s probably the wrong way to talk about it, but you’re looking at one thing and some else comes along and they look at something else in a different way.
“You’ve got one pair of eyes creating a kind of lighting and palette on a frame and then somebody else comes on,” said Deakins, a recent guest on IndieWire’s Filmmaker Toolkit podcast. “It’s like two painters, Jackson Pollock doing an addition to Turner painting. It’s not going to work is it? Even though both are technically great artists – that’s probably the wrong way to talk about it, but you’re looking at one thing and some else comes along and they look at something else in a different way.
- 9/16/2019
- by Chris O'Falt
- Indiewire
When “Escape at Dannemora” writers and creators Brett Johnson and Michael Tolkin first approached Ben Stiller about making a limited series about the 2015 headline-grabbing prison escape from the Clinton Correctional Facility in upstate New York, the director was unable to commit to the project.
“I ultimately said no because I didn’t have enough of a grasp on it from knowing what really happened,” said Stiller, when he was a guest on IndieWire’s Filmmaker Toolkit podcast. That changed when the state’s Inspector General report came out a few months later, which the director saw as the exact source material he felt the project needed. “That was our way into it and I called them up and said if they still wanted a director, why don’t we approach it this way?”
Subscribe via Apple Podcasts to the Filmmaker Toolkit Podcast
For Stiller, authenticity was vital to this project,...
“I ultimately said no because I didn’t have enough of a grasp on it from knowing what really happened,” said Stiller, when he was a guest on IndieWire’s Filmmaker Toolkit podcast. That changed when the state’s Inspector General report came out a few months later, which the director saw as the exact source material he felt the project needed. “That was our way into it and I called them up and said if they still wanted a director, why don’t we approach it this way?”
Subscribe via Apple Podcasts to the Filmmaker Toolkit Podcast
For Stiller, authenticity was vital to this project,...
- 8/29/2019
- by Chris O'Falt
- Indiewire
Tony Sokol Jul 24, 2019
HBO orders doc series about the Atlanta Child Murders - the reason we're asked "it's 10 p.m., do you know where you children are?"
HBO Documentary Films started production on a new documentary series reexamining the Atlanta Child Murders of the late-1970s and early-1980s.
Between 1979 and 1981, approximately 30 African-American children, aged 7 to 17, most of them boys, were kidnapped and murdered in Atlanta. The disappearances happened on a frighteningly regular basis. The bodies were discovered weeks and sometimes months later. They were found tossed behind dumpster, under bridges, or in rivers. Parents stopped letting their kids play outside. Some stopped sending them to school. The city of Atlanta imposed a curfew. Georgia TV broadcast stations began broadcasting a eerie, nightly advisory: "It's 10 p.m., do you know where your children are?"
read more: True Detective Season 3 and the West Memphis Three
As-yet-untitled, the series, which HBO is producing alongside Documentary Films,...
HBO orders doc series about the Atlanta Child Murders - the reason we're asked "it's 10 p.m., do you know where you children are?"
HBO Documentary Films started production on a new documentary series reexamining the Atlanta Child Murders of the late-1970s and early-1980s.
Between 1979 and 1981, approximately 30 African-American children, aged 7 to 17, most of them boys, were kidnapped and murdered in Atlanta. The disappearances happened on a frighteningly regular basis. The bodies were discovered weeks and sometimes months later. They were found tossed behind dumpster, under bridges, or in rivers. Parents stopped letting their kids play outside. Some stopped sending them to school. The city of Atlanta imposed a curfew. Georgia TV broadcast stations began broadcasting a eerie, nightly advisory: "It's 10 p.m., do you know where your children are?"
read more: True Detective Season 3 and the West Memphis Three
As-yet-untitled, the series, which HBO is producing alongside Documentary Films,...
- 7/24/2019
- Den of Geek
Few disciplines are as tough to shine in as sketch comedy. Often, being funny isn’t often enough. What makes a sketch resonate comes down to the characters. But while sitcoms build arcs over seasons, short skits require viewers to buy into new characters constantly. It’s a tricky art.
For decades, “Saturday Night Live” has blended one-offs with recurring characters that grow over time with takes on real-life pop culture and political figures — and has dominated the variety sketch series Emmy wins for the past two years. The ones that draw the biggest response, from Kate McKinnon’s Ms. Rafferty to Kenan Thompson’s version of Steve Harvey, elicit laughter but also a sense of history (even if short-term), as viewers relate their actions and dialogue in the most recent sketches to earlier ones.
Although the goal of truTV’s “At Home With Amy Sedaris,” a satire of a hospitality/homemaker show,...
For decades, “Saturday Night Live” has blended one-offs with recurring characters that grow over time with takes on real-life pop culture and political figures — and has dominated the variety sketch series Emmy wins for the past two years. The ones that draw the biggest response, from Kate McKinnon’s Ms. Rafferty to Kenan Thompson’s version of Steve Harvey, elicit laughter but also a sense of history (even if short-term), as viewers relate their actions and dialogue in the most recent sketches to earlier ones.
Although the goal of truTV’s “At Home With Amy Sedaris,” a satire of a hospitality/homemaker show,...
- 6/17/2019
- by Jacqueline Cutler
- Variety Film + TV
Tom Fleischman working on Aviva Kempner's captivating Moe Berg documentary The Spy Behind Home Plate Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze
After I watched the rough cut of Aviva Kempner's The Spy Behind Home Plate, the director invited me to meet her at Soundtracks F/T, where re-recording mixer Tom Fleischman, Oscar-winner for Martin Scorsese's Hugo (with John Midgley) and nominee for The Aviator, Gangs of New York, Jonathan Demme's The Silence Of The Lambs, and Warren Beatty's Reds, was working on her documentary on the elusive Moe Berg. Ira Spiegel, Aviva's sound editor, was also on hand inside Stage B, where Tom was working on the film.
Aviva Kempner on William Donovan's Oss recruitments, including John Ford: "Really bright people, Ivy League, Moe fit in that. A lot of women, Julia Child, Marlene Dietrich - who is my heroine of heroines." Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze
In 1934, Moe...
After I watched the rough cut of Aviva Kempner's The Spy Behind Home Plate, the director invited me to meet her at Soundtracks F/T, where re-recording mixer Tom Fleischman, Oscar-winner for Martin Scorsese's Hugo (with John Midgley) and nominee for The Aviator, Gangs of New York, Jonathan Demme's The Silence Of The Lambs, and Warren Beatty's Reds, was working on her documentary on the elusive Moe Berg. Ira Spiegel, Aviva's sound editor, was also on hand inside Stage B, where Tom was working on the film.
Aviva Kempner on William Donovan's Oss recruitments, including John Ford: "Really bright people, Ivy League, Moe fit in that. A lot of women, Julia Child, Marlene Dietrich - who is my heroine of heroines." Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze
In 1934, Moe...
- 5/21/2019
- by Anne-Katrin Titze
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
While Bing Liu was shooting his Oscar-nominated “Minding the Gap” in his hometown of Rockford, Illinois, he was simultaneously trying to advance his professional career working 90 minutes away in Chicago. “I was doing this all on the side,” said Liu when he appeared on the IndieWire’s Filmmaker Toolkit podcast. “I was working crew in Chicago and whenever I got a free moment I would drive up to Rockford.”
Liu spent much of his early 20s driving around the country meeting and talking to other young adults who, like him, had “fractured” childhoods. It was in his hometown, Rockford, where he found two incredibly dynamic documentary subjects, Keire Johnson and Zack Mulligan, who, also like Liu, had found refuge and family in skateboarding. While both young men are open and forthright on camera, neither was particularly communicative with Liu when it came to meeting up to shoot.
“For actual verite scenes,...
Liu spent much of his early 20s driving around the country meeting and talking to other young adults who, like him, had “fractured” childhoods. It was in his hometown, Rockford, where he found two incredibly dynamic documentary subjects, Keire Johnson and Zack Mulligan, who, also like Liu, had found refuge and family in skateboarding. While both young men are open and forthright on camera, neither was particularly communicative with Liu when it came to meeting up to shoot.
“For actual verite scenes,...
- 2/15/2019
- by Chris O'Falt
- Indiewire
When it came time to make his feature directorial debut, filmmaker Ari Aster knew that he wanted to make a film that took suffering seriously, to make something that served as a meditation on grief. Specifically, he wanted to examine how that type of trauma can have a corrosive effect on the entire family unit. The problem for Aster was that, while there are plenty of American films about the messy side of loss, in many of those features, characters ultimately end up stronger, their familial bonds tighter, for having navigated their way through adversity.
That’s not what he wanted to make, however.
“There’s nothing inherently false about that, we need hope to get out of bed in the morning, but there are some people who don’t recover from certain blows – sometimes people go down with the people that they are closest to,” said Aster, when he...
That’s not what he wanted to make, however.
“There’s nothing inherently false about that, we need hope to get out of bed in the morning, but there are some people who don’t recover from certain blows – sometimes people go down with the people that they are closest to,” said Aster, when he...
- 1/11/2019
- by Chris O'Falt
- Indiewire
“Cold War” director Pawel Pawlikowski remembers, very distinctly, his experience of watching the British documentary “Up” Series in which director Michael Apted has followed the lives of fourteen children, beginning in 1964. Starting when the subjects were seven years old (“7 Up”), the series has revisited his subjects every seven years, with the most recent installment being in 2012 with “56 Up.”
“The thrill you have finding someone seven years later and seeing how much they’ve changed,” said Pawlikowski when he was a guest on IndieWire’s Filmmaker Toolkit podcast. “Sometimes it’s surprising, yet kind of inevitable, and sometimes it’s completely shocking. Sometimes it makes complete sense, but that effect of jumping in time and discovering ‘Where are we now,’ it gives you a real thrill when you watch it.”
Subscribe via Apple Podcasts to the Filmmaker Toolkit Podcast
Taking this kind of elliptical approach to storytelling – “stimulating the audience...
“The thrill you have finding someone seven years later and seeing how much they’ve changed,” said Pawlikowski when he was a guest on IndieWire’s Filmmaker Toolkit podcast. “Sometimes it’s surprising, yet kind of inevitable, and sometimes it’s completely shocking. Sometimes it makes complete sense, but that effect of jumping in time and discovering ‘Where are we now,’ it gives you a real thrill when you watch it.”
Subscribe via Apple Podcasts to the Filmmaker Toolkit Podcast
Taking this kind of elliptical approach to storytelling – “stimulating the audience...
- 12/28/2018
- by Chris O'Falt
- Indiewire
When Brian Tyree Henry, a Harlem resident, was working with his Miami-native director Barry Jenkins on the set of “If Beale Street Could Talk,” the actor noticed an irony: If Jenkins panned the camera just a few degrees, he could get the neighborhood’s Whole Foods in the shot. Author James Baldwin’s neighborhood had changed quite a bit since the great Harlem photographers, like Roy DeCarava, had taken the photos Jenkins and his team were using as historical references.
For anyone shooting a period piece in New York City, the process often requires traveling deeper into the outer boroughs to find areas that haven’t undergone the rapid re-development that Harlem has experienced over the last three decades. Jenkins had his heart set on staying in Harlem, but he had started to accept the reality that the River’s home – the setting for a number of longer key scenes,...
For anyone shooting a period piece in New York City, the process often requires traveling deeper into the outer boroughs to find areas that haven’t undergone the rapid re-development that Harlem has experienced over the last three decades. Jenkins had his heart set on staying in Harlem, but he had started to accept the reality that the River’s home – the setting for a number of longer key scenes,...
- 12/21/2018
- by Chris O'Falt
- Indiewire
The commercial and critical success of his “BlacKkKlansman” has given Spike Lee his first legit awards contender in years. And with four Golden Globe nominations this week, including nods for Best Director and Best Picture, it’s not an opportunity he’s taking for granted. In the midst of his always-busy schedule, Lee has made time to introduce the film at screenings, do interviews, and meet Academy voters.
“I’m doing the thing, meeting the voters and kissing babies,” said Lee when he was a guest on IndieWire’s Filmmaker Toolkit podcast. “This is what everybody has told me, this is what you have to do.”
While Lee, who has never received a Best Director nomination from the Academy or the DGA, said it’s natural for anyone to want to be recognized for their work, he is more focused on making sure his long-time collaborators like composer Terence Blanchard...
“I’m doing the thing, meeting the voters and kissing babies,” said Lee when he was a guest on IndieWire’s Filmmaker Toolkit podcast. “This is what everybody has told me, this is what you have to do.”
While Lee, who has never received a Best Director nomination from the Academy or the DGA, said it’s natural for anyone to want to be recognized for their work, he is more focused on making sure his long-time collaborators like composer Terence Blanchard...
- 12/7/2018
- by Chris O'Falt
- Indiewire
Fourteen years ago, Luca Guadagnino and his longtime editor Walter Fasano decided that the soundtrack for their 2005 feature “Melissa P.” should be made up of “music of the now.” With the help of Carlo Antonelli, editor in chief of Rolling Stone Italy, they scored the film using 40 songs they believed would resonate with teenagers all around the world. On IndieWire’s Filmmaker Toolkit Podcast, Guadagnino said what the trio had created was impressive, but the ultimate end result was a disaster.
“We did that in a little bit of an irresponsible way because we didn’t know if we could afford it,” said Guadagnino. “The studio hated it because they found that not having a theme in the soundtrack, but going from song to song, like in ‘Goodfellas,’ you could not really connect with Melissa (María Valverde) in the way Hollywood makes you believe a soundtrack should connect with a character,...
“We did that in a little bit of an irresponsible way because we didn’t know if we could afford it,” said Guadagnino. “The studio hated it because they found that not having a theme in the soundtrack, but going from song to song, like in ‘Goodfellas,’ you could not really connect with Melissa (María Valverde) in the way Hollywood makes you believe a soundtrack should connect with a character,...
- 11/1/2018
- by Chris O'Falt
- Indiewire
The third season of Documentary Now!, Fred Armisen and Bill Hader’s IFC series that parodies acclaimed non-fiction films, will take aim at D.A. Pennebaker’s Original Cast Album: Company, a 1970 documentary about the making of Stephen Sondheim’s Tony-winning musical of the same name.
Original Cast Album: Co-Op stars Taran Killam, John Mulaney and James Urbaniak as the three producers overseeing the fictitious cast recording, with Hamilton‘s Renee Elise Goldsberry, Richard Kind and Alex Brightman among the Co-Op stars, Deadline reports. The episode also boasts original music by Found‘s Eli Bodin,...
Original Cast Album: Co-Op stars Taran Killam, John Mulaney and James Urbaniak as the three producers overseeing the fictitious cast recording, with Hamilton‘s Renee Elise Goldsberry, Richard Kind and Alex Brightman among the Co-Op stars, Deadline reports. The episode also boasts original music by Found‘s Eli Bodin,...
- 8/14/2018
- by Daniel Kreps
- Rollingstone.com
IFC’s Documentary Now! will take on Sondheim, Stritch and the ladies who lunch in a 2019 episode parodying D.A. Pennebaker’s classic making-of Company documentary.
The episode, called “Original Cast Album: Co-Op”, will chronicle the recording of a cast album for the fictional musical Co-Op. Taran Killam, John Mulaney and James Urbaniak play producers overseeing the recording for the cast album.
Alex Brightman (Broadway’s School of Rock), Richard Kind, Paula Pell and Renee Elise Goldsberry (Broadway’s Hamilton) play the stars of Co-Op.
The episode pays homage to Pennebaker’s 1970 documentary Original Cast Album: Company, which showcased the efforts of an exhausted orchestra and exhausting performers to get an album recorded during a marathon session. The highlight of the film was Elaine Stritch’s monumentally dramatic attempts to finish and perfect her performance of “The Ladies Who Lunch”, a song that would become her signature.
The new episode and...
The episode, called “Original Cast Album: Co-Op”, will chronicle the recording of a cast album for the fictional musical Co-Op. Taran Killam, John Mulaney and James Urbaniak play producers overseeing the recording for the cast album.
Alex Brightman (Broadway’s School of Rock), Richard Kind, Paula Pell and Renee Elise Goldsberry (Broadway’s Hamilton) play the stars of Co-Op.
The episode pays homage to Pennebaker’s 1970 documentary Original Cast Album: Company, which showcased the efforts of an exhausted orchestra and exhausting performers to get an album recorded during a marathon session. The highlight of the film was Elaine Stritch’s monumentally dramatic attempts to finish and perfect her performance of “The Ladies Who Lunch”, a song that would become her signature.
The new episode and...
- 8/13/2018
- by Greg Evans
- Deadline Film + TV
Cate Blanchett will guest star as a Marina Abramovic-type performance artist in an upcoming episode of IFC’s Documentary Now!, IFC announced.
The episode, titled “Waiting for the Artist,” is a take-off on the acclaimed 2012 documentary Marina Abramovic: The Artist is Present. Like the real doc, the parody follows an acclaimed performance artist – in this case, Izabella Barta, played by Blanchett – as she prepares for a major exhibition.
In the Documentary Now! episode, Blanchett’s Barta is “reconciling” her relationship with a former lover Dimo Van Omen (Fred Armisen), known as an infamous provocateur of the art world. The episode was shot on location in Budapest, Hungary earlier this summer.
“On the heels of two Emmy nominations and tremendous second quarter growth, IFC now has a two time Oscar winner in an episode of Documentary Now,” said acting IFC General Manager, Blake Callaway. “Cate’s portrayal of an art...
The episode, titled “Waiting for the Artist,” is a take-off on the acclaimed 2012 documentary Marina Abramovic: The Artist is Present. Like the real doc, the parody follows an acclaimed performance artist – in this case, Izabella Barta, played by Blanchett – as she prepares for a major exhibition.
In the Documentary Now! episode, Blanchett’s Barta is “reconciling” her relationship with a former lover Dimo Van Omen (Fred Armisen), known as an infamous provocateur of the art world. The episode was shot on location in Budapest, Hungary earlier this summer.
“On the heels of two Emmy nominations and tremendous second quarter growth, IFC now has a two time Oscar winner in an episode of Documentary Now,” said acting IFC General Manager, Blake Callaway. “Cate’s portrayal of an art...
- 8/1/2018
- by Greg Evans
- Deadline Film + TV
Michael Schur says showrunner Greg Daniels taught him how to write for TV — first as a writer on “The Office,” and then as co-creators of “Parks and Recreation.” However, one lesson serves as his guiding principle: The difference between good and bad long-term storytelling boiled down to what Daniels called “institutional memory.”
“It really annoyed him when characters seemingly didn’t learn anything,” said Schur on IndieWire’s Filmmaker Toolkit podcast. “[Characters] would do something, act in a certain way, and then eight episodes later there would be a different story and act in the same way they did the first time. [It’s] as if their memories were erased and they didn’t learn anything. They didn’t grow and they weren’t real people who had lives.”
Subscribe via Apple Podcasts to the Filmmaker Toolkit Podcast
With “The Good Place,” Schur explores how people grow and better themselves. In season two,...
“It really annoyed him when characters seemingly didn’t learn anything,” said Schur on IndieWire’s Filmmaker Toolkit podcast. “[Characters] would do something, act in a certain way, and then eight episodes later there would be a different story and act in the same way they did the first time. [It’s] as if their memories were erased and they didn’t learn anything. They didn’t grow and they weren’t real people who had lives.”
Subscribe via Apple Podcasts to the Filmmaker Toolkit Podcast
With “The Good Place,” Schur explores how people grow and better themselves. In season two,...
- 6/11/2018
- by Chris O'Falt
- Indiewire
Timothée Chalamet and Armie Hammer are racking up accolades and early awards for playing lovers in “Call Me by Your Name,” but director Luca Guadagnino insists he didn’t cast them as a a pair or because he sensed they would work well together.
“I felt that if I loved them and wanted them, they were going to want and love one another,” said Guadagnino when he was a guest on IndieWire’s Filmmaker Toolkit podcast. “It was a bet, but you always have to make a bet. Filmmakers are all charlatans, you have to pretend you know what you are doing and you have to pretend that you are doing something very deep, but sometimes you are just improvising.”
Guadagnino also did not spend much time rehearsing with the two actors beforehand. Shooting the film largely in chronological order, the director said he and his leads just “figured it...
“I felt that if I loved them and wanted them, they were going to want and love one another,” said Guadagnino when he was a guest on IndieWire’s Filmmaker Toolkit podcast. “It was a bet, but you always have to make a bet. Filmmakers are all charlatans, you have to pretend you know what you are doing and you have to pretend that you are doing something very deep, but sometimes you are just improvising.”
Guadagnino also did not spend much time rehearsing with the two actors beforehand. Shooting the film largely in chronological order, the director said he and his leads just “figured it...
- 12/1/2017
- by Chris O'Falt
- Indiewire
“Mudbound” is not a multi-character film in the spirit of director Robert Altman, or 2006 Oscar-winner “Crash.” Instead of being a sprawling tapestry, the intertwined stories of two very different farming families (one black, one white) unfolds into one increasingly cohesive narrative.
“It’s almost like one story [that is] being handed off and everyone is [unaware] they are having similar conversations with themselves,” said director Dee Rees when she was a guest on IndieWire’s Filmmaker Toolkit podcast. “At one point [cinematographer] Rachel [Morrison] was like, ‘When has this ever worked?’ And I was like, ‘I don’t know, but this will be the film where it works.’”
To accomplish this, Rees grounds the audience in the subjectivity of six different protagonists, each with their own internal monologue. It’s something a novel — like Hillary Jordan’s “Mudbound,” which Rees and co-writer Virgil Williams’ adapted — can do effortlessly by accessing the internal thoughts of various characters,...
“It’s almost like one story [that is] being handed off and everyone is [unaware] they are having similar conversations with themselves,” said director Dee Rees when she was a guest on IndieWire’s Filmmaker Toolkit podcast. “At one point [cinematographer] Rachel [Morrison] was like, ‘When has this ever worked?’ And I was like, ‘I don’t know, but this will be the film where it works.’”
To accomplish this, Rees grounds the audience in the subjectivity of six different protagonists, each with their own internal monologue. It’s something a novel — like Hillary Jordan’s “Mudbound,” which Rees and co-writer Virgil Williams’ adapted — can do effortlessly by accessing the internal thoughts of various characters,...
- 11/24/2017
- by Chris O'Falt
- Indiewire
Sean Baker is a filmmaker who puts a premium on making his films feel as authentic as possible. For example, sometimes he will use a handheld camera to follow his characters — who are often played by first-time performers — to give a scene a sense of documentary realism. After “Tangerine” — Baker’s iPhone-shot indie breakout — he started to wonder if image stabilization advances in smartphone cameras was changing what audiences thought “real” footage looked like.
“Audiences see homemade raw footage, but with a stabilizer on,” said Baker when he was guest on IndieWire’s Filmmaker Toolkit podcast. “So everybody is shooting their Youtube and Instagram videos and they are all very smooth — so we’re changing the way audiences think about how cameras are held and if shots are stable or not.” This led Baker to consider if he could employ a documentary-style steadicam effectively to his next film, “The Florida Project.
“Audiences see homemade raw footage, but with a stabilizer on,” said Baker when he was guest on IndieWire’s Filmmaker Toolkit podcast. “So everybody is shooting their Youtube and Instagram videos and they are all very smooth — so we’re changing the way audiences think about how cameras are held and if shots are stable or not.” This led Baker to consider if he could employ a documentary-style steadicam effectively to his next film, “The Florida Project.
- 11/17/2017
- by Chris O'Falt
- Indiewire
One of the most unexpected breakouts at this year’s Sundance Film Festival was Danielle MacDonald for playing Patricia Dombroski — aka Patti Cake$ — a 23-year-old, heavy-set Jersey girl with dreams of rap stardom. MacDonald carries the film not only with her acting, but her hip hop performances. There was just one problem that the Australian actress faced: She had never rapped before in her life.
Read More:‘Patti Cake$’ Review: Here’s the Best Hip-Hop Movie Since ‘Hustle & Flow’ – Sundance 2017
“I just wanted an actress first,” said writer-director Jasper in an interview for IndieWire’s Filmmaker Toolkit podcast this week. “We decided to cast an actress over a musician just because there are so many heavy scenes, there’s comedic scenes, there’s dramatic scenes, she had to do some much – she had to carry the film, she’s in every single scene.”
Jasper, who was musician before he was a filmmaker,...
Read More:‘Patti Cake$’ Review: Here’s the Best Hip-Hop Movie Since ‘Hustle & Flow’ – Sundance 2017
“I just wanted an actress first,” said writer-director Jasper in an interview for IndieWire’s Filmmaker Toolkit podcast this week. “We decided to cast an actress over a musician just because there are so many heavy scenes, there’s comedic scenes, there’s dramatic scenes, she had to do some much – she had to carry the film, she’s in every single scene.”
Jasper, who was musician before he was a filmmaker,...
- 8/17/2017
- by Chris O'Falt
- Indiewire
The idea of a Hollywood star getting some indie street cred by taking a massive pay cut to support the work of an edgy, up-and-coming auteur is hardly a new concept, but describes at least half the films at Sundance. However, the films of Josh and Benny Safdie are more than their somewhat simplified reputation as gritty New York filmmakers, and the decision by Robert Pattinson to star in the pair’s new film isn’t your run-of-the-mill case of an actor looking for street cred.
The Safdies’ distinctive guerilla-style approach to filmmaking on busy streets, often with amateur performers – who embody the underbelly of the city – is a cinematic world based on complete authenticity and the product of an immersive creative process that requires, as Benny described it, “being put through the ringer.”
Read More:Robert Pattinson Gives a Career-Best Performance in the Safdie Brothers’ ‘Good Time’ — Cannes 2017 Review...
The Safdies’ distinctive guerilla-style approach to filmmaking on busy streets, often with amateur performers – who embody the underbelly of the city – is a cinematic world based on complete authenticity and the product of an immersive creative process that requires, as Benny described it, “being put through the ringer.”
Read More:Robert Pattinson Gives a Career-Best Performance in the Safdie Brothers’ ‘Good Time’ — Cannes 2017 Review...
- 8/11/2017
- by Chris O'Falt
- Indiewire
Before writer-director Kogonada’s “Columbus” was a critically acclaimed breakout at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, he first made a name for himself in the film world by creating popular video essays about great auteurs ranging from Stanley Kubrick to Wes Anderson. As a recent guest on IndieWire’s Filmmaker Toolkit podcast, he discussed how these online videos were key to his transition from the academic world – where he was writing a dissertation about the films of Yasujiro Ozu – to becoming a filmmaker himself.
“I feel like I’ve always been an accidental academic,” said Kogonada (who does not use his last name and has never revealed it publicly). “I had a set of questions that started one way and was very philosophical and a bit existential, but it ultimately led me to Ozu.”
Read More‘Columbus’ Review: Kogonada’s Directorial Debut Is a Feast for the Eyes and...
“I feel like I’ve always been an accidental academic,” said Kogonada (who does not use his last name and has never revealed it publicly). “I had a set of questions that started one way and was very philosophical and a bit existential, but it ultimately led me to Ozu.”
Read More‘Columbus’ Review: Kogonada’s Directorial Debut Is a Feast for the Eyes and...
- 8/7/2017
- by Chris O'Falt
- Indiewire
At its heart, “A Ghost Story” is a meditation on the enormity of time. It’s a topic writer and director David Lowery has on his mind quite a bit, so much that he can turn simple matters in his personal life into an existential crisis.
“I remember wanting to buy a vintage movie poster on eBay,” said Lowery, when he was a guest on IndieWire’s Filmmaker Toolkit podcast. “[T]hen thinking, well, I shouldn’t spend the money on this because in 200 years I’m going to be dead and a million years after that the poster’s not going to exist anymore, so what’s the point.”
Read More: The 17 Best Indie Movies of 2017 (So Far)
The jumping off point for “A Ghost Story” stemmed from an argument Lowery and his wife were having about moving out of their small rental house in Dallas. Just like with the poster,...
“I remember wanting to buy a vintage movie poster on eBay,” said Lowery, when he was a guest on IndieWire’s Filmmaker Toolkit podcast. “[T]hen thinking, well, I shouldn’t spend the money on this because in 200 years I’m going to be dead and a million years after that the poster’s not going to exist anymore, so what’s the point.”
Read More: The 17 Best Indie Movies of 2017 (So Far)
The jumping off point for “A Ghost Story” stemmed from an argument Lowery and his wife were having about moving out of their small rental house in Dallas. Just like with the poster,...
- 7/14/2017
- by Chris O'Falt
- Indiewire
When Trey Edward Shults was 18 years old, he went to Hawaii for the summer to stay with his aunt Krisha – yes, the same Krisha who starred in his 2016 breakout “Krisha.” His aunt was connected to small filmmaking community on the island and got her nephew jobs working on commercials and other productions.
Read More: ‘It Comes at Night’: Why A24 Took a Gamble on a New Filmmaker’s Ambitious Horror Vision
“I lucked out and got on this Terrence Malick movie,” said Shults when he was guest on IndeWire’s Filmmaker Toolkit podcast. The small crew, sans Malick, was shooting footage of a volcano for the documentary “Voyage of Time.”
“It was five guys with an IMAX camera,” said Shults. “I loved movies, but I didn’t know how they were made, really. I didn’t even get what the guy [the film loader] in the changing bag with the film was...
Read More: ‘It Comes at Night’: Why A24 Took a Gamble on a New Filmmaker’s Ambitious Horror Vision
“I lucked out and got on this Terrence Malick movie,” said Shults when he was guest on IndeWire’s Filmmaker Toolkit podcast. The small crew, sans Malick, was shooting footage of a volcano for the documentary “Voyage of Time.”
“It was five guys with an IMAX camera,” said Shults. “I loved movies, but I didn’t know how they were made, really. I didn’t even get what the guy [the film loader] in the changing bag with the film was...
- 6/16/2017
- by Chris O'Falt
- Indiewire
Sam Esmail’s paranoid fictional world of hackers, the FBI and one all too powerful corporation has struck a cord with the devoted fans of “Mr. Robot,” but the show has also become known for being oddly prescient since it first premiered two summers ago. It’s therefore natural to speculate whether Season 3 (currently in production) will be impacted by the election of President Trump – and the idea that Russia “hacked” the United States election – especially considering that Esmail hasn’t been shy about sharing his opinions about the 45th President.
Read More: The ‘Mr. Robot’ Experiment: Can a TV Show Be Shot Like an Indie Film?
“I don’t think it’s political to dislike Trump,” said Esmail, during an interview for this week’s Filmmaker Toolkit Podcast. “I don’t think it’s controversial to say he’s a bad president. He’s clearly a bad president. He...
Read More: The ‘Mr. Robot’ Experiment: Can a TV Show Be Shot Like an Indie Film?
“I don’t think it’s political to dislike Trump,” said Esmail, during an interview for this week’s Filmmaker Toolkit Podcast. “I don’t think it’s controversial to say he’s a bad president. He’s clearly a bad president. He...
- 6/2/2017
- by Chris O'Falt
- Indiewire
When Netflix announced it would finance the third season of the British sci-fi anthology “Black Mirror,” series creator Charlie Brooker knew he’d be accused of selling out. And then, the much-regarded, much-discussed “San Junipero” episode seemed to confirm his critics’ worst fears. For a show that revolved around dark stories of the future in which technology wreaks havoc, here was a fairly optimistic story about two women failing in love in the virtual-reality world of a sunny California beach town in the ’80s.
“‘San Junipero’ was the first script I wrote for season three, and it was partly I thought I’m going to blow up my idea of what a ‘Black Mirror’ episode is, so it has a very different tone,” said Brooker, who joined IndieWire’s Filmmaker Toolkit podcast with executive producer Annabel Jones. “And partly, I’d read people moaning, ‘Oh, I see Black Mirror’s gone to Netflix,...
“‘San Junipero’ was the first script I wrote for season three, and it was partly I thought I’m going to blow up my idea of what a ‘Black Mirror’ episode is, so it has a very different tone,” said Brooker, who joined IndieWire’s Filmmaker Toolkit podcast with executive producer Annabel Jones. “And partly, I’d read people moaning, ‘Oh, I see Black Mirror’s gone to Netflix,...
- 5/26/2017
- by Chris O'Falt
- Indiewire
Exclusive : WestEnd is launching documentary more than five years in the making; first look.
WestEnd Films has boarded world sales rights to documentary Grace Jones : Bloodlight And Bami, directed by Sophie Fiennes (The Pervert’s Guide To Cinema).
The cinema vérité-style film, more than five years in the making, explores the performance, private and public worlds of the pop cultural icon, known for her diverse career as a singer, model and actor.
Currently in post-production, the film includes Jones’s performances of hits including Slave To The Rhythm and Pull Up To The Bumper.
The acquisition comes under the banner of the company’s recently launched female audience brand, WeLove, aimed at developing and producing female-specific content and promoting female talent.
Producers are Katie Holly (Love & Friendship) of Dublin-based Blinder Films, alongside Sophie Fiennes, Shani Hinton and Beverly Jones. Backers are BBC Films, the BFI, the Irish Film Board and Roads Entertainment.
Executive producers...
WestEnd Films has boarded world sales rights to documentary Grace Jones : Bloodlight And Bami, directed by Sophie Fiennes (The Pervert’s Guide To Cinema).
The cinema vérité-style film, more than five years in the making, explores the performance, private and public worlds of the pop cultural icon, known for her diverse career as a singer, model and actor.
Currently in post-production, the film includes Jones’s performances of hits including Slave To The Rhythm and Pull Up To The Bumper.
The acquisition comes under the banner of the company’s recently launched female audience brand, WeLove, aimed at developing and producing female-specific content and promoting female talent.
Producers are Katie Holly (Love & Friendship) of Dublin-based Blinder Films, alongside Sophie Fiennes, Shani Hinton and Beverly Jones. Backers are BBC Films, the BFI, the Irish Film Board and Roads Entertainment.
Executive producers...
- 5/18/2017
- by andreas.wiseman@screendaily.com (Andreas Wiseman)
- ScreenDaily
When Young Il Kim’s script “Rodham” landed near the top of the Black List rankings of best unproduced screenplays, it became one of the most buzzed-about projects in Hollywood.
Read More: Hillary Clinton Makes Surprise Appearance at Kathryn Bigelow’s Vr Event to Speak Out Against Elephant Poaching
The story captures a younger Hillary Rodham at an unique moment in her life. Straight out of law school, Clinton joined the House Judiciary Committee tasked with coming up with the legal foundation to impeach President Nixon, while at the same time balancing her relationship with then-boyfriend Bill Clinton, who was back in Arkansas.
A story that shows a rarely seen human side of the brilliant young woman instantly drew the interest of director James Ponsoldt. The project looked like a go when Lionsgate jumped aboard, but was put into turnaround toward the end of 2015.
Ponsoldt told IndieWire that when the project was abandoned,...
Read More: Hillary Clinton Makes Surprise Appearance at Kathryn Bigelow’s Vr Event to Speak Out Against Elephant Poaching
The story captures a younger Hillary Rodham at an unique moment in her life. Straight out of law school, Clinton joined the House Judiciary Committee tasked with coming up with the legal foundation to impeach President Nixon, while at the same time balancing her relationship with then-boyfriend Bill Clinton, who was back in Arkansas.
A story that shows a rarely seen human side of the brilliant young woman instantly drew the interest of director James Ponsoldt. The project looked like a go when Lionsgate jumped aboard, but was put into turnaround toward the end of 2015.
Ponsoldt told IndieWire that when the project was abandoned,...
- 5/5/2017
- by Chris O'Falt
- Indiewire
After James Gray finished reading David Grann’s book “The Lost City of Z: A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon” – a nonfiction chronicle of British explorer Percy Fawcett’s obsessive quest to find a lost civilization buried deep in the Amazonian jungle – he was confused why Brad Pitt had sent it to him.
“I have absolutely no idea what they want me to do this,” said Gray when he was guest on IndieWire’s Filmmaker Toolkit podcast. “There had been nothing in my career as a director that had shown I could do anything like this.”
Paramount had bought the book for Pitt , whose production company Plan B (“Moonlight,” “12 Years a Slave”) ultimately produced the film. Pitt had always wanted to work with Gray, and while it didn’t happen this time, Pitt will star in Gray’s Sci Fi film “Ad Astra,” which is shooting this summer.
“I have absolutely no idea what they want me to do this,” said Gray when he was guest on IndieWire’s Filmmaker Toolkit podcast. “There had been nothing in my career as a director that had shown I could do anything like this.”
Paramount had bought the book for Pitt , whose production company Plan B (“Moonlight,” “12 Years a Slave”) ultimately produced the film. Pitt had always wanted to work with Gray, and while it didn’t happen this time, Pitt will star in Gray’s Sci Fi film “Ad Astra,” which is shooting this summer.
- 4/14/2017
- by Chris O'Falt
- Indiewire
Walter Hill is one of the great action and genre directors of the last 40 years, having made classics like “The Driver,” “The Warriors,” directed the pilot of HBO’s “Deadwood,” and produced, guided and rewrote the first three “Alien” films. With his latest film, “The Assignment” (originally titled “REAssignment” when it premiered at Tiff last fall), Hill finds himself in the unusual position of receiving sharp criticism for being transphobic.
Read More: ‘Rogue One’ Director Gareth Edwards on Avoiding Hollywood’s Addiction to Numbing Visual Effects
“Want to know the truth, I don’t think it is very controversial,” said director Walter Hill, when he was a guest on IndieWire’s Filmmaker Toolkit podcast. “It’s been attacked mainly by people that haven’t seen the movie.”
In “The Assignment,” Frank Kitchen (Michelle Rodriguez) is a hitman, who one day wakes up in a seedy hotel room stunned to discover...
Read More: ‘Rogue One’ Director Gareth Edwards on Avoiding Hollywood’s Addiction to Numbing Visual Effects
“Want to know the truth, I don’t think it is very controversial,” said director Walter Hill, when he was a guest on IndieWire’s Filmmaker Toolkit podcast. “It’s been attacked mainly by people that haven’t seen the movie.”
In “The Assignment,” Frank Kitchen (Michelle Rodriguez) is a hitman, who one day wakes up in a seedy hotel room stunned to discover...
- 4/7/2017
- by Chris O'Falt
- Indiewire
Gareth Edwards grew up dreaming he would follow in the footsteps of his hero Steven Spielberg: He’d go to film school and make a short that would gain him entry into Hollywood.
“That never happened because my short film was rubbish,” said Edwards, who was guest on IndieWire’s Filmmaker Toolkit.
Beyond his film being bad, Edwards realized the competition to be a director had multiplied since Spielberg had started out and it took more than a good short to get a foot in the door in Hollywood. Edwards’ first short, which he made with a his computer animator roommate, was one of the first student works ever to mix CGI with live action. The experience opened Edwards’ eyes to the computer as being the future of filmmaking and he now saw his path to Hollywood could be to make his own films from home, doing the editing and effects himself.
“That never happened because my short film was rubbish,” said Edwards, who was guest on IndieWire’s Filmmaker Toolkit.
Beyond his film being bad, Edwards realized the competition to be a director had multiplied since Spielberg had started out and it took more than a good short to get a foot in the door in Hollywood. Edwards’ first short, which he made with a his computer animator roommate, was one of the first student works ever to mix CGI with live action. The experience opened Edwards’ eyes to the computer as being the future of filmmaking and he now saw his path to Hollywood could be to make his own films from home, doing the editing and effects himself.
- 4/5/2017
- by Chris O'Falt
- Indiewire
“It Felt Like Love” was a no-to-low budget film that announced the arrival of major filmmaking talent. Premiering in the Next category at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival, Hittman shot it using available light and a skeleton crew (often just cinematographer Sean Porter) and delivered a film filled with visual poetry grounded in a working-class Brooklyn rarely seen onscreen.
Read More: How These 20 Sundance Festival Films Got Their Start in the Sundance Labs
Recognized as a directing talent to watch, it might be assumed Hittman would have little difficulty making another independent feature on a slightly bigger canvas.
“The murky period between films is very challenging,” said Hittman when she was a guest on IndieWire’s Filmmaker Toolkit. “On one hand, I made a film that was a festival success, but it wasn’t a box-office success and it didn’t have [name] cast, so I wasn’t attracting a certain level...
Read More: How These 20 Sundance Festival Films Got Their Start in the Sundance Labs
Recognized as a directing talent to watch, it might be assumed Hittman would have little difficulty making another independent feature on a slightly bigger canvas.
“The murky period between films is very challenging,” said Hittman when she was a guest on IndieWire’s Filmmaker Toolkit. “On one hand, I made a film that was a festival success, but it wasn’t a box-office success and it didn’t have [name] cast, so I wasn’t attracting a certain level...
- 1/27/2017
- by Chris O'Falt
- Indiewire
Fresh out of Nyu, filmmaker Nanfu Wang spent the summer of 2013 with maverick Chinese women’s right activist, Ye Haiyan (aka “Hooligan Sparrow”) as she protested and called attention to a child rapist who evaded sexual assault charges by claiming he had hired the young women for sex (in China it is common for rapists to hide behind far weaker prostitution laws).
Wang soon became part of Sparrow’s small group of activists travelling the country, being harassed by authorities and putting their lives put in danger. Wang eventually got out of China with her footage, framing up her riveting documentary, which premiered as “Hooligan Sparrow” at last year’s Sundance Film Festival.
Read More: Pablo Larraín On Catching Ghosts to Make His ‘Neruda’ and ‘Jackie’
Wang, who like Haiyan, grew up in rural China and had to leave school at early age to support her family, told IndieWire’s...
Wang soon became part of Sparrow’s small group of activists travelling the country, being harassed by authorities and putting their lives put in danger. Wang eventually got out of China with her footage, framing up her riveting documentary, which premiered as “Hooligan Sparrow” at last year’s Sundance Film Festival.
Read More: Pablo Larraín On Catching Ghosts to Make His ‘Neruda’ and ‘Jackie’
Wang, who like Haiyan, grew up in rural China and had to leave school at early age to support her family, told IndieWire’s...
- 1/13/2017
- by Chris O'Falt
- Indiewire
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