Filmmaker Magazine | The Magazine of Independent Film

Bingham Ray
Scott Macaulay remembers the iconic independent distributor … Read the rest
“Shut Up and Play the Hits”
Dylan Southern and Will Lovelace talk their LCD Soundsystem concert doc … Read the rest
Sundance Shorts
Ten shorts from Sundance 2012 are available to watch online … Read the rest
“My Best Day”
Director Erin Greenwell on her premiere screening and meeting Robert Redford at Sundance … Read the rest
“Compliance”
Craig Zobel talks about his new psychological drama … Read the rest

The Guide

READ: Sundance 2012 Coverage
WATCH: Sleepwalk With Me
IN THEATERS: The Grey, Declaration of War, opens Fri.

THE BLUE VELVET PROJECT

THE ‘BLUE VELVET’ PROJECT, #72
Fri Jan 27, 2012 Nicholas Rombes
Second #3384, 56:24 1. Sandy’s dream, recounted to Jeffrey: In the dream, there was our world, and the world was dark because there weren’t any robins. And the robins represented love. And for the longest time there was just this darkness, and all of a sudden thousands of robins were set free ...read more

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DIRECTOR INTERVIEWS

“SCALENE” WRITER/DIRECTOR ZACK PARKER
Thu Jan 26, 2012 Brandon Harris
Zack Parker’s Scalene is a small midwestern gem of a psychological thriller, with several moments that are as shocking as any that will find their way to commercial movie screens all year. Parker and his co-writer, longtime collaborator Brandon Owens use two storytelling devices that have gone ...read more
GERARDO NARANJO, “MISS BALA”
Wed Jan 18, 2012 Howard Feinstein
A model hybrid of seemingly effortless form and true-to-life action is the astonishing Miss Bala, by 42-year-old Mexican director Gerardo Naranjo. His earlier, teen-focused works, Drama/Mex and I’m Gonna Explode, while they are expertly crafted (and especially alluring for those with a ...read more

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WEB EXCLUSIVES

AN INNOVATIVE LAUNCH FOR “JOFFREY: MAVERICKS OF AMERICAN DANCE”
Wed Jan 18, 2012 Jon Reiss
For the past four months, my company Hybrid Cinema has been working on the release of Bob Hercules’s new film Joffrey: Mavericks of American Dance, about the history of the Joffrey ballet. I will be writing a number of posts outlining the unique path that I and my partner on this release, ...read more
MICHAEL BARRY ON HIS CAREER IN FILM SOUND
Wed Jan 11, 2012 Alix Lambert
Michael Barry has been a re-recording mixer for more than two decades, working on over 100 films. Some of the directors he has collaborated with include Tony Gilroy (Duplicity, Michael Clayton), Stephen Daldry (The Reader), David Koepp (Ghost Town, Secret Window), Robert Altman (Short Cuts, A ...read more

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COLUMNS

LADY VENGEANCE: INTERVIEW WITH SUNDANCE FILMMAKER EVE SUSSMAN
Fri Jan 27, 2012 Farihah Zaman
Although Sundance is predominantly known for indie dramas and social issue documentaries, the New Frontiers section provides a loving home for particularly odd ducks. Unlike many projects in New Frontiers, which are presented as installations or other new media formats, Eve Sussman’s ...read more
MEDIA CURRENT: END TO CROSS-OWNERSHIP RULES?
Wed Jan 04, 2012 David Rosen
In December 2011, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) voted 3-2 to propose loosening media cross-ownership rules relating to a television or radio station and a newspaper. Under the new rules, cross ownership of a newspaper and either a television or a radio station would be allowed in the ...read more

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OUR VIDEOS

GARY OLDMAN TALKS “TINKER, TAILOR, SOLDIER, SPY” AND HIS LEGENDARY CAREER
Thu Dec 08, 2011
In the first of a series of videos we did at this year’s Gotham Independent Film Awards, Gary Oldman talks to Filmmaker about his new film, Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy (which opens Fri.) as well as what he’s gotten out of working on franchises like Batman and Harry Potter and why acting ...read more

THE BLOG

PAUL SIMON, JAMES MURPHY AND THE RESPONSIBILITY OF THE MODERN ARTIST
Fri Jan 27, 2012 Alicia Van Couvering
Does the culture make the artist, or does the artist make the culture? Two Sundance documentaries — Shut Up And Play the Hits, which follows James Murphy through the last concert of his band LCD Soundsystem in 2010, and Under African Skies, Joe Berlinger’s history of Paul Simon’s seminal Graceland – might seem to be unlikely bedfellows. Both films are brilliantly executed portraits of musicians walking the tightrope of cultural relevance and personal expression. The differences ...read more
China Heavyweight rings in Sundance’s Year of the Dragon
Fri Jan 27, 2012 Allan Tong
The Year of the Dragon calls for boldness, passion and power. What better way for Sundance to usher in the new year than a dragon dance up and down the aisles of the Yarrow Theatre? Cavorting to drums and cymbals, the dragons were introducing the world premiere of the documentary, China Heavyweight. China Heavyweight is the second feature-length doc from Montreal’s Yung Chang, who helmed the award-winning Up The Yangtze. Chang follows coach Qi Moxiang and his two boxers, Zongli He ...read more
A YEAR WITHOUT RENT IN PARK CITY: “OK, GOOD” AND “HEAVY GIRLS”
Fri Jan 27, 2012 Lucas McNelly
One of the trickier things about reviewing movies at a festival is that your identity isn’t exactly a secret. You’ve got a press pass with your name and the name of your outlet on it, so a lot of conversations you have with filmmakers revolve around that very fact. Or you end up in a long conversation at the Kickstarter party with the director of a film you hated. But my philosophy is if you can’t stand face-to-face with someone and defend your opinion of their work, then you ...read more
“ROOM 237″ AND THE MUSIC OF “THE SHINING”
Fri Jan 27, 2012 Scott Macaulay
I’m leaving Sundance this year was the longest list of films I missed but really want to see then ever before. At the very top of is Room 237, Rodney Ascher’s treatise on the multiple meanings viewers have constructed from Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining. “Discover why many have been trapped in the Overlook Hotel for over 30 years,” is the film’s beguiling tagline. Here, via Lance Weiler’s Text of Light, is an excerpt about the music. … Read the rest ...read more
SUNDANCE SNOW DAZE
Fri Jan 27, 2012 Scott Macaulay
25 New Face composer and performer Gingger Shankar (right) with director Mridu Chandra outside the Main Street Transit Center. Shankar, Chandra and the Shanghai Restoration Project were part of Sundance’s New Frontiers with Himalaya Song, a New Frontiers multimedia performance piece that “explores this majestic mountain range and its interconnecting cultures as the region undergoes major environmental and ecological change. Featuring live narration by filmmaker Mridu Chandra and ...read more
SUNDANCE: PEJOT AND SWIRSKY’S “INDIE GAME”
Fri Jan 27, 2012 Scott Macaulay
Independent film, depending on how you define it, has had many births. But for the purposes of this blog post, let’s consider the one in the 1980s, just before the launch of this magazine. She’s Gotta Have It, Parting Glances, Poison, True Love — these were narrative features made by lone filmmakers with a mixture of private money and, sometimes, foreign TV deals, and they were released into the marketplace after being acquired by independent distributors who catered to arthouse ...read more
STORYCODE AND “GAME OF THRONES”
Fri Jan 27, 2012 Randy Astle
All eyes may still be on Park City, but there’s still enough happening back here in the Big Apple to keep indie film lovers busy. One event was Tuesday’s presentation by Steve Coulson, Creative Director at the marketing firm Campfire, about the transmedia campaign he spearheaded for the first season of HBO’s Game of Thrones last year. The event was organized by Storycode and hosted by the Film Society of Lincoln Center in the intimate Howard Gilman Theater. Because of the ...read more

Editors' Picks

LOAD & PLAY

Filmmaker's look at movies on DVD.

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FESTIVAL COVERAGE

2011 ZURICH FILM FESTIVAL
Fri Dec 16, 2011 Brandon Harris
A few years back, the Zurich Film Festival burst onto the map, but for all the wrong reasons. In 2009, Roman Polanski, en route to the festival to receive a lifetime achievement award, was apprehended shortly after landing on Swiss soil. He was never extradited to the United States to stand trial ...read more
PAIRING FILMS AT IDFA 2011
Mon Dec 05, 2011 Lauren Wissot
The Jack the Ripper weather that blanketed part of the 24th International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam this year seemed poetically apropos. Rushing from P&I screenings, to public showings, to private viewing booths I often felt like I was lost in a heavy fog of docs. In addition I took ...read more