The album of the year -- Scott Walker's The Drift -- now has an amazing, sepulchral music video to go along with it. It's late, I'm tired, so I'm just going to quote from Pitchfork:

Animator/Tomato-associate Graham Wood has assembled an appropriately eerie, nightmarish mindfuck of a video for Scott Walker's "Jesse", from this year's Best New Music'd The Drift. The piece, which recalls both Stanley Donwood's work with Radiohead circa OK Computer and the storied 4AD aesthetic, features familiar symbols and pictograms (smiley face, generic man and woman, cross) a-Drift in a kaleidoscope of dissolving lines, patterns, and textures. Might not sound so unsettling on paper, but trust me here-- this shit haunts.

# posted by Scott Macaulay @ 8/31/2006 01:06:00 AM Comments (1)

The fourth Tuesday of every month Nicole Rafter, author of Shots in the Mirror: Crime Films and Society, contributes a column on crime films to the Oxford University Press blog. In her latest column she takes on my favorite whipping boy from one of my favorite directors, this summer's Miami Vice:

It may be that crime films in general are running out of gas today after the revival and boom of the late 20th-century that began in 1967 with the release of Bonnie and Clyde and went into high gear in 1971, when Dirty Harry introduced the new genre of cop action. More likely, we are seeing the specific genre of cop-action winding down its cycle. Or so Miami Vice suggests. This film has nothing new to say about buddy cops, policing, the hunt for criminals, or the nature of crime. It illustrates nothing more clearly than cop-action’s loss of energy since the golden days of the Die Hards and Lethal Weapons.

Pierre Marmiesse writes an opinionated blog on the French film industry, in English, titled Forgive my French Films. Here's an excerpt from a recent post on Claude Chabrol.:

Chabrol enjoys a great love-hate relationship with his subject matter: he loathes his bourgeoisie as much as he laughs at them and, sometimes, may be with them; they fascinate, irritate, disgust, entertain him and, through him, us.

For nearly half a century, Chabrol and bourgeoisie have been an odd couple of partners in success; their conflict is among the great rivalries in French filmmaking: a Connors-McEnroe feud extended over the length of five tennis careers.

Chabrol’s French provincial bourgeois are both a sociological fact and a filmmaker’s fantasy, if not a personal obsession: nearly, but never, too good -i.e. bad, mean, evil, conniving, greedy, criminal...- to be true.

Chabrol’s movies should be compulsory screening material for all sociology, home and fashion design students alike. Any admirer of French art de vivre should rush to watch them.

Finally, the filmmaker St. Clair Bourne has been blogging for a little while now. Here, he writes about his intent to make a film about the Black Panthers and the concerns he has about realizing the project.:

Even though the Black Panther Party existed approximately 40 years ago, there is a legacy of resistance to injustice but also jailed Panther political prisoners, Panthers in exile and renewed government pursuit of unsolved political “crimes.” For example, there is the recent conviction in Atlanta of Kamaau Sidiki, formerly Freddie Hilton, of murdering an Atlanta policeman back in 1971, the continued imprisonment of former Black Panthers such as Eddie Conway for over thirty years in Maryland on charges of murder, the persecution of Mumia Abu-Jamal because of his former Black Panther Party membership, and others.

In addition, the persecution also continues against former BPP allies, with renewed efforts to prosecute former American Indian Movement (AIM) members and former Weather Underground members. Because of the political nature of this project and the current political climate in the US, there may be attempts to prevent this production from coming to fruition. I will keep you informed about our progress and hopefully this constant visibility will protect this production from possible interference.

# posted by Scott Macaulay @ 8/27/2006 07:46:00 PM Comments (0)

Over at Movie City Indie, Ray Pride tips this L.A. Times piece by James Ellroy in which the noir author ruminates on his flight from and return to Los Angeles, the city that has inspired so many of his novels. With Brian DePalma's adaptation of The Black Dahlia (pictured) just a few weeks away, Ellroy sketches the psychic landscape of the city while discussing emotional and mental breakdowns, literary mania, and general sleeplessness.

From the piece:

L.A. bids pundits to spin epigrams. W.H. Auden called L.A. "The Great Wrong Place." I'll ascribe intent. Auden saw L.A. as a lodestone for opportunists and psychically maimed misfits. I sense this because I fall into both categories. Auden couched L.A. in a film-noir construction. Losers migrated here to start over and become someone else. L.A. was a magnet for lives in desperate duress. The sheer indifference of the place consumed the migrants and drove them mad. They succumbed to madness in a sexy locale. The place itself provided solace and recompense. They had the comfort of other arriviste losers. They entered the L.A. spiritus mundi. They handed out their head shots. They joined that unique L.A. casting call.

For picaresque grifters, dollar-driven D.A.s, well-hung gigolos, hollow-eyed strumpets, hophead jazz musicians, pervert cops, alcoholic private eyes, sadistic studio heads, laudanum-lapping layabouts, homosexual informants, religious quacks and an uncategorizable array of stupes with indefinable psychopathic mandates and plain inconsolable despair.

# posted by Scott Macaulay @ 8/27/2006 06:51:00 PM Comments (2)

Over at Hollywood Elsewhere, Jeffrey Wells thinks that the trailer for Todd Field's Little Children is the best trailer of the year. As he explains in the story linked to above, Fields didn't want the trailer to have "music, dialogue or story." The trailer New Line, Field and the trailer company came up with uses prominent sound design -- a foreboding train horn -- and shots of the actors to succinctly capture the film's marital implosions.

The trailer is good, and it's all the more striking for its avoidance of today's typical trailer cliches and conventions. It was cut by Mark Woolen at Mark Woolen and Associates, and you can see it at the film's website, here.

# posted by Scott Macaulay @ 8/27/2006 01:09:00 PM Comments (0)

I've been a fan of New Zealand stuntman-turned-director Nash Edgerton for a little while now, and I just came across this lovely music video for Toni Collette. (Yes, Toni Collette sings.) It takes a little while for one of Edgerton's twists to arrive, but the one-take video is quite gorgeous and worth checking out.

For more of Edgerton's work, check out his website. I'm sure he'll be moving into features very soon.

# posted by Scott Macaulay @ 8/26/2006 02:33:00 PM Comments (2)

If you want to read some great and diverse film writing, I really recommend you check out Stu Van Airsdale's The Reeler this week. While Stu travels to L.A., he's asked a great group of New York film people to guest-blog, and so far, each writer has really risen to the challenge.

Check out Stu's blog and read: Andrew Wagner posting from the editing room of his new feature; James Ponsoldt on MOMA's Dada show and the art movement's relationship to contemporary comedy; author Lauren Wissot on Roman Polanski's foot fetish; AMMI curator David Schwartz on Jacques Rivette; Eric Kohn on Jonathan Rosenbaum; Cinecultist Karen Wilson on fall movies; Lewis Beale on the resurgence of hot Jewish babes; Cinekink's Lisa Vandever on the connection between sex and narrative; and a lot, lot more. (Apologies to all the great people I didn't list above.)

You've only got a few more days before Stu returns with his own great writing, so check out the replacements while they are still fresh.

# posted by Scott Macaulay @ 8/26/2006 01:50:00 PM Comments (0)

Snakes on a Plane may have fallen short of box office expectations but the Samuel L. Jackson publicity machine shows no sign of stopping. Already the internet is abuzz over the sultry, retro posters for his next flick, Black Snake Moan. Hustle & Flow's Craig Brewer directs the southern tale of a blues musician (Jackson) who takes it upon himself to help cure a young woman (Christina Ricci) of her sexual addiction. Jackson and Ricci are each depicted in a seperate poster wrapped in chains next to the film's provocative slogan, "Everything is Hotter Down South".

Make your own hilarious Samuel L. Jackson voice message on
Snakes on a Plane's official website. Harry Knowles talks a little about the film and also provides the poster featuring Ricci over at aintitcoolnews.com

# posted by Eva M. Pena @ 8/22/2006 11:04:00 AM Comments (9)

Rian Johnson, who wrote and directed the recently released Brick, has helmed a music video for Mountain Goats, which you can see below.

# posted by Scott Macaulay @ 8/18/2006 11:27:00 PM Comments (2)

The Sundance Institute, which will be celebrating its 25th anniversary this year, has the announced this year's winners of the Annenberg Film Fellowship. The prize includes a $10,000 initial grant plus additional financial and creative support for the two years. You may remember a number of the class of 2006 from the previous issues of Filmmaker. They are:

Kit Hui (writer-director), A Breath Away
Cruz Angeles (co-writer-director) & Maria Topete (co-writer), Don’t Let Me Drown
Jake Mahaffy (writer-director), Free In Deed
Andrew Dosunmu (director) & Darci Picoult (writer), Mother Of George
Kirsten Johnson (writer-director), My Habibi
So Yong Kim (writer-director), Treeless Mountain
Milford Thomas (co-writer-director), Uncloudy Day

# posted by Matthew Ross @ 8/18/2006 05:48:00 PM Comments (1)

In this media-saturated world it's more than a little difficult to get yourself noticed. But after six years of hard work and some good timing, Rod Perth and Stanely Hubbard have managed to get their new breed of movie channel eaten up by DirecTV and EchoStar's Dish Network. According to Perth, this means that the September 27th debut of ReelzChannel will be "the biggest launch in the history of a cable and satellite network." Talk about one monumental baby-step.

The channel, that claims to love movies as much as you do, has set itself apart from other movie channels such as Showtime, HBO, and Starz, by its programming. It is a movie channel that doesn't show movies but shows about movies and everything movie related. Movie news, movie trivia, movie interviews and exposes--these are the types of shows in the fall line-up; the programs poised to make ReelzChannel into the ESPN of movies. And it just might work. Based off preliminary descriptions from their website, the shows look like they'll appeal to a whole gambit of film lovers: from art and indie to the cult and blockbuster. But will they catch? We'll have to wait one month 'til kick-off.

# posted by Megan Bright @ 8/17/2006 02:44:00 PM Comments (2)

The Chrysler Film Project has announced their five finalists for this year’s competition. Geared (notice the pun?) toward emerging filmmakers with high aspirations, the contest asks for a short film under 40 minutes along with a corresponding feature length script. The winning filmmaker will receive $5,000 and the opportunity to create a “production package” with a $1 million budget courtesy of Chrysler and Silverwood Films. In theory, the winner will go into preproduction as early as this September, so long as their film features a Chrysler vehicle. The finalists are a diverse group with unique backgrounds and more importantly, unique films. From a pick pocketing love story to a special-ed road trip, the shorts sound interesting and any one of them seems like it could make a good feature – with or without the Chrysler plug. For those of you who missed the April deadline Chrysler intends on heading up the project again next year, possibly opening it up internationally.

# posted by Laura Davies @ 8/17/2006 01:31:00 PM Comments (0)

Halfway through Pusher, Nicolas Winding Refn’s first installment in what would ultimately become an epic trilogy, the director faced a predicament. Suddenly, the genre marked by guns and car chases held no interest. He abandoned the beatings and foot chases from the film’s early scenes, and went for a haunting, harrowing character study. “I realized I wasn’t interested in gangsters and crime,” the Danish filmmaker explains of his 1996 film. “I was really interested in the morality of the characters, and their emotional descents into hell.”

That's from KM Doughton's feature on Nicholas Winding Refn's Pusher trilogy which we've just posted to the Filmmaker main page. Check it out. And the films, by the way, open this weekend in New York.

# posted by Scott Macaulay @ 8/16/2006 10:44:00 PM Comments (0)

Astra Taylor, one of our "25 New Faces" this year, passed on information about a new media activist and documentary organization, Lens on Lebanon, currently seeking donations and support.

From the group:

Lens on Lebanon is a grassroots documentary initiative formed in response to the devastating Israeli bombardment of 2006. As filmmakers, journalists, and activists from Lebanon, Europe, and North America, we are pooling our resources to deliver film and video equipment into communities in south Lebanon, and to bring out documentary evidence as well as photo narratives, and video diaries of daily life under siege. With its infrastructure destroyed, a burgeoning refugee crisis, and its towns and villages under continual bombardment, the south is becoming less accessible to journalists and – with U.N observers fleeing under Israeli fire in early August – increasingly isolated from the outside world. Lens on Lebanon is a non-partisan collective whose primary concern is to provide technical support to local communities under fire in order that they might document lived experience of the conflict on their own terms.

Lens on Lebanon is urgently seeking donations of small hand-held cameras, digital cameras and digital video tape stock, as well as the necessary accessories like battery chargers, memory sticks and firewire cables. Donations of money to cover the costs of transporting the equipment to the region, travel expenses for volunteers and overall maintenance expenses, can be made securely through PayPal on our support page.

Visit the site for some amazing postings, including transcripts of first-person interviews of Lebanese recounting their experiences during the war, some nuanced commentary and description of the current social and political reconstruction, and a video letter filmed during the war by a film and cinema collective which runs the yearly Ayam Beirut Al Cinema’iya Film Festival.

# posted by Scott Macaulay @ 8/16/2006 11:35:00 AM Comments (3)

I kinda wondered this myself when I read the story: Why is George Bush reading on his vacation in Crawford, Texas, an existentialist novel about a man who impulsively and without provocation kills an Arab?

John Dickerson gives it some more thought over at Slate:

Unhappy tales of East meets West are found in the papers every day, so presumably the president was looking for more, but his aides will not tell us what he made of the story of a remorseless killer of Arabs. White House spokesman Tony Snow said Bush "found it an interesting book and a quick read" and talked about it with aides. "I don't want to go too deep into it, but we discussed the origins of existentialism," said Snow.

Oh please, Tony, go into it. This is no time to be vague. The president uttered the word "crusade" a single time when talking about fighting terrorists and critics in Europe and the Middle East still use it as proof that his war aims are motivated by 11th-century wide-eyed religious zealotry. Surely someone is going to think that Bush read the book because he identifies with Meursault. There's got to be another explanation. Does his experience in Iraq push him to read works replete with themes of angst, anxiety, and dread? Was the president trying to gain insight into the thinking of Europeans who are skeptical of his plan for democracy in the Middle East, founded as it is on the idea of a universal rational essence that existentialists reject? Did he just want to read something short for his truncated vacation? This may be the first time that national security demands an official version of literary criticism. We want a book report!

# posted by Scott Macaulay @ 8/15/2006 03:53:00 PM Comments (0)

A true film addict loves nothing more than talking about film. But if you're tired of listening to some film critic drone on and on about a movie you're not going to see, or you can't take one more minute of Ebert and Roeper, you need a new way to get your film-talk fix. Cue Scene Unseen, a new podcast on Apple iTunes that guarentees to deliver that fresh perspective you've been looking for. This month-old radio show is the baby of Chris and Jimmy, two industry insiders whose wit keeps the banter smart and the direction unpredictable. If this doesn't already distinguish them from their fellow movie reviewers, the show's twist will. The hook of Scene Unseen lies in its name--one of the reviewers hasn't seen the movie. But that's not a problem. In fact it's the edge.

This past week the boys of Scene Unseen reviewed Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby. The discussion is both a cheeky and an academic look at the film, Will Farrell's body of work, and a string of other tangents Chris and Jimmy wandered into. Check out their weekly podcast. It's both priceless and free.

# posted by Megan Bright @ 8/15/2006 01:29:00 PM Comments (0)

Indie film addicts are a rare breed – they spend most of their free time in darkened theaters, they compile ranking systems for every cinematic category imaginable, and they love to talk and talk and talk about movies. Meet the target audience for Nerve.com’s latest launch, the Nerve Film Lounge. Dedicated to the discussion (albeit sometimes exhausting) of independent film, the lounge is a virtual hangout for aficionados. What separates Nerve’s lounge from the overabundance of forums out there is the emphasis on the interactive and uh, well, the sex. Not only do they encourage readers to add commentary and write reviews, they’re getting personal. Logging on to Nerve.com can gain you access to the profiles of more than 2,000 other “indie addicts” all looking for someone’s hand to hold in that darkened theater. So if it's interviews and gossip you're after or the phone number of that cute girl who "really dug The Puffy Chair,” Nerve's Film Lounge may have what you're looking for.

# posted by Laura Davies @ 8/10/2006 03:14:00 PM Comments (1)

Screenwriter John August (Go, Big Fish) has been directing a movie, an indie and his first, and he's been writing about it on his blog. This week he discusses the dilemma of working within the industry and still trying to audience-test your work:

Last Monday was the first time I put The Movie in front of an audience: thirty friends and colleagues recruited to help figure out whether the film was appropriately funny, dramatic, and comprehensible. (Answers: Yes, Yes, and Not So Much. We’re working on that last part.)

Screening a work-in-progress is just as nerve-wracking as it sounds. Going in, you know the film isn’t perfect. You’re projecting low-resolution video, with temp music, temp visual effects, and bad sound. But it’s a crucial step, because it’s impossible for filmmakers to see their movie with fresh eyes. You need an audience to laugh, gasp or murmur in confusion.

The thirty people who watched the cut were incredibly generous with their time and comments, not only staying afterwards to talk, but also filling out cards and emailing additional thoughts. They made the movie significantly better.

But as great as they were, the fact that they were friends and colleagues was a significant detriment. They had an emotional investment: they wanted to like it. They were also largely film-and-television people, hardly a representative cross-section of the movie-going public.

The obvious next step would be to put The Movie in front of a real recruited audience, i.e. strangers.

But I can’t.

The very same internet that makes this site possible makes a real test screening impossible. Or at the least, a very risky proposition.

Odds are, one or more of those recruited strangers would recognize my name, the producers, or the actors involved and decide it would be a really good idea to write in to Ain’t It Cool News or a site like it. Quite a scoop, after all, reviewing a movie where even the premise has been kept hush-hush.

Reviews of test screenings are frustrating for a big studio like Warner Bros., but they’re potentially ruinous for a little movie like ours. Keep in mind: We don’t have distribution yet. We’re hoping to sell the movie after a festival premiere. So if DrkLOrd79 trashes the movie, that sets a bad tone going in. Almost worse would be if DrkLOrd79 loved it and gushed on for pages. We’ve all experienced the disappointment that follows having our expectations set too high....

August goes on to talk about how test screenings have helped his studio movies and how a lack of test screenings has hurt others ("Full Throttle was not untested because it was a bad movie. Full Throttle was a bad movie because it was not tested.) and then asks for advice on how solicit feedback in an leak-crazy world, which you can post to his blog.

# posted by Scott Macaulay @ 8/10/2006 10:50:00 AM Comments (0)

... does it take to screw in a lightbulb?

Answer: Does it have to be a lightbulb?

Jokes aside, the topic of producer credits -- who deserves them, who doesn't, and whether or not they should be regulated -- has been in the news this year due to producer and financier Bob Yari's lawsuit against the Producers Guild of America and AMPAS regarding his credit on Crash. In the new Filmmaker, producer Kendall Morgan (Southland Tales) uses the Yari case as the jumping off point for a discussion of these issues, and her piece -- which is not posted on the web -- has already elicited much feedback from fellow producers thankful that this subject is getting a proper examination.

A tiny excerpt:

Still, the question remains: what defines a producer and what secures his or her credit? Does bringing financing to a picture truly make someone a producer? How about the person who works for a long time on a project for free in return for an eventual credit? Does a person with the ability to access name cast deserve a producer credit? Where do you draw the line especially if giving that credit helps you get your movie financed, bought, or made? Would Phillip Seymour Hoffman have acted in Capoteif he didn’t have executive producer credit? Would he not take a pay cut without being rewarded with a credit?

Check out Morgan's piece on the newsstands this month.

# posted by Scott Macaulay @ 8/10/2006 10:04:00 AM Comments (5)

Via Movie City Indie, this link to Michel Gondry's collaboration with website Meme which enables the circulation of videos about dreams. It's all, of course, part of the build-up to the release of his new feature, The Science of Sleep.

# posted by Scott Macaulay @ 8/10/2006 09:57:00 AM Comments (0)

The Reeler notes that IFC Films has picked up Abel Ferrara's Mary. I'm happy about that -- it's Ferrara's best film in years, and its story of a fucked-up, megalomaniacal film director making a religious epic is nothing if not timely...

Check out the trailer on MySpace.

# posted by Scott Macaulay @ 8/09/2006 12:06:00 AM Comments (0)

The furniture and home furnishings store Design within Reach is presenting in its stores The Eames Film Festival. Consisting of seven short films by modernist designers Ray and Charles Eames, the series will be presented at DWR studios across the country and includes their classic 1977 film Powers of Ten, which is described like this:

Starting at a one meter square image of a picnic, the camera moves ten times further away every ten seconds, reaching to the edge of the universe; then the journey is reversed, going ten times closer each ten seconds, ultimately reaching the interior of an atom. It was chosen for the Library of Congress National Film Registry, as a “culturally, historically or aesthetically” significant motion picture.

The series, which consists of single-night screenings, begins August 10 in San Francisco and winds up October 4 in Birmingham, Michigan.

# posted by Scott Macaulay @ 8/07/2006 12:04:00 PM Comments (0)

I was up at the Creative Capital retreat this weekend where I saw a lot of great work by the organization's '04 and '05 grantees. But if I was in town I probably would have been, along with $47 million of you, at the opening weekend of Talledega Nights. It reunites the Anchorman team of Will Ferrell and Adam McKay, and that's enough for me.

James Ponsoldt, who directed Off the Black (which I produced and which is coming out December 1 from Think Film) has just launched a MySpace page and he's already got several blog entries up, including an appreciation of the film. As a way of introducing you to his blog and putting something up here about Talladega Nights, I'm lifting his review in its entirety:

By the time you read this, I'm sure "Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby" will have made enough money to finance at least 100 indie films. At least that much...if not a lot more.

And billboards for the movie have been up for months, so it seems silly to talk about such a huge, over-publicized, Sony production.

I saw the movie last night, and here's the deal:

It's really good.

Being from Georgia, I'm hyper-sensitive to portraits of "middle-America," but I wasn't the least bit offended, and while the performances from Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly and Sasha Baron Cohen were all great, and all the supporting actors were strong, here's what I think were the true secret weapons of the movie:

JANE LYNCH and GARY COLE.

Less than ten years older than Will Ferrell, Lynch and Cole play the parents of Ricky, and they both bring deep reserves of vulnerability, welcome crudity, humor (of course), and real humanity to a mainstream comedy about NASCAR (random note: where I'm from, the accents of folks make it sound something like "Nice-car"). These two actors felt like flawed, loving, REAL parents.

I was surprised how much the sense of loss, regret, and sadness ran through a Hollywood comedy. Much credit is due to Adam McKay and Will Ferrell for creating such a generous, humorous, and humane world.

No, Adam Mckay isn't Lubitsch or Wilder or Hawks or Edwards...but for lovers of great comedies, don't let art-film impulses keep you away from this movie.

I was going also say that Adam McKay is no Woody Allen, but then sadly, Woody (who I love) hasn't made a movie as funny as "Talladega Nights" in decades...

# posted by Scott Macaulay @ 8/07/2006 01:02:00 AM Comments (2)

Filmmaker Joe Swanberg has got his short films streaming on iTunes, his web series Young American Bodies running on Nerve.com, and now he's shooting a new movie with a great marketing hook. In Hannah Takes the Stairs, he's cast folks like Mark Duplass, Andrew Bujalski, Todd Rohal, and Ry Russo-Young who are known for their own indie films (The Puffy Chair, Mutual Appreciation, The Guatemalan Handshake, and Orphans, respectively) as actors. The film has a MySpace site and on it's own website, Swanberg is running a production journal/photo blog.

On the site, he summarizes the film like this: "Hannah is a recent college graduate interning at a Chicago production company. She is crushing on two writers at work, Matt and Paul, who share an office and keep her entertained. Will a relationship with one of them disrupt the delicate balance of their friendship?"

# posted by Scott Macaulay @ 8/05/2006 10:18:00 PM Comments (0)

Over at Ain't It Cool News there are three posters up for Grindhouse, Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino's double-bill homage to 60s and 70s era exploitation films. From what I understand, Rodriguez's is some kind of zombie movie and Tarantino's is a riff on Death Race 2000. Having been a big fan of Kill Bill, I am really looking forward to this... and all three posters are great. Here's my favorite, which features Rose McGowan.

# posted by Scott Macaulay @ 8/04/2006 03:54:00 PM Comments (0)

Lance Weiler, writer/director behind The Last Broadcast, begins a 15-city self-distribution tour of his new chills-fest Head Trauma on August 15th. Weiler, who received slack and acclaim for The Last Broadcast – the first all digital release ever, isn’t a traditional filmmaker in any sense (Wired Magazine called him “One of twenty-five people helping to re-invent entertainment and change the face of Hollywood”). Whether or not you agree with the Weiler/Lucas/Cameron digital movement, one factor cannot be debated as Weiler addresses on his HT website: “The revolution in making films has already occurred, anyone with a camera and a dream can make a movie. But the real issue is will anyone be able to see it? Distribution has always been an obstacle but now certain advancements in technology are allowing filmmakers to reach a wider audience.” In a time where we often argue over the traditional elements of production Weiler reminds us - above all else we just want people to see our work. Head Trauma, a unique addition to the horror film boom, is slightly autobiographical, pieced together after Weiler’s head-on collision with a garbage truck. The protagonist, George Walker, suffers a head injury resulting in disturbing nightmares that reveal clues behind a girl’s murder. In true DIY indie-film fashion, Head Trauma is written, directed, and produced by Weiler.

# posted by Laura Davies @ 8/03/2006 03:22:00 PM Comments (0)

It is disgustingly hot and sticky outside. While you're keeping cool during this heat wave do something to keep yourself sharp, like enhancing your cinematic repertoire.

The American Short Films collection by Cinema 16 is one great way to do just that. Short films are an integral part of the independent film movement but more often than not they fall into the shadow of their larger feature length brothers and sisters. This collection is an excellent introduction into the short art form and includes the work of many well-known directors and artists, including Tim Burton, Peter Sollett, Andy Warhol, Rawson Marshall Thurber, and George Lucas.

Particular favorites of mine include Sollett's Five Feet High and Rising, a film that follows one teenage boy and those connected to him through simultaneously mundane and momentus events, and Terminal Bar, the documentary and incredibly well designed "slideshow" by Stefan Nadelman that chronicles the life of one of the toughest bars in New York City. Definitely check it out.

# posted by Megan Bright @ 8/03/2006 02:11:00 PM Comments (0)

"Crisis in the Mid-East," "Mid-East Turmoil," and "Disaster in the Middle East" are a few of the sound-byte headlines our news networks have diligently bolded, colored, and packaged for consumption with a Hollywood touch. In an era where news and entertainment can be the same thing, people may get lost in the mix. This perhaps is exactly what sets Laura Poitras' My Country, My Country so far apart. Her documentary is intimate, unimposing, and far more real than anything on CNN. Doctor Riyadh and his family, not just members of the Sunni faith but a Sunni candidate in the Iraq election, took Poitras under their wing and allowed her (and therefore us) to see the Iraq War from a perspective that has previously never been afforded--occupation from the view of an unhappy and highly educated occupant.

Recently indieWIRE interviewed Poitras, who practically ran a one-woman show as the director, camerawoman, sound person, editor, and producer of the film. In the interview she explains how she met Dr. Riyadh at Abu Graihb in 2004, the challenges she faced while making and distributing the film--of which, the actual shooting was cake compared to its distribution--and the problems of financing a low-budget and controversial piece. A film that went through so much to be made is certainly not one to be missed.

# posted by Megan Bright @ 8/01/2006 03:43:00 PM Comments (0)

Last year, writer/artist Neil Gaiman's Mirrormask hit arthouse theatres in the US, making a splash with it's fantastical imagery. Now Gaiman finds two of his award winning novels and one of his comic book series in development to become major films. Along with Coraline and Books of Magic; Stardust is slated to be released next year, with a high-profile cast that includes Robert De Niro and Claire Danes. Perhaps the most anticipated project of the three, there's already plenty of buzz on the internet, with aint-it-cool-news.com's Moriarty posting a detailed behind-the-scenes report for curious fans. There's also talk of another Gaiman project that may come into development soon, Good Omens, with Terry Gilliam rumored to be attached.

Gaiman talked about his ventures in Hollywood at this year's San Diego comic con. Read more about it at Hollywood Reporter's Risky Biz Blog

# posted by Eva M. Pena @ 8/01/2006 11:19:00 AM Comments (0)