As 2022 came to a close, we asked seven writers and filmmakers to reflect on Jean-Luc Godard's memory. Starting from a single aspect of his filmmaking—a particular film, image, sound cue, or affecting experience with his work—their responses evoke the breadth of his revolutionary legacy. We're thankful they found the words.The pieces below are written by Ephraim Asili, Richard Brody, A.S. Hamrah, Rachel Kushner, Miguel Marías, Andréa Picard, and Lucía Salas.In Memoriam JLGWhen I was in high school in the 1980s, I drove 50 miles with some friends to see Breathless at a student screening in a big auditorium at UConn. How did we know this screening was happening? How did we know how to get there? How did we even know anything was happening anywhere, ever? We saw listings in newspapers and paid attention to flyers. We had maps in our cars. But above all, it...
- 1/30/2023
- MUBI
Criterion lavishes a major upgrade to its older box set celebrating the first major rock concert event, the ‘California Dreamin’ idyll that some say marked the beginning of the Summer of Love. Get ready to hear and see some history-making performances from Big Brother and the Holding Company, The Jimi Hendrix Experience, and The Who. Plus two more features and a bundle of ‘extra’ music sets . . . including Tiny Tim.
The Complete Monterey Pop Festival
Blu-ray
The Criterion Collection 167
1968 / Color / 1:33 flat / 79 min. / available through The Criterion Collection / Street Date December 12, 2017 / 69.95
Cinematography: James Desmond, Barry Feinstein, Richard Leacock, Albert Maysles, Roger Murphy, D.A. Pennebaker
Film Editor: Nina Schulman
Original Music: The Animals, The Association, Big Brother and the Holding Company, The Byrds, Canned Heat, Country Joe and the Fish, Jimi Hendrix Experience, Al Kooper, Hugh Masekela, Jefferson Airplane, The Mamas and the Papas, Laura Nyro, Otis Redding, The Quicksilver Messenger Service,...
The Complete Monterey Pop Festival
Blu-ray
The Criterion Collection 167
1968 / Color / 1:33 flat / 79 min. / available through The Criterion Collection / Street Date December 12, 2017 / 69.95
Cinematography: James Desmond, Barry Feinstein, Richard Leacock, Albert Maysles, Roger Murphy, D.A. Pennebaker
Film Editor: Nina Schulman
Original Music: The Animals, The Association, Big Brother and the Holding Company, The Byrds, Canned Heat, Country Joe and the Fish, Jimi Hendrix Experience, Al Kooper, Hugh Masekela, Jefferson Airplane, The Mamas and the Papas, Laura Nyro, Otis Redding, The Quicksilver Messenger Service,...
- 12/9/2017
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
The Criterion Collection has unveiled its holiday slate, with “Election” leading the list of titles being released this December. Joining Alexander Payne’s classic in the Collection are a new digital transfer of Barbet Schroeder’s documentary “General Idi Amin Dada: A Self-Portrait,” “The Complete Monterey Pop Festival,” and the previously announced “100 Years of Olympic Films 1912-2012.” More information — and, just as importantly, cover art — below:
Read More:Criterion Collection Announces November Titles, Including Seminal Lesbian Drama ‘Desert Hearts’ and ‘The Philadelphia Story’
“Election”
“Perky, overachieving Tracy Flick (Reese Witherspoon) gets on the nerves of history teacher Jim McAllister (Matthew Broderick) to begin with, but after she launches her campaign for high-school president and his personal life starts to fall apart, things spiral out of control. In Alexander Payne’s satire ‘Election,’ the teacher becomes unhealthily obsessed with cutting his student down to size, covertly backing a spoiler candidate to...
Read More:Criterion Collection Announces November Titles, Including Seminal Lesbian Drama ‘Desert Hearts’ and ‘The Philadelphia Story’
“Election”
“Perky, overachieving Tracy Flick (Reese Witherspoon) gets on the nerves of history teacher Jim McAllister (Matthew Broderick) to begin with, but after she launches her campaign for high-school president and his personal life starts to fall apart, things spiral out of control. In Alexander Payne’s satire ‘Election,’ the teacher becomes unhealthily obsessed with cutting his student down to size, covertly backing a spoiler candidate to...
- 9/15/2017
- by Michael Nordine
- Indiewire
Over the last decade or so, non-fiction and documentary cinema has been the breeding ground for some of cinema’s most interesting films and film-makers. However, for many cinephiles the history of this world of cinema has been vastly undervalued and works vastly underseen. Be it the earliest days of silent cinema to the importance of documentary films in global conflicts, non-fiction directors have crafted some of the greatest and most influential works in all of the art form.
And thankfully two great, if light, histories of some of the great films are finally available on DVD.
From Icarus Films comes the release of three films, across two DVDs, that take a direct look at the early days of documentary cinema, ostensibly from the beginning with films like Nanook Of The North to the work of German propagandists like Leni Riefenstahl and Us news reels which would see names like...
And thankfully two great, if light, histories of some of the great films are finally available on DVD.
From Icarus Films comes the release of three films, across two DVDs, that take a direct look at the early days of documentary cinema, ostensibly from the beginning with films like Nanook Of The North to the work of German propagandists like Leni Riefenstahl and Us news reels which would see names like...
- 3/22/2017
- by Joshua Brunsting
- CriterionCast
Anthony Weiner made headlines for a lot of unseemly reasons in 2015, but it started with a documentary. When “Weiner” premiered at the Sundance Film Festival last January, it was an instant sensation. Directors Josh Kriegman and Elyse Steinberg provide a jarring closeup on the scandal-ridden congressman’s ill-fated mayoral campaign, which started as a tale of redemption and climaxed in embarrassment, with Weiner’s sexting addiction stifling his momentum.
More than that, the movie — currently on the shortlist for the best documentary Oscar — gained in relevance as the year continued, with Hillary Clinton aide and Weiner spouse Huma Abedin separating from her husband in the midst of Clinton’s presidential campaign as more allegations came to light. Later, news of an FBI investigation into Weiner’s emails led to a public letter from FBI director James Comey that many believe to have played a key role in the outcome of the 2016 presidential election.
More than that, the movie — currently on the shortlist for the best documentary Oscar — gained in relevance as the year continued, with Hillary Clinton aide and Weiner spouse Huma Abedin separating from her husband in the midst of Clinton’s presidential campaign as more allegations came to light. Later, news of an FBI investigation into Weiner’s emails led to a public letter from FBI director James Comey that many believe to have played a key role in the outcome of the 2016 presidential election.
- 1/3/2017
- by Eric Kohn
- Indiewire
Milestone wraps up its ‘Project Shirley,’ an in-depth study of the independent director of The Connection and Portrait of Jason. Practically all of Shirley Clarke’s small and experimental films are here from the early 1950s forward, plus a wealth of biographical film.
The Magic Box: The films of Shirley Clarke, 1929-1987
Blu-ray
The Milestone Cinematheque
1929-1987 / B&W + Color
1:37 flat full frame / 502 min.
Street Date November 15, 2016 / 99.99
featuring Shirley Clarke
Produced by Dennis Doros & Amy Heller
Reviewed by Glenn Erickson
Some disc boutique companies license ready-made movie classics for home video, and some slap whatever odd-sourced items can be had into the Blu-ray format and call it a restoration. Although the general tide for quality releases is rising, only a few companies will invest time and effort in historically- and artistically- important films lacking an obvious commercial hook. Milestone Films has been consistent in its championing of abandoned ‘marginal’ films,...
The Magic Box: The films of Shirley Clarke, 1929-1987
Blu-ray
The Milestone Cinematheque
1929-1987 / B&W + Color
1:37 flat full frame / 502 min.
Street Date November 15, 2016 / 99.99
featuring Shirley Clarke
Produced by Dennis Doros & Amy Heller
Reviewed by Glenn Erickson
Some disc boutique companies license ready-made movie classics for home video, and some slap whatever odd-sourced items can be had into the Blu-ray format and call it a restoration. Although the general tide for quality releases is rising, only a few companies will invest time and effort in historically- and artistically- important films lacking an obvious commercial hook. Milestone Films has been consistent in its championing of abandoned ‘marginal’ films,...
- 11/19/2016
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
"Cinema Verité strikes me as just a pompous French term...I make movies. That suits me better."
Frederick Wiseman was at the forefront of the renaissance of American documentary film, working during the 1960s at a time when Albert and David Maysles, D.A. Pennebaker, and Richard Leacock were astounding the world with the immediacy of Direct Cinema. The decade reinvented the documentary, with its seemingly unmediated observation of lives and places that never seemed to merit consideration before. Wiseman took his camera and showed us things that shocked us, and, in some cases, changed official policy. His first film, Titicut Follies, went inside the Bridgewater State Hospital for the Criminally Insane, and looked without hesitation, without comment, at the brutal and humiliating treatment of the patients, culminating in the inmate talent show that gave the film its name. The movie was banned.
Wiseman has a long history with the London Film Festival,...
Frederick Wiseman was at the forefront of the renaissance of American documentary film, working during the 1960s at a time when Albert and David Maysles, D.A. Pennebaker, and Richard Leacock were astounding the world with the immediacy of Direct Cinema. The decade reinvented the documentary, with its seemingly unmediated observation of lives and places that never seemed to merit consideration before. Wiseman took his camera and showed us things that shocked us, and, in some cases, changed official policy. His first film, Titicut Follies, went inside the Bridgewater State Hospital for the Criminally Insane, and looked without hesitation, without comment, at the brutal and humiliating treatment of the patients, culminating in the inmate talent show that gave the film its name. The movie was banned.
Wiseman has a long history with the London Film Festival,...
- 11/6/2016
- by Dr. Garth Twa
- Pure Movies
In today's roundup, we track the fates of the blogs leaving the Indiewire network. Plus: The late Jenny Diski on Frank Capra, Adrian Martin on Margot Nash, Olaf Möller on Lav Diaz's A Lullaby to the Sorrowful Mystery, Michael Koresky on Christian Petzold's Phoenix, Thom Powers on documentaries by Robert Drew, Richard Leacock, D.A. Pennebaker and Albert Maysles, Richard Brody on Christian Braad Thomsen's Fassbinder: To Love Without Demands and Ada Ushpiz's Vita Activa: The Spirit of Hannah Arendt, Jonathan Rosenbaum on Otto Preminger, plus news from Cannes and Venice—and more. » - David Hudson...
- 4/30/2016
- Keyframe
In today's roundup, we track the fates of the blogs leaving the Indiewire network. Plus: The late Jenny Diski on Frank Capra, Adrian Martin on Margot Nash, Olaf Möller on Lav Diaz's A Lullaby to the Sorrowful Mystery, Michael Koresky on Christian Petzold's Phoenix, Thom Powers on documentaries by Robert Drew, Richard Leacock, D.A. Pennebaker and Albert Maysles, Richard Brody on Christian Braad Thomsen's Fassbinder: To Love Without Demands and Ada Ushpiz's Vita Activa: The Spirit of Hannah Arendt, Jonathan Rosenbaum on Otto Preminger, plus news from Cannes and Venice—and more. » - David Hudson...
- 4/30/2016
- Fandor: Keyframe
Robert Drew‘s name is attached to a team of filmmakers who made revolutionary changes to documentary in the early 1960s. But today he’s probably the least-appreciated member of Drew Associates and the Direct Cinema movement after Albert Maysles, D.A. Pennebaker, and Ricky Leacock. Part of that is because he never became as well-known a solo director as his colleagues. He didn’t go on to make more revered classics like the Maysles Brothers’ Salesman and Grey Gardens or Pennebaker’s Don’t Look Back and The War Room, and he didn’t have the kind of film history-spanning career and influence that Leacock’s legacy entails. That’s why Criterion’s new set “The Kennedy Films of Robert Drew & Associates” is so important. Not that it totally isolates Drew from the others — he barely gets to stand out alone even in the new bonus-feature documentary Robert Drew in His Own Words — but it at least...
- 4/26/2016
- by Christopher Campbell
- FilmSchoolRejects.com
Take a look at the roots of American campaign image consciousness, and the then-new techniques of cinéma vérité to bring a new 'reality' for film documentaries. Four groundbreaking films cover the Kennedy-Humphrey presidential primary, and put us in the Oval Office for a showdown against Alabama governor George Wallace. The Kennedy Films of Robert Drew & Associates Blu-ray Primary, Adventures on the New Frontier, Crisis: Behind a Presidential Commitment, Faces of November The Criterion Collection 808 1960 -1964 / B&W / 1:33 flat full frame / 53, 52, 53, 12 min. / available through The Criterion Collection / Street Date April 26, 2016 / 39.95 Starring John F. Kennedy, Robert F. Kennedy, Jacqueline Kennedy, Robert Drew, Hubert H. Humphrey, McGeorge Bundy, John Kenneth Galbraith, Richard Goodwin, Albert Gore Sr., Eunice Kennedy Shriver, Pierre Salinger, Haile Selassie, John Steinbeck, George Wallace, Vivian Malone, Burke Marshall, Nicholas Katzenbach, John Dore, Jack Greenberg; Lyndon Johnson, John Kennedy Jr., Caroline Kennedy, Peter Lawford. Cinematography Richard Leacock, Albert Maysles, D.A. Pennebaker,...
- 4/15/2016
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
“The President’S Reality Show”
By Raymond Benson
Robert Drew was a pioneer who changed the way we think about the documentary film. As first a writer/editor at Life Magazine in the 1950s, and then the head of a unit that produced short documentaries for Time Inc., Drew knew how to tell a story visually. When he formed his own company, Robert Drew & Associates, he was the guiding force for other talented (and later, more well-known) filmmakers such as D. A. Pennebaker (Don’t Look Back, Monterey Pop), Albert and David Maysles (Gimme Shelter), and Richard Leacock, among others. Together they invented a novel way to present a documentary film, something historians coined “direct cinema.”
Documentaries had previously been scripted, usually shot to order, and more often than not, were textbook dull. Drew and his colleagues developed the you-are-there style of following subjects around as they did their business,...
By Raymond Benson
Robert Drew was a pioneer who changed the way we think about the documentary film. As first a writer/editor at Life Magazine in the 1950s, and then the head of a unit that produced short documentaries for Time Inc., Drew knew how to tell a story visually. When he formed his own company, Robert Drew & Associates, he was the guiding force for other talented (and later, more well-known) filmmakers such as D. A. Pennebaker (Don’t Look Back, Monterey Pop), Albert and David Maysles (Gimme Shelter), and Richard Leacock, among others. Together they invented a novel way to present a documentary film, something historians coined “direct cinema.”
Documentaries had previously been scripted, usually shot to order, and more often than not, were textbook dull. Drew and his colleagues developed the you-are-there style of following subjects around as they did their business,...
- 4/9/2016
- by nospam@example.com (Cinema Retro)
- Cinemaretro.com
Film Forum will premiere a new restoration of 1926's "Moana with Sound," filmmaker Robert J. Flaherty's follow-up to his widely praised "Nanook of the North." Made alongside his brilliant wife, Frances Hubbard Flaherty, the two journeyed with their children to the south seas in 1923 to capture the exotic lives of the unsung Samoan people. Originally filmed without any sound (as it was nearly impossible in the early 1920's), their daughter Monica Flaherty ventured back after nearly 50 years with vérité auteur Ricky Leacock to record location sound, dialogue and folk songs to accompany her parents' moving portraiture of vanished customs destroyed by industrial modernization. "Moana with Sound," a Kino Lorber release, will play for one week only at Film Forum from November 13th-19th. Bruce Posner, who restored the film, will introduce the opening night screening (Friday, November 13) at 6 Pm. For more info, click...
- 11/6/2015
- by Ruben Guevara
- Thompson on Hollywood
Hamptons Take 2 Documentary Film Festival , (December 3-6, 2015 in Sag Harbor, N.Y.) will honor the MacArthur Genius Award winning Director-Producer-Writer Stanley Nelson with a Career Achievement Award at its Gala on December 5. Previous honorees are Richard Leacock (2011), Susan Lacy (2012), Da Pennebaker and Chris Hegedus (2013), Barbara Kopple (2014)
“ It is a great privilege to present our 2015 Career Achievement Award to Stanley Nelson. His award-winning documentary films on social justice issues were early windows into race relations. His latest film, “The Black Panthers: Vanguard Of The Revolution” continues the provocative dialogue, even more relevant in America today. We honor his commitment to honesty, truth and artistic rigor.” -Jacqui Lofaro, Founder and Executive Director, Hamptons Take 2 Documentary Film Festival
Stanley Nelson is the co-founder and Executive Director of Firelight Films and co-founder of Firelight Media, which provides grants and technical support to emerging documentarians. Firelight is one of nine nonprofit organizations around the world to receive the 2015 MacArthur Award for Creative and Effective Institutions. The Award, recognizes exceptional nonprofit organizations which have demonstrated creativity and impact, and invests in their long-term sustainability with sizable one-time grants.
With 35 films and multiple industry awards to his credit, Nelson is acknowledged as one of the premier documentary filmmakers working today. He has a clear, vibrant and consistent voice, creating evocative films which document issues of social injustice. His films have earned five Primetime Emmys, two awards from the Sundance Film Festival, and two Peabodys, among other honors. With a dogged insistence on finding new voices and new witnesses, Nelson has illuminated stories that we thought we knew, particularly about the African-American experience. Aside from being a MacArthur “Genius” Fellow, he is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and a recipient of the Neh National Medal in the Humanities presented by President Obama in 2014.
I had an opportunity to speak with Stanley recently concerning the announcement of his Career Achievement Award from the Hamptons Take 2 Documentary Film Festival (HT2FF).
You have won so many prizes, what does it mean to you to receive the Career Achievement Award from the HT2FF?
It is always great to receive accolades; it doesn’t get old. Documentary filmmakers don’t get recognition every day. It’s not like we go to a restaurant and everyone falls all over us. To be recognized because people are seeing and liking my films is great and the award means this is happening.
In addition to receiving the MacArthur Genius Award, your company, Firelight Media, won the 2015 MacArthur Award. How has that helped you?
My personal award sent my three kids to school and sustained me as a filmmaker. The Award to Firelight Media will help sustain the Lab mentoring filmmakers of color making their first and second films. One of the things that is essential to me as a filmmaker is to try to give the viewer a sense of what it has meant to be black in America and consider this within our contemporary context.
Nelson has directed and produced such acclaimed work as “The Murder Of Emmett Till” an eye-opening film which reveals so much beyond what the headlines of the times told us, the public. His other stirring docs include “Freedom Riders” (his personal favorite) and “Jonestown: The Life And Death Of People’s Temple”
In 2014, “Freedom Summer” presented an astounding history of what led up to the Black Power Movement. When it premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, the audience was stunned at how he put into context the 1964 voter registration drive in Mississippi, the surprising truth of the Chicago Democratic Convention and the Mississippi delegation and how the turn of events led to the Black Power Movement and to the Voting Rights Act.
The delegation never got the chance to speak from the floor. Many then said, "We can’t keep being the good soldier and following the rules when we can’t do our best." Some moved into action, some dropped out. They thought, "If we just 'show' you the wrongs, the injustice, police with dogs and fire-hoses and show you that we’re non-violent, you can’t help but support us." But the Democratic National Convention failed them, and the young had to do something new.
The last image in “Freedom Summer” you see Stokely Carmichael saying “We want Black Power”. In the opening of your most recent film, “The Black Panthers: Vanguard Of The Revolution” he is also chanting “We want Black Power” which gives a continuity to the two films. Tell me a bit about what prompted you to tell this story?
I felt it was a little known story, that hadn’t been told in its entirety. In particular, I wanted to offer a unique and engaging opportunity to examine a very complex moment in time that challenges the cold, oversimplified narrative of a Panther who is prone to violence and consumed with anger. Thoroughly examining the history of the Black Panther Party allowed me to sift through the fragmented perceptions and find the core driver of the movement: the Black Panther Party emerged out of a love for their people, and a devotion to empowering them. This compelled me to communicate the story fully and accurately. And for the release in August of the film, I attended every opening in 20 cities nationwide, along with former Black Panthers, scholars and photographers.
How did you get started in filmmaking?
I thought I wanted to make fiction features but I stumbled into Bill Greaves and got into documentary filmmaking with him and never looked back.
If someone offered me a million dollars to make a fiction project I think I would. But I know how you have to jump through hoops to make a feature and that pain would be difficult. I don’t have a particular idea or a script and that is hardest part of fiction; how to get a great script, cast, funding. Docs are known at least…
What films inspired you?
“Eyes on the Prize”. It was the first time we saw a series on African Americans. It got so much attention worldwide. It opened eyes to the African American history and it was fascinating to everyone. And it inspired a whole generation of African American filmmakers.
Do you have a sense of Mission in your filmmaking?
This morning I was interviewing an assistant editor and said to him, “We are on a mission here”; getting ahead in a career is ok, but here we are on a mission.”
We have a history we’ve been fortunate to be able to tell. I see my ancestors on my shoulder saying “Don’t screw up”.
We are also on a mission to tell good stories and to entertain people. I hope our films move people to action one way or the other. Many of our films lately are about young people who are making changes.
Did your parents raise you with social awareness or activism?
They were very politically minded and we talked about politics all the time around the dinner table. We were raised to be aware. I remember when I was 15 or 16 when the Panthers started, I would come home and turn on TV and see fire-hoses and dogs attacking people. These images politicized everyone. Just like today with Black Lives Matter and the police killings, everyone has to think about what they’re seeing. In the 60s it was sustained. Viet Nam also politicized everybody. You were either going to go or you had to figure out how not to go. It affected everyone.
What do you make of the police violence against black lives today?
The blatant activities of the police that all people, black and white, are seeing and talking about is bringing awareness to the years and years of injustices. Black Lives Matters is similar to how Black Panthers began. We have to be responsible for our own communities.
Nelson is currently in production on “Tell Them We Are Rising: The Story Of Historically Black Colleges And Universities”, which is the second in a series of three films Nelson will direct as part of a new multi-platform PBS series entitled America Revisited. He is also exec producing “ Free for All: Inside the Public Library”.
For more information or to buy tickets, please go to ht2ff.com...
“ It is a great privilege to present our 2015 Career Achievement Award to Stanley Nelson. His award-winning documentary films on social justice issues were early windows into race relations. His latest film, “The Black Panthers: Vanguard Of The Revolution” continues the provocative dialogue, even more relevant in America today. We honor his commitment to honesty, truth and artistic rigor.” -Jacqui Lofaro, Founder and Executive Director, Hamptons Take 2 Documentary Film Festival
Stanley Nelson is the co-founder and Executive Director of Firelight Films and co-founder of Firelight Media, which provides grants and technical support to emerging documentarians. Firelight is one of nine nonprofit organizations around the world to receive the 2015 MacArthur Award for Creative and Effective Institutions. The Award, recognizes exceptional nonprofit organizations which have demonstrated creativity and impact, and invests in their long-term sustainability with sizable one-time grants.
With 35 films and multiple industry awards to his credit, Nelson is acknowledged as one of the premier documentary filmmakers working today. He has a clear, vibrant and consistent voice, creating evocative films which document issues of social injustice. His films have earned five Primetime Emmys, two awards from the Sundance Film Festival, and two Peabodys, among other honors. With a dogged insistence on finding new voices and new witnesses, Nelson has illuminated stories that we thought we knew, particularly about the African-American experience. Aside from being a MacArthur “Genius” Fellow, he is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and a recipient of the Neh National Medal in the Humanities presented by President Obama in 2014.
I had an opportunity to speak with Stanley recently concerning the announcement of his Career Achievement Award from the Hamptons Take 2 Documentary Film Festival (HT2FF).
You have won so many prizes, what does it mean to you to receive the Career Achievement Award from the HT2FF?
It is always great to receive accolades; it doesn’t get old. Documentary filmmakers don’t get recognition every day. It’s not like we go to a restaurant and everyone falls all over us. To be recognized because people are seeing and liking my films is great and the award means this is happening.
In addition to receiving the MacArthur Genius Award, your company, Firelight Media, won the 2015 MacArthur Award. How has that helped you?
My personal award sent my three kids to school and sustained me as a filmmaker. The Award to Firelight Media will help sustain the Lab mentoring filmmakers of color making their first and second films. One of the things that is essential to me as a filmmaker is to try to give the viewer a sense of what it has meant to be black in America and consider this within our contemporary context.
Nelson has directed and produced such acclaimed work as “The Murder Of Emmett Till” an eye-opening film which reveals so much beyond what the headlines of the times told us, the public. His other stirring docs include “Freedom Riders” (his personal favorite) and “Jonestown: The Life And Death Of People’s Temple”
In 2014, “Freedom Summer” presented an astounding history of what led up to the Black Power Movement. When it premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, the audience was stunned at how he put into context the 1964 voter registration drive in Mississippi, the surprising truth of the Chicago Democratic Convention and the Mississippi delegation and how the turn of events led to the Black Power Movement and to the Voting Rights Act.
The delegation never got the chance to speak from the floor. Many then said, "We can’t keep being the good soldier and following the rules when we can’t do our best." Some moved into action, some dropped out. They thought, "If we just 'show' you the wrongs, the injustice, police with dogs and fire-hoses and show you that we’re non-violent, you can’t help but support us." But the Democratic National Convention failed them, and the young had to do something new.
The last image in “Freedom Summer” you see Stokely Carmichael saying “We want Black Power”. In the opening of your most recent film, “The Black Panthers: Vanguard Of The Revolution” he is also chanting “We want Black Power” which gives a continuity to the two films. Tell me a bit about what prompted you to tell this story?
I felt it was a little known story, that hadn’t been told in its entirety. In particular, I wanted to offer a unique and engaging opportunity to examine a very complex moment in time that challenges the cold, oversimplified narrative of a Panther who is prone to violence and consumed with anger. Thoroughly examining the history of the Black Panther Party allowed me to sift through the fragmented perceptions and find the core driver of the movement: the Black Panther Party emerged out of a love for their people, and a devotion to empowering them. This compelled me to communicate the story fully and accurately. And for the release in August of the film, I attended every opening in 20 cities nationwide, along with former Black Panthers, scholars and photographers.
How did you get started in filmmaking?
I thought I wanted to make fiction features but I stumbled into Bill Greaves and got into documentary filmmaking with him and never looked back.
If someone offered me a million dollars to make a fiction project I think I would. But I know how you have to jump through hoops to make a feature and that pain would be difficult. I don’t have a particular idea or a script and that is hardest part of fiction; how to get a great script, cast, funding. Docs are known at least…
What films inspired you?
“Eyes on the Prize”. It was the first time we saw a series on African Americans. It got so much attention worldwide. It opened eyes to the African American history and it was fascinating to everyone. And it inspired a whole generation of African American filmmakers.
Do you have a sense of Mission in your filmmaking?
This morning I was interviewing an assistant editor and said to him, “We are on a mission here”; getting ahead in a career is ok, but here we are on a mission.”
We have a history we’ve been fortunate to be able to tell. I see my ancestors on my shoulder saying “Don’t screw up”.
We are also on a mission to tell good stories and to entertain people. I hope our films move people to action one way or the other. Many of our films lately are about young people who are making changes.
Did your parents raise you with social awareness or activism?
They were very politically minded and we talked about politics all the time around the dinner table. We were raised to be aware. I remember when I was 15 or 16 when the Panthers started, I would come home and turn on TV and see fire-hoses and dogs attacking people. These images politicized everyone. Just like today with Black Lives Matter and the police killings, everyone has to think about what they’re seeing. In the 60s it was sustained. Viet Nam also politicized everybody. You were either going to go or you had to figure out how not to go. It affected everyone.
What do you make of the police violence against black lives today?
The blatant activities of the police that all people, black and white, are seeing and talking about is bringing awareness to the years and years of injustices. Black Lives Matters is similar to how Black Panthers began. We have to be responsible for our own communities.
Nelson is currently in production on “Tell Them We Are Rising: The Story Of Historically Black Colleges And Universities”, which is the second in a series of three films Nelson will direct as part of a new multi-platform PBS series entitled America Revisited. He is also exec producing “ Free for All: Inside the Public Library”.
For more information or to buy tickets, please go to ht2ff.com...
- 9/21/2015
- by Sydney Levine
- Sydney's Buzz
Kino Lorber is proud to announce the acquisition of all North American rights to Les Blank & Gina Leibrecht‘s How To Smell A Rose: A Visit With Ricky Leacock In Normandy, a moving tribute by one cinema verité master to another.
Opening at New York’s Film Forum on Wednesday, August 12, 2015, How To Smell Of Rose: A Visit With Ricky Leacock In Normandy was co-directed by Les Blank and his longtime creative partner, Gina Leibrecht. How To Smell A Rose: A Visit With Ricky Leacock is the penultimate film directed by Les Blank, before he passed away on April 7, 2013.
During its theatrical run at Film Forum, How To Smell A Rose will be screened with the Leacock-Joyce Chopra classic, Happy Mother’S Day, on the 1963 birth of the Fischer quintuplets in Aberdeen, South Dakota. In further national theatrical engagements “Rose” will be presented with Les Blank’s now classic...
Opening at New York’s Film Forum on Wednesday, August 12, 2015, How To Smell Of Rose: A Visit With Ricky Leacock In Normandy was co-directed by Les Blank and his longtime creative partner, Gina Leibrecht. How To Smell A Rose: A Visit With Ricky Leacock is the penultimate film directed by Les Blank, before he passed away on April 7, 2013.
During its theatrical run at Film Forum, How To Smell A Rose will be screened with the Leacock-Joyce Chopra classic, Happy Mother’S Day, on the 1963 birth of the Fischer quintuplets in Aberdeen, South Dakota. In further national theatrical engagements “Rose” will be presented with Les Blank’s now classic...
- 7/22/2015
- by Michelle McCue
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
The distributor has picked up all Us rights to rom-com to star Julia Roberts, Jennifer Aniston, Kate Hudson and Jason Sudeikis.
Garry Marshall will direct Mother’s Day and Wayne Rice and Gulfstream Pictures’ Mike Karz will produce Mother’s Day, which Open Road plans to release wide on April 29, 2016.
Daniel Diamond, who also serves as a producer, handles international sales through his Diamond Pictures. Jared Underwood and Danny Mandel of Aperture Media Partners provide the debt financing.
Anya Kochoff-Romano and Lily Hollander, Matt Walker and Tom Hines wrote the screenplay and principal photography will take place in Atlanta in August.
Open Road brokered the deal with CAA, which packaged the film and represented Us rights.
In other news, Kino Lorber has acquired all North American rights to Les Blank and Gina Leibrecht’s How To Smell A Rose: A Visit With Ricky Leacock In Normandy.
Garry Marshall will direct Mother’s Day and Wayne Rice and Gulfstream Pictures’ Mike Karz will produce Mother’s Day, which Open Road plans to release wide on April 29, 2016.
Daniel Diamond, who also serves as a producer, handles international sales through his Diamond Pictures. Jared Underwood and Danny Mandel of Aperture Media Partners provide the debt financing.
Anya Kochoff-Romano and Lily Hollander, Matt Walker and Tom Hines wrote the screenplay and principal photography will take place in Atlanta in August.
Open Road brokered the deal with CAA, which packaged the film and represented Us rights.
In other news, Kino Lorber has acquired all North American rights to Les Blank and Gina Leibrecht’s How To Smell A Rose: A Visit With Ricky Leacock In Normandy.
- 7/22/2015
- by jeremykay67@gmail.com (Jeremy Kay)
- ScreenDaily
As AFI Docs opens in Washington, DC, the Post's Ann Hornaday sketches a brief history of the American documentary, from the cinéma vérité of the 60s (Robert Drew, Richard Leacock, D.A. Pennebaker, Albert Maysles) through the personal essays of the 80s (Ross McElwee and Michael Moore) to the day "Errol Morris revolutionized the industry by introducing reenactments and stylized cinematic flourishes in the true-crime thriller The Thin Blue Line. (Actually, he reintroduced reenactment, if you consider the work of Robert Flaherty in 1922’s Nanook of the North.)" We're gathering previews of this year's 13th edition. » - David Hudson...
- 6/17/2015
- Fandor: Keyframe
As AFI Docs opens in Washington, DC, the Post's Ann Hornaday sketches a brief history of the American documentary, from the cinéma vérité of the 60s (Robert Drew, Richard Leacock, D.A. Pennebaker, Albert Maysles) through the personal essays of the 80s (Ross McElwee and Michael Moore) to the day "Errol Morris revolutionized the industry by introducing reenactments and stylized cinematic flourishes in the true-crime thriller The Thin Blue Line. (Actually, he reintroduced reenactment, if you consider the work of Robert Flaherty in 1922’s Nanook of the North.)" We're gathering previews of this year's 13th edition. » - David Hudson...
- 6/17/2015
- Keyframe
Back at the start of March, the world of film lost one of its most revered documentarians, Albert Maysles. He and his brother David made three of Sight & Sound’s Top 50 Documentaries of all time, and to pay tribute to the late director, Turner Classic Movies is tonight changing their schedule to air three of those films, along with one of his early shorts.
TCM’s Albert Maysles Memorial Tribute will air Grey Gardens, Salesman, Gimme Shelter, and Meet Marlon Brando, starting at 8 Pm Et tonight. We first reported on the series back in our film Week in Review. Here’s the schedule:
TCM Remembers Albert Maysles– Monday, March 23
8 Pm Grey Gardens (1976)
10:00 Pm Salesman (1968)
11:45 Pm Gimme Shelter (1970)
1:30 Am Meet Marlon Brando (1968)
Grey Gardens recently received a restoration via the Criterion Collection, while the controversial Gimme Shelter is an absolute must-see and pinnacle of music history, ranking along...
TCM’s Albert Maysles Memorial Tribute will air Grey Gardens, Salesman, Gimme Shelter, and Meet Marlon Brando, starting at 8 Pm Et tonight. We first reported on the series back in our film Week in Review. Here’s the schedule:
TCM Remembers Albert Maysles– Monday, March 23
8 Pm Grey Gardens (1976)
10:00 Pm Salesman (1968)
11:45 Pm Gimme Shelter (1970)
1:30 Am Meet Marlon Brando (1968)
Grey Gardens recently received a restoration via the Criterion Collection, while the controversial Gimme Shelter is an absolute must-see and pinnacle of music history, ranking along...
- 3/23/2015
- by Brian Welk
- SoundOnSight
With the passing of seminal documentarian Albert Maysles on March 5, it would only be appropriate to speak to Susan Froemke, his long time friend and frequent co-director. Albert Maysles –along with his brother David - made some of the most iconic American documentaries of all time, all the while revolutionizing the art form, largely through the utilization of cinema verite or direct cinema. This documentary motif, which grew popular by the Maysles and their contemporaries like D.A. Pennebaker and Richard Leacock, actually had been invented by Jean Rouch and originally inspired by Dziga Vertov’s theory about Kino Pravda nearly a century ago.
Cinema verite is sometimes called observational cinema, but that does not entirely explain its phenomenon; the style is largely concerned with the recording of events in which the subject and audience become unaware of the camera’s presence. One can feel the visceral and –at times- spontaneous reactions by its performers. (Take for instance Mick Jagger’s despair upon seeing footage of one of his fans killed at the Altamont Free Concert by a member of the Hells Angels in "Gimme Shelter").
The Maysles’ brothers were co-directors of acclaimed films such as the aforementioned "Gimme Shelter," "Grey Gardens" and "Salesman." They continued to make cinema verite documentaries together for thirty years until David’s death in 1987. They chronicled Hollywood luminaries like Orson Welles and Marlon Brando, and also chronicled the Beatles’ first visit to the U.S. Their range was vast and eclectic. They were nominated for a Best Documentary, Short Subjects Academy Award in 1974 for "Christo’s Valley Curtain." Afterward, Albert Maysles would co-direct with Deborah Dickson and Susan Froemke, and would go on to win an Emmy in 1992 for "Abortion: Desperate Choices." Up until his death, Albert continued making films on his own and in collaboration with other filmmakers for HBO and others. The collaboration between Albert Maysles and Susan Froemke had been just as impressive. Such films as "Vladimir Horowitz: The Last Romantic" and "Ozawa" are part of their canon. Perhaps their most prominent collaboration (along with Deborah Dickson) was the 2001 Oscar nominated "Lalee’s Kin: The Legacy of Cotton," which followed a Mississippi Delta school district and a struggling Delta family. The film reflected the damaging effects of poverty in the Deep South.
In this Exclusive interview, Susan Froemke discusses Albert Maysles’ brilliance as co-director, collaborator, his integral place within cinematic history as well as generous artistic spirit.
Jared Feldschreiber: What were the circumstances in which you met Albert Maysles as film artists? Since you both collaborated on close to twenty films, how would you characterize your relationship both artistically and on a personal basis?
Susan Froemke: I arrived at Maysles Films in the early 70’s, 21 years old, and worked with Al and David until 2003. The Maysles shied away from hiring people right out of film schools because they wanted you to be open to their approach. They didn’t want to “un-teach you”—their word. I was an English Lit major which pleased them. I was privileged to be one of the few allowed to be on shoots with them (Bob Richman was too) so I saw their filming approach first hand. I worked very closely with David, Charlotte Zwerin and Ellen Hovde in the edit room. I eventually produced for them.
Jf: How would you describe your collaborative process?
Sf: When David died in 1987, Al and I partnered as a filming team--Al on camera while I took sound. A two person filming crew—no larger-- was essential to capturing the intimate footage we loved. Maysles Films was very much a family and it lasted for over 40 years. Everyone who worked there, and many talented filmmakers came through the company, felt the spirit of the place and we were all committed to the Maysles’ approach and very close personally.
We’d find a subject we thought was worthy of filming, follow the direction that subject took us on and then edit the footage all as a team. Our end credits were “a film by” and that was the true working relationship. Everyone had an equal voice. We are all so sad today.
Jf: In a TV interview, Albert disclosed a telling adage by Orson Welles, which seemed to fit his approach to documentaries: ‘In a fiction film, the director is God, in a non-fiction film, God is the director,' Albert cited Welles. Would you say that this was Albert’s modus operandi, and if so, would you say as a documentarian he remained resolute to never ‘prejudge’ his subjects and let the events on camera determine the film’s focus?
Sf: Oh yes, I heard that quote often from Al. Al and David (and I have to always include David as well because they developed their approach—their philosophy—together) took their direction from their subject. The only thing we asked from a subject was access. Al and David never told a subject what to do, never asked them to repeat an action or sentence. They never talked to the subject while filming. Never. They wanted to minimize the fact that filming was going on. They wanted to keep the true-life situation as real as possible. But this was Not fly on the wall filming. They hated being called that because there was always a deep bond between filmmaker and subject. A deep trust. Wherever the subject took us always produced the strongest footage. And reality never disappointed us.
Jf: Do you know who were Albert’s main film inspirations?
Sf: I don’t think Al ever saw any films except his own. He didn’t really go to the movies. Certainly not fiction films! He was inspired by the people he met on a train; or walking down the street, if he saw someone sad, he’d ask them why; faces in the crowd, this is what interested him. I do know that he did admire Henri Cartier–Bresson’s photographs.
Jf: In layman’s terms, what’s the value of cinema verite? How can one define it? Do you feel as though the modern sensibility is patient enough to deal with its approach? Was this ever a concern for you and Albert over time that you may lose your audience?
Sf: Al was never interested in any approach to filmmaking but “direct cinema” which we defined as the truth that unfolded before our camera. This is a timeless approach, one that allowed us to examine the human spirit. I think it will last through the ages, like great literature. It never occurred to us to worry about losing an audience. If you have a complex narrative with charismatic characters, your film will always find viewership.
Jf: How many films did you work on with Albert, and which ones were your favorites in terms of content, their form and other personal collaborative memories?
Sf: I made over 20 films with Al. Favorites include "Grey Gardens", "Vladimir Horowitz: The Last Romantic," "Lalee’s Kin: The Legacy of Cotton," "Soldiers Of Music: Rostropovich Returns to Russia." There are so many. The trip to Russia in the early 90’s with Al to film Rostropovich’s return to Russia after 16 years of exile was a magnificent trip. Al had a tremendously nostalgic feeling towards Russia because he and David had taken a motorcycle trip there in the 50’s and began filming then. We traveled with Rostropovich and his family for a week and each encounter they had—whether musical or political-- was profound so we came back with rich, beautiful footage that told a story of courage and bravery. Al’s intuitive, lyrical camera was stunning whether filming Rostropovich playing the cello or just faces of strangers in a crowd.
Jf: In which scenes in the films you worked on together would you say you achieved a kind of ‘cinema truth?’
Sf: There is a scene in "Lalee’s Kin" which was filmed in the Mississippi Delta’s poorest county where Lalee, a 60 year old Great Grandmother, realizes her 12 year old granddaughter hasn’t made it to school on the first day of classes because she didn’t have any pencils or paper to take with her. The granddaughter is softly crying as Lalee searches through her house trying to find some pencils. This is a child who wants to be educated but painfully knows the odds aren’t in her favor. It’s a heartbreaking scene that illuminates the scale of the problems of poverty—how difficult it is to educate the child from an illiterate family. It is ‘cinema truth’ at it’s best.
Albert Maysles’ documentary film career began in 1955 when he traveled abroad to shoot "Psychiatry in Russia." He made films until his death, as exemplified by his latest “In Transit," which is due to premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival in April. The film centers on the Empire Builder - America’s busiest long-distance train route that runs from Chicago to Seattle. "Iris," another documentary of the fashion icon Iris Apfel, will also be released next month.
Cinema verite is sometimes called observational cinema, but that does not entirely explain its phenomenon; the style is largely concerned with the recording of events in which the subject and audience become unaware of the camera’s presence. One can feel the visceral and –at times- spontaneous reactions by its performers. (Take for instance Mick Jagger’s despair upon seeing footage of one of his fans killed at the Altamont Free Concert by a member of the Hells Angels in "Gimme Shelter").
The Maysles’ brothers were co-directors of acclaimed films such as the aforementioned "Gimme Shelter," "Grey Gardens" and "Salesman." They continued to make cinema verite documentaries together for thirty years until David’s death in 1987. They chronicled Hollywood luminaries like Orson Welles and Marlon Brando, and also chronicled the Beatles’ first visit to the U.S. Their range was vast and eclectic. They were nominated for a Best Documentary, Short Subjects Academy Award in 1974 for "Christo’s Valley Curtain." Afterward, Albert Maysles would co-direct with Deborah Dickson and Susan Froemke, and would go on to win an Emmy in 1992 for "Abortion: Desperate Choices." Up until his death, Albert continued making films on his own and in collaboration with other filmmakers for HBO and others. The collaboration between Albert Maysles and Susan Froemke had been just as impressive. Such films as "Vladimir Horowitz: The Last Romantic" and "Ozawa" are part of their canon. Perhaps their most prominent collaboration (along with Deborah Dickson) was the 2001 Oscar nominated "Lalee’s Kin: The Legacy of Cotton," which followed a Mississippi Delta school district and a struggling Delta family. The film reflected the damaging effects of poverty in the Deep South.
In this Exclusive interview, Susan Froemke discusses Albert Maysles’ brilliance as co-director, collaborator, his integral place within cinematic history as well as generous artistic spirit.
Jared Feldschreiber: What were the circumstances in which you met Albert Maysles as film artists? Since you both collaborated on close to twenty films, how would you characterize your relationship both artistically and on a personal basis?
Susan Froemke: I arrived at Maysles Films in the early 70’s, 21 years old, and worked with Al and David until 2003. The Maysles shied away from hiring people right out of film schools because they wanted you to be open to their approach. They didn’t want to “un-teach you”—their word. I was an English Lit major which pleased them. I was privileged to be one of the few allowed to be on shoots with them (Bob Richman was too) so I saw their filming approach first hand. I worked very closely with David, Charlotte Zwerin and Ellen Hovde in the edit room. I eventually produced for them.
Jf: How would you describe your collaborative process?
Sf: When David died in 1987, Al and I partnered as a filming team--Al on camera while I took sound. A two person filming crew—no larger-- was essential to capturing the intimate footage we loved. Maysles Films was very much a family and it lasted for over 40 years. Everyone who worked there, and many talented filmmakers came through the company, felt the spirit of the place and we were all committed to the Maysles’ approach and very close personally.
We’d find a subject we thought was worthy of filming, follow the direction that subject took us on and then edit the footage all as a team. Our end credits were “a film by” and that was the true working relationship. Everyone had an equal voice. We are all so sad today.
Jf: In a TV interview, Albert disclosed a telling adage by Orson Welles, which seemed to fit his approach to documentaries: ‘In a fiction film, the director is God, in a non-fiction film, God is the director,' Albert cited Welles. Would you say that this was Albert’s modus operandi, and if so, would you say as a documentarian he remained resolute to never ‘prejudge’ his subjects and let the events on camera determine the film’s focus?
Sf: Oh yes, I heard that quote often from Al. Al and David (and I have to always include David as well because they developed their approach—their philosophy—together) took their direction from their subject. The only thing we asked from a subject was access. Al and David never told a subject what to do, never asked them to repeat an action or sentence. They never talked to the subject while filming. Never. They wanted to minimize the fact that filming was going on. They wanted to keep the true-life situation as real as possible. But this was Not fly on the wall filming. They hated being called that because there was always a deep bond between filmmaker and subject. A deep trust. Wherever the subject took us always produced the strongest footage. And reality never disappointed us.
Jf: Do you know who were Albert’s main film inspirations?
Sf: I don’t think Al ever saw any films except his own. He didn’t really go to the movies. Certainly not fiction films! He was inspired by the people he met on a train; or walking down the street, if he saw someone sad, he’d ask them why; faces in the crowd, this is what interested him. I do know that he did admire Henri Cartier–Bresson’s photographs.
Jf: In layman’s terms, what’s the value of cinema verite? How can one define it? Do you feel as though the modern sensibility is patient enough to deal with its approach? Was this ever a concern for you and Albert over time that you may lose your audience?
Sf: Al was never interested in any approach to filmmaking but “direct cinema” which we defined as the truth that unfolded before our camera. This is a timeless approach, one that allowed us to examine the human spirit. I think it will last through the ages, like great literature. It never occurred to us to worry about losing an audience. If you have a complex narrative with charismatic characters, your film will always find viewership.
Jf: How many films did you work on with Albert, and which ones were your favorites in terms of content, their form and other personal collaborative memories?
Sf: I made over 20 films with Al. Favorites include "Grey Gardens", "Vladimir Horowitz: The Last Romantic," "Lalee’s Kin: The Legacy of Cotton," "Soldiers Of Music: Rostropovich Returns to Russia." There are so many. The trip to Russia in the early 90’s with Al to film Rostropovich’s return to Russia after 16 years of exile was a magnificent trip. Al had a tremendously nostalgic feeling towards Russia because he and David had taken a motorcycle trip there in the 50’s and began filming then. We traveled with Rostropovich and his family for a week and each encounter they had—whether musical or political-- was profound so we came back with rich, beautiful footage that told a story of courage and bravery. Al’s intuitive, lyrical camera was stunning whether filming Rostropovich playing the cello or just faces of strangers in a crowd.
Jf: In which scenes in the films you worked on together would you say you achieved a kind of ‘cinema truth?’
Sf: There is a scene in "Lalee’s Kin" which was filmed in the Mississippi Delta’s poorest county where Lalee, a 60 year old Great Grandmother, realizes her 12 year old granddaughter hasn’t made it to school on the first day of classes because she didn’t have any pencils or paper to take with her. The granddaughter is softly crying as Lalee searches through her house trying to find some pencils. This is a child who wants to be educated but painfully knows the odds aren’t in her favor. It’s a heartbreaking scene that illuminates the scale of the problems of poverty—how difficult it is to educate the child from an illiterate family. It is ‘cinema truth’ at it’s best.
Albert Maysles’ documentary film career began in 1955 when he traveled abroad to shoot "Psychiatry in Russia." He made films until his death, as exemplified by his latest “In Transit," which is due to premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival in April. The film centers on the Empire Builder - America’s busiest long-distance train route that runs from Chicago to Seattle. "Iris," another documentary of the fashion icon Iris Apfel, will also be released next month.
- 3/8/2015
- by Jared Feldschreiber
- Sydney's Buzz
HT2FF – Hamptons Take 2 Documentary Film Festival is about to take place for its 7th edition, December 4th, 5th, 6th and 7th just after Thanksgiving and before Christmas. For four days the Bay Street Theater in Sag Harbor on Long Island’s East End, is booked back-to-back with documentaries of the finest caliber but which are not necessarily premieres.These are films that both deserve and need exposure, hence the festival title, “Take 2”. The audience is enthusiastic and loyal.
Jacqui Lofaro was herself a documentary filmmaker until she started this festival which now consumes her days and nights. Not that she doesn’t have an idea for her next documentary, but, at this moment the festival, is exploding, a case of spontaneous combustion. The festival has taken over her life with screenings throughout the year, such as this spring’s screening of Frieda Lee Mock’s 2013 critically acclaimed film, “Anita”. With a panel of experts the screening was an event playing to a packed house. It didn’t matter that the film had already had its theatrical release. According to Jacqui “that’s what Take 2 is all about. Our mission is simply to show great documentary films to our local East End audience”. This festival reaches out to the community by showing films throughout the year in local libraries as well.
This year, the festival will screen a total of 32 documentaries at the Bay Street Theater. Using only one theater venue makes this festival intimate and very, very easy.
There is a balance in the festival between social issue documentaries and other docs, and between bringing in filmmakers and focusing on community filmmakers. Indeed the first day of the festival is devoted to regional filmmakers with a “Focus on Locals”.
In addition, the festival will feature several sections which are targeted at local youth: Young Voices (short docs made by local middle and high school students), Future Voices (films by Student Filmmakers from the NYC Media Arts Centers) and Emerging Voices (two strong films by recent graduates of the School of Visual Arts Mfa Social Documentary Program, introduced by documentary filmmaker and Sva professor, Deborah Dickson).
The Evening Galas are not red-carpet-celebrity events. Rather they honor documentary filmmakers such as Richard Leacock the inventor of the sound-sync camera or Susan Lacy of American Masters or Chris Hegedus & D A Pennebaker. This year the honors go to Barbara Kopple who has been making ground-breaking docs for 40+ years. Her first film on a devastating coal miners’ strike in Kentucky, “Harlan County USA”, was an Oscar winner, and will screen to this growing audience of doc fans.
This rock-solid festival is not premiere driven. However, this year the festival was offered the New York premiere of Michael Apted’s “Bending the Light” about lens making for photographers and filmmakers, and will also feature the east coast premiere of “The Big Beat”, made by local filmmaker and archivist, Joe Lauro. Also screening is Martin Scorsese’s “Fifty Year Argument”, an HBO documentary about the anniversary of The New York Review of Books.
The closing night film is reserved for the annual Filmmaker’s Choice Award which this year goes to Wendy Keys both filmmaker and former administrator at the Film Society of Lincoln Center. Her documentary “Milton Glaser: To Inform & Delight, “ a warm and insightful view of the iconic American graphic designer of the “I Love New York” campaign and the founder of New York Magazine, will be the feature film.
The enthusiasm and efficiency behind this festival abide with Jacqui to such an extent that I wondered how she did it and wondered about her own docs, made by her company Justice Productions.org. She said they do not have traditional distribution, however, they continuously sell on Amazon’s Create Space, and she is invited to speak and show the film at universities, libraries and other venues where audiences care about social issues. Recently the Reel Recovery Film Festival showed “The Last Fix: An Addicts Passage from Hell to Hope” at the Quad. “The Empty Chair: Death Penalty Yes or No,” the recipient of the 2006 prestigious Thurgood Marshall Broadcast Journalism Award aired on national television on the Hallmark Channel’s World of Faith and Values and is still actively requested as well.
The festival has welcomed Karen Arikian (former Exec. Dir of the Hamptons International Film Festival and currently the Us rep for the Berlin International Film Festival) on board as Creative Advisor, and Jacqui has put together an Industry Advisory Board of top film and television professionals. Jacqui describes board meetings at the Paley Center for Media (Board Member, Ron Simon, is Paley’s Curator for TV and Radio) taking place in the Chairman’s office around Paley’s own round leather desk. As Jacqui puts it: “Now that’s a place of inspiration”.
Industry Advisory Board:
Julie Anderson - Executive Producer, Documentaries and Development at PBS/Wnet; former producer at Espn; documentary filmmaker at HBO Sports; executive at HBO Original Documentary Programming.
Karen Arikian - Founded her independent consulting company with offices in Germany and New York for clients including BAFTA, Toronto International Film Festival, Hamburg Media School; Us Delegate to (Berlinale) Berlin International Film Festival.
Susan Lacy - Founded "Pentimento Productions" in 2014, with a film to premiere on HBO, the first in an exclusive multi-picture deal with HBO Documentary Films; former creator, director & executive producer of 200 documentaries for the PBS “American Masters” series.
Don Lenzer - Documentary director and cinematographer whose credits can be found on five Academy Award winning feature documentaries and numerous public television programs; co-directed and shot the Emmy Award winning Great Performances documentary "Itzhak Perlman; In The Fiddler's House."
Susan Margolin - President of Docurama and Special Acquisitions at Cinedigm. She oversees the recently launched Docurama Channel as well as the Docurama brand of award winning documentary films across all platforms including theatrical, home entertainment, and digital distribution.
Nigel Noble - Producer, director and Academy Award winner for the documentary short, “Close Harmony;" producer and director of films and video for theaters, television, not-for-profits, major businesses with works earning nominations and accolades from the Director’s Guild of America, Cannes Film Festival, Telluride Film Festival.
Roger Sherman - Director, producer and cinematographer of documentaries that have won an Emmy Award, a Peabody Award and two Academy award nominations. He is a co-founder of Florentine Films with Ken Burns.
Ron Simon - Curator of television and radio for The Paley Center for Media; an adjunct associate professor at Columbia University, New York University and Hunter College; judge on the George Foster Peabody committee; member editorial board of Television Quarterly.
Jacqui Lofaro was herself a documentary filmmaker until she started this festival which now consumes her days and nights. Not that she doesn’t have an idea for her next documentary, but, at this moment the festival, is exploding, a case of spontaneous combustion. The festival has taken over her life with screenings throughout the year, such as this spring’s screening of Frieda Lee Mock’s 2013 critically acclaimed film, “Anita”. With a panel of experts the screening was an event playing to a packed house. It didn’t matter that the film had already had its theatrical release. According to Jacqui “that’s what Take 2 is all about. Our mission is simply to show great documentary films to our local East End audience”. This festival reaches out to the community by showing films throughout the year in local libraries as well.
This year, the festival will screen a total of 32 documentaries at the Bay Street Theater. Using only one theater venue makes this festival intimate and very, very easy.
There is a balance in the festival between social issue documentaries and other docs, and between bringing in filmmakers and focusing on community filmmakers. Indeed the first day of the festival is devoted to regional filmmakers with a “Focus on Locals”.
In addition, the festival will feature several sections which are targeted at local youth: Young Voices (short docs made by local middle and high school students), Future Voices (films by Student Filmmakers from the NYC Media Arts Centers) and Emerging Voices (two strong films by recent graduates of the School of Visual Arts Mfa Social Documentary Program, introduced by documentary filmmaker and Sva professor, Deborah Dickson).
The Evening Galas are not red-carpet-celebrity events. Rather they honor documentary filmmakers such as Richard Leacock the inventor of the sound-sync camera or Susan Lacy of American Masters or Chris Hegedus & D A Pennebaker. This year the honors go to Barbara Kopple who has been making ground-breaking docs for 40+ years. Her first film on a devastating coal miners’ strike in Kentucky, “Harlan County USA”, was an Oscar winner, and will screen to this growing audience of doc fans.
This rock-solid festival is not premiere driven. However, this year the festival was offered the New York premiere of Michael Apted’s “Bending the Light” about lens making for photographers and filmmakers, and will also feature the east coast premiere of “The Big Beat”, made by local filmmaker and archivist, Joe Lauro. Also screening is Martin Scorsese’s “Fifty Year Argument”, an HBO documentary about the anniversary of The New York Review of Books.
The closing night film is reserved for the annual Filmmaker’s Choice Award which this year goes to Wendy Keys both filmmaker and former administrator at the Film Society of Lincoln Center. Her documentary “Milton Glaser: To Inform & Delight, “ a warm and insightful view of the iconic American graphic designer of the “I Love New York” campaign and the founder of New York Magazine, will be the feature film.
The enthusiasm and efficiency behind this festival abide with Jacqui to such an extent that I wondered how she did it and wondered about her own docs, made by her company Justice Productions.org. She said they do not have traditional distribution, however, they continuously sell on Amazon’s Create Space, and she is invited to speak and show the film at universities, libraries and other venues where audiences care about social issues. Recently the Reel Recovery Film Festival showed “The Last Fix: An Addicts Passage from Hell to Hope” at the Quad. “The Empty Chair: Death Penalty Yes or No,” the recipient of the 2006 prestigious Thurgood Marshall Broadcast Journalism Award aired on national television on the Hallmark Channel’s World of Faith and Values and is still actively requested as well.
The festival has welcomed Karen Arikian (former Exec. Dir of the Hamptons International Film Festival and currently the Us rep for the Berlin International Film Festival) on board as Creative Advisor, and Jacqui has put together an Industry Advisory Board of top film and television professionals. Jacqui describes board meetings at the Paley Center for Media (Board Member, Ron Simon, is Paley’s Curator for TV and Radio) taking place in the Chairman’s office around Paley’s own round leather desk. As Jacqui puts it: “Now that’s a place of inspiration”.
Industry Advisory Board:
Julie Anderson - Executive Producer, Documentaries and Development at PBS/Wnet; former producer at Espn; documentary filmmaker at HBO Sports; executive at HBO Original Documentary Programming.
Karen Arikian - Founded her independent consulting company with offices in Germany and New York for clients including BAFTA, Toronto International Film Festival, Hamburg Media School; Us Delegate to (Berlinale) Berlin International Film Festival.
Susan Lacy - Founded "Pentimento Productions" in 2014, with a film to premiere on HBO, the first in an exclusive multi-picture deal with HBO Documentary Films; former creator, director & executive producer of 200 documentaries for the PBS “American Masters” series.
Don Lenzer - Documentary director and cinematographer whose credits can be found on five Academy Award winning feature documentaries and numerous public television programs; co-directed and shot the Emmy Award winning Great Performances documentary "Itzhak Perlman; In The Fiddler's House."
Susan Margolin - President of Docurama and Special Acquisitions at Cinedigm. She oversees the recently launched Docurama Channel as well as the Docurama brand of award winning documentary films across all platforms including theatrical, home entertainment, and digital distribution.
Nigel Noble - Producer, director and Academy Award winner for the documentary short, “Close Harmony;" producer and director of films and video for theaters, television, not-for-profits, major businesses with works earning nominations and accolades from the Director’s Guild of America, Cannes Film Festival, Telluride Film Festival.
Roger Sherman - Director, producer and cinematographer of documentaries that have won an Emmy Award, a Peabody Award and two Academy award nominations. He is a co-founder of Florentine Films with Ken Burns.
Ron Simon - Curator of television and radio for The Paley Center for Media; an adjunct associate professor at Columbia University, New York University and Hunter College; judge on the George Foster Peabody committee; member editorial board of Television Quarterly.
- 11/11/2014
- by Sydney Levine
- Sydney's Buzz
By Anjelica Oswald
Managing Editor
With the Telluride, Toronto and New York film festivals taking place within a few weeks of each other — or a few days, as is the case between Telluride (Aug. 28-Sept. 1) and Toronto (Sept. 4-14) — filmmakers are busy with publicity and interviews for their upcoming films.
A number of films this year are hitting the trifecta; Foxcatcher, Mr. Turner and The 50 Year Argument are a few that went from Colorado to Canada and are heading to New York at the end of September. Academy Award-winner 12 Years a Slave (2013) took the same path last year, but the implementation of Toronto’s new policy this year could have affected just how many films made it to all three festivals.
The new policy declared that any film with a North American premiere before the start of Tiff could not be shown in Toronto until the fifth day of the festival.
Managing Editor
With the Telluride, Toronto and New York film festivals taking place within a few weeks of each other — or a few days, as is the case between Telluride (Aug. 28-Sept. 1) and Toronto (Sept. 4-14) — filmmakers are busy with publicity and interviews for their upcoming films.
A number of films this year are hitting the trifecta; Foxcatcher, Mr. Turner and The 50 Year Argument are a few that went from Colorado to Canada and are heading to New York at the end of September. Academy Award-winner 12 Years a Slave (2013) took the same path last year, but the implementation of Toronto’s new policy this year could have affected just how many films made it to all three festivals.
The new policy declared that any film with a North American premiere before the start of Tiff could not be shown in Toronto until the fifth day of the festival.
- 9/9/2014
- by Anjelica Oswald
- Scott Feinberg
Opening Night – World Premiere
Gone Girl
David Fincher, USA, 2014, Dcp, 150m
David Fincher’s film version of Gillian Flynn’s phenomenally successful best seller (adapted by the author) is one wild cinematic ride, a perfectly cast and intensely compressed portrait of a recession-era marriage contained within a devastating depiction of celebrity/media culture, shifting gears as smoothly as a Maserati 250F. Ben Affleck is Nick Dunne, whose wife Amy (Rosamund Pike) goes missing on the day of their fifth anniversary. Neil Patrick Harris is Amy’s old boyfriend Desi, Carrie Coon (who played Honey in Tracy Letts’s acclaimed production of Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?) is Nick’s sister Margo, Kim Dickens (Treme, Friday Night Lights) is Detective Rhonda Boney, and Tyler Perry is Nick’s superstar lawyer Tanner Bolt. At once a grand panoramic vision of middle America, a uniquely disturbing exploration of the fault lines in a marriage,...
Gone Girl
David Fincher, USA, 2014, Dcp, 150m
David Fincher’s film version of Gillian Flynn’s phenomenally successful best seller (adapted by the author) is one wild cinematic ride, a perfectly cast and intensely compressed portrait of a recession-era marriage contained within a devastating depiction of celebrity/media culture, shifting gears as smoothly as a Maserati 250F. Ben Affleck is Nick Dunne, whose wife Amy (Rosamund Pike) goes missing on the day of their fifth anniversary. Neil Patrick Harris is Amy’s old boyfriend Desi, Carrie Coon (who played Honey in Tracy Letts’s acclaimed production of Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?) is Nick’s sister Margo, Kim Dickens (Treme, Friday Night Lights) is Detective Rhonda Boney, and Tyler Perry is Nick’s superstar lawyer Tanner Bolt. At once a grand panoramic vision of middle America, a uniquely disturbing exploration of the fault lines in a marriage,...
- 8/20/2014
- by Notebook
- MUBI
The documentary filmmaker who was called the “father of American cinema verite” died today at his home in Sharon, Conn. Robert Drew was 90. He was a Life magazine correspondent and editor when he formed Drew Associates in 1960 and hired a team of filmmakers that included then-unknowns D.A. Pennebaker, Albert Maysles and Ricky Leacock. Their first project was Primary, which followed handsome young senator John F. Kennedy as he campaigned in Wisconsin for the 1960 Democratic presidential nomination. Starting with Primary, Drew’s films pioneered a new journalistically minded code of documentary creation, including not directing subjects or using set-up shots or […]...
- 7/31/2014
- Deadline
Albert Maysles: Gimme Some Truth
By
Alex Simon
I'm sick and tired of hearing things/From uptight, short-sighted, narrow-minded hypocritics/All I want is the truth/Just gimme some truth/I've had enough of reading things/By neurotic, psychotic, pig-headed politicians/All I want is the truth/Just gimme some truth. – John Lennon
Albert and David Maysles are generally regarded as the fathers of the modern American documentary film. Beginning in the early 1960s, their pioneering work with contemporaries such as Robert Drew, Richard Leacock and D.A. Pennebaker helped launch the “Direct Cinema” movement, devoted to capturing real life as closely as possible, in all its unscripted reality. Today, filmmakers like Michael Moore, reality TV and every news magazine on the air and on the web can trace their linage back to the Maysles brothers.
Their three defining features: Salesman (1968), a sobering and often hilarious look at the lives...
By
Alex Simon
I'm sick and tired of hearing things/From uptight, short-sighted, narrow-minded hypocritics/All I want is the truth/Just gimme some truth/I've had enough of reading things/By neurotic, psychotic, pig-headed politicians/All I want is the truth/Just gimme some truth. – John Lennon
Albert and David Maysles are generally regarded as the fathers of the modern American documentary film. Beginning in the early 1960s, their pioneering work with contemporaries such as Robert Drew, Richard Leacock and D.A. Pennebaker helped launch the “Direct Cinema” movement, devoted to capturing real life as closely as possible, in all its unscripted reality. Today, filmmakers like Michael Moore, reality TV and every news magazine on the air and on the web can trace their linage back to the Maysles brothers.
Their three defining features: Salesman (1968), a sobering and often hilarious look at the lives...
- 4/10/2014
- by The Hollywood Interview.com
- The Hollywood Interview
Today I am writing from Cartagena, Colombia where I attended Ficci, the Festival Internacional de Cine de Cartagena de Indias.
This former colonial jewel in the crown of Spain offers a huge array of delights, film-wise, art-wise, food-wise and people-wise. Gorgeous arts and gorgeous people, sweet, polite and proud. As much as I love Havana, Cartagena is how Havana should look.
And as much as I loved Careyes where I was last week, the art and artisanal scope here is so wide; from the Colombian painter and sculptor, Botero to indigenous palm weaving – décor for homes (not cheap!), bags, designer clothing, linen and rubies.
Aside from films, my big discoveries of the day are Ruby Rumie, a Colombian artist who spends much of her time here in her studio in the Getsemaní section of town and in Chile. Coincidentally (again) Gary Meyer (Telluride Film Festival) and his wife Cathy who are here with Gary on the Documentary Competition Jury (I just left them in Careyas!) also just discovered her as well. The other artist, Olga Amaral, works in indigenous styles of weaving and textile production and now is favoring gold leaf displays of woven wall tapestries. Stunning. Both are available at the Nh Gallery, a place I just happened to wander into as I was walking from the theater to my equally stunning hotel Casa Pestagua.
The courteous and helpful people here are a proud mix of white, brown and black. They say the blacks will never follow the orders of a white. They say the blood of slaves is embedded in the wall fortifications of the city. The Inquisition here was very powerful, and they say the Jews (Conversos) coming in the conquistadors’ ships went to settle Medellín and the Catholics to Bogotá. Cartagena was the last city to be free of the Spanish crown and as such, it was extremely conservative.
It would take days to visit all the museums throughout the city. The Art Biennale is now in many of them (free entry) including the Museum of the Inquisition with its torture machines. The Museum of Gold with pre-Colombian gold artworks is astounding. All the gold of Latin America (and emeralds, diamonds and silver) went from here in the Spanish galleons back to Spain until the city declared its independence in 1811. We in the North know this history but from a different perspective. Eduardo Galeano’s Open Veins of Latin America and Gonzalo Arijon’s documentary Eyes Wide Open, an update of Galeano’s ideas are good starting points for understanding this part of the world. Eye opening indeed!
The beauty of the city and its people is matched by the food. There is great food here here and some very haute cuisine restaurants. Ceviches of many kinds, new sweet fruits like the pitaya and the drink mixing limeade and coconut milk delight the palate. The festival invites enough but not too many industry folks so it can host lunches and dinners in wonderful venues along with cocktail hours where we can all meet and talk. Talk among us is of food and film, film and food…even of food film festivals that are cropping up from Berlin, San Sebastian, here and in Northern California…stay tuned.
The Colombian government is aware of the need for the public to rediscover their own stories and to this end all the festival screenings are free, and all are packed Sro. The government also supports filmmakers with a deliberate, well-planned and well executed strategy to increase production and create an infrastructure.
Colombian films’ biggest challenge is to increase their share of their rapidly growing domestic market, worth $182.3 million in box office in 2012. One way forward is international co-production, where Bam (Bogotá Audiovisual Market) July 14-18, 2014 plays a large role. There is a mini version of this here (Encuentros Cartagena), centering on French and Colombian co-production, but not limited to that, with guests like George Goldenstern from Cinefondation (Cannes), producer/ international sales agent Marie-Pierre Masia and and the ever present Thierry Lenouvel of Cine-Sud whose film Tierra en la lengua aka Dust on the Tongue won the Best Picture Award in Competition. Vincenzo Bugno of World Cinema Fund of the Berlinale is always here too as is Jose Maria Riba on the Jury of the Competition and programmer for San Sebastian and Directors Fortnight. Also on the jury are Wendy Mitchel and Pawel Pawlikowski whose film Ida (Isa: Portobello Film Sales) is playing (outside of the Competition). A look at the winning competition films shows the strength of co-productions today.
Best Picture: Dust on the Tongue of Ruben Mendoza (Colombia) Colombia Film of $15,000. Special Jury Prize: The Third Side of the River (La tercera orilla) which premiered in Competition at the Berlinale, by Celina Murga (Argentina, Netherlands, Germany) (Isa: The Match Factory) Best Director: Alejandro Fernández Almendras for To kill a man (Matar a un hombre) which premiered in Sundance (Chile, France). Film Factory is selling international rights and Film Movement has U.S. It also won the Fipresci or International Critics’ Award. Best Actor: Fernando Bacilio by El Mudo (Peru, Mexico, France), Urban Distribution International is the sales agent.
Cinema in Colombia continues its steep ascent in the international production world. The reasons, according to Bugno, lie in “new political decisions, funding structures, and the developing of a new producing environment that also has to do with new emerging young talent.”
A visit to the festival headquarters proves the point of the extensive government support of film not only for its own sake, but for the sake of all the people, dispossessed, abused, Lgbt, children and women. It is a beautiful sight to see such support, and the people seem to reciprocate; I hear more praise than complaints about the government and everyone seems cautiously optimistic, aware of its current position vis à vis what has thankfully become recent history with the guerillas who had been waging war with the government for the past 40 years and the current elections and competing points of view between the former President Uribe and the current President Juan Manuel Santos.
Aecid , Association Espagnola de Cooperacon Internacional para el Desarrollo (The Spanish Association for International Cooperation for Development), a festival sponsor supports social cohesion, equality of genders, construction of peace, respect for cultural diversity and the reduction of poverty.
Currently in Colombia, national cinema holds a 10% share of the Colombian market and 8% of the box office. In 2012, 213 films were produced in Colombia, a huge increase since 2009 when 19 were produced according to Ocal, the Observotario del Cine f nCl [sic]. In 2012, 23 of the 213 domestic films were released theatrically, a tremendous increase from the 6 Colombian films released in the year 2000. [1],[2] This number surpasses every record in Colombia’s film history
This 10 day spectacular film festival gives free entry to all at 8 theaters and, proving the point that people love the movies, every single screening is packed solid, Sro. More than 135 films come from 27 countries. 48 daily screenings include 14 open air screenings in great locations. There are 40 world premieres and 26 Latin American premieres.
150 invited guests included Abbas Kiarostami, Clive Owen, Alejandro Gonzales Inarritu, Pavel Pawlikowsky with his film Ida, John Sayles with whom I had an interesting talk about U.S. current distribution and of Return of Seacaucus Seven and Sunshine State. The screening of his film Go For Sisters has received an enthusiastic response from the audiences.
Since 2013, coproductions between the U.S. and Colombia with variations on the theme are on the rise. With its 40% cash rebate, Colombia is proving to be a great place to make movies.
Colombians such as Simon Brand are making English language genre films such as this year’s festival debuting Default (Isa: Wild Bunch). For budgets under Us$1 million, action, thrillers and horror genres can cross borders, and can recoup costs and even profit.
The reverse is also notable. Four films screening here are Colombian films made by Americans. The winner to three prizes here for Best Director, Best Documentary and the Audience Prize, Marmato by Marc Grieco was workshopped twice at Sundance where it premiered this January 2014. It is represented internationally by Ro*co and its U.S. representative is Ben Weiss at Paradigm. The other three remarkable debut films are Mambo Cool by Chris Gude,Manos Sucias by Josef Wladyka (a Japanese-Polish American) and Parador Hungaro by Patrick Alexander and Aseneth Suarez Ruiz. Look for upcoming interviews with these four directors who came to Colombia and, because of their experiences here, decided to make these exceptional movies. My next blog will be interviews with each of these films’ directors.
Secundaria , the first film I saw here was not shot here although it too was directed by an American who made 21 trips to Cuba to make it. Documenting the high school ballet training and competitions held by Cuba’s world famous National Ballet School -- Watch the trailer here -- it was not only beautiful but it magically captured the ever-present economic issues of Cuba. I can’t wait to see Primaria about the grade school of the Nbs.
Director and coproducer Mary Jane Doherty has been an Associate Professor of Film at Boston University since 1990. Proud of her lineage as a student of iconic documentarian Ricky Leacock, she developed B.U.’s Narrative Documentary Program: a novel approach to non-fiction storytelling using the building blocks of fiction film. Lyda Kuth , the coproducer, is founding board member and executive director of the Lef Foundation, which supports independent filmmakers through the Lef Moving Image Fund. In 2005, she established Nadita Productions and was producer/director on her first feature documentary, Love and Other Anxieties.
A cocktail party is given daily at the festival where we can all meet up. It was there I met Gail Gendler VP of Acquisitions for AMC/ Sundance Channel Global (international not domestic) and Gus
Dinner one night was with the jury for Nuevos Creadores (New Creators). Cynthia Garcia Calvo, Editor in Chief of LatamCinema.com, a Latino equivalent to Indiewire.com out of Chile and Argentina and I spoke of possible ways to cooperate. The third member of the jury, Javier Mejia, director of Colombia’s best film of 2008 Apocalypsur also has a documentary here, Duni, about a Chilean filmmaker who left Chile during the dictatorship and came to Colombia where he made political films in Medellin but never discussed his reasons for coming or even his Chilean roots. How happy I was that I had seen and enjoyed the films of the third jury member, Daniel Vega, who with his brother Diego made The Mute aka El Mudo (Isa: Urban Media) which played in Toronto and San Sebastian and his earlier film October, both dark comedies or perhaps dramadies dealing with subjective realities in unique environs of Peru we have never seen. He promised to help me with the Peru chapter of my upcoming book. Peru is in the lower middle of countries which support filmmaking. Their film fund is a rather laid back affair administered by the Ministry of Culture who receives money from the Ministry of Finance when they “get around to it”.
Jury for New Creators: Javier Mejía, Cynthia García Calvo and Diego Vega,displaying the winner for the Best Short Film: Alen Natalia Imery (Universidad del Valle) who won a Sony video camera, 2,000, 000 pesos of in kind services from Shock Magazin, and a scholarship for graduate Project Management and Film Production at the Autonomous University of Bucaramanga
Second prize went to The murmur of the earth Alejandro Daza (National University) - Win a Sony camera, and a Fellowship for Graduate Record Audio and Sound Design of the Autonomous University of Bucaramanga.
Other winners are:
Official Colombian Film Competition
Jurors: David Melo - Alissa Simon - Daniela Michel
Best Film: Marmato by Mark Grieco (Colombia, USA) Winner of the I.Sat Award for $30K and the Cinecolor Award for $11k in deliveries
Special Jury Prize: Mateo by María Gamboa
Best Director: Rubén Mendoza for Dust on the Tongue (Tierra en la lengua). Winner of Hangar Films Award for $30K in film equipment to produce his next film.
Additional Awards
Audience Award Colombia: Marmato by Mark Grieco (Colombia, USA). Winner of $15K
Official Documentary Competition
Jurors: Gary Meyer- Luis Ospina - Laurie Collyer
Best Film: Marmato by Mark Grieco (Colombia, USA). Winner of the Cinecolor Award for $13Kin post-production services.
Special Jury Prize: What Now? Remind Me (E Agora? Lembra-me) by Joaquim Pinto (Portugal)
Best Director: Justin Webster for I Will Be Murdered (Seré asesinado) (Spain, Denmark, U.K.)
Official Short Film Competition
JurorsOswaldo Osorio -Pacho Bottia - Denis de la Roca
Best Short Film: Statues (Estatuas) by Roberto Fiesco (Mexico). Winner of a professional Sony camera and $3K from Cinecolor in post-production services for his next project.
Special Jury Prize: About a Month (Pouco Mais de um Mês) by André Novais Oliveira (Brazil)
Best Director: Manuel Camacho Bustillo for Blackout chapter 4 "A Call to Neverland" (Blackout capítulo 4 "Una llamada a Neverland") (Mexico). Winner of a Sony photographic camera.
Gems
Jurors: Mauricio Reina - Manuel Kalmanowitz - Sofia Gomez Gonzalez
Best Film: Like Father, Like Son by Hirokazu Koreeda (Japan). Winner of the Rcn Award for $50 to promote the release of the film in Colombia.
Special Jury Prize: Ilo Ilo by Anthony Chen (Singapore)
[1] http://www.cinelatinoamericano.org/ocal/cifras.aspx
[2] http://www.mincultura.gov.co/areas/cinematografia/estadisticas-del-sector/Documents/Anuario%202012.p...
This former colonial jewel in the crown of Spain offers a huge array of delights, film-wise, art-wise, food-wise and people-wise. Gorgeous arts and gorgeous people, sweet, polite and proud. As much as I love Havana, Cartagena is how Havana should look.
And as much as I loved Careyes where I was last week, the art and artisanal scope here is so wide; from the Colombian painter and sculptor, Botero to indigenous palm weaving – décor for homes (not cheap!), bags, designer clothing, linen and rubies.
Aside from films, my big discoveries of the day are Ruby Rumie, a Colombian artist who spends much of her time here in her studio in the Getsemaní section of town and in Chile. Coincidentally (again) Gary Meyer (Telluride Film Festival) and his wife Cathy who are here with Gary on the Documentary Competition Jury (I just left them in Careyas!) also just discovered her as well. The other artist, Olga Amaral, works in indigenous styles of weaving and textile production and now is favoring gold leaf displays of woven wall tapestries. Stunning. Both are available at the Nh Gallery, a place I just happened to wander into as I was walking from the theater to my equally stunning hotel Casa Pestagua.
The courteous and helpful people here are a proud mix of white, brown and black. They say the blacks will never follow the orders of a white. They say the blood of slaves is embedded in the wall fortifications of the city. The Inquisition here was very powerful, and they say the Jews (Conversos) coming in the conquistadors’ ships went to settle Medellín and the Catholics to Bogotá. Cartagena was the last city to be free of the Spanish crown and as such, it was extremely conservative.
It would take days to visit all the museums throughout the city. The Art Biennale is now in many of them (free entry) including the Museum of the Inquisition with its torture machines. The Museum of Gold with pre-Colombian gold artworks is astounding. All the gold of Latin America (and emeralds, diamonds and silver) went from here in the Spanish galleons back to Spain until the city declared its independence in 1811. We in the North know this history but from a different perspective. Eduardo Galeano’s Open Veins of Latin America and Gonzalo Arijon’s documentary Eyes Wide Open, an update of Galeano’s ideas are good starting points for understanding this part of the world. Eye opening indeed!
The beauty of the city and its people is matched by the food. There is great food here here and some very haute cuisine restaurants. Ceviches of many kinds, new sweet fruits like the pitaya and the drink mixing limeade and coconut milk delight the palate. The festival invites enough but not too many industry folks so it can host lunches and dinners in wonderful venues along with cocktail hours where we can all meet and talk. Talk among us is of food and film, film and food…even of food film festivals that are cropping up from Berlin, San Sebastian, here and in Northern California…stay tuned.
The Colombian government is aware of the need for the public to rediscover their own stories and to this end all the festival screenings are free, and all are packed Sro. The government also supports filmmakers with a deliberate, well-planned and well executed strategy to increase production and create an infrastructure.
Colombian films’ biggest challenge is to increase their share of their rapidly growing domestic market, worth $182.3 million in box office in 2012. One way forward is international co-production, where Bam (Bogotá Audiovisual Market) July 14-18, 2014 plays a large role. There is a mini version of this here (Encuentros Cartagena), centering on French and Colombian co-production, but not limited to that, with guests like George Goldenstern from Cinefondation (Cannes), producer/ international sales agent Marie-Pierre Masia and and the ever present Thierry Lenouvel of Cine-Sud whose film Tierra en la lengua aka Dust on the Tongue won the Best Picture Award in Competition. Vincenzo Bugno of World Cinema Fund of the Berlinale is always here too as is Jose Maria Riba on the Jury of the Competition and programmer for San Sebastian and Directors Fortnight. Also on the jury are Wendy Mitchel and Pawel Pawlikowski whose film Ida (Isa: Portobello Film Sales) is playing (outside of the Competition). A look at the winning competition films shows the strength of co-productions today.
Best Picture: Dust on the Tongue of Ruben Mendoza (Colombia) Colombia Film of $15,000. Special Jury Prize: The Third Side of the River (La tercera orilla) which premiered in Competition at the Berlinale, by Celina Murga (Argentina, Netherlands, Germany) (Isa: The Match Factory) Best Director: Alejandro Fernández Almendras for To kill a man (Matar a un hombre) which premiered in Sundance (Chile, France). Film Factory is selling international rights and Film Movement has U.S. It also won the Fipresci or International Critics’ Award. Best Actor: Fernando Bacilio by El Mudo (Peru, Mexico, France), Urban Distribution International is the sales agent.
Cinema in Colombia continues its steep ascent in the international production world. The reasons, according to Bugno, lie in “new political decisions, funding structures, and the developing of a new producing environment that also has to do with new emerging young talent.”
A visit to the festival headquarters proves the point of the extensive government support of film not only for its own sake, but for the sake of all the people, dispossessed, abused, Lgbt, children and women. It is a beautiful sight to see such support, and the people seem to reciprocate; I hear more praise than complaints about the government and everyone seems cautiously optimistic, aware of its current position vis à vis what has thankfully become recent history with the guerillas who had been waging war with the government for the past 40 years and the current elections and competing points of view between the former President Uribe and the current President Juan Manuel Santos.
Aecid , Association Espagnola de Cooperacon Internacional para el Desarrollo (The Spanish Association for International Cooperation for Development), a festival sponsor supports social cohesion, equality of genders, construction of peace, respect for cultural diversity and the reduction of poverty.
Currently in Colombia, national cinema holds a 10% share of the Colombian market and 8% of the box office. In 2012, 213 films were produced in Colombia, a huge increase since 2009 when 19 were produced according to Ocal, the Observotario del Cine f nCl [sic]. In 2012, 23 of the 213 domestic films were released theatrically, a tremendous increase from the 6 Colombian films released in the year 2000. [1],[2] This number surpasses every record in Colombia’s film history
This 10 day spectacular film festival gives free entry to all at 8 theaters and, proving the point that people love the movies, every single screening is packed solid, Sro. More than 135 films come from 27 countries. 48 daily screenings include 14 open air screenings in great locations. There are 40 world premieres and 26 Latin American premieres.
150 invited guests included Abbas Kiarostami, Clive Owen, Alejandro Gonzales Inarritu, Pavel Pawlikowsky with his film Ida, John Sayles with whom I had an interesting talk about U.S. current distribution and of Return of Seacaucus Seven and Sunshine State. The screening of his film Go For Sisters has received an enthusiastic response from the audiences.
Since 2013, coproductions between the U.S. and Colombia with variations on the theme are on the rise. With its 40% cash rebate, Colombia is proving to be a great place to make movies.
Colombians such as Simon Brand are making English language genre films such as this year’s festival debuting Default (Isa: Wild Bunch). For budgets under Us$1 million, action, thrillers and horror genres can cross borders, and can recoup costs and even profit.
The reverse is also notable. Four films screening here are Colombian films made by Americans. The winner to three prizes here for Best Director, Best Documentary and the Audience Prize, Marmato by Marc Grieco was workshopped twice at Sundance where it premiered this January 2014. It is represented internationally by Ro*co and its U.S. representative is Ben Weiss at Paradigm. The other three remarkable debut films are Mambo Cool by Chris Gude,Manos Sucias by Josef Wladyka (a Japanese-Polish American) and Parador Hungaro by Patrick Alexander and Aseneth Suarez Ruiz. Look for upcoming interviews with these four directors who came to Colombia and, because of their experiences here, decided to make these exceptional movies. My next blog will be interviews with each of these films’ directors.
Secundaria , the first film I saw here was not shot here although it too was directed by an American who made 21 trips to Cuba to make it. Documenting the high school ballet training and competitions held by Cuba’s world famous National Ballet School -- Watch the trailer here -- it was not only beautiful but it magically captured the ever-present economic issues of Cuba. I can’t wait to see Primaria about the grade school of the Nbs.
Director and coproducer Mary Jane Doherty has been an Associate Professor of Film at Boston University since 1990. Proud of her lineage as a student of iconic documentarian Ricky Leacock, she developed B.U.’s Narrative Documentary Program: a novel approach to non-fiction storytelling using the building blocks of fiction film. Lyda Kuth , the coproducer, is founding board member and executive director of the Lef Foundation, which supports independent filmmakers through the Lef Moving Image Fund. In 2005, she established Nadita Productions and was producer/director on her first feature documentary, Love and Other Anxieties.
A cocktail party is given daily at the festival where we can all meet up. It was there I met Gail Gendler VP of Acquisitions for AMC/ Sundance Channel Global (international not domestic) and Gus
Dinner one night was with the jury for Nuevos Creadores (New Creators). Cynthia Garcia Calvo, Editor in Chief of LatamCinema.com, a Latino equivalent to Indiewire.com out of Chile and Argentina and I spoke of possible ways to cooperate. The third member of the jury, Javier Mejia, director of Colombia’s best film of 2008 Apocalypsur also has a documentary here, Duni, about a Chilean filmmaker who left Chile during the dictatorship and came to Colombia where he made political films in Medellin but never discussed his reasons for coming or even his Chilean roots. How happy I was that I had seen and enjoyed the films of the third jury member, Daniel Vega, who with his brother Diego made The Mute aka El Mudo (Isa: Urban Media) which played in Toronto and San Sebastian and his earlier film October, both dark comedies or perhaps dramadies dealing with subjective realities in unique environs of Peru we have never seen. He promised to help me with the Peru chapter of my upcoming book. Peru is in the lower middle of countries which support filmmaking. Their film fund is a rather laid back affair administered by the Ministry of Culture who receives money from the Ministry of Finance when they “get around to it”.
Jury for New Creators: Javier Mejía, Cynthia García Calvo and Diego Vega,displaying the winner for the Best Short Film: Alen Natalia Imery (Universidad del Valle) who won a Sony video camera, 2,000, 000 pesos of in kind services from Shock Magazin, and a scholarship for graduate Project Management and Film Production at the Autonomous University of Bucaramanga
Second prize went to The murmur of the earth Alejandro Daza (National University) - Win a Sony camera, and a Fellowship for Graduate Record Audio and Sound Design of the Autonomous University of Bucaramanga.
Other winners are:
Official Colombian Film Competition
Jurors: David Melo - Alissa Simon - Daniela Michel
Best Film: Marmato by Mark Grieco (Colombia, USA) Winner of the I.Sat Award for $30K and the Cinecolor Award for $11k in deliveries
Special Jury Prize: Mateo by María Gamboa
Best Director: Rubén Mendoza for Dust on the Tongue (Tierra en la lengua). Winner of Hangar Films Award for $30K in film equipment to produce his next film.
Additional Awards
Audience Award Colombia: Marmato by Mark Grieco (Colombia, USA). Winner of $15K
Official Documentary Competition
Jurors: Gary Meyer- Luis Ospina - Laurie Collyer
Best Film: Marmato by Mark Grieco (Colombia, USA). Winner of the Cinecolor Award for $13Kin post-production services.
Special Jury Prize: What Now? Remind Me (E Agora? Lembra-me) by Joaquim Pinto (Portugal)
Best Director: Justin Webster for I Will Be Murdered (Seré asesinado) (Spain, Denmark, U.K.)
Official Short Film Competition
JurorsOswaldo Osorio -Pacho Bottia - Denis de la Roca
Best Short Film: Statues (Estatuas) by Roberto Fiesco (Mexico). Winner of a professional Sony camera and $3K from Cinecolor in post-production services for his next project.
Special Jury Prize: About a Month (Pouco Mais de um Mês) by André Novais Oliveira (Brazil)
Best Director: Manuel Camacho Bustillo for Blackout chapter 4 "A Call to Neverland" (Blackout capítulo 4 "Una llamada a Neverland") (Mexico). Winner of a Sony photographic camera.
Gems
Jurors: Mauricio Reina - Manuel Kalmanowitz - Sofia Gomez Gonzalez
Best Film: Like Father, Like Son by Hirokazu Koreeda (Japan). Winner of the Rcn Award for $50 to promote the release of the film in Colombia.
Special Jury Prize: Ilo Ilo by Anthony Chen (Singapore)
[1] http://www.cinelatinoamericano.org/ocal/cifras.aspx
[2] http://www.mincultura.gov.co/areas/cinematografia/estadisticas-del-sector/Documents/Anuario%202012.p...
- 3/26/2014
- by Sydney Levine
- Sydney's Buzz
When Ross McElwee heeded the call to become a filmmaker in the mid 1970s, he enrolled in M.I.T.’s film program and studied with pioneering cinéma vérité documentarians Richard Leacock and Ed Pincus. Lighter, smaller cameras and advancements in sync-sound made it possible for one man to do what a film crew did not too many years before. McElwee would synthesize the lessons learned and use the new technology to create a distinctive kind of cinema.
McElwee’s films are often filed in the “personal documentary” category. Like many labels, personal documentary seems inadequate, if not downright misleading. Yes, his family, friends, and ex-lovers appear in his films. He frequently visits places in his past, and yes, he narrates and shows up in his films, but it is always to a larger purpose–nuclear proliferation in Sherman’s March, violence and media in Six O’Clock News, the tobacco industry in Bright Leaves.
McElwee’s films are often filed in the “personal documentary” category. Like many labels, personal documentary seems inadequate, if not downright misleading. Yes, his family, friends, and ex-lovers appear in his films. He frequently visits places in his past, and yes, he narrates and shows up in his films, but it is always to a larger purpose–nuclear proliferation in Sherman’s March, violence and media in Six O’Clock News, the tobacco industry in Bright Leaves.
- 10/10/2012
- by David Licata
- Filmmaker Magazine - Blog
DVD Release Date: Aug. 28, 2012
Price: DVD $39.95
Studio: Criterion
Norman Mailer (l.) and Rip Torn go at it in Maidstone.
Eclipse Series 35: Maidstone and Other Films by Norman Mailer puts Mailer’s novels, essays, articles, activism and ego aside and chronicles a largely forgotten chapter of his life: His his late-1960s, headlong, kamikaze-style plunge into making experimental films.
Mailer’s rough-hewn, self-financed, largely improvised cult works all star Norman himself and feature technical assistance from cinema verité trailblazers D. A. Pennebaker and Richard Leacock.
The fullest realization of his directorial efforts is undoubtedly 1970’s blustering Maidstone, wherein Mailer plays a filmmaker and presidential candidate who may be the target of an assassination attempt.
As is the case with all of Criterion’s Eclipse releases, there are no bonus features included in the collection.
Here’s a look at Maidstone and the other two movies that comprise the two-disc set:
Maidstone (1970)
Over a booze-fueled,...
Price: DVD $39.95
Studio: Criterion
Norman Mailer (l.) and Rip Torn go at it in Maidstone.
Eclipse Series 35: Maidstone and Other Films by Norman Mailer puts Mailer’s novels, essays, articles, activism and ego aside and chronicles a largely forgotten chapter of his life: His his late-1960s, headlong, kamikaze-style plunge into making experimental films.
Mailer’s rough-hewn, self-financed, largely improvised cult works all star Norman himself and feature technical assistance from cinema verité trailblazers D. A. Pennebaker and Richard Leacock.
The fullest realization of his directorial efforts is undoubtedly 1970’s blustering Maidstone, wherein Mailer plays a filmmaker and presidential candidate who may be the target of an assassination attempt.
As is the case with all of Criterion’s Eclipse releases, there are no bonus features included in the collection.
Here’s a look at Maidstone and the other two movies that comprise the two-disc set:
Maidstone (1970)
Over a booze-fueled,...
- 6/18/2012
- by Laurence
- Disc Dish
Jan. 24
7:30 p.m.
Maysles Cinema
343 Malcolm X Boulevard / Lenox Avenue (between 127th and 128th Streets)
New York, NY 10027
Hosted by: New York Film/Video Council
Launching the latest Jock Docs screening series at the Maysles Cinema, this time devoted to Race Car Driving, the New York Film/Video Council hosts a special, rare screening of the film On the Pole: Eddie Sachs, which will be followed by a Q&A session with the filmmakers: Richard Leacock, Da Pennebaker and Albert Maysles.
On the Pole was produced by Drew Associates and originally aired on the CBS television network in 1960. The filmmakers followed Eddie Sachs, one of the most famous drivers in Indianapolis 500 history, as he prepared for the big race, from one week out all the way to the day after.
The Jock Docs: Race Car Driving series then continues on Jan. 25 with a screening of Asif Kapadia’s Senna (2001) at 7:00 and 9:00 p.
7:30 p.m.
Maysles Cinema
343 Malcolm X Boulevard / Lenox Avenue (between 127th and 128th Streets)
New York, NY 10027
Hosted by: New York Film/Video Council
Launching the latest Jock Docs screening series at the Maysles Cinema, this time devoted to Race Car Driving, the New York Film/Video Council hosts a special, rare screening of the film On the Pole: Eddie Sachs, which will be followed by a Q&A session with the filmmakers: Richard Leacock, Da Pennebaker and Albert Maysles.
On the Pole was produced by Drew Associates and originally aired on the CBS television network in 1960. The filmmakers followed Eddie Sachs, one of the most famous drivers in Indianapolis 500 history, as he prepared for the big race, from one week out all the way to the day after.
The Jock Docs: Race Car Driving series then continues on Jan. 25 with a screening of Asif Kapadia’s Senna (2001) at 7:00 and 9:00 p.
- 1/23/2012
- by screenings
- Underground Film Journal
Fake Fruit Factory from Guergana Tzatchkov on Vimeo.
"Every year, Librarian of Congress James H Billington personally selects which films will be added to the National Film Registry, working from a list of suggestions from the library’s National Film Preservation Board and the general public," reports Ann Hornaday for the Washington Post. This year's list of 25 films slated for preservation:
Allures (Jordan Belson, 1961) Bambi (Walt Disney, 1942) The Big Heat (Fritz Lang, 1953) A Computer Animated Hand (Pixar, 1972) Crisis: Behind a Presidential Commitment (Robert Drew, 1963) The Cry of the Children (George Nichols, 1912) A Cure for Pokeritis (Laurence Trimble, 1912) El Mariachi (Robert Rodriguez, 1992) Faces (John Cassavetes, 1968) Fake Fruit Factory (Chick Strand, 1986) Forrest Gump (Robert Zemeckis, 1994) Growing Up Female (Jim Klein and Julia Reichert, 1971) Hester Street (Joan Micklin Silver, 1975) I, an Actress (George Kuchar, 1977) The Iron Horse (John Ford, 1924) The Kid (Charlie Chaplin, 1921) The Lost Weekend (Billy Wilder, 1945) The Negro Soldier (Stuart Heisler,...
"Every year, Librarian of Congress James H Billington personally selects which films will be added to the National Film Registry, working from a list of suggestions from the library’s National Film Preservation Board and the general public," reports Ann Hornaday for the Washington Post. This year's list of 25 films slated for preservation:
Allures (Jordan Belson, 1961) Bambi (Walt Disney, 1942) The Big Heat (Fritz Lang, 1953) A Computer Animated Hand (Pixar, 1972) Crisis: Behind a Presidential Commitment (Robert Drew, 1963) The Cry of the Children (George Nichols, 1912) A Cure for Pokeritis (Laurence Trimble, 1912) El Mariachi (Robert Rodriguez, 1992) Faces (John Cassavetes, 1968) Fake Fruit Factory (Chick Strand, 1986) Forrest Gump (Robert Zemeckis, 1994) Growing Up Female (Jim Klein and Julia Reichert, 1971) Hester Street (Joan Micklin Silver, 1975) I, an Actress (George Kuchar, 1977) The Iron Horse (John Ford, 1924) The Kid (Charlie Chaplin, 1921) The Lost Weekend (Billy Wilder, 1945) The Negro Soldier (Stuart Heisler,...
- 12/30/2011
- MUBI
©Paramount Pictures
“My momma always said, .Life was like a box of chocolates. You never know what you’re gonna get..” That line was immortalized by Tom Hanks in the award-winning movie “Forest Gump” in 1994. Librarian of Congress James H. Billington today selected that film and 24 others to be preserved as cultural, artistic and historical treasures in the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress.
Spanning the period 1912-1994, the films named to the registry include Hollywood classics, documentaries, animation, home movies, avant-garde shorts and experimental motion pictures. Representing the rich creative and cultural diversity of the American cinematic experience, the selections range from Walt Disney.s timeless classic “Bambi” and Billy Wilder.s “The Lost Weekend,” a landmark film about the devastating effects of alcoholism, to a real-life drama between a U.S. president and a governor over the desegregation of the University of Alabama. The selections also...
“My momma always said, .Life was like a box of chocolates. You never know what you’re gonna get..” That line was immortalized by Tom Hanks in the award-winning movie “Forest Gump” in 1994. Librarian of Congress James H. Billington today selected that film and 24 others to be preserved as cultural, artistic and historical treasures in the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress.
Spanning the period 1912-1994, the films named to the registry include Hollywood classics, documentaries, animation, home movies, avant-garde shorts and experimental motion pictures. Representing the rich creative and cultural diversity of the American cinematic experience, the selections range from Walt Disney.s timeless classic “Bambi” and Billy Wilder.s “The Lost Weekend,” a landmark film about the devastating effects of alcoholism, to a real-life drama between a U.S. president and a governor over the desegregation of the University of Alabama. The selections also...
- 12/28/2011
- by Michelle McCue
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
I’m never one to put significant stock in the film-based choices made by any kind of committee — be it an awards group, critics circle, soup kitchen line, etc. — but the National Film Registry is a little different. Not that they’re any different than those aforementioned organization types, but because the government assemblage preserves works deemed “culturally, historically or aesthetically significant.” No small potatoes.
Their latest list — created for both public awareness and the opportunity to grumble, as I’ll do in a second — has been unveiled, and the selections are none too out-of-left-field. The biggest of these 25 would have to be Forrest Gump, a choice I fully understand but completely disagree with on an opinion and moral scale. The only other true objection I can raise is toward El Mariachi, film school-level junk from a director whose finest works are the direct result of working with those more talented.
Their latest list — created for both public awareness and the opportunity to grumble, as I’ll do in a second — has been unveiled, and the selections are none too out-of-left-field. The biggest of these 25 would have to be Forrest Gump, a choice I fully understand but completely disagree with on an opinion and moral scale. The only other true objection I can raise is toward El Mariachi, film school-level junk from a director whose finest works are the direct result of working with those more talented.
- 12/28/2011
- by jpraup@gmail.com (thefilmstage.com)
- The Film Stage
“In 1972, Ricky put a Super 8 synch-sound camera in my hand and said, ‘If you want to become a filmmaker, you have to shoot,’” writes filmmaker Jane Weiner on the Kickstarter page for her project, Ricky on Leacock. “Turning my lens on him, I was suddenly transported into another universe: What began as a filmic conversation developed into a filmic adventure that traces the roots of Leacock’s cinematic quest and his role in documentary-making over the last century.”
Four decades later, and less than a year after Leacock passed away, Weiner is finishing her documentary on the legendary filmmaker Richard Leacock. As she tells in her Kickstarter video, Leacock agreed to the documentary so many years ago on two conditions: it had to be shot on Super 8 synch sound, and there could be no interviews. More from Weiner:
Mixing my own footage with film clips and never-before-seen images...
Four decades later, and less than a year after Leacock passed away, Weiner is finishing her documentary on the legendary filmmaker Richard Leacock. As she tells in her Kickstarter video, Leacock agreed to the documentary so many years ago on two conditions: it had to be shot on Super 8 synch sound, and there could be no interviews. More from Weiner:
Mixing my own footage with film clips and never-before-seen images...
- 12/12/2011
- by Scott Macaulay
- Filmmaker Magazine - Blog
In 1972, Jane Weiner was just beginning her career as a filmmaker and she asked her mentor, Ricky Leacock, if she could document him and his work. He said yes, but instituted two rules: 1.) No interviews. 2.) She could only shoot on small formats (which at the time was a Super 8 with Synch Sound). From 1972 until Leacock's recent death earlier this year, Weiner continued documenting her mentor who became her colleague and friend. As time went on, both Weiner and Leacock moved from small film formats to the lightweight and high definition video formats of the twenty-first century. Leacock, for the unfamiliar, was one of the leading American filmmakers in the direct cinema/cinema vérité movement. With the Maysles brothers, Robert Drew, Da Pennebaker, Chris Hedges and many others, Leacock encouraged filmmakers to use barebones lightweight film equipment to document important events (perhaps most famously the Kennedy/Humphrey...
- 12/9/2011
- Indiewire
The Columbian film ‘Porfirio’ directed by Alejandro Landes and produced by Franciso Aljure has bagged the coveted Golden Peacock Award for the Best Film at the 42nd International Film Festival of India 2011, while the Silver Peacock Award for the Best Director went to Asghar Farhadi for his film ‘Nader and Simin-a Seperation’.
The Indian film ‘Adaminte Makan Abu’ won the Special Jury Award. Director of the film Salim Ahamed received the award which consists of a Silver Peacock, Certificate and a Cash Prize of Rs. 15 Lakhs.
The Best Actor award of Rs. 10 lakh went to the Israeli actor Sasson Gabay for his role in the film ‘Restoration’ whereas the Best Actress Award was won by Nadezhda Markina for her role in ‘Elena’.
The Iffi competition jury comprised of Adoor Gopalakrishnan, Laurence Kardish, Lee Yong Kwan, Tahmineh Milani and Dan Wolman. The festival concluded today with the screening of the English...
The Indian film ‘Adaminte Makan Abu’ won the Special Jury Award. Director of the film Salim Ahamed received the award which consists of a Silver Peacock, Certificate and a Cash Prize of Rs. 15 Lakhs.
The Best Actor award of Rs. 10 lakh went to the Israeli actor Sasson Gabay for his role in the film ‘Restoration’ whereas the Best Actress Award was won by Nadezhda Markina for her role in ‘Elena’.
The Iffi competition jury comprised of Adoor Gopalakrishnan, Laurence Kardish, Lee Yong Kwan, Tahmineh Milani and Dan Wolman. The festival concluded today with the screening of the English...
- 12/3/2011
- by NewsDesk
- DearCinema.com
The Minister of Information and Broadcasting Ambika Soni will present the Lifetime Achievement Award to French filmmaker Bertrand Tavernier at the inauguration of the 42nd International Film Festival of India on November 23 in Goa. It was announced at the curtain raiser press conference held in Goa on Tuesday. The Lifetime Achievement Award carries an amount of Rs. 10 lakh.
Bertrand Tavernier is best known for his films Prix Louis Delluc, The Clockmaker, Life and Nothing But and The Princess of Montpensier.
The festival will pay homage to seven stalwarts of the film–Sidney Lumet, Raul Ruiz, Claude Chabrol, Adolfas Meekas, Richard Leacock, Elizabeth Taylor and Tareque Masood.
Iffi 2011 will open with The Consul of Bordeax directed by Manuel Gonzales.
The festival will showcase ‘Festivals Kaleidoscope’, a package which includes top award winners in film festivals like Cannes, Locarno, Montreal and Busan.
The ‘Retrospective’ section which screens films of French director Luc Besson...
Bertrand Tavernier is best known for his films Prix Louis Delluc, The Clockmaker, Life and Nothing But and The Princess of Montpensier.
The festival will pay homage to seven stalwarts of the film–Sidney Lumet, Raul Ruiz, Claude Chabrol, Adolfas Meekas, Richard Leacock, Elizabeth Taylor and Tareque Masood.
Iffi 2011 will open with The Consul of Bordeax directed by Manuel Gonzales.
The festival will showcase ‘Festivals Kaleidoscope’, a package which includes top award winners in film festivals like Cannes, Locarno, Montreal and Busan.
The ‘Retrospective’ section which screens films of French director Luc Besson...
- 11/22/2011
- by NewsDesk
- DearCinema.com
"Bigger and here to stay, Doc NYC returns for its second year to spread the gospel of nonfiction, showcasing 52 features in what's becoming the city's mainstream fall complement to Moma's more international and experimental Documentary Fortnight," writes Nicolas Rapold in the Voice. "Boldface names Werner Herzog, Barbara Kopple, and Jonathan Demme come bearing new work; anticipated favorites such as The Island President and an Eames doc will be rolled out; a memorial tribute to the late Richard Leacock burnishes another vérité legend; and a host of often issue-oriented other films await presumably sympathetic perusal."
The festival opens this evening with Into the Abyss, "Herzog's best documentary in many years," at least for Amy Taubin, writing for Artforum. "Herzog's subject is state-mandated execution, which he addresses via a case of triple homicide that took place in Conroe, Texas…. The movie is all the more haunting for being so straightforward in its narrative organization,...
The festival opens this evening with Into the Abyss, "Herzog's best documentary in many years," at least for Amy Taubin, writing for Artforum. "Herzog's subject is state-mandated execution, which he addresses via a case of triple homicide that took place in Conroe, Texas…. The movie is all the more haunting for being so straightforward in its narrative organization,...
- 11/4/2011
- MUBI
DVD Playhouse—August 2011
By Allen Gardner
High And Low (Criterion) Akira Kurosawa’s 1963 adaptation of Ed McBain’s novel King’s Ransom is a multi-layered masterpiece of suspense and one of the best portraits ever of class warfare in post-ww II Japan. Toshiro Mifune stars as a wealthy businessman who finds himself in a moral quandary when his chauffer’s son is kidnapped by ruthless thugs who think the boy is Mifune’s. Beautifully realized on every level. Also available on Blu-ray disc. Bonuses: Commentary by Kurosawa scholar Stephen Prince; Documentary on film’s production; Interview with Mifune from 1984; Trailers and teaser. Widescreen. Dolby and DTS-hd 4.0 surround.
Leon Morin, Priest (Criterion) One of French maestro Jean-Pierre Melville’s rare non-crime-oriented films, starring Jean-Paul Belmondo as a devoted cleric who is lusted after by the women of a small village in Nazi-occupied France. When Fr. Morin finds himself drawn to a...
By Allen Gardner
High And Low (Criterion) Akira Kurosawa’s 1963 adaptation of Ed McBain’s novel King’s Ransom is a multi-layered masterpiece of suspense and one of the best portraits ever of class warfare in post-ww II Japan. Toshiro Mifune stars as a wealthy businessman who finds himself in a moral quandary when his chauffer’s son is kidnapped by ruthless thugs who think the boy is Mifune’s. Beautifully realized on every level. Also available on Blu-ray disc. Bonuses: Commentary by Kurosawa scholar Stephen Prince; Documentary on film’s production; Interview with Mifune from 1984; Trailers and teaser. Widescreen. Dolby and DTS-hd 4.0 surround.
Leon Morin, Priest (Criterion) One of French maestro Jean-Pierre Melville’s rare non-crime-oriented films, starring Jean-Paul Belmondo as a devoted cleric who is lusted after by the women of a small village in Nazi-occupied France. When Fr. Morin finds himself drawn to a...
- 8/8/2011
- by The Hollywood Interview.com
- The Hollywood Interview
Joyce McKinney, the focal point of Errol Morris' lens in Tabloid.
Errol Morris Digs The Dirt With Tabloid
By Alex Simon
When Errol Morris’ documentary The Thin Blue Line hit movie screens in 1988, it helped jump-start the rather tired genre back to life again. After a renaissance of the documentary film in the 1960s through the early ‘70s from the likes of The Maysles Brothers (Gimme Shelter, Grey Gardens), D.A. Pennebaker (Don’t Look Back), and Robert Drew (Crisis, Primary), the documentary film seemed relegated to late night spots on local PBS affiliates, narrated by boozy British actors in the downslide of their careers. Morris’ tale of Randall Adams, a man not only wrongly jailed for murdering a Dallas cop in the late ‘70s, but convicted due to the testimony of the man who actually did it, was an intoxicating blend of first-person realism, film noir detective story, and very real moral outrage.
Errol Morris Digs The Dirt With Tabloid
By Alex Simon
When Errol Morris’ documentary The Thin Blue Line hit movie screens in 1988, it helped jump-start the rather tired genre back to life again. After a renaissance of the documentary film in the 1960s through the early ‘70s from the likes of The Maysles Brothers (Gimme Shelter, Grey Gardens), D.A. Pennebaker (Don’t Look Back), and Robert Drew (Crisis, Primary), the documentary film seemed relegated to late night spots on local PBS affiliates, narrated by boozy British actors in the downslide of their careers. Morris’ tale of Randall Adams, a man not only wrongly jailed for murdering a Dallas cop in the late ‘70s, but convicted due to the testimony of the man who actually did it, was an intoxicating blend of first-person realism, film noir detective story, and very real moral outrage.
- 7/18/2011
- by The Hollywood Interview.com
- The Hollywood Interview
L.M. Kit Carson remembers documentary filmmaker Richard Leacock, who died March 23 at age 89. (Video interview and film clips below). Ricky Leacock means a lot of good to a lot of film-people. Many showed up starting at 9:30 Am June 5 at Lincoln Center’s nearby Walter Reade Theater at the unique Leacock Memorial. People filled the place – and stood up in a loose order – to break their memories back to how Leacock changed them. To remember… Leacock. Who raises the question: “What does a camera see?” His answer – camera sees everything: what you show it – and at the same time, what you don’t show it – this is how he played out the foundation of cinema-verite. Leacock. Someone who looks ...
- 6/11/2011
- Thompson on Hollywood
Robert Drew writes: Ronald Bergan's excellent obituary of the film-maker Richard Leacock (25 March) contained an odd error. It suggested that Leacock had crouched in the corner of the Oval Office (no corners) to photograph President John F Kennedy for the film Crisis, which I produced. In fact, Leacock never visited the White House. The pictures of JFK in the White House were taken by Da Pennebaker. The description of Leacock photographing Kennedy applied instead to a hotel room in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, when Kennedy was a senator running for the presidency, for our film Primary.
guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2011 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds...
guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2011 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds...
- 4/18/2011
- The Guardian - Film News
What is it that a camera sees? Do we need to accept and conform to the dominant storytelling paradigms, or is there actually more that we can be striving for? Perhaps no life and work embodies these questions as well as Ricky Leacock. Filmmaker David Van Taylor guest posts today with an examination of him and these issues, and the difference between documentary and essay film. There is a lot that can be said about these subjects, certainly enough for a six hour documentary And many blog posts. For over a decade, Lumiere Productions has been working to create To…...
- 4/14/2011
- Hope for Film
Blockbuster – the one-time giant in the home video rental business which went bankrupt last September – was bought at auction this past week by Dish Network for $320 million. According to Dish, it intends to combine its wireless technology with Blockbuster’s brand name recognition, studio relationships and digital rights to re-establish Blockbuster as a player in the direct-to-home market against Netflix and newer contenders like Amazon and a Warner Bros. online rental service to be offered on Facebook.
However this plays out long-term, the auction buy is the last page in a final chapter begun back in September when Blockbuster busted. To trot out the old cliché, it’s the – everybody now — end of an era.
The business Blockbuster used to be in seemed revolutionary in its day, though it seems almost quaint now; come Friday, some delegate from the family would trot to the neighborhood video store hoping to get...
However this plays out long-term, the auction buy is the last page in a final chapter begun back in September when Blockbuster busted. To trot out the old cliché, it’s the – everybody now — end of an era.
The business Blockbuster used to be in seemed revolutionary in its day, though it seems almost quaint now; come Friday, some delegate from the family would trot to the neighborhood video store hoping to get...
- 4/10/2011
- by Bill Mesce
- SoundOnSight
Welcome to the 281st Edition of my series. This week I pay tribute to the late Richard Leacock, Michael Gough, and Elizabeth Taylor. We are starting April and soon hopefully we will see more and more of that warm weather coming as March was a start but still pretty bad. I sent in my audio recording to Aflac recently hoping to be the new voice of Aflac after Gilbert Gottfried got fired. I know...
- 4/2/2011
- by Shaun Berk
In Episode 74 of the CriterionCast, Ryan Gallagher and James McCormick are joined by Moises Chiullan (from Badass Digest), as well as their old co-host, Travis George, to discuss Jean-Pierre Melville’s 1967 film, Le Samourai.
In a career-defining performance, Alain Delon plays a contract killer with samurai instincts. A razor-sharp cocktail of 1940s American gangster cinema and 1960s French pop culture—with a liberal dose of Japanese lone-warrior mythology—maverick director Jean-Pierre Melville’s masterpiece Le Samouraï defines cool.
What do you think of the show? Please send your feedback to criterioncast@gmail.com, call their voice mail line @ 209.877.7335, follow them on twitter @CriterionCast, or comment on their blog, http://CriterionCast.com.
Thank you again for listening. Don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast and leave your reviews in iTunes.
Next week on the podcast we’ll be covering Samuel Fuller’s Shock Corridor and The Naked Kiss.
Shownotes:
00:...
In a career-defining performance, Alain Delon plays a contract killer with samurai instincts. A razor-sharp cocktail of 1940s American gangster cinema and 1960s French pop culture—with a liberal dose of Japanese lone-warrior mythology—maverick director Jean-Pierre Melville’s masterpiece Le Samouraï defines cool.
What do you think of the show? Please send your feedback to criterioncast@gmail.com, call their voice mail line @ 209.877.7335, follow them on twitter @CriterionCast, or comment on their blog, http://CriterionCast.com.
Thank you again for listening. Don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast and leave your reviews in iTunes.
Next week on the podcast we’ll be covering Samuel Fuller’s Shock Corridor and The Naked Kiss.
Shownotes:
00:...
- 4/1/2011
- by Ryan Gallagher
- CriterionCast
Richard Leacock, 1921-2011
The noted filmmaker Richard Leacock, best known as one of the pioneers of the “cinema verite”-style of documentary filmmaking–a more direct, realistic approach to the form–died on March 23. He was 89-years-old.
Though he directed some 20-plus feature films and shorts (including 1984’s Lulu in Berlin, a documentary on actress Louise Brooks, and the popular 1963 short Happy Mother’s Day about a woman who gives birth to quintuplets), Leacock is best known to DiscDish as the cinematographer of some of finest documentaries of the 1960s and 1970s, many of which he collaborated on with such well-known colleagues as D.A. Pennebaker (The War Room) and Albert & David Maysles (Grey Gardens).
Here’s a group of fine documentaries wherein the late Mr. Leacock was behind the camera as the director of photography, snagging each and every shot that served the real-life story each movie was telling.
Primary,...
The noted filmmaker Richard Leacock, best known as one of the pioneers of the “cinema verite”-style of documentary filmmaking–a more direct, realistic approach to the form–died on March 23. He was 89-years-old.
Though he directed some 20-plus feature films and shorts (including 1984’s Lulu in Berlin, a documentary on actress Louise Brooks, and the popular 1963 short Happy Mother’s Day about a woman who gives birth to quintuplets), Leacock is best known to DiscDish as the cinematographer of some of finest documentaries of the 1960s and 1970s, many of which he collaborated on with such well-known colleagues as D.A. Pennebaker (The War Room) and Albert & David Maysles (Grey Gardens).
Here’s a group of fine documentaries wherein the late Mr. Leacock was behind the camera as the director of photography, snagging each and every shot that served the real-life story each movie was telling.
Primary,...
- 3/26/2011
- by Laurence
- Disc Dish
This past week on indieWIRE included the coverage of two film greats who passed away, New Directors/New Films kicked off with the New York premiere of "Margin Call," "Potiche" director Francois Ozon dished on working with Catherine Deneuve, and much more. Famous Deaths This week witnessed the loss of two cinematic greats, beloved film actress Elizabeth Taylor and documentary trailblazer Richard Leacock. indieWIRE provided a retrospective of Taylor's legendary body ...
- 3/25/2011
- Indiewire
Yesterday's obituary for documentary icon Richard Leacock included quotes from some of the people he affected in his life who have since obtained influence roles in film culture, including Mira Nair, Albert Maysles and D.A. Pennebaker. That last source, the director of such cinema verité classics as "Don't Look Back," ran the production company Leacock-Pennebaker for several years, and shared a number of remarkable anecdotes about meeting and working with Leacock during the early stages of their careers. In the following excerpt, Pennebaker recalls his experience with Leacock during the production of "Leonard Bernstein and the New York Philharmonic in…...
- 3/25/2011
- Screen Rush
IMDb Hit List
40 Years of the New Directors/New Films Series from NYTimes.com
In Memory of Documentarian Richard Leacock: His Screening Room from RichardLeacock.com
Video Chat: William Friedkin from FEARnet
Crisis, Creation, Compulsion: The Work of Director Raoul Walsh from MovingImageSource.us
Celebrating Kubrick from SundanceChannel.com
Talking With David Lynch from Movieline.com
Interview: Woody Allen from Guardian.co.uk
Photo Gallery: The Other Side of Alfred Hitchcock from Life.com
Have an item you’d like to see featured on Hit List? Submit it here.
40 Years of the New Directors/New Films Series from NYTimes.com
In Memory of Documentarian Richard Leacock: His Screening Room from RichardLeacock.com
Video Chat: William Friedkin from FEARnet
Crisis, Creation, Compulsion: The Work of Director Raoul Walsh from MovingImageSource.us
Celebrating Kubrick from SundanceChannel.com
Talking With David Lynch from Movieline.com
Interview: Woody Allen from Guardian.co.uk
Photo Gallery: The Other Side of Alfred Hitchcock from Life.com
Have an item you’d like to see featured on Hit List? Submit it here.
- 3/25/2011
- by heatherc
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Fine film-maker whose subjects ranged from Kennedy to Hendrix
If you remember the 1960s, you may well remember the documentary films shot by Richard Leacock, notably Monterey Pop (1968). This concert film, made in the summer of 1967 at a music festival in California, featured the Animals, Canned Heat, Otis Redding, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, the Mamas and the Papas, Jefferson Airplane, the Who and Ravi Shankar, among others. Leacock, who has died aged 89, was one of six cinematographers on the film – including its director, Da Pennebaker – and had already established himself as a leading figure in the "direct cinema" movement, the American version of cinéma vérité, which was characterised by filming events as they happen without interpretive editing or narration.
"I don't like being told things," Leacock said. "I like to observe." To this end, he was instrumental in perfecting a lightweight, handheld 16mm camera, synced to a quiet sound recorder,...
If you remember the 1960s, you may well remember the documentary films shot by Richard Leacock, notably Monterey Pop (1968). This concert film, made in the summer of 1967 at a music festival in California, featured the Animals, Canned Heat, Otis Redding, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, the Mamas and the Papas, Jefferson Airplane, the Who and Ravi Shankar, among others. Leacock, who has died aged 89, was one of six cinematographers on the film – including its director, Da Pennebaker – and had already established himself as a leading figure in the "direct cinema" movement, the American version of cinéma vérité, which was characterised by filming events as they happen without interpretive editing or narration.
"I don't like being told things," Leacock said. "I like to observe." To this end, he was instrumental in perfecting a lightweight, handheld 16mm camera, synced to a quiet sound recorder,...
- 3/25/2011
- by Ronald Bergan
- The Guardian - Film News
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