On Career Longevity and Receiving a Retrospective – Julie Carmen comments
Who gets a retrospective? I argue that it’s not the loudest voice in the room but those aligned with movies that may still matter. Films that touched a universal truth or a tender bruise, films that broke the norm, films that made the art form veer are films that stick in the collective unconscious and get retrospectives. They lift us out of the mundane like an existential sermon. Dialogue, glances, unique situations resonate throughout the years with the repetition compulsion of an unresolved dream. Those are the films that stay alive on grainy youtube for forty years and are popping up as 4K restorations theatrically and on Bluray. Because true cinephiles preserved arthouse cinemas, the theatrical experience is back in vogue, becoming all the rave again.
Read MoreIndie Film Advice: Crafting Authentic Music – Elaine Del Valle comments
Independent filmmakers rarely have the resources to buy the music their stories deserve. Yet music often carries the emotional weight of our films — especially when the work is autobiographical, culturally specific, or rooted in family memory. As the writer and director of Brownsville Bred — an auteur, coming-of-age, music-driven story based on my own childhood in Brownsville, Brooklyn — I learned early that music wouldn’t be an accessory. It would be the heartbeat.
Read MoreIndie Doc Advice: How To Build Audience – Julie Carmen comments
When you’re a first time documentary filmmaker whose passion project revolves around a fascinating but relatively unknown subject, how do you cut through all the current media noise to get recognition and support for your work? We’ve been working on our documentary Lico Jiménez the Ebony Liszt for going on seven years and in that time we have discovered a wide range of ways to gain support for making the film and attracting potential viewers. The efforts never stop and we are constantly exploring new strategies, but our work is paying off and we’d like to share our strategies with others who may find them helpful.
Read MoreE.1027 – EILEEN GRAY AND THE HOUSE BY THE SEA – Review by Yael Friedman (Guest Post)
The erasure of women from the annals of history is usually figurative – they are overlooked, conveniently forgotten, somehow missing from the picture. But Eileen Gray (1878-1976), the pioneering modernist Irish designer and architect, was almost literally removed from the architectural record by one of its most looming figures – Le Corbusier himself. A lovely new docudrama, “E.1027 – Eileen Gray and the House by the Sea,” by Beatrice Minger, revisits a chapter that sounds like a parable of how the great men of history can ensure they alone receive credit for shaping it.
Read MoreADA: MY MOTHER THE ARCHITECT – Review by Yael Friedman
There seems to be an endless appetite for depictions of the lone genius architect, both as a mythological creature walking amongst us, and as a metaphor for just about everything. And yet one of the best movies about one may never get its due. Ada: My Mother The Architect, by Yael Melamede, about her mother, Ada Karmi-Melamede, one of Israel’s most celebrated architects, is an extraordinary film that addresses all the big questions while also portraying a human being who is very much mortal. Melamede, a veteran filmmaker and one of the creative forces behind the Oscar-nominated My Architect (2003), set out to portray a parent whose monumental creations shroud a very complex personal life and relationship with her family.
Read MorePayal Kapadia, first Indian to win the Grand Prix at Cannes – Interview by Mythily Ramachandran (Exclusive)
At the recently concluded Cannes Film Festival, Indian director Payal Kapadia etched her name for eternity in the annals of cinema history by winning the ‘Grand Prix.’ Kapadia’s debut feature All We Imagine As Light, was singled out among 22 entries. Her contenders included the likes of Andrea Arnold, Francis Ford Coppola, Jia Zhange-Ke, Paolo Sorrentino, Sean Baker, and Ali Abbasi. Kapadia is the first Indian woman filmmaker to win the coveted prize. No other Indian director had ever competed for the honour nor bagged it. Thirty years ago, Malayalam director Shaji N Karun’s Swaham‘ qualified at Cannes for the competition category in 1994. Mythily Ramachandran spoke to Kapadia about the making of her film and making history at Cannes.
Read MoreTallgrass Film Festival Filmmaker Interview: Sarah Moshman on UNBOUND
Sarah Moshman, daughter of documentary filmmaker Harvey Moshman, grew up on set, so to speak, and has since early childhood wanted filmmaking to be her fulltime profession. She’s worked primarily in television, producing and directing segments for prominent news shows and popular series. In 2013, she won an Emmy. In 2015, she won a Gracie. […]
Read MoreMegan Mylan on SIMPLE AS WATER – Interview by Mythily Ramachandran
Academy award winner Megan Mylan’s latest documentary, Simple As Water, was shortlisted for an Oscar but did not make it to the final list of nominees. Mylan received an Oscar for her documentary, Smile Pinki, and the Independent Spirit Award for Lost Boys of Sudan, which was also named as a New York Times Critics’ Pick.
Read MoreDIRECTOR ROHENA GERA Chats SIR – Mythily Ramachandran interviews
Director Rohena Gera’s debut feature film, Sir broke all stereotypes of Indian cinema with a story that explored the changing dynamics of a relationship between Ashwin-a affluent young man and Ratna-his live-in domestic help. In India where caste and position in society determines relationships, Sir was much appreciated for its sincerity and honest narration. Sir premiered in the Critics Week at Cannes (2017) winning acclaim. Gera became the first woman filmmaker to receive the Gan Foundation award as well as a prize at the Cannes Critics Week.
Read MoreWhistler Film Festival Filmmaker Interview: Ashley Eakin on SINGLE
Single confronts the complexities of being disabled and dating. Kim, who was born with one arm, gets set-up to go on a blind date. When she finally meets Jake, to her horror – he only has one hand. Unable to get over the apparent ignorance of the matchmaker, as well as her own insecurities about being different, Kim tries to bail on the date.
Read MoreWhistler Film Festival Filmmaker Interview: Janice Mingas on WHEN THE NIGHT HAS COME
When The Night Has Come sheds light on the dangerous reality of systemic racism and police brutality. It tells the story of Matt, a young Black man whose life is forever changed after he is stopped by the police for an identity check.
Read MoreWhistler Film Festival Filmmaker Interview: Ali Liebert on THE QUIETING
The Quieting tells the story of Maggie, an anxious and newly queer woman on the eve of her first date with a woman. She is thrown into the throes of self-doubt and fear is confronted by an unexpected guest. Sara Canning and Julia Sarah Stone star in this psychological thriller by Ali Liebert that snaps the struggle of identity sharply into focus.
Read MoreWhistler Film Festival Filmmaker Interview: Ariane Louis-Seize on SHOOTING STAR
On a family trip to observe the shooting stars, Chloé, a withdrawn teenager, discovers a dazzling attraction for her mother’s new boyfriend. Ariane Louis-Seize likes to write and film unconventional characters who break down barriers by acting as we would never dare to do ourselves.
Read MoreWhistler Film Festival Filmmaker Interview: Alex Anna on SCARS
Alex Anna’s body is a canvas: her scars come to life to tell a new story of self-harming. Live action and animation intertwine in this short and poetic documentary, both intimate and universal.
Read MoreWhistler Film Festival Filmmaker Interview: Wendy Morgan on SUGAR DADDY
Some films jump off the screen to announce the arrival of vital new talent. Such is the case with Wendy Morgan’s Sugar Daddy, starring Kelly McCormack in a tour de force performance as Darren, a new age music composer and performer who is trying to break into the record industry. Sugar Daddy is the opening film for Whistler Film Festival 2020.
Read MoreWhistler Film Festival Filmmaker Interview: Elinor Nechemya on OUR HEARTS BEAT LIKE WAR
With his eyes in a fantasy book and his ears to the horrific testimony of an Eritrean refugee, nine-year-old Sinai falls asleep at his mother’s workplace, and his mind drifts away. In his sleep his mother tells him a surrealistic fairytale about a Syrian refugee family living in Sweden. This “fairytale” is about a young Syrian boy who falls into a coma-like situation after the family receives a deportation letter from the government.
Read MoreWhistler Film Festival Filmmaker Interview: Niav Conty on SMALL TIME
Naiv Conty’s Small Time is about childhood, family, and the role models around us. Stubborn patriotism, dogmatic faith, and the sexualization of young women are all themes that swirl around in this tragic story about a ten year old girl surrounded by addicted adults,
Read MoreWhistler Film Festival Interview: Susan Rodgers on STILL THE WATER
A former museum curator, Susan Rodgers’ film career started with a wardrobe continuity gig on the television show Emily of New Moon. Soon a box of wartime letters discovered in an attic launched her first film, the half-hour period drama Bobby’s Peace. Rodgers’ inaugural feature film, Still The Water, was completed in the spring of 2020.
Read MoreWhistler Film Festival Filmmaker Interview: Emily Dickinson on MARCH
First time director Emily Dickinson’s narrative short March takes place in 2024, and follows an American woman in her mid-twenties, as she travels to Canada to get a now-illegal abortion. A day in her life showcases abortion tourism, the current state of relations between the two neighbouring nations, the implications of a misogynist government, and the resilience of women. March is nominated for the EDA Award for Best Female-Directed Short at Whistler Film Festival 2020.
Read MoreTax Credit Changes to Benefit Canadian Female Filmworkers – Sharon McGowan and Jan Miller report
As women who have been working in the Canadian film and television industry for over three decades (on opposite sides of the country!), we are heartened by recent gender equity advancements in creative leadership positions in productions funded by Telefilm Canada, the Canada Media Fund, CBC and the NFB.
Read MoreQuARTSantine: OXFF and other FFs and the PandemONIUMic – Melanie Lynn Addington
It feels like March 12 was years ago now. That was the day the Governor of Mississippi limited any events that assembled 250 people or more. It was 6 days before our 2020 Oxford Film Festival was supposed to happen. And then it wasn’t happening anymore. That felt like the end of the world at the time.
Since then, instead, the film festival community has worked non stop to rally as over 150 film festivals scheduled for the spring and summer have had to cancel, postpone or go online.
Read MoreAmber McGinnes on INTERNATIONAL FALLS, Obstacles and Opportunities
Self-producing your first feature film takes a Herculean effort. I mean, just getting the darn thing financed and FILMED feels like a major accomplishment. But then getting it FINISHED, getting it OUT into the world is a whole other thing… that’s where I thought you left the art behind and just started to focus on […]
Read MoreOn THE PUSHBACK, Purpose and Pushing Back – Emily Barclay Ford
We raced to finish The Pushback in time for our SXSW delivery deadline and then the festival was canceled the same day. Although we are sad that we did not get to premiere at the festival and in Texas, where the documentary was shot, we feel like we have to make lemonade out of lemons and find the opportunity in this moment. Due to the shutdown of other productions, there will likely be more appetite for finished content in the coming months. And with social distancing, cancellation of group events, and potentially the inability to canvas, we’re thinking that a film like ours can be a useful tool to reach people through their living rooms at a safe distance.
Read MoreA Filmmaker’s Musing: Passion vs Ambition – Katia Shannon
Instead of asking myself, how do I find the ‘Right’ people/project/time, how about I ask, what does my current track record say about my passion and ambition? If I were a stranger looking at my work, would I be able to understand my unique and specific aspirations and the passion that fuels them?
Read MoreMy Gen Z Perspective on Film Criticism – Riley Roberts comments
I’m 18. I’ve been a YouTube pioneer, the youngest movie critic in history, sold a company, and interviewed hundreds of A-list stars from Dwayne Johnson to Selena Gomez – all before my first period. With high school graduation behind me, I’m looking at a bright future of…what? Closed doors? Despite acquiring a decade’s worth of experience in the field, I’m learning that everyone wants me to knock on the door clutching a very expensive piece of paper – one that comes from the “right” place accompanied by some stunning numbers with decimal points.
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