Far From Afghanistan: U.S. Filmmakers Agitate on 10th Anniversary of the War
“Though I don’t have any children,” says John Gianvito, “I imagined a child someday saying to me, ‘You regard yourself as a political filmmaker, did you do anything during the longest war in U.S....
View ArticleSeven Overlooked Independent Films Of 2011
The world doesn’t need another list of the best films of the year, but after considering my own recent lists, I realized there were a handful of movies‹excellent independent work that has largely flown...
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Medium Specific: An Interview with Computer Chess Director Andrew Bujalski
Andrew Bujalski’s Computer Chess is the most daring feature film of the year. A bewildering and baffling trip back in time (to circa 1980), the movies follows a group of four-eyed super-nerds engaged...
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“In the Same Way Painters Used Their Paint…”: D.P. Bradford Young on Ain’t...
In just a few years, Bradford Young has emerged as one of the most auspicious and distinctive cinematographers in American independent film. First noticed in 2011 for his work on Andrew Dosunmu’s...
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Acts of Rebellion: The Dialectical Cinema of Nadav Lapid
In Sergei Eisenstein’s seminal essay “A Dialectic Approach to Film Form,” the Russian filmmaker lays out the foundational theories for his radical political cinema. “Art is always conflict,” he...
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Hits & Misses 2014
This is premium content. To read the rest, please log in. If you are not currently a member, please purchase a digital or print subscription to Filmmaker or join The Gotham. The post Hits & Misses...
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Five Misconceptions of Errol Morris’s American Dharma and Why It’s Still...
This past fall, the stage was perfectly set for the launch of Errol Morris’s latest documentary, American Dharma: An Oscar-winning director takes on Steve Bannon, perhaps the most controversial figure...
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Can Critics’s Awards and Top Ten Mentions Boost Revenues for Independent Films?
Do critics matter? Maybe. But do critics’ top ten lists matter? There’s little doubt within the industry that an Academy Award nomination (or win) can provide an extraordinary boost to a film’s...
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Remembering Mark Urman, 1952 – 2019
Mark Urman, the film publicist, marketer, distributor, father and husband, was one of the significant figures of the indie film boom of the 1990s and 2000s, participating directly in its rise and...
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Where are the Girl-Wonders? Everywhere—But Who Noticed?
Since the late 1990s, Gas Food Lodging filmmaker Allison Anders frequently lamented the pitiful media attention around women directors. “There are no girl-wonders, especially in this business,” she...
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“An Auteur’s Cinema in Spite of the Violence”: Patricio Guzmán on The...
Patricio Guzmán is indefatigable. For over 50 years, the Chilean director has chronicled his country’s political trauma—namely, the military coup d’état coup and brutal reign of Augusto Pinochet—with a...
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For Buyers and Sellers, Fewer Films Meet High Demand at a Virtual Sundance 2021
The persistence of COVID-19 disrupted the 2021 Sundance Film Festival in many ways; no blizzard-clogged traffic-jams or overstuffed parties; no late-night negotiations in the Eccles lobby; no standing...
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Upload Prohibited: Amazon Prime Video Direct Locks Out Docs and Shorts
Amazon’s Prime Video Direct (PVD) service has a message for independent documentary and shorts filmmakers: You need not apply. Last week, Amazon’s PVD self-publishing program issued a change in policy:...
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For Licorice Pizza’s Christmas Release, Some Theaters Left Out in the Cold
For art-house movie theaters, already struggling during the pandemic, the wide expansion of Paul Thomas Anderson’s critically acclaimed Licorice Pizza on December 25 was seen as a godsend. When the...
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Sundance’s Second Virtual Festival Puts Art Films in an Online Bind
“Heartbreaking,” “disappointed,” “crushing”—those are just some of the ways that filmmakers described the news that the 2022 Sundance Film Festival was going entirely virtual for a second year in a...
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XTR is Trying to Solve the Crisis in Documentary Film, but Some Filmmakers...
On November 15, at a DOC NYC panel called “Balancing Storytelling and Financial Stability,” South African filmmaker Milisuthando Bongela, director of the acclaimed 2023 Sundance film Milisuthando,...
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Doc (and Art-Film) Blocking: How Algorithmic Content Moderation is Hurting...
You have to look hard to find a trailer for the recent release of Smoke Sauna Sisterhood, Estonia’s entry for this year’s Best International Feature Film category, on Facebook and Instagram — and...
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