By Noah Charney. Over the last century, agents have established themselves as necessary middlemen between talent (writers, actors, directors, DOPs…) and producers who wish to work with such talent on projects for screens, large and small. Producers could have just called up the talent directly, but they didn’t. A tradition […]
Film Scratches: July 2020
Film Scratches is a blog by David Finkelstein focusing on the world of experimental and avant-garde film, especially as practiced by individual artists. It features a mixture of reviews, interviews, and essays. Serial Seduction: Film About a Father Who (2020) Film About a Father Who is Lynne Sachs’ absorbing feature length […]
Introducing the Classics: How to Serve Your Kids a Slice of Nostalgia Through Film
Singin’ in the Rain (1952) By Noah Charney and James Charney. The pull of nostalgia is a powerful one. We parents had favorites growing up: favorite TV shows, movies, books and games. We’d love to introduce them to our kids and there’s a particular delight when our kids love something […]
Now Unreeling Online: AFI DOCS at 18
Boys State By Elias Savada. One of the premier documentary film festivals is back for its 18th year. Unlike all previous iterations of the event it started life as Silver Docs but was renamed in 2013 when it expanded beyond the AFI Silver Theatre and Cultural Center and ventured to […]
First Annual VIDI SPACE Film Festival (February 22, 2020, Reston, Virginia)
February 20, 2020
VIDI SPACE’s First Annual Film Festival is being held Saturday, February 22nd, 2020 at the Bow Tie Cinema in the Reston Town Center, Reston, Virginia. Headed by Co-founder/CEO Elizabeth Saint, the festival features work of VIDI SPACE’s streaming platform, launched in 2018 to feature genre works but now spanning shorts and […]
In Remembrance: Marj Dusay (1936-2020)
January 30, 2020
Actor Marj Dusay has died. Marj is one of the lead actors in my second feature film, A Chronicle of Corpses. Marj and I met by chance at the New York-Avignon Film Festival in 1998 where the first feature film I directed, Magdalen, was screening. I knew who she was […]
The Best Iranian Films of the Year: A Personal Selection
December 17, 2019
By Ali Moosavi. Among the many Iranian films that I have watched this year, six have stood out for me. If we don’t consider the purely commercial and state-funded films which dominate the screens in Iran, the Achilles heel of most independent Iranian films is their screenplay. If there is one […]
Into the…Shed
December 17, 2019
By Ali Moosavi. The box office success of films such as Halloween, Friday the 13th, Nightmare on Elm Street, Saw, etc. and their endless sequels has popularized that dreaded word “franchise” in Hollywood. These films have also defined the slasher movie genre. A common denominator in all these films is the […]
Rise of the Tactless Manipulator: Where’s My Roy Cohn?
Elias Savada
October 3, 2019
By Elias Savada. I wonder if lawyer jokes were invented for Roy M. Cohn, the notorious attorney at the center of this perfectly timed documentary about the man who spent decades causing mayhem in the legal profession and creating turmoil for many who crossed his path during the last half […]
Announcing the Anthem Series on Exploitation and Industry in World Cinema
October 1, 2019
Series Editors David A. Cook – UNC Greensboro, USA Will Dodson – UNC Greensboro, USA The Anthem Series on Exploitation and Industry in World Cinema incorporates a broad range of scholarship on filmmakers, genres, cycles and national cinemas, focusing on ways in which exploitation filmmaking and distribution subsidize riskier commercial […]