By Anela Henley. I never thought I’d be starring in a movie that I made, but just by nature of the circumstances I had to. I think that elevated me as a filmmaker….” Writer-director Joe Begos broke into the indie film scene in 2019 with his third feature Bliss, incorporating doom […]
Cinema as Memory: Olivier Assayas on Suspended Time
By Jonathan Monovich. I wanted to bring a cinema crew within this very intimate space, which is something that movies hardly do. I thought it was a way of exposing myself.” —Olivier Assayas Like other filmmakers who began at Cahiers du Cinéma, Olivier Assayas approaches his films with sophistication. Assayas’ […]
Limitations and Innovations: An Interview with Filmmaker and Animator Richard Bazley
By William Blick. Speed is a huge advantage in live action. Animation is time consuming, and if you ask an animator to rework a scene, it can take days, maybe even weeks for a few seconds.” –Richard Bazley Richard Bazley has had an illustrious career in animation beginning with his journey on […]
Producing for Netflix, the Pandemic, and Covid-19 on Set: An Interview on Coyotes
By Anees Aref. When we did the first Covid test, I was positive. So since I had seen everyone, we had to stop for a week, during prep. That was the first case of Covid we had, and then we had five to six cases during shooting.” –Andre Logie, producer […]
Progress and the Forgotten: the Importance of The Saint of Fort Washington (1993)
By Christopher Sharrett. One of the most important films of the 1990s, certainly the best about poverty and the plight of the homeless.” Tim Hunter’s 1993 film The Saint of Fort Washington enjoyed some applause in its day while having a limited release and poor commercial performance. Today, it seems […]
Virtual Discoveries: NYFF 2020
Stump the Guesser (Guy Maddin, 2020) By Gary M. Kramer. There were some interesting discoveries, documentaries, and revivals screening at this year’s New York Film Festival. Here are a handful of notable titles that played at this year’s virtual fest. One of the highlights is the pairing two playful and […]
Solidarity in a New Era – An Interview with April Wright on Stuntwomen: The Untold Hollywood Story (2020)
By Yun-hua Chen. Stuntwomen really represent the larger picture of the ongoing struggle that women and people of color have had, just looking for a fair share in this industry.” Covering the span of film history, from The Perils of Pauline (1914) through Wonder Woman (1975) to Fast & Furious […]
Tradition Thriving on the “Bloody” Frontier: The Pale Door
By Matthew Sorrento. Co-writer/director Aaron B. Koontz’s perceptiveness for the Western genre makes The Pale Door into a worthy hybrid horror.” It must be an assignment in a screenwriting course somewhere, or maybe a guidebook: “From Dusk to Dawn It” – begin your script as road movie, and bring your […]
“Middle of the Road” Survival: Brendan Walsh’s Centigrade
By Thomas Puhr. Maybe not all true stories, however incredible, are well suited for cinematic adaptation; I would rather have seen a documentary about these events.” It’s becoming increasingly difficult to separate new films from COVID-19. Any 2020 release in which characters find themselves confined to small spaces (Relic) or […]