Making It: Ruth De Jong’s Designs on Paul Thomas Anderson & Terrence Malick
Ruth De Jong never thought she would end up working on movies. She wanted to be a painter.
But now, a decade into her career as a production designer and art director, she’s tallied up credits on films like The Tree of Life, To the Wonder and Knight of Cups from director Terrence Malick, and There Will Be Blood, The Master and Inherent Vice with Paul Thomas Anderson.
3 Countries, Forged Art, Lighting? The Struggles of Directing Woman in Gold
In 2011, in his cinematic directorial debut, Simon Curtis helped bring a simple yet personal story to life in the film My Week with Marilyn. The film— which told the true tale of a young man’s adventures with Marilyn Monroe during one eventful week in the 1950s— earned critical raves and helped nab Oscar nominations for stars Michelle Williams and Kenneth Branagh.
This year, Curtis has brought another incredible true story to the big screen in the new film The Woman in Gold.
Actress Katharine Emmer Wanted A Life in Color, so she Became a Director
NYU graduate Katharine Emmer looked to have a bright acting career in front of her. She landed an episode of Desperate Housewives; she had a role in indie film Puccini for Beginners, which was nominated for the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival. At NYU she was the recipient of the Annual Tisch Artistic Achievement Award. But even with her growing resume, she was not a full-time working actor;
New Trailer for Straight Outta Compton Raw & Exciting
The new Straight Outta Compton trailer has all the power of the movement that inspired it. N.W.A. was the musical progenitor of a new, and largely ignored, raw urban voice. Even in this short clip, we get a taste of the story of an America that we don’t read about in many history books, but nonetheless was a lived experience for millions. For N.W.A., including Ice Cube, Dr. Dre, MC Ren and Eazy-E, their “art was a reflection of their reality.”
Lethal Force: Sheriff Confronts SWAT Team he Founded in Peace Officer
“Since the late 1970s, there has been a 15,000% increase in SWAT team raids in the United States.” This alarming fact is revealed in Peace Officer, an extremely timely, unsettling documentary that swept the Audience and Jury Awards for best feature documentary at this year’s SXSW Film Festival. Directed by Scott Christopherson and Brad Barber, Peace Officer focuses on the increasingly militarized state of American police, told through the story of Dub Lawrence,
Prolific Screenwriter Dan Fogelman on Directing Debut Danny Collins
Not yet in his 40s, Dan Fogelman is a force to be reckoned with.
In the past ten years, Fogelman has written over a half-dozen hit films. He was the screenwriter responsible for animated hits like Cars, Bolt, and Tangled and star-studded comedies like Crazy, Stupid, Love, The Guilt Trip and Last Vegas. He also helped create television shows like The Neighbors and Galavant.
It’s Me, Hilary Director Matt Wolf Discusses his HBO Doc
Who exactly is Hilary Knight, the artist behind the iconic "Eloise" books? Director Matt Wolf sets out to paint a complete portrait of the now 88-year-old artist, covering not only his odd and wonderful life as an illustrator but also his often contemptuous relationship with not only his most famous creation, the character of Eloise, but also to Eloise author Kay Thompson, who passed away in 1998. If you missed last night’s premiere of It’s Me,
Has it Really Been 20 Years Since Toy Story?
Given the length of the lines (at least 100 people were turned away at the door) for South by Southwest’s, “Infinity & Beyond: Pixar & 20 Years Since Toy Story” panel, many of us have a friend and clearly miss our old Buzz Lightyear and Woody the cowboy toys. But this ‘behind the scenes’ look into the Pixar films that made so many of us animation junkies was the next best thing.
SXSW 2015: A Q&A With the Director & Star of She’s The Best Thing In It
Films by women, about women, and in many ways, targeted to women were a huge part of this year’s South by Southwest festival. Women were tremendously prominent in the line-up, serving as two of the four SXSW film keynote speakers: Ava DuVernay, the noted director of Selma, and Christine Vachon, who has produced some of the most celebrated American indie features, including the Academy Award wining Boys Don’t Cry.
SXSW 2015: Andrew Bujalksi on Writing and Directing Results
Writer/director Andrew Bujalski came into this year’s SXSW having already made four well respected, funny/weird films. His 2002 debut, Funny Ha Ha, is considered the first mumblecore film, and revolves around the lives of recent college grads who try, in their own singular ways, to put off adulthood for as long as possible. The film landed on New York Times critic A.O. Scott's top ten list for the year, and put Bujalski at the very forefront of a new wave of indie films.
SXSW 2015: Selma Director Ava DuVernay’s Moving Keynote Address
In her South by Southwest keynote address, director Ava DuVernay discussed taking on one of the greatest challenges for any filmmaker; the depiction of a historical event. For DuVernay, of course, it was the challenge of making Selma, the story of Martin Luther King Jr. leading the historic, dangerous march from Selma, Ala., to Montgomery in support of African American voting rights in 1965. She accepted the project knowing she was the seventh choice for director (at various points Stephen Frears,
SXSW 2015: Alison Bechdel, Joshua Openheimer & Maria Hinojosa talk Storytelling
Maria Hinojosa, the executive producer and anchor of Latino USA on NPR, led a discussion between two leading lights in their respective fields; graphic memoirist Alison Bechdel and documentarian Joshua Oppenheimer. Bechdel’s last two works, the groundbreaking “Fun Home,” about her childhood and, more specifically, her closeted father, and “Are You My Mother?” which explores her relationship with her mother through the prism of psychoanalytic theory. Oppenheimer’s last two films, The Act of Killing (2012) and his latest,
SXSW 2015: Honeytrap Writer/Director Rebecca Johnson
In America we call them projects, and they’ve been the locus of many crucial, incredible films, quiet a few from Spike Lee, including Do the Right Thing and Clockers. They’re called favelas in Brazil, the setting for the Fernando Meirelles and Kátia Lund’s explosive City of God, while in Britain they’re called estates. These are places where large groups of lower income families and individuals, often minorities, are grouped together in sprwling,
SXSW 2015 Preview: Women to Watch
The programming at SXSW has become more robust each and every year. Part of the appeal of the festival's selections is the wide representation of female filmmakers, who have produced an especially rich mix of films for this year's slate.There are far too many filmmakers to chose from, so here's just a very quick peek at some of these talented women and the projects they've brought down to Austin.
Hannah Fidell 6 Years
Hannah Fidell is back after winning the Chicken and Egg award here in 2013 for her film A Teacher.
SXSW 2015 Preview: Hot Docs
We’re back in Austin for the SXSW film festival, and holy hell there’s a lot of stuff to see and do. The festival officially kicks off this Friday with the documentary Brand: A Second Coming, director Ondi Timoner’s profile of the comedian/author/activist Russell Brand’s evolution from hard charging bon vivant to political disruptor and revolutionary who has his own YouTube channel devoted to delivering subscribers the ‘Trews’ (true news).
Brand’s brand of verbosity and high energy is a fitting way to launch a festival with 100 world premieres,
Bert Marcus on his Knockout Documentary Champs
As star-studded as the front row of any primetime heavyweight fight, the boxing doc Champs calls on A-listers from Mark Wahlberg and Ron Howard to Denzel Washington and Mary J. Blige to weigh in on one of the most brutal sports in history. Beautifully shot reenactments and first-hand stories are interspersed with real footage of some of the most famous brawls of all-time, making for a riveting ride. But this isn't just any sports documentary —
The Return of Cinderella
Disney’s original animated Cinderella, an inescapable fact of most Western childhoods, won the Golden Bear in the musical film category at the very first Berlinale in 1951. A live-action contemporary version, nearly singing-free and also produced under Disney’s auspices, premiered at the most recent Berlinale, some 64-years after the original. Directed by Kenneth Branagh and starring Lily James (best known as Rose in Downton Abbey) in the titular role,
Director Michele Josue’s Matt Shepard is A Friend of Mine
The documentary Matt Shepard is A Friend of Mine puts a human face on the young man who paid the ultimate price for homophobia. Michele Josue’s accomplished debut film — poignant, revealing, powerful in its anger, grief and humanity — reminds us 15 years later what his friends, family and the world lost when Shepard was beaten to death in a notorious hate crime.
“There was a long list of motivations for me to make this film,”
Director Henry Corra on his Heartbreaking, Beautiful Farewell to Hollywood
When director Henry Corra met aspiring young filmmaker Regina Nicholson at a film festival, neither knew they would be embarking on a journey that would become literally about life and death.
The result of their collaboration is Farewell to Hollywood: The Life and Death of Reggie Nicholson, an intimate documentary that emerges as a powerful portrait of the spunky Nicholson as she goes through cancer treatment and estrangement from her parents to realizing her dream of making a personal,
Director Niki Caro Finds her Place in McFarland, USA
Niki Caro is one of the more astute, thoughtful directors working today. Whether she’s adapting a novel about a peasant winemaker in 19th century France (A Heavenly Vintage, 2009), or fictionalizing the account of the first major successful sexual harassment case in the U.S. (North Country, 2005), Caro’s ability to get inside the lives of very different people and to contextualize their plights with just the right amount (and the exactly right kind) of detail is obvious to anyone who watches her films.
