Cinema Eye Honors co-chairs AJ Schnack, Esther Robinson & Nathan Truesdell

On a rainy evening in Astoria, Queens, a group of documentary luminaries got together to celebrate the 2012 Cinema Eye Honors for Non-fiction Filmmaking. It was, indeed, a star-studded affair. Walking in to the museum’s lobby last night I was immediately blinded by the sheer docu-star power. Filling the lobby for the cocktail hour were such filmmaking icons as Al Maysles, Frederick Wiseman, Michael Moore, Steve James, Bruce Sinofsky and Joe Berlinger, the team behind the “Paradise Lost” trilogy.

Shortly afterward, guests filed into the museum’s auditorium for the awards ceremony, the organization’s 5th.  AJ Schnack & Esther Robinson Cinema Eye Honors co-chairs and the evening’s co-hosts had a great chemistry; while Schnack’s goofy asides brought many laughs, it was Robinson who brought just the right amount of solemnity to the occasion. Continue reading →

Kirsten Dunst in a press still from Lars Von Trier's MELANCHOLIA

In no particular order and making no distinction between films which have found distribution or are still looking.   No distinction between docs or ficts either.  I loved these movies! I’ve also missed a ton of movies that I am still trying to catch up with, including “Take Shelter”, “Hugo”, “Young Adult”, “Tin Tin”, “Midnight in Paris”, “The Help”

“Melancholia” (Lars Von Trier)
“Resurrect Dead: The Mystery of the Toynbee Tiles” (Jon Foy)
“Green” (Sophia Takal)
“Putty Hill” (Matt Porterfield)
“Battle for Brooklyn” (Michael Galinsky & Suki Hawley)
“Drive” (Nicolas Winding Refn)
“Margin Call” (J.C. Chandor)
“Another Earth” (Mike Cahill)
“The Color Wheel” (Alex Ross Perry)
“Bombay Beach” (Alma Ha’rel)
“Bobby Fischer Against The World” (Liz Garbus)
“The Arbor” (Clio Barnard)
“Strongman” (Zachary Levy)
“Cold Weather” (Aaron Katz)

Filmmaker Heather Courtney & her subjects of WHERE SOLDIERS COME FROM; photo credit: Adam Schartoff © 2011

“Incendies” (Denis Villeneuve)
“Higher Ground” (Vera Fermiglia)
“Martha Marcy May Marlene” (Sean Durkin)
“Cedar Rapids” (Miguel Arteta)
“Septien” (Michael Tully)
“Where Soldiers Come From” (Heather Courtney)
“The Descendants” (Alexander Payne)
“Shame” (Steve McQueen)
“Weekend” (Andrew Haigh)
“Undefeated” (Daniel Lindsay & T.J. Martin)

Plenty of others well worth mentioning that were also terrific: “Rid of Me”, “Surrogate Valentine”, “The Black Power Mixtape 1967-1975″, “Bill Cunningham New York”, “The Interrupters”, “Bellflower”, “Silver Bullets”, “Bad Fever”, “Catechism Cataclysm”, “If a Tree Falls”, “My Perestroika”, “Tabloid”, “Circumstance”, “Pina”, “The Skin I Live In”, & “The Artist”.

IMDb, to date, lists 7,262 documentaries released in 2011, and there’s no telling how many were made that remain unreleased. That’s a lot of money that must have been raised (or that will continue to appear on credit card statements). But fundraising hasn’t increased so much as it has just gone public with tools such as Kickstarter and IndieGoGo. Public fundraising campaigns that might have once been seen as acts of desperation now seem commonplace if not protocol, whether it’s for a story about a video game (“Minecraft: The Story of Mojang” — $200,000+ in crowdfunding) or a male porn mogul becoming a gay rights activist (“Seed Money: The Chuck Holmes Story “— $25,000 in crowdfunding). How do you raise money at a time of year when folks are spending their dollars on holiday gifts, travel, food or the past year’s underpaid taxes? The holiday season is no holiday for documentary producers looking to raise funds, but some documentarians say it’s as good a time as any.

Marshall Curry, Filmmaker (“If a Tree Falls: A Story of the Earth Liberation Front”) There’s so much competition to get funds from traditional doc funders (Gucci/Tribeca, Sundance, Cinereach) so sometimes it’s smart to also go off the beaten path. If you are making an “issue” documentary, try approaching funders who care about your issue but don’t usually fund films.

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When my wife and I had a child, I was horrified at the idea of my kid getting stuck with needles, but I didn’t question the medicine behind it. I figured, if my pediatrician was recommending it, it was the best course for my son.

My child’s mother, on the other hand, didn’t feel the same way. Having done some research on the subject, she suggested slowing it all down and spreading the shots out over time. To her credit, and without realizing it, she’s brought us into the great vaccination debate.

If you’re a parent (or know one), you might have had a similar conversation, and you might have already made up your mind about the connection between vaccination and disease. A new documentary, “The Greater Good”, adds perspective to the issue, asking how much of a good thing a person can take until it’s not all that good any more. (The film opened in New York this weekend.)

“It is an advocacy film,” says “The Greater Good” producer Chris Pilaro, “not a work of journalism and I think that’s very clear in the film, as it should be.”

The filmmakers chose to follow three families whose lives were adversely affected by vaccines because, as director-producer Kendall Nelson says, “Historically, those stories were really not being told… We figured that the general public already believed that vaccines were essentially a godsend.”

One thread follows young Jordan King, who before being vaccinated was a “normal,” happy toddler. After being vaccinated, Jordan’s behavior changed dramatically — He ended up diagnosed with autism. His case is one of many that have indelibly linked vaccines to autism. Continue reading →

RID OF ME director James Westby & actress/producer Katie O'Grady; photo credit: Adam Schartoff (c) 2011

A couple of weeks ago when I moderated a Q&A for the indie film, “The Lie”, I noted my friend Kristin McCracken in the audience.  After the event, she introduced me to her attractive friend who accompanied her, Katie O’Grady.  Katie, it turns out, is the star of yet another indie film, “Rid of Me“, which opened this weekend here in NYC.  [Come to think of it, that makes "Rid of Me" competition for "The Lie".  Anyway, if you're reading this...and you are reading this... go see both.]  Between the two films, it led me to thinking: we’re entering into a great time for indie films.  Allow me to clarify, it’s a great time for indie film audiences.

While the playing field might have a ways to go before it’s truly even for all, many good-to-great indie films are being made and getting distribution.  Ideally that still means theatrical (for that beloved New York Times review) but even a film festival, VOD and DVD release stream can mean that a filmmaker can afford to make subsequent movies.  Not that they will have made that much money, that issue has to be resolved in other, more creative ways.  But if these films take advantage of more affordable technology (digital cameras) and assuming the filmmaker knows how to market and distribute in a more fiscally conservative way, the movies will get seen. Continue reading →

Filmwax's Adam Schartoff with filmmaker Joshua Leonard; photo credit: Arthur Kleydman (c) 2011

I was fortunate enough to moderate a recent sneak preview screening of Joshua Leonard’s “The Lie” the 92 Y Tribeca last week.  In addition to seeing the solid comedy, I finally got to meet Josh and engage him for a post-screening Q&A.

Leonard both directs and stars in “The Lie” and while he did express his occasional frustration wearing both hats, it doesn’t show in his film.  Based on a 2008 T. C. Boyle short story which he optioned after reading it in The New Yorker, the movie is not so much about the titular lie but its aftermath.  Leonard (“Higher Ground”, “Hump Day”) plays Lonnie who is facing a very premature mid-life crisis shortly after he and his wife, Clover (a fabulous Jess Weixler) have their first baby.  Lonnie, a failed musician, has a dead-end job editing shlocky commercials while Clover, a recent law school grad, is grappling with a corporate job offer.  This event is anathema to the couple; not so much because it runs against their shared values, which it does, but because they would never have considered such an offer earlier in their relationship.

Around this time Lonnie starts playing hooky from work, much to the irritation of his irascible boss Radko (Gerry Bednob).  In truth, Lonnie is taking the day to jam with his old friend Tank (Mark Webber), drink coffee in the local diner, and spend time with his beloved new daughter.   By the third or fourth day of calling out, to stop Radko from becoming apoplectic, Lonnie let’s slip an atrocious lie about why he can’t make it to work.  I won’t give it away or what ensues since that’s the reason to get over to Village East Cinema on 2nd Avenue and see the movie.

“The Lie” is simple and Leonard leaves plenty of space for both the comic moments as well as the more moving ones.  Weixler is a find, both deceptively gorgeous and a fine comedienne in her own rite.  The laughs are not necessarily big but they come regularly.  The movie invites in its viewers and you feel like you’re in good hands.  The ending —not T.C. Boyle’s— feels somewhat patched on but does not undermine the film.

This was my second experience hosting such an event for the 92Y Tribeca.  The last one was a month or so back for another Seattle filmmaker, Megan Griffiths, with her film, “The Off Hours”.

The Robert Flaherty Film Seminar‘s program of innovative docs continues for three more Tuesdays in November at New York City’s 92YTribeca.

If you New York doc fans haven’t had a chance to swing by the 92YTribeca to sample of the tasty morsels at The Robert Flaherty Film Seminar since its start last month, there’s still time! 2011 marks the first year that The Flaherty Seminar and the 92nd Street Y’s downtown arts center have collaborated, and the results speak for themselves.

The theme of this season’s series, curated by programmer and writer Miriam Bale, is “Snapshots: Tourism in Cinema.” As the press release describes it, “the films in this program will be exploring documentary as a form of tourism, of the filmmaker as an outsider looking at a place through the gaze of the outsider.”

There are still three more opportunities in November to experience the series, which 92YTribeca will been screening on Wednesday evenings through November 16, 2011. Here is a brief rundown on the balance:

Wednesday, November 2, 2011
“Mur Murs” (dir. Agnès Varda, 1981): A visitor (Juliet Berto) explores street life in early eighties Los Angeles, looking at music, subcultures and where murals interact with graffiti, in this little seen Varda documentary, one of several of her documents of California life. The screening will be followed by a party DJed by Dave Tompkins, author of the book How to Wreck a Nice Beach. Continue reading →

Filmmaker Joe Swanberg at reRun Gastropub at screening of SILVER BULLETS; photo credit: Adam Schartoff (c) 2011

Joe Swanberg has been the subject of debate pretty much since his first movie, “Kissing on the Mouth”, debuted in 2005.  His subsequent films, along with those of Andrew Bujalski and the Duplass Brothers became the movement known as mumblecore.  The term was a result of the relative lo-fi camera work and sound; and the films were, for a couple of seasons, a topic of much rancor among the indie film community.  Mumblecore, as a genre —or sub-genre— has already given way to the more accurately  monikered microbudget film.  The term mumblecore is not very relevant any more since most filmmakers, even those operating at a threadbare budget, know that to hire a sound guy is what could very well distinguish their film from looking amateur.  Crisp and clear dialogue puts the audience member in the center of the story and does not feel as though they are merely watching a cheap movie.  Cheap movies are fine, in other words, but you still need to get lost in them.

When “Hannah Takes The Stairs” debuted in 2007, it changed the game for Swanberg.  Up to that stage his films had been mostly ignored by anyone not subscribing to Sundance or SxSW.  ”Hannah”, was a hit with audiences and, to some degree, critics.  As Matt Zoller Seitz said in his New York Times review, calling “Hannah” a evolutionary entry in the so-called Do It Yourself (D. I. Y.) independent film movement.”  So, producers and agents came calling but Swanberg rejected their offers.  As he explained to a spare audience at the reRun Gastropub in DUMBO last night, he soon with through a phase after that regretting his decision.  He saw his peers taking those steps towards commercial success (eg. “Greenberg”, “Cyrus”, etc.) and wondered if he hadn’t blundered.  After a less than wonderful experience collaborating with filmmaker/producer Noah Baumbach on “Alexander The Last”, Swanberg re-calibrated and realized that he was not a commercial filmmaker and D.I.Y. was, indeed, the right way. Continue reading →

This Sunday, October 30th, 6pm, The Filmwax Film Series will be screening the 2nd of 4 Chinese films in partnership with dGenerate Films.  dGenerate, run by producer Karin Chien, distributes non-government sanctioned films here in the U.S. and other points West.  Last Sunday, 10/23, we screened “Super, Girls!” directed by Jian Yi which was followed by an engaging Q&A with New York Asian Film Festival co-founder and programmer, Grady Hendrix.  This Sunday, the film is “Little Moth” directed by Peng Tao a lovely dramatic fiction film.  The guest speaker will be Chinese film scholar and dGenerate blogger, Maya Rudolph.  There is a suggested donation of $10.  Proceeds from ticket sales are being sent back to China to benefit the filmmakers, who are in need of… well, benefits.