indiewire Tagged Articles at Cinematical

Earlier today, Peter wrote up a piece on movie mogul Harvey Weinstein explaining how The Weinstein Company created their division Third Rail as a dumping ground for movies they feel have only "ancillary value." Harvey and his younger brother and business partner, Bob, have been under a bit of an attack since ditching Disney/Miramax for their own shingle back in 2005, with a lot of sharks swimming the waters surrounding them, just waiting for enough money to bleed through the Weinstein's fingers.

An article over at the Sunday Telegraph by Tom Teodorczuk goes into some fairly good detail about the troubles facing the beleagured brothers. You can read the full piece yourself to see his analysis; suffice it to say that the Weinsteins have yet to bring that old Miramax magic to their independent shingle, probably for a variety of reasons, not the least of which include the troubles facing the indie film world generally. As Hollywood Elsewhere's Jeff Wells, quoted in the piece, notes, "The Weinsteins have suffered from the same pressures affecting the indie film sector that everyone else faces. There is a glut of product owing to hedge fund firms now investing in films."

Fans of documentary film should be happy to hear that there's a new force on the block: SnagFilms has just opened their internet doors, and in the process they've brought (and bought) our good friends over at indieWIRE with them. Founded by three former top AOL executives (Ted Leonsis, Steve Case and Miles Gilburne), SnagFilms is a unique site in that it showcases entire documentary films for you watch online for free, but then also makes those same films available to snag like, say, YouTube does, and then embed the entire film anywhere you'd like. Check out the widget below ...



Pretty cool, huh? Fans of indieWIRE will still get to read all the same, great content, as well as a new blog called Docsider, which comes to us from iLine and indieWIRE co-founder, Mark Rabinowitz. To read more about the SnagFilms/indieWIRE deal, check out this letter to readers from Eugene Hernandez. Definitely head on over to play with the site a bit; with over 225 documentaries available now (and about 750 available by the end of 2008), I'm sure there's plenty of content to keep you busy for awhile. Let us know what you think!

Can you program one film festival and show your film at another? Is South By Southwest now, officially, cooler than Sundance? And what are the challenges of a modern romance film, and how much of your life can you get away with turning into art? Joining us this week on The Rocchi Review is Michael Lerman, co-writer and co-director of the SXSW Emerging Visions selection Natural Causes. Cinematical's podcast content now has even better sound quality, and is now in iTunes; you can subscribe at this link. Also, you can listen directly here at Cinematical by clicking below:



As ever, you can download the entire podcast right here -- and those of you with RSS Podcast readers can find all of Cinematical's podcast content at this link.

Our friends over at indieWIRE continue their ongoing series of discussions with filmmakers at the Apple Store Soho by bringing in director David Gordon Green (George Washington, All the Real Girls) to show scenes from and discuss his latest film, Snow Angels, which opens March 7. Snow Angels, which stars Sam Rockwell, Kate Beckinsale, Amy Sedaris, Olivia Thirlby, and Griffin Dunne, is about two romantic relationships -- one just beginning, and one beginning to end. If you live in NYC, this should be a great filmmaker discussion to check out. The event happens Wednesday, March 5 from 7:00-8:00PM at the Apple Store Soho, 103 Prince St.; seating is first-come, first-served, so you might want to get there early.

In the meantime, you can read our review of Snow Angels from Sundance 2007, and listen to James Rocchi's interview with David Gordon Green from that fest.

As a part of an ongoing series that brings indie filmmakers to you at Apple stores, our good friends over at indieWIRE are bringing you Michel Gondry, director of Be Kind, Rewind, which we'll be reviewing at Sundance. This time around, indie film fans in New York, San Francisco and Chicago will have an opportunity to hear Gondry talk about his latest film. Here's all the scoop:

Apple Store, San Francisco
Monday, January 7th - 7:00 p.m. - 8:00 p.m
http://www.apple.com/retail/sanfrancisco

(This event will be moderated by SF360's Susan Gerhard.)


Apple Store, North Michigan Avenue, Chicago
Tuesday, January 8th - 7:00 p.m. - 8:00 p.m
http://www.apple.com/retail/northmichiganavenue

(This event will be moderated by Time Out Chicago's Ben Kenigsberg.)


Apple Store, SoHo, New York City
Friday, January 11th, 7:00 p.m. - 8:00 p.m
http://www.apple.com/retail/soho

(This event will be moderated by indieWIRE's Editor in Chief Eugene
Hernandez.)

Seating for all these events is first come, first served, so you might want to show up a tad early. If you're in any of those cities and go to the event, come back and let us know how it goes.

One of the least-publicized success stories on the film fest circuit in the past year was Apart from That, directed by Jennifer Shainin and Randy Walker. This quirky, experimental little indie premiered at South by Southwest last year, before going on to play a total of 24 film fests and winning three awards. And yet, I bet you haven't heard of it, which is one reason that indieWIRE chose Apart from That as one of ten films in its Undiscovered Gems series for 2007. The film is finally available on DVD, too -- check out the official website for details on that.

It's been a whirlwind year for the Apart from That filmmakers, but, Walker, in the midst of taking a well-deserved breather from his many travels with partner Shainin this year on their film's behalf, very kindly sat down and jotted down his and Shainin's thoughts for our readers in this Cinematical Indie Chat.

Cinematical Indie: What indie films out in theaters or DVDs have you been watching lately?

Reason number #307 why I sometimes wish I still lived in New York City, in spite of the ridiculous cost of living there: There is so much cool film stuff going on there on any given night of the week. Case in point: our friends over at indieWIRE continue their series of monthly presentations with Apple Store - SOHO Wednesday night from 7:30-8:30PM with NYC-based film producers Jason Kliot and Joana Vicente.

Kliot and Viencte are the producing team behind some awesome indie fare, including films by Brian De Palma, Jim Jarmusch, Hal Hartley and more. The pair will discuss their producing partnership at the event -- they're responsible for films like Coffee and Cigarettes and Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room (they've produced over 30 films, so no doubt they have way more to talk about than will fit into a one-hour program). But wait, that's not all!

They'll also be showing scenes from De Palma's Redacted, which just played at Toronto and is showing at the New York Film Festival on October 10 and 11. Wednesday's even will be hosted by indieWIRE Editor-in-Chief Eugene Hernandez, and best of all, it's FREE, so you can even afford to go get a nice coffee with all your film geek friends after and talk about it. Seating is first come, first served, no RSVP required.

When I first saw Randy Walker and Jennifer Shainin's film Apart from That at the Seattle International Film Festival in 2006,. the thing that struck me most was it's transparent honesty. The film was relegated to the "Experimental" category at the fest, a section that tends to be like the grab bags you can buy for fifty cents at a carnival: you never know if you're going to end up with something really nifty -- a mood ring, perhaps, or a cool brainteaser puzzle -- or if you'll get stuck with something vaguely annoying and unpleasant, like one of those Chinese finger handcuffs that squeeze your fingers tighter the more you squirm to get out of them.

Fortunately, Apart from That turned out to be a little gem of a film, and it's gone on to play at a slew of film fests far and wide since Seattle, racking up Walker and Shainin lots of airline miles and acclaim. The film is about loneliness, and the desire for connection and feeling loved and needed, told through the disparate tales of three people; we meet the protagonists at the beginning of the film, as guest of a party, and then the tale unravels from there to show us their disconnected lives, held together only by this common theme.

What makes Apart from That even more interesting is the techniques the filmmakers used in making it. They shot on a schedule of two days on, one day off, and rewrote the script on the off days to accommodate the direction their cast was taking the film -- kind of a bizarre mix of improvisational theater with filmmaking, and all with a cast made up almost entirely of amateur actors, locals from their small Washington town. And somehow, it works.

The film, much to my chagrin, still hasn't been picked up for distribution, but f you live in New York City, and haven't yet had a chance to catch Apart from That at one of its many fest showings, you're in for a treat -- our pals over at indieWIRE are hosting a special screening of the film tonight at 7:30PM EST, at Cinema East Village, 22 East 12th Street. Following the film will be a Q&A with Walker and Shainin, and it should be an interesting Q&A; Shainin and Walker are a delightful pair, and this event will be most enjoyable. It's almost enough to make me wish I was living in NYC in July ... almost. Drag yourself out of your studio apartment and go show some support for indie film, and give Shainin and Walker some love. You'll be glad you did.

Our friends over at indieWIRE have done a very cool thing -- they've given Dennis Lim's year-end critics' poll, which ran at the Village Voice, from 1999-2005, a new home. Lim, of course, was one of the victims of the gutting over at the Voice that happened earlier this year, and we're hoping we'll be seeing more of him around indieWIRE in the future.

As for the poll itself, which checked in with 107 alt-minded print and online critics, The Death of Mr. Lazerescu, which our own Martha Fischer and Ryan Stewart reviewed for Cinematical, tops off the list. Rounding out the top ten were L'Enfant, The Departed, Inland Empire, Army of Shadows, Three Times, Old Joy, United 93, Children of Men and Half Nelson. Helen Mirren (The Queen) and Ryan Gosling (Half Nelson) topped out the Best Performance category, with Mark Wahlberg (The Departed) and Shareeka Epps (Half Nelson) capping off the Best Supporting list. See the full list of nods, and a list of who was polled, over at indieWIRE.

Face it, the majority of films that screen at even the most popular film festivals never find distribution. That's just a fact. Usually, there's a window for a film that debuts at, say, Slamdance or SXSW ... and let's say that window is one year. If the film cannot find distribution within one year of its first screening at a major festival then chances are it's not going to happen. The filmmaker(s) who promoted their project at the festival, online and through various other sources will most likely use their festival film as a calling card to land other gigs -- or, they'll just simply make another film, use their prior festival buzz to get into future festivals and keep working their way up into the spotlight.

Of course, there are always exceptions. Four Eyed Monsters first premiered at Slamdance back in 2005, then went on to screen in over 20 festivals. However, before heading to Slamdance, directors Arin Crumley and Susan Buice decided to promote their film (which is about a couple who attempt to carry on a relationship through non-verbal communication) by documenting their journey -- not through words on a screen -- but through a number of video blogs (or podcasts). They called them 'episodes' and each one felt like its own mini-film, complete with conflict, adventure and fantastic music. Needless to say, the film (and the podcasts) quickly found an audience ... who told their friends, who told their friends and so on ...