January continues its slow roll on the Specialty side this weekend with very few anticipated limited releases. IFC Films has the headliner of the weekend with political thriller An Acceptable Loss starring Tika Sumpter and Jamie Lee Curtis. Chicago Fire director Joe Chappelle wrote and directed the title after finding inspiration from two documentaries by Errol Morris. Brooklyn-based Distrib Films believes it found an under-the-radar gem in last year’s Berlin Film Festival with The Heiresses, which took two Silver Bears at the event in the German capital.
Other openers this weekend include Screen Media’s 2016 Tribeca Nora Ephron prize-winner Adult Life Skills, as well as Freestyle Digital Media’s I Hate The Kids and Rlj Entertainment’s The Standoff at Sparrow Creek.
An Acceptable Loss
Director-writer: Joe Chappelle
Cast: Tika Sumpter, Jamie Lee Curtis, Ben Tavassoli, Jeff Hephner
Distributor: IFC Films
Veteran TV director Joe Chappelle had the idea...
Other openers this weekend include Screen Media’s 2016 Tribeca Nora Ephron prize-winner Adult Life Skills, as well as Freestyle Digital Media’s I Hate The Kids and Rlj Entertainment’s The Standoff at Sparrow Creek.
An Acceptable Loss
Director-writer: Joe Chappelle
Cast: Tika Sumpter, Jamie Lee Curtis, Ben Tavassoli, Jeff Hephner
Distributor: IFC Films
Veteran TV director Joe Chappelle had the idea...
- 1/17/2019
- by Brian Brooks
- Deadline Film + TV
A film memoir of former Soviet Union leader Mikhail Gorbachev featuring exclusive interviews has had its North American rights acquired by distributor The Orchard from History Films.
Meeting Gorbachev is a documentary directed by Werner Herzog and André Singer for Spring Films and Werner Herzog Film. The behind-the-scenes look at the eighth and last leader of the Soviet Union features interviews of Gorbachev by Herzog on three occasions across a six-month period, capturing a unique look at a politician who changed the world.
“Meeting Gorbachev is an enthralling look back at a fascinating leader and diplomat, all the more impactful based on what the world looks like today,” said Paul Davidson, The Orchard’s Evp film and television. “Werner and Andre’s own sensibilities make the film engaging and personal in a way no other filmmakers could.”
The documentary is produced by Lucki Stipetic and Svetlana Palmer. The executive producers...
Meeting Gorbachev is a documentary directed by Werner Herzog and André Singer for Spring Films and Werner Herzog Film. The behind-the-scenes look at the eighth and last leader of the Soviet Union features interviews of Gorbachev by Herzog on three occasions across a six-month period, capturing a unique look at a politician who changed the world.
“Meeting Gorbachev is an enthralling look back at a fascinating leader and diplomat, all the more impactful based on what the world looks like today,” said Paul Davidson, The Orchard’s Evp film and television. “Werner and Andre’s own sensibilities make the film engaging and personal in a way no other filmmakers could.”
The documentary is produced by Lucki Stipetic and Svetlana Palmer. The executive producers...
- 12/8/2018
- by Bruce Haring
- Deadline Film + TV
The following essay was produced as part of the 2018 Nyff Critics Academy, a workshop for aspiring film critics that took place during the 56th edition of the New York Film Festival.
The appeal of a film like “American Dharma,” Errol Morris’s new documentary on Steve Bannon is obvious in many ways. Aside from the valid (if excusatory) arguments some may have against subjecting themselves to a film about one of the figures responsible for making the alt-right palatably mainstream — aren’t things depressing enough!? — we are still bound by an irrefutable desire to see notorious and nefarious people flounder on screen. It taps into a voyeuristic thrill; a deeply human intrigue with the morbid. It is one thing to speak of this in relation to fiction film, but it becomes far more complex in documentary cinema,a mode inextricably enmeshed with questions of ethics and veracity, and burdened by...
The appeal of a film like “American Dharma,” Errol Morris’s new documentary on Steve Bannon is obvious in many ways. Aside from the valid (if excusatory) arguments some may have against subjecting themselves to a film about one of the figures responsible for making the alt-right palatably mainstream — aren’t things depressing enough!? — we are still bound by an irrefutable desire to see notorious and nefarious people flounder on screen. It taps into a voyeuristic thrill; a deeply human intrigue with the morbid. It is one thing to speak of this in relation to fiction film, but it becomes far more complex in documentary cinema,a mode inextricably enmeshed with questions of ethics and veracity, and burdened by...
- 11/11/2018
- by Naomi Keenan O'Shea
- Indiewire
It’s impossible to separate American Dharma, the latest film from legendary documentary filmmaker Errol Morris, from the controversy surrounding its subject. Steve Bannon—former Trump campaign/administration advisor and guru of the so-dubbed “alt-right” movement with his former far-right propaganda news site Breitbart that he helped popularize alongside the late Andrew Breitbart—recently found himself “pulled from” the New Yorker festival of “ideas” when people fairly questioned the point of giving his “ideas” a platform. The broad strokes of his rhetoric are saving America’s economy and bringing about jobs through racist dog-whistle nationalism, disrupting the elite class of bureaucratic politicians, and even more unregulated trickledown economics—a policy a lot of Democratic and Republican elites already agree with him on (remember that “tax bill”?) despite the evidence that it is responsible for creating more wealth inequality than ever.
Which is why going into Errol Morris’ third installment of...
Which is why going into Errol Morris’ third installment of...
- 9/14/2018
- by The Film Stage
- The Film Stage
Before you start whingeing on about why the acclaimed documentarian Errol Morris decided to give the evil Steve Bannon a soapbox as the subject of Morris’ new documentary, hold on.
“American Dharma” is a great example of why more speech is better, as a rule. And why letting even demagogues – and sometimes especially demagogues – explain themselves and face critical questioning is a revealing process.
In this instance, Bannon exposes himself in the film as a man with nothing much to offer in the way of ideology. He’s got confidence in spades and cynicism to spare, all in the pursuit of destroying the establishment and its institutions.
Also Read: Toronto So Far: 'First Man' and 'A Star Is Born' Lead a Crop of Films With Heart and Dazzle
But under even the most gentle questioning from Morris he is revealed to have no plan as to...
“American Dharma” is a great example of why more speech is better, as a rule. And why letting even demagogues – and sometimes especially demagogues – explain themselves and face critical questioning is a revealing process.
In this instance, Bannon exposes himself in the film as a man with nothing much to offer in the way of ideology. He’s got confidence in spades and cynicism to spare, all in the pursuit of destroying the establishment and its institutions.
Also Read: Toronto So Far: 'First Man' and 'A Star Is Born' Lead a Crop of Films With Heart and Dazzle
But under even the most gentle questioning from Morris he is revealed to have no plan as to...
- 9/11/2018
- by Sharon Waxman
- The Wrap
Ok, there’s no easy way to say this, but watching an interview with Steve Bannon is not pleasant viewing. I know, shocking right? But the hope for Errol Morris’s film was that Bannon would get a skewering. Morris brought us the doc about Robert McNamara and the Cuban Missile Crisis, The Fog of War (a film which Bannon saw as inspirational for his own politics) and the brilliant The Unknown Known (which also made its debut in Venice in 2013) in which Donald Rumsfeld takes a pasting.
So does Morris lure Bannon into making any telling revelations or skewering himself? The answer is a resounding no. Bannon, often mocked by the liberal left as a shambolic bully who looks like a homeless drunk, comes across in this film as a highly intelligent, articulate and enormously capable man in pretty much any field he has worked in, most notably at...
So does Morris lure Bannon into making any telling revelations or skewering himself? The answer is a resounding no. Bannon, often mocked by the liberal left as a shambolic bully who looks like a homeless drunk, comes across in this film as a highly intelligent, articulate and enormously capable man in pretty much any field he has worked in, most notably at...
- 9/6/2018
- by Jo-Ann Titmarsh
- HeyUGuys.co.uk
If you walked into “American Dharma,” Errol Morris’s documentary about Stephen K. Bannon, knowing nothing about Donald Trump’s former adviser, you’d probably find him to be a fascinating, compelling, and at times even charming figure. If that sounds like a swipe against the movie, it is.
This is one of those drill-bit solo interview films in which Morris, in theory, adopts a stance that’s adversarial and exploratory as he grills world-shaking power players like Robert S. McNamara (“The Fog of War”) or Donald Rumsfeld (“The Unknown Known”). In this case, though, Morris abandons his trademark Interrotron camera, the contraption that locked his previous subjects into a vise-like gaze meant to reveal their every brain flicker of ego and doubt. “American Dharma” was shot in what looks like a military airplane hangar, where the 64-year-old Bannon, wearing a modified Army jacket (remember when rebel kids in the ’70s sported those?...
This is one of those drill-bit solo interview films in which Morris, in theory, adopts a stance that’s adversarial and exploratory as he grills world-shaking power players like Robert S. McNamara (“The Fog of War”) or Donald Rumsfeld (“The Unknown Known”). In this case, though, Morris abandons his trademark Interrotron camera, the contraption that locked his previous subjects into a vise-like gaze meant to reveal their every brain flicker of ego and doubt. “American Dharma” was shot in what looks like a military airplane hangar, where the 64-year-old Bannon, wearing a modified Army jacket (remember when rebel kids in the ’70s sported those?...
- 9/5/2018
- by Owen Gleiberman
- Variety Film + TV
After being dropped as a participant by The New Yorker Festival former top Trump advisor Steve Bannon is expected tomorrow on the Venice Film Festival’s red carpet for the world premiere of “American Dharma,” the documentary about him directed by Errol Morris.
Bannon, who will not be doing press at the festival, is currently in Venice and is expected to attend the gala screening of the doc on the Lido tomorrow. The festival has confirmed that Bannon will probably attend the premiere, but not as part of its official delegation.
There was never a plan for Bannon to attend the press conference, according to the doc’s publicist.
“American Dharma,” which is launching from Venice out-of-competition, stems from a sit-down between the alt-right maven and Morris who previously turned his cameras on such controversial figures as Donald Rumsfeld (“The Unknown Known”) and Robert McNamara (“The Fog of War”).
The 95-minute doc,...
Bannon, who will not be doing press at the festival, is currently in Venice and is expected to attend the gala screening of the doc on the Lido tomorrow. The festival has confirmed that Bannon will probably attend the premiere, but not as part of its official delegation.
There was never a plan for Bannon to attend the press conference, according to the doc’s publicist.
“American Dharma,” which is launching from Venice out-of-competition, stems from a sit-down between the alt-right maven and Morris who previously turned his cameras on such controversial figures as Donald Rumsfeld (“The Unknown Known”) and Robert McNamara (“The Fog of War”).
The 95-minute doc,...
- 9/4/2018
- by Nick Vivarelli
- Variety Film + TV
The Venice Film Festival kicks off one of its most star-studded editions Wednesday with Ryan Gosling, Lady Gaga, Emma Stone and Joaquin Phoenix among the top talent expected to descend on the red carpet, as the Lido boosts its status as an awards season king-maker.
The 75th edition of the world’s oldest film festival is top-heavy with a slew of awards hopefuls, starting with the opener, Damien Chazelle’s space epic “First Man,” in which Gosling plays astronaut Neil Armstrong. The movie’s press screening prompted positive reactions, both on the Lido and on Twitter where, besides Gosling’s performance, praise was being lavished on Claire Foy’s portrayal of Armstrong’s wife, Janet Shearon. But critics have yet to weigh in, abiding by the festival’s new embargo on reviews until a film’s public screening takes place.
Gosling and Chazelle were cheered when they arrived for the film’s press conference,...
The 75th edition of the world’s oldest film festival is top-heavy with a slew of awards hopefuls, starting with the opener, Damien Chazelle’s space epic “First Man,” in which Gosling plays astronaut Neil Armstrong. The movie’s press screening prompted positive reactions, both on the Lido and on Twitter where, besides Gosling’s performance, praise was being lavished on Claire Foy’s portrayal of Armstrong’s wife, Janet Shearon. But critics have yet to weigh in, abiding by the festival’s new embargo on reviews until a film’s public screening takes place.
Gosling and Chazelle were cheered when they arrived for the film’s press conference,...
- 8/29/2018
- by Nick Vivarelli
- Variety Film + TV
Errol Morris’ look at Steve Bannon, Alexis Bloom’s dissection of Roger Ailes, and James Longley’s unflinching portrait of life in war-torn Afghanistan are just a few of the politically charged documentaries that will screen as part of this year’s New York Film Festival.
The annual gathering for cinephiles and Oscar hopefuls has unveiled the complete lineup for its Spotlight on Documentary section, and it’s filled with some of the biggest names in non-fiction filmmaking. These directors are turning their cameras not just on agitprop masters and geopolitical hotspots, they’re also highlighting artistic giants, social justice champions, and off-beat fashion photographers.
The festival, which is presented by the Film Society of Lincoln Center, appears to be leaning into the polarized present. The selections include “Divide and Conquer: The Story of Roger Ailes,” which is directed by Bloom, the filmmaker behind “Bright Lights;” “The Waldheim Waltz,” director...
The annual gathering for cinephiles and Oscar hopefuls has unveiled the complete lineup for its Spotlight on Documentary section, and it’s filled with some of the biggest names in non-fiction filmmaking. These directors are turning their cameras not just on agitprop masters and geopolitical hotspots, they’re also highlighting artistic giants, social justice champions, and off-beat fashion photographers.
The festival, which is presented by the Film Society of Lincoln Center, appears to be leaning into the polarized present. The selections include “Divide and Conquer: The Story of Roger Ailes,” which is directed by Bloom, the filmmaker behind “Bright Lights;” “The Waldheim Waltz,” director...
- 8/22/2018
- by Brent Lang
- Variety Film + TV
The Unknown Known would have been an ideal title for Errol Morris’ epic exploration of the thicket of sinister politics that infects his new work but, unfortunately, it was already used — by Morris himself for his 2013 documentary about Donald Rumsfeld. As it is, Wormwood carries insidious connotations dating back to the Hebrew Bible, as the title pertains to a curse and bitter eventualities. This import more than applies to the obsessive odyssey pursued by the son of an army scientist to get to the bottom of the older man’s death, which is he convinced came at the hands...
- 9/7/2017
- by Todd McCarthy
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Errol Morris has built a career around eccentric real-life figures, from pet cemetery managers to executioners, but in recent years his track record has been spotty. His portrait of photographer Elsa Dorfman (“The B-Side”) and a two-hour interrogation session with Donald Rumsfeld (“The Unknown Known”) weren’t duds so much as routine efforts from a filmmaker who excels at peculiar investigations into the whims of human behavior. As if making up for missed time, Morris pairs one of his best subjects in years with his most ambitious work to date, “Wormwood,” a six-part Netflix miniseries that screened in its entirety at the Telluride Film Festival in advance of its December premiere on the platform.
While much of Morris’ sensibilities comes through in this sprawling tale of government cover-ups and idiosyncratic loners, it’s also a radical break from the dense, interview-driven approach that has distinguished his movies for decades. Gone is the patented Interrotron,...
While much of Morris’ sensibilities comes through in this sprawling tale of government cover-ups and idiosyncratic loners, it’s also a radical break from the dense, interview-driven approach that has distinguished his movies for decades. Gone is the patented Interrotron,...
- 9/3/2017
- by Eric Kohn
- Indiewire
The master of absurd and idiosyncratic documentaries, Errol Morris said of his first film that, “to love the absurdity of people is not to ridicule them but to embrace on some level how desperate life is for each and every one of us.” All 11 of his documentaries ranked here, including his latest “The B-Side” out today, are challenging and hilarious films that have shaped fiction and non-fiction movies alike. 11. “The Unknown Known” (2013) With “The Unknown Known,” Morris goes down the same rabbit hole as in “The Fog of War,” but he has to contend with Donald Rumsfeld’s elliptical, oxymoronic reasoning.
- 6/30/2017
- by Brian Welk
- The Wrap
Documentary film often hopes to spark some passion in not only its audience but also its subjects. Whether it’s The Look Of Silence’s remorseless murderers being grilled by their old victim or Errol Morris’ multiple efforts to provoke new intellectual or emotional realizations in his man-alone character studies, there’s often an opportunity for reflection on the part of those whose lives are being analyzed. It doesn’t always happen (in the case of Morris’ The Unknown Known, about Donald Rumsfeld, it really didn’t happen), and it’s far from necessary. But it’s an appealing thought for directors, that they might end their feature-length investigations with some tangible evidence that the subject landed in a different place than where they began, the better to match the hoped-for journey of the viewer.
Unfortunately, you can’t force such a moment, and that’s where Charlie Siskel’s...
Unfortunately, you can’t force such a moment, and that’s where Charlie Siskel’s...
- 3/23/2017
- by Alex McLevy
- avclub.com
No one will forget the Best Picture award ceremony at the 2017 Academy Awards, but there’s a detail lost in the shock and recriminations: It was the moment that announced A24 as an industry gamechanger. Five years after the distributor supported unorthodox indies like Harmony Korine’s “Spring Breakers” and Jonathan Glazer’s “Under The Skin,” A24 saw its $1.5 million poetic drama “Moonlight” pull off a surprise best-picture win — one that led to a stunning $2.5 million box-office take in the film’s 20th week of release.
In less than five years, A24 has galvanized a young cinephile audience that seemed so elusive, some doubted its existence. A24 certainly wasn’t the first to identify this demo; predecessors such as Magnolia, RADiUS, and Oscilloscope saw the same potential, and created some of the marketing tactics that now have become playbook. However, A24 had the advantage of a business strategy, and backing,...
In less than five years, A24 has galvanized a young cinephile audience that seemed so elusive, some doubted its existence. A24 certainly wasn’t the first to identify this demo; predecessors such as Magnolia, RADiUS, and Oscilloscope saw the same potential, and created some of the marketing tactics that now have become playbook. However, A24 had the advantage of a business strategy, and backing,...
- 3/8/2017
- by Eric Kohn
- Indiewire
The Academy will announce its list of Oscar-eligible documentaries this week, a field that counted just 82 entries in 2005; last year, there were 124. And along with this growth comes a new attribute for the much-admired/often ignored genre: Power.
Under Sheila Nevins, HBO led the way in showing how documentaries could draw audiences with nonfiction programming that’s skillful, dynamic, and relevant. Under Lisa Nishimura, Netflix upped the ante with deep-pocketed algorithms that not only proved audiences craved this content (after all, documentaries are the original reality TV), but also guided exactly where those viewers could be found, and what they wanted to see. And while social justice has always been the bailiwick of documentary filmmakers, Diane Weyermann at Participant has given that niche the financing and clout it deserves.
While their business models differ, they’re all producing documentaries that might not otherwise exist, making them better and getting them seen.
Under Sheila Nevins, HBO led the way in showing how documentaries could draw audiences with nonfiction programming that’s skillful, dynamic, and relevant. Under Lisa Nishimura, Netflix upped the ante with deep-pocketed algorithms that not only proved audiences craved this content (after all, documentaries are the original reality TV), but also guided exactly where those viewers could be found, and what they wanted to see. And while social justice has always been the bailiwick of documentary filmmakers, Diane Weyermann at Participant has given that niche the financing and clout it deserves.
While their business models differ, they’re all producing documentaries that might not otherwise exist, making them better and getting them seen.
- 10/24/2016
- by Anne Thompson
- Thompson on Hollywood
The Academy will announce its list of Oscar-eligible documentaries this week, a field that counted just 82 entries in 2005; last year, there were 124. And along with this growth comes a new attribute for the much-admired/often ignored genre: Power.
Under Sheila Nevins, HBO led the way in showing how documentaries could draw audiences with nonfiction programming that’s skillful, dynamic, and relevant. Under Lisa Nishimura, Netflix upped the ante with deep-pocketed algorithms that not only proved audiences craved this content (after all, documentaries are the original reality TV), but also guided exactly where those viewers could be found, and what they wanted to see. And while social justice has always been the balliwick of documentary filmmakers, Diane Weyermann at Participant has given that niche the financing and clout it deserves.
While their business models differ, they’re all producing documentaries that might not otherwise exist, making them better and getting them seen.
Under Sheila Nevins, HBO led the way in showing how documentaries could draw audiences with nonfiction programming that’s skillful, dynamic, and relevant. Under Lisa Nishimura, Netflix upped the ante with deep-pocketed algorithms that not only proved audiences craved this content (after all, documentaries are the original reality TV), but also guided exactly where those viewers could be found, and what they wanted to see. And while social justice has always been the balliwick of documentary filmmakers, Diane Weyermann at Participant has given that niche the financing and clout it deserves.
While their business models differ, they’re all producing documentaries that might not otherwise exist, making them better and getting them seen.
- 10/24/2016
- by Anne Thompson
- Indiewire
4 Reasons Distributors Should Buy Errol Morris Gem ‘The B-Side: Elsa Dorfman’s Portrait Photography’
Errol Morris is best known as an influential and Oscar-winning documentary filmmaker (“The Fog of War”), but he’s also a master of the short form who commands big bucks shooting commercials and episodic television. Then there’s the New York Times op-docs and essays, his many deep dives into photography and the bestsellers such as “Believing is Seeing: Observations on the Mysteries of Photography” and “A Wilderness of Error: The Trials of Jeffrey MacDonald.” However, none of this prepared me for his latest gem of a film,”The B-Side: Elsa Dorfman’s Portrait Photography,” a gentle exploration of a woman who’s also one of Morris’ best friends.
Read More: New York Film Festival Announces 2016 Documentary Lineup, Including New Films by Errol Morris and Steve James
Dorfman started out photographing the Beats in the early ’60s and became friends with poet Allen Ginsberg, who she shot many times over the decades.
Read More: New York Film Festival Announces 2016 Documentary Lineup, Including New Films by Errol Morris and Steve James
Dorfman started out photographing the Beats in the early ’60s and became friends with poet Allen Ginsberg, who she shot many times over the decades.
- 9/29/2016
- by Anne Thompson
- Thompson on Hollywood
4 Reasons Distributors Should Buy Errol Morris Gem ‘The B-Side: Elsa Dorfman’s Portrait Photography’
Errol Morris is best known as an influential and Oscar-winning documentary filmmaker (“The Fog of War”), but he’s also a master of the short form who commands big bucks shooting commercials and episodic television. Then there’s the New York Times op-docs and essays, his many deep dives into photography and the bestsellers such as “Believing is Seeing: Observations on the Mysteries of Photography” and “A Wilderness of Error: The Trials of Jeffrey MacDonald.” However, none of this prepared me for his latest gem of a film,”The B-Side: Elsa Dorfman’s Portrait Photography,” a gentle exploration of a woman who’s also one of Morris’ best friends.
Read More: New York Film Festival Announces 2016 Documentary Lineup, Including New Films by Errol Morris and Steve James
Dorfman started out photographing the Beats in the early ’60s and became friends with poet Allen Ginsberg, who she shot many times over the decades.
Read More: New York Film Festival Announces 2016 Documentary Lineup, Including New Films by Errol Morris and Steve James
Dorfman started out photographing the Beats in the early ’60s and became friends with poet Allen Ginsberg, who she shot many times over the decades.
- 9/29/2016
- by Anne Thompson
- Indiewire
Park Chan-wook also added to line-up; latest Lav Diaz and Errol Morris features join festival programme.
This year’s BFI London Film Festival (Oct 5-16) has bolstered its Screen Talk line-up and added two titles to its film programme.
Nicole Kidman and Dev Patel - who star in Lion, playing as the American Express Gala at this year’s festival - will join Lff director Clare Stewart to jointly discuss their careers as part of this year’s Screen Talk series.
South Korean auteur Park Chan-wook, whose latest feature The Handmaiden plays at Lff following its premiere in competition at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, has also been added to the discussion programme, joining a line-up that already boasts film-makers Werner Herzog, Paul Verhoeven and Ben Wheatley.
The festival has made two additions to this year’s film programme: Lav Diaz’s The Woman Who Left has been added to the festival’s Journey strand, while...
This year’s BFI London Film Festival (Oct 5-16) has bolstered its Screen Talk line-up and added two titles to its film programme.
Nicole Kidman and Dev Patel - who star in Lion, playing as the American Express Gala at this year’s festival - will join Lff director Clare Stewart to jointly discuss their careers as part of this year’s Screen Talk series.
South Korean auteur Park Chan-wook, whose latest feature The Handmaiden plays at Lff following its premiere in competition at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, has also been added to the discussion programme, joining a line-up that already boasts film-makers Werner Herzog, Paul Verhoeven and Ben Wheatley.
The festival has made two additions to this year’s film programme: Lav Diaz’s The Woman Who Left has been added to the festival’s Journey strand, while...
- 9/22/2016
- by tom.grater@screendaily.com (Tom Grater)
- ScreenDaily
This current trend of true crime, both in fictional and documentary form, shows no signs in letting up in Netflix’s latest outstanding film, Amanda Knox. Of all the massively popular examples of this genre, most notably the podcast Serial and Netflix’s series Making a Murderer, this movie is the most aware of its place within this cultural landscape, and therefore takes on a perspective that is as much about the murder case itself as it is about the media circus that surrounded it, calling into question the audience that hungers for sensational stories as enablers of the types of injustice that occurred here.
We’re introduced to the subject, Amanda Knox herself, right away through narration that seems scripted (it might not be for all I know), in which she states plainly what has become the tagline for Netflix’s promotional campaign: “Either I’m a psychopath in sheep’s clothing,...
We’re introduced to the subject, Amanda Knox herself, right away through narration that seems scripted (it might not be for all I know), in which she states plainly what has become the tagline for Netflix’s promotional campaign: “Either I’m a psychopath in sheep’s clothing,...
- 9/17/2016
- by Darren Ruecker
- We Got This Covered
Totally and tragically unconventional, Peggy Guggenheim moved through the cultural upheaval of the 20th century collecting not only not only art, but artists. Her sexual life was -- and still today is -- more discussed than the art itself which she collected, not for her own consumption but for the world to enjoy.
Her colorful personal history included such figures as Samuel Beckett, Max Ernst, Jackson Pollock, Alexander Calder, Marcel Duchamp and countless others. Guggenheim helped introduce the world to Pollock, Motherwell, Rothko and scores of others now recognized as key masters of modernism.
In 1921 she moved to Paris and mingled with Picasso, Dali, Joyce, Pound, Stein, Leger, Kandinsky. In 1938 she opened a gallery in London and began showing Cocteau, Tanguy, Magritte, Miro, Brancusi, etc., and then back to Paris and New York after the Nazi invasion, followed by the opening of her NYC gallery Art of This Century, which became one of the premiere avant-garde spaces in the U.S. While fighting through personal tragedy, she maintained her vision to build one of the most important collections of modern art, now enshrined in her Venetian palazzo where she moved in 1947. Since 1951, her collection has become one of the world’s most visited art spaces.
Featuring: Jean Dubuffet, Marcel Duchamp, Max Ernst, Alberto Giacometti, Arshile Gorky, Vasil Kandinsky, Paul Klee, Willem de Kooning, Fernand Leger, Rene Magritte, Man Ray, Jean Miro, Piet Mondrian, Henry Moore, Robert Motherwell, Pablo Picasso, Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko, Kurt Schwitters, Gino Severini, Clyfford Still and Yves Tanguy.
Lisa Immordino Vreeland (Director and Producer)
Lisa Immordino Vreeland has been immersed in the world of fashion and art for the past 25 years. She started her career in fashion as the Director of Public Relations for Polo Ralph Lauren in Italy and quickly moved on to launch two fashion companies, Pratico, a sportswear line for women, and Mago, a cashmere knitwear collection of her own design. Her first book was accompanied by her directorial debut of the documentary of the same name, "Diana Vreeland: The Eye Has To Travel" (2012). The film about the editor of Harper's Bazaar had its European premiere at the Venice Film Festival and its North American premiere at the Telluride Film Festival, going on to win the Silver Hugo at the Chicago Film Festival and the fashion category for the Design of the Year awards, otherwise known as “The Oscars” of design—at the Design Museum in London.
"Peggy Guggenheim: Art Addict" is Lisa Immordino Vreeland's followup to her acclaimed debut, "Diana Vreeland: The Eye Has to Travel". She is now working on her third doc on Cecil Beaton who Lisa says, "has been circling around all these stories. What's great about him is the creativity: fashion photography, war photography, "My Fair Lady" winning an Oscar."
Sydney Levine: I have read numerous accounts and interviews with you about this film and rather than repeat all that has been said, I refer my readers to Indiewire's Women and Hollywood interview at Tribeca this year, and your Indiewire interview with Aubrey Page, November 6, 2015 .
Let's try to cover new territory here.
First of all, what about you? What is your relationship to Diana Vreeland?
Liv: I am married to her grandson, Alexander Vreeland. (I'm also proud of my name Immordino) I never met Diana but hearing so many family stories about her made me start to wonder about all the talk about her. I worked in fashion and lived in New York like she did.
Sl: In one of your interviews you said that Peggy was not only ahead of her time but she helped to define it. Can you tell me how?
Liv: Peggy grew up in a very traditional family of German Bavarian Jews who had moved to New York City in the 19th century. Already at a young age Peggy felt like there were too many rules around her and she wanted to break out. That alone was something attractive to me — the notion that she knew that she didn't fit in to her family or her times. She lived on her own terms, a very modern approach to life. She decided to abandon her family in New York. Though she always stayed connected to them, she rarely visited New York. Instead she lived in a world without borders. She did not live by "the rules". She believed in creating art and created herself, living on her own terms and not on those of her family.
Sl: Is there a link between her and your previous doc on Diana Vreeland?
Liv: The link between Vreeland and Guggenheim is their mutual sense of reinvention and transformation. That made something click inside of me as I too reinvented myself when I began writing the book on Diana Vreeland .
Can you talk about the process of putting this one together and how it differed from its predecessor?
Liv: The most challenging thing about this one was the vast amount of material we had at our disposal. We had a lot of media to go through — instead of fashion spreads, which informed The Eye Has To Travel, we had art, which was fantastic. I was spoiled by the access we had to these incredible archives and footage. I'm still new to this, but it's the storytelling aspect that I loved in both projects. One thing about Peggy that Mrs. Vreeland didn't have was a very tragic personal life. There was so much that happened in Peggy's life before you even got to what she actually accomplished. And so we had to tell a very dense story about her childhood, her father dying on the Titanic, her beloved sister dying — the tragic events that fundamentally shaped her in a way. It was about making sure we had enough of the personal story to go along with her later accomplishments.
World War II alone was such a huge part of her story, opening an important art gallery in London, where she showed Kandinsky and other important artists for the first time. The amount of material to distill was a tremendous challenge and I hope we made the right choices.
Sl: How did you learn make a documentary?
Liv: I learned how to make a documentary by having a good team around me. My editors (and co-writers)Bent-Jorgen Perlmutt and Frédéric Tcheng were very helpful.
Research is fundamental; finding as much as you can and never giving up. I love the research. It is my "precise time". Not just for interviews but of footage, photographs never seen before. It is a painstaking process that satisfies me. The research never ends. I was still researching while I was promoting the Diana Vreeland book. I love reading books and going to original sources.
The archives in film museums in the last ten years has changed and given museums a new role. I found unique footage at Moma with the Elizabeth Chapman Films. Chapman went to Paris in the 30s and 40s with a handheld camera and took moving pictures of Brancusi and Duchamps joking around in a studio, Gertrude Stein, Leger walking down the street. This footage is owned by Robert Storr, Dean of Yale School of Art. In fact he is taking a sabbatical this year to go through the boxes and boxes of Chapman's films. We also used " Entre'acte" by René Clair cowritten with Dadaist Francis Picabia, "Le Sang du poet" of Cocteau, Hans Richter "8x8","Gagascope" and " Dreams That Money Can Buy" produced by Peggy Guggenheim, written by Man Ray in 1947.
Sl: How long did it take to research and make the film?
Liv: It took three years for both the Vreeland and the Guggenheim documentary.
It was more difficult with the Guggenheim story because there was so much material and so much to tell of her life. And she was not so giving of her own self. Diana could inspire you about a bandaid; she was so giving. But Peggy didn't talk much about why she loved an artist or a painting. She acted more. And using historical material could become "over-teaching" though it was fascinating.
So much had to be eliminated. It was hard to eliminate the Degenerate Art Show, a subject which is newly discussed. Stephanie Barron of Lacma is an expert on Degenerate Art and was so generous.
Once we decided upon which aspects to focus on, then we could give focus to the interviews.
There were so many of her important shows we could not include. For instance there was a show on collages featuring William Baziotes , Jackson Pollack and Robert Motherwell which started a more modern collage trend in art. The 31 Women Art Show which we did include pushed forward another message which I think is important.
And so many different things have been written about Peggy — there were hundreds of articles written about her during her lifetime. She also kept beautiful scrapbooks of articles written about her, which are now in the archives of the Guggenheim Museum.
The Guggenheim foundation did not commission this documentary but they were very supportive and the film premiered there in New York in a wonderful celebration. They wanted to represent Peggy and her paintings properly. The paintings were secondary characters and all were carefully placed historically in a correct fashion.
Sl: You said in one interview Guggenheim became a central figure in the modern art movement?
Liv: Yes and she did it without ego. Sharing was always her purpose in collecting art. She was not out for herself. Before Peggy, the art world was very different. And today it is part of wealth management.
Other collectors had a different way with art. Isabelle Stewart Gardner bought art for her own personal consumption. The Gardner Museum came later. Gertrude Stein was sharing the vision of her brother when she began collecting art. The Coen sisters were not sharing.
Her benevolence ranged from giving Berenice Abbott the money to buy her first camera to keeping Pollock afloat during lean times.
Djuana Barnes, who had a 'Love Love Love Hate Hate Hate' relationship with Peggy wrote Nightwood in Peggy's country house in England.
She was in Paris to the last minute. She planned how to safeguard artwork from the Nazis during World War II. She was storing gasoline so she could escape. She lived on the Ile St. Louis with her art and moved the paintings out first to a children's boarding school and then to Marseilles where it was shipped out to New York City.
Her role in art was not taken seriously because of her very public love life which was described in very derogatory terms. There was more talk about her love life than about her collection of art.
Her autobiography, Out of This Century: Confessions of an Art Addict (1960) , was scandalous when it came out — and she didn't even use real names, she used pseudonyms for her numerous partners. Only after publication did she reveal the names of the men she slept with.
The fact that she spoke about her sexual life at all was the most outrageous aspect. She was opening herself up to ridicule, but she didn't care. Peggy was her own person and she felt good in her own skin. But it was definitely unconventional behavior. I think her sexual appetites revealed a lot about finding her own identity.
A lot of it was tied to the loss of her father, I think, in addition to her wanting to feel accepted. She was also very adventurous — look at the men she slept with. I mean, come on, they are amazing! Samuel Beckett, Yves Tanguy, Marcel Duchamp, and she married Max Ernst. I think it was really ballsy of her to have been so open about her sexuality; this was not something people did back then. So many people are bound by conventional rules but Peggy said no. She grabbed hold of life and she lived it on her own terms.
Sl: You also give Peggy credit for changing the way art was exhibited. Can you explain that?
Liv: One of her greatest achievements was her gallery space in New York City, Art of This Century, which was unlike anything the art world has seen before or since in the way that it shattered the boundaries of the gallery space that we've come to know today — the sterile white cube. She came to be a genius at displaying her collections...
She was smart with Art of the Century because she hired Frederick Kiesler as a designer of the gallery and once again surrounded herself with the right people, including Howard Putzler, who was already involved with her at Guggenheim Jeune in London. And she was hanging out with all the exiled Surrealists who were living in New York at the time, including her future husband, Max Ernst, who was the real star of that group of artists. With the help of these people, she started showing art in a completely different way that was both informal and approachable. In conventional museums and galleries, art was untouchable on the wall and inside frames. In Peggy's gallery, art stuck out from the walls; works weren't confined to frames. Kiesler designed special chairs you could sit in and browse canvases as you would texts in a library. Nothing like this had ever existed in New York before — even today there is nothing like it.
She made the gallery into an exciting place where the whole concept of space was transformed. In Venice, the gallery space was also her home. Today, for a variety of reasons, the home aspect of the collection is less emphasized, though you still get a strong sense of Peggy's home life there. She was bringing art to the public in a bold new way, which I think is a great idea. It's art for everybody, which is very much a part of today's dialogue except that fewer people can afford the outlandish museum entry fees.
Sl: What do you think made her so prescient and attuned ?
Liv: She was smart enough to ask Marcel Duchamp to be her advisor — so she was in tune, and very well connected. She was on the cutting edge of what was going on and I think a lot of this had to do with Peggy being open to the idea of what was new and outrageous. You have to have a certain personality for this; what her childhood had dictated was totally opposite from what she became in life, and being in the right place at the right time helped her maintain a cutting edge throughout her life.
Sl: The movie is framed around a lost interview with Peggy conducted late in her life. How did you acquire these tapes?
Liv: We optioned Jacqueline Bogard Weld’s book, Peggy : The Wayward Guggenheim, the only authorized biography of Peggy, which was published after she died. Jackie had spent two summers interviewing Peggy but at a certain point lost the tapes somewhere in her Park Avenue apartment. Jackie had so much access to Peggy, which was incredible, but it was also the access that she had to other people who had known Peggy — she interviewed over 200 people for her book. Jackie was incredibly generous, letting me go through all her original research except for the lost tapes.
We'd walk into different rooms in her apartment and I'd suggestively open a closet door and ask “Where do you think those tapes might be?" Then one day I asked if she had a basement, and she did. So I went through all these boxes down there, organizing her affairs. Then bingo, the tapes showed up in this shoebox.
It was the longest interview Peggy had ever done and it became the framework for our movie. There's nothing more powerful than when you have someone's real voice telling the story, and Jackie was especially good at asking provoking questions. You can tell it was hard for Peggy to answer a lot of them, because she wasn't someone who was especially expressive; she didn't have a lot of emotion. And this comes across in the movie, in the tone of her voice.
Sl: Larry Gagosian has one of the best descriptions of Peggy in the movie — "she was her own creation." Would you agree, and if so why?
Liv: She was very much her own creation. When he said that in the interview I had a huge smile on my face. In Peggy's case it stemmed from a real need to identify and understand herself. I'm not sure she achieved it but she completely recreated herself — she knew that she did not want to be what she was brought up to be. She tried being a mother, but that was not one of her strengths, so art became that place where she could find herself, and then transform herself.
Nobody believed in the artists she cultivated and supported — they were outsiders and she was an outsider in the world she was brought up in. So it's in this way that she became her own great invention. I hope that her humor comes across in the film because she was extremely amusing — this aspect really comes across in her autobiography.
Sl: Finally, what do you think is Peggy Guggenheim's most lasting legacy, beyond her incredible art collection?
Liv: Her courage, and the way she used it to find herself. She had this ballsiness that not many people had, especially women. In her own way she was a feminist and it's good for women and young girls today to see women who stepped outside the confines of a very traditional family and made something of her life. Peggy's life did not seem that dreamy until she attached herself to these artists. It was her ability to redefine herself in the end that truly summed her up.
About the Filmmakers
Stanley Buchtal is a producer and entrepreneur. His movies credits include "Hairspray", "Spanking the Monkey", "Up at the Villa", "Lou Reed Berlin", "Love Marilyn", "LennoNYC", "Bobby Fischer Against the World", "Herb & Dorothy", "Marina Abramovic: The Artist is Present"," Jean-Michel Basquiat: The Radiant Child", "Sketches of Frank Gehry", "Black White + Gray: a Portrait of Sam Wagstaff and Robert Mapplethorpe", among numerous others.
David Koh is an independent producer, distributor, sales agent, programmer and curator. He has been involved in the distribution, sale, production, and financing of over 200 films. He is currently a partner in the boutique label Submarine Entertainment with Josh and Dan Braun and is also partners with Stanley Buchthal and his Dakota Group Ltd where he co-manages a portfolio of over 50 projects a year (75% docs and 25% fiction). Previously he was a partner and founder of Arthouse Films a boutique distribution imprint and ran Chris Blackwell's (founder of Island Records & Island Pictures) film label, Palm Pictures. He has worked as a Producer for artist Nam June Paik and worked in the curatorial departments of Anthology Film Archives, MoMA, Mfa Boston, and the Guggenheim Museum. David has recently served as a Curator for Microsoft and has curated an ongoing film series and salon with Andre Balazs Properties and serves as a Curator for the exclusive Core Club in NYC.
David recently launched with his partners Submarine Deluxe, a distribution imprint; Torpedo Pictures, a low budget high concept label; and Nfp Submarine Doks, a German distribution imprint with Nfp Films. Recently and upcoming projects include "Yayoi Kusama: a Life in Polka Dots", "Burden: a Portrait of Artist Chris Burden", "Dior and I", "20 Feet From Stardom", "Muscle Shoals", "Marina Abramovic the Artist is Present", "Rats NYC", "Nas: Time Is Illmatic", "Blackfish", "Love Marilyn", "Chasing Ice", "Searching for Sugar Man", "Cutie and the Boxer"," Jean-Michel Basquiat: the Radiant Child", "Finding Vivian Maier", "The Wolfpack, "Meru", and "Station to Station".
Dan Braun is a producer, writer, art director and musician/composer based in NYC. He is the Co-President of and Co-Founder of Submarine, a NYC film sales and production company specializing in independent feature and documentary films. Titles include "Blackfish", "Finding Vivian Maier", "Muscle Shoals", "The Case Against 8", "Keep On Keepin’ On", "Winter’s Bone", "Nas: Time is Illmatic", "Dior and I" and Oscar winning docs "Man on Wire", "Searching for Sugarman", "20 Ft From Stardom" and "Citizenfour". He was Executive Producer on documentaries "Kill Your Idols", (which won Best NY Documentary at the Tribeca Film Festival 2004), "Blank City", "Sunshine Superman", the upcoming feature adaptations of "Batkid Begins" and "The Battered Bastards of Baseball" and the upcoming horror TV anthology "Creepy" to be directed by Chris Columbus.
He is a producer of the free jazz documentary "Fire Music", and the upcoming documentaries, "Burden" on artist Chris Burden and "Kusama: a Life in Polka Dots" on artist Yayoi Kusama. He is also a writer and consulting editor on Dark Horse Comic’s "Creepy" and "Eerie 9" comic book and archival series for which he won an Eisner Award for best archival comic book series in 2009.
He is a musician/composer whose compositions were featured in the films "I Melt With You" and "Jean-Michel Basquiat, The Radiant Child and is an award winning art director/creative director when he worked at Tbwa/Chiat/Day on the famous Absolut Vodka campaign.
John Northrup (Co-Producer) began his career in documentaries as a French translator for National Geographic: Explorer. He quickly moved into editing and producing, serving as the Associate Producer on "Diana Vreeland: The Eye Has To Travel" (2012), and editing and co-producing "Wilson In Situ" (2014), which tells the story of theatre legend Robert Wilson and his Watermill Center. Most recently, he oversaw the post-production of Jim Chambers’ "Onward Christian Soldier", a documentary about Olympic Bomber Eric Rudolph, and is shooting on Susanne Rostock’s "Another Night in the Free World", the follow-up to her award-winning "Sing Your Song" (2011).
Submarine Entertainment (Production Company) Submarine Entertainment is a hybrid sales, production, and distribution company based in N.Y. Recent and upcoming titles include "Citizenfour", "Finding Vivian Maier", "The Dog", "Visitors", "20 Feet from Stardom", "Searching for Sugar Man", "Muscle Shoals", "Blackfish", "Cutie and the Boxer", "The Summit", "The Unknown Known", "Love Marilyn", "Marina Abramovic the Artist is Present", "Chasing Ice", "Downtown 81 30th Anniversary Remastered", "Wild Style 30th Anniversary Remastered", "Good Ol Freda", "Some Velvet Morning", among numerous others. Submarine principals also represent Creepy and Eerie comic book library and are developing properties across film & TV platforms.
Submarine has also recently launched a domestic distribution imprint and label called Submarine Deluxe; a genre label called Torpedo Pictures; and a German imprint and label called Nfp Submarine Doks.
Bernadine Colish has edited a number of award-winning documentaries. "Herb and Dorothy" (2008), won Audience Awards at Silverdocs, Philadelphia and Hamptons Film Festivals, and "Body of War" (2007), was named Best Documentary by the National Board of Review. "A Touch of Greatness" (2004) aired on PBS Independent Lens and was nominated for an Emmy Award. Her career began at Maysles Films, where she worked with Charlotte Zwerin on such projects as "Thelonious Monk: Straight No Chaser", "Toru Takemitsu: Music for the Movies" and the PBS American Masters documentary, "Ella Fitzgerald: Something To Live For". Additional credits include "Bringing Tibet Home", "Band of Sisters", "Rise and Dream", "The Tiger Next Door", "The Buffalo War" and "Absolute Wilson".
Jed Parker (Editor) Jed Parker began his career in feature films before moving into documentaries through his work with the award-winning American Masters series. Credits include "Lou Reed: Rock and Roll Heart", "Annie Liebovitz: Life Through a Lens", and most recently "Jeff Bridges: The Dude Abides".
Other work includes two episodes of the PBS series "Make ‘Em Laugh", hosted by Billy Crystal, as well as a documentary on Met Curator Henry Geldzahler entitled "Who Gets to Call it Art"?
Credits
Director, Writer, Producer: Lisa Immordino Vreeland
Produced by Stanley Buchthal, David Koh and Dan Braun Stanley Buchthal (producer)
Maja Hoffmann (executive producer)
Josh Braun (executive producer)
Bob Benton (executive producer)
John Northrup (co-producer)
Bernadine Colish (editor)
Jed Parker (editor)
Peter Trilling (director of photography)
Bonnie Greenberg (executive music producer)
Music by J. Ralph
Original Song "Once Again" Written and Performed By J. Ralph
Interviews Featuring Artist Marina Abramović Jean Arp Dore Ashton Samuel Beckett Stephanie Barron Constantin Brâncuși Diego Cortez Alexander Calder Susan Davidson Joseph Cornell Robert De Niro Salvador Dalí Simon de Pury Willem de Kooning Jeffrey Deitch Marcel Duchamp Polly Devlin Max Ernst Larry Gagosian Alberto Giacometti Arne Glimcher Vasily Kandinsky Michael Govan Fernand Léger Nicky Haslam Joan Miró Pepe Karmel Piet Mondrian Donald Kuspit Robert Motherwell Dominique Lévy Jackson Pollock Carlo McCormick Mark Rothko Hans Ulrich Obrist Yves Tanguy Lisa Phillips Lindsay Pollock Francine Prose John Richardson Sandy Rower Mercedes Ruehl Jane Rylands Philip Rylands Calvin Tomkins Karole Vail Jacqueline Bograd Weld Edmund White
Running time: 97 minutes
U.S. distribution by Submarine Deluxe
International sales by Hanway...
Her colorful personal history included such figures as Samuel Beckett, Max Ernst, Jackson Pollock, Alexander Calder, Marcel Duchamp and countless others. Guggenheim helped introduce the world to Pollock, Motherwell, Rothko and scores of others now recognized as key masters of modernism.
In 1921 she moved to Paris and mingled with Picasso, Dali, Joyce, Pound, Stein, Leger, Kandinsky. In 1938 she opened a gallery in London and began showing Cocteau, Tanguy, Magritte, Miro, Brancusi, etc., and then back to Paris and New York after the Nazi invasion, followed by the opening of her NYC gallery Art of This Century, which became one of the premiere avant-garde spaces in the U.S. While fighting through personal tragedy, she maintained her vision to build one of the most important collections of modern art, now enshrined in her Venetian palazzo where she moved in 1947. Since 1951, her collection has become one of the world’s most visited art spaces.
Featuring: Jean Dubuffet, Marcel Duchamp, Max Ernst, Alberto Giacometti, Arshile Gorky, Vasil Kandinsky, Paul Klee, Willem de Kooning, Fernand Leger, Rene Magritte, Man Ray, Jean Miro, Piet Mondrian, Henry Moore, Robert Motherwell, Pablo Picasso, Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko, Kurt Schwitters, Gino Severini, Clyfford Still and Yves Tanguy.
Lisa Immordino Vreeland (Director and Producer)
Lisa Immordino Vreeland has been immersed in the world of fashion and art for the past 25 years. She started her career in fashion as the Director of Public Relations for Polo Ralph Lauren in Italy and quickly moved on to launch two fashion companies, Pratico, a sportswear line for women, and Mago, a cashmere knitwear collection of her own design. Her first book was accompanied by her directorial debut of the documentary of the same name, "Diana Vreeland: The Eye Has To Travel" (2012). The film about the editor of Harper's Bazaar had its European premiere at the Venice Film Festival and its North American premiere at the Telluride Film Festival, going on to win the Silver Hugo at the Chicago Film Festival and the fashion category for the Design of the Year awards, otherwise known as “The Oscars” of design—at the Design Museum in London.
"Peggy Guggenheim: Art Addict" is Lisa Immordino Vreeland's followup to her acclaimed debut, "Diana Vreeland: The Eye Has to Travel". She is now working on her third doc on Cecil Beaton who Lisa says, "has been circling around all these stories. What's great about him is the creativity: fashion photography, war photography, "My Fair Lady" winning an Oscar."
Sydney Levine: I have read numerous accounts and interviews with you about this film and rather than repeat all that has been said, I refer my readers to Indiewire's Women and Hollywood interview at Tribeca this year, and your Indiewire interview with Aubrey Page, November 6, 2015 .
Let's try to cover new territory here.
First of all, what about you? What is your relationship to Diana Vreeland?
Liv: I am married to her grandson, Alexander Vreeland. (I'm also proud of my name Immordino) I never met Diana but hearing so many family stories about her made me start to wonder about all the talk about her. I worked in fashion and lived in New York like she did.
Sl: In one of your interviews you said that Peggy was not only ahead of her time but she helped to define it. Can you tell me how?
Liv: Peggy grew up in a very traditional family of German Bavarian Jews who had moved to New York City in the 19th century. Already at a young age Peggy felt like there were too many rules around her and she wanted to break out. That alone was something attractive to me — the notion that she knew that she didn't fit in to her family or her times. She lived on her own terms, a very modern approach to life. She decided to abandon her family in New York. Though she always stayed connected to them, she rarely visited New York. Instead she lived in a world without borders. She did not live by "the rules". She believed in creating art and created herself, living on her own terms and not on those of her family.
Sl: Is there a link between her and your previous doc on Diana Vreeland?
Liv: The link between Vreeland and Guggenheim is their mutual sense of reinvention and transformation. That made something click inside of me as I too reinvented myself when I began writing the book on Diana Vreeland .
Can you talk about the process of putting this one together and how it differed from its predecessor?
Liv: The most challenging thing about this one was the vast amount of material we had at our disposal. We had a lot of media to go through — instead of fashion spreads, which informed The Eye Has To Travel, we had art, which was fantastic. I was spoiled by the access we had to these incredible archives and footage. I'm still new to this, but it's the storytelling aspect that I loved in both projects. One thing about Peggy that Mrs. Vreeland didn't have was a very tragic personal life. There was so much that happened in Peggy's life before you even got to what she actually accomplished. And so we had to tell a very dense story about her childhood, her father dying on the Titanic, her beloved sister dying — the tragic events that fundamentally shaped her in a way. It was about making sure we had enough of the personal story to go along with her later accomplishments.
World War II alone was such a huge part of her story, opening an important art gallery in London, where she showed Kandinsky and other important artists for the first time. The amount of material to distill was a tremendous challenge and I hope we made the right choices.
Sl: How did you learn make a documentary?
Liv: I learned how to make a documentary by having a good team around me. My editors (and co-writers)Bent-Jorgen Perlmutt and Frédéric Tcheng were very helpful.
Research is fundamental; finding as much as you can and never giving up. I love the research. It is my "precise time". Not just for interviews but of footage, photographs never seen before. It is a painstaking process that satisfies me. The research never ends. I was still researching while I was promoting the Diana Vreeland book. I love reading books and going to original sources.
The archives in film museums in the last ten years has changed and given museums a new role. I found unique footage at Moma with the Elizabeth Chapman Films. Chapman went to Paris in the 30s and 40s with a handheld camera and took moving pictures of Brancusi and Duchamps joking around in a studio, Gertrude Stein, Leger walking down the street. This footage is owned by Robert Storr, Dean of Yale School of Art. In fact he is taking a sabbatical this year to go through the boxes and boxes of Chapman's films. We also used " Entre'acte" by René Clair cowritten with Dadaist Francis Picabia, "Le Sang du poet" of Cocteau, Hans Richter "8x8","Gagascope" and " Dreams That Money Can Buy" produced by Peggy Guggenheim, written by Man Ray in 1947.
Sl: How long did it take to research and make the film?
Liv: It took three years for both the Vreeland and the Guggenheim documentary.
It was more difficult with the Guggenheim story because there was so much material and so much to tell of her life. And she was not so giving of her own self. Diana could inspire you about a bandaid; she was so giving. But Peggy didn't talk much about why she loved an artist or a painting. She acted more. And using historical material could become "over-teaching" though it was fascinating.
So much had to be eliminated. It was hard to eliminate the Degenerate Art Show, a subject which is newly discussed. Stephanie Barron of Lacma is an expert on Degenerate Art and was so generous.
Once we decided upon which aspects to focus on, then we could give focus to the interviews.
There were so many of her important shows we could not include. For instance there was a show on collages featuring William Baziotes , Jackson Pollack and Robert Motherwell which started a more modern collage trend in art. The 31 Women Art Show which we did include pushed forward another message which I think is important.
And so many different things have been written about Peggy — there were hundreds of articles written about her during her lifetime. She also kept beautiful scrapbooks of articles written about her, which are now in the archives of the Guggenheim Museum.
The Guggenheim foundation did not commission this documentary but they were very supportive and the film premiered there in New York in a wonderful celebration. They wanted to represent Peggy and her paintings properly. The paintings were secondary characters and all were carefully placed historically in a correct fashion.
Sl: You said in one interview Guggenheim became a central figure in the modern art movement?
Liv: Yes and she did it without ego. Sharing was always her purpose in collecting art. She was not out for herself. Before Peggy, the art world was very different. And today it is part of wealth management.
Other collectors had a different way with art. Isabelle Stewart Gardner bought art for her own personal consumption. The Gardner Museum came later. Gertrude Stein was sharing the vision of her brother when she began collecting art. The Coen sisters were not sharing.
Her benevolence ranged from giving Berenice Abbott the money to buy her first camera to keeping Pollock afloat during lean times.
Djuana Barnes, who had a 'Love Love Love Hate Hate Hate' relationship with Peggy wrote Nightwood in Peggy's country house in England.
She was in Paris to the last minute. She planned how to safeguard artwork from the Nazis during World War II. She was storing gasoline so she could escape. She lived on the Ile St. Louis with her art and moved the paintings out first to a children's boarding school and then to Marseilles where it was shipped out to New York City.
Her role in art was not taken seriously because of her very public love life which was described in very derogatory terms. There was more talk about her love life than about her collection of art.
Her autobiography, Out of This Century: Confessions of an Art Addict (1960) , was scandalous when it came out — and she didn't even use real names, she used pseudonyms for her numerous partners. Only after publication did she reveal the names of the men she slept with.
The fact that she spoke about her sexual life at all was the most outrageous aspect. She was opening herself up to ridicule, but she didn't care. Peggy was her own person and she felt good in her own skin. But it was definitely unconventional behavior. I think her sexual appetites revealed a lot about finding her own identity.
A lot of it was tied to the loss of her father, I think, in addition to her wanting to feel accepted. She was also very adventurous — look at the men she slept with. I mean, come on, they are amazing! Samuel Beckett, Yves Tanguy, Marcel Duchamp, and she married Max Ernst. I think it was really ballsy of her to have been so open about her sexuality; this was not something people did back then. So many people are bound by conventional rules but Peggy said no. She grabbed hold of life and she lived it on her own terms.
Sl: You also give Peggy credit for changing the way art was exhibited. Can you explain that?
Liv: One of her greatest achievements was her gallery space in New York City, Art of This Century, which was unlike anything the art world has seen before or since in the way that it shattered the boundaries of the gallery space that we've come to know today — the sterile white cube. She came to be a genius at displaying her collections...
She was smart with Art of the Century because she hired Frederick Kiesler as a designer of the gallery and once again surrounded herself with the right people, including Howard Putzler, who was already involved with her at Guggenheim Jeune in London. And she was hanging out with all the exiled Surrealists who were living in New York at the time, including her future husband, Max Ernst, who was the real star of that group of artists. With the help of these people, she started showing art in a completely different way that was both informal and approachable. In conventional museums and galleries, art was untouchable on the wall and inside frames. In Peggy's gallery, art stuck out from the walls; works weren't confined to frames. Kiesler designed special chairs you could sit in and browse canvases as you would texts in a library. Nothing like this had ever existed in New York before — even today there is nothing like it.
She made the gallery into an exciting place where the whole concept of space was transformed. In Venice, the gallery space was also her home. Today, for a variety of reasons, the home aspect of the collection is less emphasized, though you still get a strong sense of Peggy's home life there. She was bringing art to the public in a bold new way, which I think is a great idea. It's art for everybody, which is very much a part of today's dialogue except that fewer people can afford the outlandish museum entry fees.
Sl: What do you think made her so prescient and attuned ?
Liv: She was smart enough to ask Marcel Duchamp to be her advisor — so she was in tune, and very well connected. She was on the cutting edge of what was going on and I think a lot of this had to do with Peggy being open to the idea of what was new and outrageous. You have to have a certain personality for this; what her childhood had dictated was totally opposite from what she became in life, and being in the right place at the right time helped her maintain a cutting edge throughout her life.
Sl: The movie is framed around a lost interview with Peggy conducted late in her life. How did you acquire these tapes?
Liv: We optioned Jacqueline Bogard Weld’s book, Peggy : The Wayward Guggenheim, the only authorized biography of Peggy, which was published after she died. Jackie had spent two summers interviewing Peggy but at a certain point lost the tapes somewhere in her Park Avenue apartment. Jackie had so much access to Peggy, which was incredible, but it was also the access that she had to other people who had known Peggy — she interviewed over 200 people for her book. Jackie was incredibly generous, letting me go through all her original research except for the lost tapes.
We'd walk into different rooms in her apartment and I'd suggestively open a closet door and ask “Where do you think those tapes might be?" Then one day I asked if she had a basement, and she did. So I went through all these boxes down there, organizing her affairs. Then bingo, the tapes showed up in this shoebox.
It was the longest interview Peggy had ever done and it became the framework for our movie. There's nothing more powerful than when you have someone's real voice telling the story, and Jackie was especially good at asking provoking questions. You can tell it was hard for Peggy to answer a lot of them, because she wasn't someone who was especially expressive; she didn't have a lot of emotion. And this comes across in the movie, in the tone of her voice.
Sl: Larry Gagosian has one of the best descriptions of Peggy in the movie — "she was her own creation." Would you agree, and if so why?
Liv: She was very much her own creation. When he said that in the interview I had a huge smile on my face. In Peggy's case it stemmed from a real need to identify and understand herself. I'm not sure she achieved it but she completely recreated herself — she knew that she did not want to be what she was brought up to be. She tried being a mother, but that was not one of her strengths, so art became that place where she could find herself, and then transform herself.
Nobody believed in the artists she cultivated and supported — they were outsiders and she was an outsider in the world she was brought up in. So it's in this way that she became her own great invention. I hope that her humor comes across in the film because she was extremely amusing — this aspect really comes across in her autobiography.
Sl: Finally, what do you think is Peggy Guggenheim's most lasting legacy, beyond her incredible art collection?
Liv: Her courage, and the way she used it to find herself. She had this ballsiness that not many people had, especially women. In her own way she was a feminist and it's good for women and young girls today to see women who stepped outside the confines of a very traditional family and made something of her life. Peggy's life did not seem that dreamy until she attached herself to these artists. It was her ability to redefine herself in the end that truly summed her up.
About the Filmmakers
Stanley Buchtal is a producer and entrepreneur. His movies credits include "Hairspray", "Spanking the Monkey", "Up at the Villa", "Lou Reed Berlin", "Love Marilyn", "LennoNYC", "Bobby Fischer Against the World", "Herb & Dorothy", "Marina Abramovic: The Artist is Present"," Jean-Michel Basquiat: The Radiant Child", "Sketches of Frank Gehry", "Black White + Gray: a Portrait of Sam Wagstaff and Robert Mapplethorpe", among numerous others.
David Koh is an independent producer, distributor, sales agent, programmer and curator. He has been involved in the distribution, sale, production, and financing of over 200 films. He is currently a partner in the boutique label Submarine Entertainment with Josh and Dan Braun and is also partners with Stanley Buchthal and his Dakota Group Ltd where he co-manages a portfolio of over 50 projects a year (75% docs and 25% fiction). Previously he was a partner and founder of Arthouse Films a boutique distribution imprint and ran Chris Blackwell's (founder of Island Records & Island Pictures) film label, Palm Pictures. He has worked as a Producer for artist Nam June Paik and worked in the curatorial departments of Anthology Film Archives, MoMA, Mfa Boston, and the Guggenheim Museum. David has recently served as a Curator for Microsoft and has curated an ongoing film series and salon with Andre Balazs Properties and serves as a Curator for the exclusive Core Club in NYC.
David recently launched with his partners Submarine Deluxe, a distribution imprint; Torpedo Pictures, a low budget high concept label; and Nfp Submarine Doks, a German distribution imprint with Nfp Films. Recently and upcoming projects include "Yayoi Kusama: a Life in Polka Dots", "Burden: a Portrait of Artist Chris Burden", "Dior and I", "20 Feet From Stardom", "Muscle Shoals", "Marina Abramovic the Artist is Present", "Rats NYC", "Nas: Time Is Illmatic", "Blackfish", "Love Marilyn", "Chasing Ice", "Searching for Sugar Man", "Cutie and the Boxer"," Jean-Michel Basquiat: the Radiant Child", "Finding Vivian Maier", "The Wolfpack, "Meru", and "Station to Station".
Dan Braun is a producer, writer, art director and musician/composer based in NYC. He is the Co-President of and Co-Founder of Submarine, a NYC film sales and production company specializing in independent feature and documentary films. Titles include "Blackfish", "Finding Vivian Maier", "Muscle Shoals", "The Case Against 8", "Keep On Keepin’ On", "Winter’s Bone", "Nas: Time is Illmatic", "Dior and I" and Oscar winning docs "Man on Wire", "Searching for Sugarman", "20 Ft From Stardom" and "Citizenfour". He was Executive Producer on documentaries "Kill Your Idols", (which won Best NY Documentary at the Tribeca Film Festival 2004), "Blank City", "Sunshine Superman", the upcoming feature adaptations of "Batkid Begins" and "The Battered Bastards of Baseball" and the upcoming horror TV anthology "Creepy" to be directed by Chris Columbus.
He is a producer of the free jazz documentary "Fire Music", and the upcoming documentaries, "Burden" on artist Chris Burden and "Kusama: a Life in Polka Dots" on artist Yayoi Kusama. He is also a writer and consulting editor on Dark Horse Comic’s "Creepy" and "Eerie 9" comic book and archival series for which he won an Eisner Award for best archival comic book series in 2009.
He is a musician/composer whose compositions were featured in the films "I Melt With You" and "Jean-Michel Basquiat, The Radiant Child and is an award winning art director/creative director when he worked at Tbwa/Chiat/Day on the famous Absolut Vodka campaign.
John Northrup (Co-Producer) began his career in documentaries as a French translator for National Geographic: Explorer. He quickly moved into editing and producing, serving as the Associate Producer on "Diana Vreeland: The Eye Has To Travel" (2012), and editing and co-producing "Wilson In Situ" (2014), which tells the story of theatre legend Robert Wilson and his Watermill Center. Most recently, he oversaw the post-production of Jim Chambers’ "Onward Christian Soldier", a documentary about Olympic Bomber Eric Rudolph, and is shooting on Susanne Rostock’s "Another Night in the Free World", the follow-up to her award-winning "Sing Your Song" (2011).
Submarine Entertainment (Production Company) Submarine Entertainment is a hybrid sales, production, and distribution company based in N.Y. Recent and upcoming titles include "Citizenfour", "Finding Vivian Maier", "The Dog", "Visitors", "20 Feet from Stardom", "Searching for Sugar Man", "Muscle Shoals", "Blackfish", "Cutie and the Boxer", "The Summit", "The Unknown Known", "Love Marilyn", "Marina Abramovic the Artist is Present", "Chasing Ice", "Downtown 81 30th Anniversary Remastered", "Wild Style 30th Anniversary Remastered", "Good Ol Freda", "Some Velvet Morning", among numerous others. Submarine principals also represent Creepy and Eerie comic book library and are developing properties across film & TV platforms.
Submarine has also recently launched a domestic distribution imprint and label called Submarine Deluxe; a genre label called Torpedo Pictures; and a German imprint and label called Nfp Submarine Doks.
Bernadine Colish has edited a number of award-winning documentaries. "Herb and Dorothy" (2008), won Audience Awards at Silverdocs, Philadelphia and Hamptons Film Festivals, and "Body of War" (2007), was named Best Documentary by the National Board of Review. "A Touch of Greatness" (2004) aired on PBS Independent Lens and was nominated for an Emmy Award. Her career began at Maysles Films, where she worked with Charlotte Zwerin on such projects as "Thelonious Monk: Straight No Chaser", "Toru Takemitsu: Music for the Movies" and the PBS American Masters documentary, "Ella Fitzgerald: Something To Live For". Additional credits include "Bringing Tibet Home", "Band of Sisters", "Rise and Dream", "The Tiger Next Door", "The Buffalo War" and "Absolute Wilson".
Jed Parker (Editor) Jed Parker began his career in feature films before moving into documentaries through his work with the award-winning American Masters series. Credits include "Lou Reed: Rock and Roll Heart", "Annie Liebovitz: Life Through a Lens", and most recently "Jeff Bridges: The Dude Abides".
Other work includes two episodes of the PBS series "Make ‘Em Laugh", hosted by Billy Crystal, as well as a documentary on Met Curator Henry Geldzahler entitled "Who Gets to Call it Art"?
Credits
Director, Writer, Producer: Lisa Immordino Vreeland
Produced by Stanley Buchthal, David Koh and Dan Braun Stanley Buchthal (producer)
Maja Hoffmann (executive producer)
Josh Braun (executive producer)
Bob Benton (executive producer)
John Northrup (co-producer)
Bernadine Colish (editor)
Jed Parker (editor)
Peter Trilling (director of photography)
Bonnie Greenberg (executive music producer)
Music by J. Ralph
Original Song "Once Again" Written and Performed By J. Ralph
Interviews Featuring Artist Marina Abramović Jean Arp Dore Ashton Samuel Beckett Stephanie Barron Constantin Brâncuși Diego Cortez Alexander Calder Susan Davidson Joseph Cornell Robert De Niro Salvador Dalí Simon de Pury Willem de Kooning Jeffrey Deitch Marcel Duchamp Polly Devlin Max Ernst Larry Gagosian Alberto Giacometti Arne Glimcher Vasily Kandinsky Michael Govan Fernand Léger Nicky Haslam Joan Miró Pepe Karmel Piet Mondrian Donald Kuspit Robert Motherwell Dominique Lévy Jackson Pollock Carlo McCormick Mark Rothko Hans Ulrich Obrist Yves Tanguy Lisa Phillips Lindsay Pollock Francine Prose John Richardson Sandy Rower Mercedes Ruehl Jane Rylands Philip Rylands Calvin Tomkins Karole Vail Jacqueline Bograd Weld Edmund White
Running time: 97 minutes
U.S. distribution by Submarine Deluxe
International sales by Hanway...
- 11/18/2015
- by Sydney Levine
- Sydney's Buzz
A look at the list of my favorite movies from 2014 reveals the presence of six extraordinary nonfiction films, and that’s just a taste of the seeming hundreds of docs released last year-- not all of them extraordinary, of course, but all of them indicative of a trend toward the making of the availability of more nonfiction filmmaking than it seems we’ve likely ever seen in this country. And speaking of availability, the six I listed—Ron Mann’s Altman, Joey Figueroa and Zak Knutson’s Milius, Orlando von Einsidel’s Virunga, Chaplain and Maclain Way’s The Battered Bastards of Baseball, Stephanie Spray and Pancho Velez’s Manakamana and Errol Morris’s The Unknown Known— were all pictures I caught courtesy of Netflix Streaming. (Virunga was actually produced under the company’s auspices.)
I have a special place in my cinematic heart for nonfiction, both bound between covers and on the screen,...
I have a special place in my cinematic heart for nonfiction, both bound between covers and on the screen,...
- 10/4/2015
- by Dennis Cozzalio
- Trailers from Hell
Read More: Interview: Errol Morris Talks His Criterion Releases, Why 'The Unknown Known' Is "Superior" To 'Fog Of War' & More The 2015 International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (Idfa) is partnering with documentary pioneer Errol Morris for this year's Top 10 and retrospective programs. The filmmaker behind "The Thin Blue Line" has selected 10 documentaries by prominent directors with a reputation for innovation within the documentary genre. The selection includes work by the likes of Chris Marker, Dziga Vertov, Frederick Wiseman and Kazuo Hara. On Friday, 20 November, Morris will elaborate on the choices in his Top 10 at a masterclass chaired by American film theoretician Bill Nichols. Morris' Top 10 program includes: "Bright Leaves" (USA, 2002) by Ross McElwee"Fata Morgana" (Germany, 1971) by Werner Herzog"It Felt Like a Kiss" (UK, 2009) by Adam Curtis"Land Without Bread" (Spain, 1932) by...
- 9/29/2015
- by Zack Sharf
- Indiewire
The festival will screen ten films picked by the Us filmmaker, who will also take part in a masterclass.
Errol Morris, the reverred documentary filmmaker, has revealed his top 10 programme for this year’s International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (Nov 18-29).
Each year, the festival invites an important figure in the world of documentary to compile a list of ten important works of factual film, all of which will be screened as part of the programme.
Morris’ selections include Werner Herzog’s surreal Fata Morgana, which is set in the Sahara Desert and features an exclusively Leonard Cohen soundtrack, and Dziga Vertov’s experimental early film Man With A Movie Camera.
Idfa will also show six of Morris’ films including his 1978 debut Gates of Heaven and his seminal investigative piece The Thin Blue Line.
Further screenings of his films will be: Fast Cheap And Out Of Control; Mr. Death: The Rise And Fall Of Fred A...
Errol Morris, the reverred documentary filmmaker, has revealed his top 10 programme for this year’s International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (Nov 18-29).
Each year, the festival invites an important figure in the world of documentary to compile a list of ten important works of factual film, all of which will be screened as part of the programme.
Morris’ selections include Werner Herzog’s surreal Fata Morgana, which is set in the Sahara Desert and features an exclusively Leonard Cohen soundtrack, and Dziga Vertov’s experimental early film Man With A Movie Camera.
Idfa will also show six of Morris’ films including his 1978 debut Gates of Heaven and his seminal investigative piece The Thin Blue Line.
Further screenings of his films will be: Fast Cheap And Out Of Control; Mr. Death: The Rise And Fall Of Fred A...
- 9/29/2015
- ScreenDaily
After haunting moviegoers this spring, the relentless entity in David Robert Mitchell's It Follows is going to make house calls this summer, as Anchor Bay Entertainment, RADiUS, and Dimension are releasing It Follows on Blu-ray and DVD on July 14th:
Press Release -- "Beverly Hills, Calif. – May 19, 2015 – The critically acclaimed breakout movie of the year, It Follows arrives on Blu-ray™ and DVD July 14th from Anchor Bay Entertainment, RADiUS and Dimension. Dubbed “the best horror film in over a decade”*, It Follows is directed by David Robert Mitchell (The Myth of the American Sleepover), and stars Maika Monroe (upcoming Independence Day 2, The Guest), Keir Gilchrist (It’s Kind of a Funny Story, “United States of Tara”), Daniel Zovatto (Beneath, Innocence, Laggies) and Jake Weary (Altitude, Fred).
One of the highest grossing independent films of the year so far, It Follows is credited with ushering in a new era of indie film success,...
Press Release -- "Beverly Hills, Calif. – May 19, 2015 – The critically acclaimed breakout movie of the year, It Follows arrives on Blu-ray™ and DVD July 14th from Anchor Bay Entertainment, RADiUS and Dimension. Dubbed “the best horror film in over a decade”*, It Follows is directed by David Robert Mitchell (The Myth of the American Sleepover), and stars Maika Monroe (upcoming Independence Day 2, The Guest), Keir Gilchrist (It’s Kind of a Funny Story, “United States of Tara”), Daniel Zovatto (Beneath, Innocence, Laggies) and Jake Weary (Altitude, Fred).
One of the highest grossing independent films of the year so far, It Follows is credited with ushering in a new era of indie film success,...
- 5/19/2015
- by Derek Anderson
- DailyDead
Round-Up: L.A. Slasher Theatrical Release Details, Monsters: Dark Continent Blu-ray, Helix Cancelled
In our latest round-up, we take a look at the theatrical release details for L.A. Slasher, Anchor Bay Entertainment's Blu-ray release of Monsters: Dark Continent, and the news of Helix being cancelled by Syfy.
L.A. Slasher: Press Release -- "Los Angeles, CA (April 27, 2015) - Archstone Distribution has announced that the horror-dark comedy feature L.A. Slasher, directed by Martin Owen and produced by Jeffrey Wright and Daniel Sollinger, will receive a North American theatrical release starting June 12 in select AMC Theatres.
“We are very excited to take L.A. Slasher to the silver screen," Archstone Distribution's President & CEO Brady Bowen stated. "It is a highly entertaining film with a unique voice that we know audiences are going to love!”
L.A. Slasher Producer Daniel Sollinger remarked, “My team and I are thrilled to be working with Archstone, as they have a steady track record for bringing high quality films to audiences worldwide.
L.A. Slasher: Press Release -- "Los Angeles, CA (April 27, 2015) - Archstone Distribution has announced that the horror-dark comedy feature L.A. Slasher, directed by Martin Owen and produced by Jeffrey Wright and Daniel Sollinger, will receive a North American theatrical release starting June 12 in select AMC Theatres.
“We are very excited to take L.A. Slasher to the silver screen," Archstone Distribution's President & CEO Brady Bowen stated. "It is a highly entertaining film with a unique voice that we know audiences are going to love!”
L.A. Slasher Producer Daniel Sollinger remarked, “My team and I are thrilled to be working with Archstone, as they have a steady track record for bringing high quality films to audiences worldwide.
- 4/30/2015
- by Derek Anderson
- DailyDead
We're less than two weeks away from the start of the Stanley Film Festival and it's been officially announced that Tom Quinn will be the recipient of their Visionary Award. We also have details on the festival's panels and jurors:
April 20, 2014 (Denver, Co) - The Stanley Film Festival (Sff) produced by the Denver Film Society (Dfs) and presented by Chiller, announced today it will honor Tom Quinn, co-president of RADiUS-twc as its 2015 Visionary Award Winner. Quinn is behind this year’s breakout horror title It Follows as well as other genre heavy hitters such as Snowpiercer, Blue Ruin and Only God Forgives. The Visionary award is given to a figure in contemporary horror who is making forward-thinking contributions that elevate the genre and provides a platform for new, innovative artists to create work. Previous recipients include Daniel Noah, Josh C. Waller and Elijah Wood, co-founders of SpectreVision (2014) and Eli Roth (2013). Quinn,...
April 20, 2014 (Denver, Co) - The Stanley Film Festival (Sff) produced by the Denver Film Society (Dfs) and presented by Chiller, announced today it will honor Tom Quinn, co-president of RADiUS-twc as its 2015 Visionary Award Winner. Quinn is behind this year’s breakout horror title It Follows as well as other genre heavy hitters such as Snowpiercer, Blue Ruin and Only God Forgives. The Visionary award is given to a figure in contemporary horror who is making forward-thinking contributions that elevate the genre and provides a platform for new, innovative artists to create work. Previous recipients include Daniel Noah, Josh C. Waller and Elijah Wood, co-founders of SpectreVision (2014) and Eli Roth (2013). Quinn,...
- 4/20/2015
- by Jonathan James
- DailyDead
Do you have nightmares about Bill Lumbergh telling you to put new cover sheets on your Tps reports? For some, the corporate cubicle setting is as horrifying as the creepy boiler rooms that Freddy Krueger haunts in the A Nightmare on Elm Street movies. Script excerpts and storyboards for an imagined tenth film in the Elm Street franchise show Freddy tormenting a coma patient by placing him in a mind-numbing office environment where meaningless meetings, tear-inducing small talk, and countless hours of hellish tasks reign supreme, with no escape in sight. Also included in our latest round-up are Blu-ray / DVD release details and cover art for the Salma Hayek-starring Everly and information on the 20 recently announced Star Wars books that will take place in the time period between Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi and Star Wars: Episode VII - The Force Awakens.
A Nightmare on Elm Street...
A Nightmare on Elm Street...
- 3/10/2015
- by Derek Anderson
- DailyDead
It’s Errol Morris week on Grantland, the Espn-owned website operated by Bill Simmons, and with it comes six new short films from the Oscar-winning documentarian behind “The Fog of War,” “The Thin Blue Line” and “The Unknown Known.” One of the many things I love about Grantland is its willingness to experiment when it comes to content. On first glance, the sports-heavy website would seem to be one of the last places on the Internet to dedicate a week of coverage to Morris, who doesn’t exactly make the type of Happy Meal movies that Hollywood loves to advertise on Espn.
- 3/5/2015
- by Jeff Sneider
- The Wrap
The International Film Music Critics Association has revealed nominations for best in movie music from 2014, and prolific composers James Newton Howard ("The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 1," "Maleficent") and Alexandre Desplat ("Godzilla," "The Grand Budapest Hotel," "The Imitation Game," "The Monuments Men") led the way with seven and six nominations respectively. Film score of the year contenders include just two Best Original Score Oscar nominees: "The Grand Budapest Hotel" and Hans Zimmer's "Interstellar." "The Imitation Game" and Jóhann Jóhannsson's "Theory of Everything," however, were both nominated in the drama category. "Maleficent" landed the most nominations for a film with four, while DreamWorks Animation's "How to Train Your Dragon 2" picked up three (each of them another if you count composer of the year honors for Howard and John Powell respectively). Check out the full list of nominees below. Winners will be revealed on Feb. 19. And be sure...
- 2/6/2015
- by Kristopher Tapley
- Hitfix
Movie trailers have become an odd business unto themselves. As the promotional budgets for blockbusters spiral upwards to ridiculous heights, we’ve recently seen the introduction of things like trailer teasers (ultra-brief trailers for trailers). Studios now want to build anticipation for things meant to build anticipation for other things. Where will it end? It won’t. Things will only get more ridiculous from here — just wait and see. Still, on their own, trailers make for addictive viewing. I reinforced that for myself in perusing every notable trailer that came out this year in order to make this list. They are made to suck you in, to be watched over and over; the hope is to create a void in the viewer that can only be satisfied by seeing the film proper. Taken independently of their films, trailers are curious beings. They are all potential, all speculation generators, even after their movies come out and we know...
- 12/18/2014
- by Dan Schindel
- FilmSchoolRejects.com
As is usually the case, 2014 held a rich vein of great nonfiction cinema … that went mostly untapped by any wide audiences. But just because documentaries are perpetually under-served by popular (and even critical) attention doesn’t mean that we should neglect these films. This is a celebration of all the best docs to come out this year.
But first, for the sake of full disclosure, here are all the notable docs of 2014 that I haven’t gotten around to seeing yet:
1989, 20,000 Days on Earth, Ai Weiwei: The Fake Case, Big Joy, Big Men, Code Black, Evolution of a Criminal, The Great Flood, The Great Invisible, The Kill Team, National Gallery, The Missing Picture, Maidentrip, Manakamana, The Naked Opera, Virunga, Watchers of the Sky, What Now? Remind Me, Whitey
Next,we have some honorable mentions — other docs of 2014 that are well worth seeking out:
A Will for the Woods, Art and Craft,...
But first, for the sake of full disclosure, here are all the notable docs of 2014 that I haven’t gotten around to seeing yet:
1989, 20,000 Days on Earth, Ai Weiwei: The Fake Case, Big Joy, Big Men, Code Black, Evolution of a Criminal, The Great Flood, The Great Invisible, The Kill Team, National Gallery, The Missing Picture, Maidentrip, Manakamana, The Naked Opera, Virunga, Watchers of the Sky, What Now? Remind Me, Whitey
Next,we have some honorable mentions — other docs of 2014 that are well worth seeking out:
A Will for the Woods, Art and Craft,...
- 12/11/2014
- by Dan Schindel
- SoundOnSight
Following the Ida Awards nominations last month, the year’s top documentary contenders come into crisper focus with Thursday’s announcement of Cinema Eye’s 8th Annual Nonfiction Film Awards nominations. Laura Poitras’ "Citizenfour" leads the pack with six nominations, including Outstanding Nonfiction Feature. The inside look at Edward Snowden’s Nsa leak also earned praise in Directing, Editing, Production, Cinematography, and the Audience Choice category. Poitras is no stranger to Cinema Eye’s awards — she won the 2011 Directing Award for "The Oath." Familiar faces rounded out the Oustanding Feature category, including Steve James’ Roger Ebert portrait "Life Itself," Jesse Moss’ tale of a North Dakota oil boom town, "The Overnighters," Iain Forsythe & Jane Pollard’s "20,000 Days on Earth," a look musician Nick Cave, and Orlando von Einsiedel’s environment-minded "Virunga." Thirty-six feature films and six shorts will vie for this year’s Cinema Eye Honors for Nonfiction Filmmaking. Other...
- 11/13/2014
- by Matt Patches
- Hitfix
Further reminding us that the Academy Awards are irrelevant in year-end discussions for the best in documentary film, according to the experts at the Cinema Eye Honors’ voting committee, Laura Poitras’ Citizenfour, Steve James’ Life Itself and Iain Forsyth and Jane Pollard’s 20,000 Days on Earth would be among the best docu films of the year, leading the pack in almost all categories. Not to be overlooked, Jesse Moss’ The Overnighters and Robert Greene’s Actress received kudos in Outstanding Achievement in Nonfiction Feature Filmmaking and Outstanding Achievement in Direction while the major surprise of the noms belongs to Orlando von Einsiedel’s Virunga (presented at the Tribeca and Hot Docs Film Fests) grabbing a total of three. Left completely off the scorecard, Manakamana failed to produce a single nom. The Cinema Eye Honors winners will be announced on Wednesday, January 7 at New York’s Museum of the Moving Image.
- 11/13/2014
- by Eric Lavallee
- IONCINEMA.com
The 18th annual Jihlava International Documentary Film Festival takes place 23-28 October 2014. From over 2,800 submissions, the programming committee has selected over 200 films from 42 countries, including 57 world, international or European premieres. These premieres include 10 Czech films in competition in the Czech Joy section.
Over the course of its existence, the Jihlava festival has become an indispensable Czech and worldwide documentary event, and an active contributor to the promotion and distribution of documentary films. The Jihlava festival is a co-founder and member of Doc Alliance, a prestigious union of seven important European documentary festivals.
Program – Year Eighteen
As in past years, the largest celebration of original documentary film in Central and Eastern Europe will present a diverse range of Czech and foreign films, with many world, international, European, and Czech premieres.
“This year’s festival is a true tribute to the artistic and independent film scene. This tribute will take place in the presence of such special guests as Kidlat Tahimik (which translates to “Quiet Lightning”), founder of independent Filipino cinema, whose films from the 1970s were declared by Werner Herzog to be among the most free to come out during that time, and noted Chinese director Wang Bing, winner of awards at festivals in Venice, Rotterdam, Yamagata and Marseilles,” said festival director Marek Hovorka.
The Face Of The Festival
The central motif of the 18th festival is a stark black-and-white symbol of a factory. It’s not only the dominant visual feature of the festival, but has also found its way into the films themselves. The poster was designed by artist, educator and publisher Juraj Horváth. This year’s festival trailer was created by the legend of Czech and world cinematography Jan Němec. This was his very first experience with this format; the intensity of the final form, however, can be felt in his short statement on the trailer’s filming:
“There are no ‘small’ or ‘big’ films. Twenty seconds expresses concern about the possible demise of film. I sound the alarm myself and the shadow of my hand is my signature.”
1. Organization And Awards
The festival is organized by the Jsaf civic association. In 2013, the festival issued more than 2,900 festival passes. Of these, 782 were for film professionals and festival guests from the Czech Republic and abroad, and 156 were for journalists. The festival screenings were attended by a total of more than 30,000 viewers.
The following awards will be presented as part of the 2014 Jihlava Idff:
· 2014 Best International Documentary Film Award (Opus Bonum competition)
· 2014 Best Central and Eastern European Documentary Film Award (Between the Seas competition)
· 2014 Best Czech Documentary Film Award (Czech Joy competition)
· 2014 Best Experimental Documentary Film Award (Fascinations competition)
· 2014 Best Debut Film Award (First Lights competition)
· 2014 Best Short Film Award (Short Joy competition)
· 2014 Contribution to World Cinematography
2014 Spectators Prize 2014 Respekt Award for the best television or video reportage · Silver Eye Award in the categories of short, mid-length, and feature documentary
(part of the East Silver market organized by the Institute of Documentary Film)
· 2014 Award for the Most Beautiful Festival Poster
· 2014 Audience Award for the Most Beautiful Festival Poster
2. New At The 18th Jihlava Idff
This year’s festival brings two new competitions: the former non-competition section Short Joy, focusing on short films, has received competition status, and in the new competition First Lights, the jury will choose the best debut film from the Opus Bonum, Between the Seas and Czech Joy sections. And of course there’s our annual retrospective of distinctive personalities and unique thematic sections.
The Complete Letters
This unique project is the brainchild of the Centre for Contemporary Culture in Barcelona, in which five pairs of world-renowned directors exchanged audio-visual “letters”. These letters will be presented at Jihlava in their Eastern European premiere. Filmmakers such as meditative artist Naomi Kawase, legend of the New York avant-garde Jonas Mekas, “lone wolf” Albert Serra and critical chronicler of contemporary China Wang Bing invite viewers into their private lives and into the secrets of their artistic poetics.
“It’s remarkable to see how much each letter reflects the personal style of each of the directors. Never have two directors with such radically different styles come together like this,” commented festival programmer David Čeněk.
Forgotten Filmmaker JIŘÍ PolÁK
This photographer, director and sensitive individual who escaped to the “place where dreams are made real” – the island of Hormuz in the Persian Gulf prior to the August occupation of Czechoslovakia – is one of the forgotten figures of Czech cinema. Jiří Polák was able to film Hospital in Kuks, but did not enjoy any domestic recognition. After his emigration and short stays in Vienna and Switzerland, he accepted film assignments in Iran.
Tribute: Alain Resnais
“Renowned French director passed away on 1 March 2014 at the age of 91. In memory of his work, we have prepared two screenings of his lesser-known or completely unknown films. He himself was instrumental to an unprecedented extent to the development of documentary filmmaking in France, and showed its new stylistic possibilities,” says festival programmer David Čeněk about this unique presentation of Resnais’ (mainly) early work. Alain Resnais The majority of Resnais’ works being presented at this year’s Jihlava Idff have been shown only a few times in France, and are being screened in the Czech Republic for the first time ever.
Retrospective: Kidlat Tahimik
A special guest at this year’s Jihlava festival will be the “father of Filipino independent film” – director, actor, screenwriter and producer Kidlat Tahimik, the founder of the so-called Filipino New Wave and an influential commentator on post-colonialism and power imbalances throughout the world, praised in the West by Werner Herzog when he said that [Tahimik’s] films from the 1970s are among some of the most free works on film of their time.
3. Jurors
The jury for the competition section Opus Bonum traditionally consists of just one person – a notable personality from world cinema. This year, this honour has been bestowed on a significant figure from the Yugoslav Black Wave – Želimir Žilnik.
The best film in the Between the Seas section will be chosen by:
· French film theoretician Raymond Bellour
· Spanish director Albert Serra
American artist Deborah Stratman Artist Kateřina Šedá Czech Joy Jury:
Poet Petr Hruška Former director of Czech Television Ivo Mathé Film historian Tereza Czesany Dvořáková Documentary filmmaker Bohdan Bláhovec The winner of the experimental competition Fascination will be determined by the Austrian master of found footage Peter Tscherkassky and his wife, filmmaker Eve Heller.
The historic first judging of the Short Joy section will be conducted by members of the art group Rafani.
4. Competition Sections
Czech Joy
Competition for the Best Czech Documentary Film 2014.
A prestigious selection of new Czech documentaries, including 10 world premieres. Films include Daniel’s World (Veronika Lišková), a look at the last taboo of modern society – paedophilia. The delightful film Long Live Hunting! (Jaroslav Kratochvíl) takes aim at Czech hunting. Shadows of the past are revealed in the film Pavel Wonka Commits to Cooperate ( Libuše Rudinská), which examines whether the last Communist prisoner was a dissident and symbol of the revolution – or an StB collaborator. The section also includes a pair of family portraits: Family Business / from Videodiary (Jakub Wagner), and Marislav Janek’s eagerly awaited new film The Gospel According to Brabenec, about Vratislav Brabenec of the Plastic People of the Universe.
World Premieres · Daniel’s World, Veronika Lišková, Czech Republic 2014, 75 min
· The Gospel According to Brabenec , Miroslav Janek, Czech Republic 2014, 85 min
· Long Live Hunting! , Jaroslav Kratochvíl, Czech Republic 2014, 62 min
· Pavel Wonka Commits to Cooperate , Libuše Rudínská, Czech Republic 2014, 73 min
· The Plan , Benjamin Tuček, Czech Republic 2014, 91 min
· The Czech Way , Martin Kohout, Czech Republic 2014, 90 min
· Family Business / from Videodiary , Jakub Wagner, Czech Republic 2014, 60 min
· František of His Own Kind , Jan Gogola Jr., Czech Republic 2014, 26 min
· Lets Block , Martina Malinová, Czech Republic 2014, 47 min
My Farm Is My Castle , Jiří Stejskal, Czech Republic 2014, 87 min
Opus Bonum
Competition for the 2014 Best World Documentary Film
Opus Bonum selects the best noteworthy documentaries representing diverse trends from around the world. Sixteen films are in the Opus Bonum competition for best world documentary film, including 5 world premieres, 5 international premieres and 1 European premiere. Films in this section include Rock On Bones, a personal view of the Russian independent music scene, and the film-poem Fovea Centralis, which skirts the fringe of video art, composed of multiplied images from the Fukushima nuclear power plant’s closed-circuit cameras.20 Cents shows what happens when public transportation fares in São Paulo are increased and the carnival atmosphere is replaced by one of guerrilla warfare.
World Premieres · Aged , Philip Hoffman, Canada 2014, 45 min
· Rock on Bones , Caroline Troubetzkoy, France 2014, 145 min
· I Am the People , Anna Roussillon, France 2014, 110 min
· In Your Eyes , Pietro Albino Di Pasquale, Italy 2014, 78 min
Fovea Centralis , Philippe Rouy, France 2014, 50 min International Premieres · Chasing After The Wind , Juan Camilo Olmos Feris, Colombia 2014, 60 min
· Water to Tabato , Paulo Carneiro, Guinea-Bissau, Portugal 2014, 45 min
· 20 Cents , Tiago Tambelli, Brazil 2014, 52 min
· Buenos Aires Free Party , Homero Cirelli, Argentina 2014, 74 min
The Shelter , Fernand Melgar, Switzerland 2014, 101 min European Premiere The Beijing Ants , Ryuji Otsuka, China 2014, 88 min
Between The Seas
Competition for the 2014 Best Documentary Film from Central and Eastern Europe.
Between the Seas is a competition section for the countries and nations of Central and Eastern Europe. Between the Seas presents 17 films, of which 4 are world premieres, 2 are international premieres, and 2 are European premieres. The Serbian Lawyer is one of the films seeing its world premiere at Jihlava – a film about the man who defended Slobodan Milošević and Radovan Karadžić, criminals from whom he had fled during the old regime. Another premiere in this section is Zuzana Piussi’s Transference , which sketches a dark picture of the state social care system for threatened children in Slovakia after the death of an abused child. Also in competition is the latest film by unsparing Austrian analyst Ulrich Seidl. In the Basement reveals that the basement is a rather important place for many Austrians, where you’ll find the usual hunting trophies and unusual bars, but also town council members and their swastikas, sadomasochism and other “hobbies”.
World Premieres · Transference , Zuzana Piussi, Slovakia/Czech Republic 2014, 57 min
· The Serbian Lawyer , Aleksandar Nikolić, Germany/Great Britain/Serbia 2014, 82 min
· Pill Junkies , Bartosz Staszewski, Poland 2014, 76 min
Ocean , Tamara Drakulić, Serbia 2014, 77 min International Premieres · 6 Degrees , Bartosz Dombrowski, Poland 2013, 81 min
A Last Year in 114 Minutes , Daniel Nicolae Djamo, Romania 2014, 114 min European Premieres Euromaidan: Rough Cut , Roman Bondarchuk et al., Ukraine 2014, 60 min Don’t Breathe, Nino Kirtadzé, France 2014, 86 min
Fascinations
Competition for the 2014 Best Experimental Documentary Film.
Fascinations is a competition screening of experimental films that offer us unique approaches to the depiction of reality. The section will present 33 films, including 7 world premieres, 6 international premieres, and 4 European premieres.
Premiere films include:
An animated work based on Ludwig Wittgenstein’s Tractatus Logico-Philisophicus (Active Image O directed by Becky James); the unguided choreography of white points in black space (Fascinating Moments by Yoshiki Nishimura); a memorial to one’s father using old photographs and chemical manipulation of the film itself using salt and seaweed (Dark Matter by Karel Doing); and a journey through a digitally manipulated landscape (L by Jacques Perconte).
World Premieres
· Active Image O , Becky James, USA 2014, 8 min
· Dark Matter , Karel Doing, Netherlands/Great Britain 2014, 20 min
· Fascinating Moments , Yoshiki Nishimura, Japan 2014, 4 min
· L , Jacques Perconte, France 2014, 15 min
· Our Hands Are Empty , Sj Ramir, Australia/New Zealand 2014, 10 min
· Jupiter Lolopop , Charlotte Dunker, Belgium 2014, 5 min
Study of Synchromy , Patrick Bergeron, Canada 2014, 3 min International Premieres
· Cut Out , Guli Silberstein, Great Britain 2014, 4 min
· The Civilization Desire , Carolina Astudillo, Spain 2014, 7 min
· A.D.A.M. , Vladislav Knežević, Croatia 2014, 13 min
· Digital Landscaping , Sangsok Ko, South Korea 2013, 4 min
· Field , Yi Myun, South Korea 2014, 6 min
Salers , Fernando Dominguez, Argentina/France 2014, 9 min European Premieres
· Beep , Kyungman Kim, South Korea 2014, 10 min
· Callisto , Youjin Moon, USA 2014, 14 min
· Droga! , Miko Revereza, Philippines 2013, 7 min
Frame Walk , Hayoung Jeon, South Korea 2014, 6 min Short Joy
Competition for the Best Short Film 2014 .
This year, this originally non-competition section devoted to short films has been transformed into a new competition section. The fifteen competition entries include films from all over the world, dealing with a wide spectrum of topics, and representing many current trends in contemporary documentary filmmaking. The Czech entry, Arguments by Andran Abramjan (who received an honourable mention in last year’s Czech Joy competition), considers the possibilities of dialogue on the Ukrainian crisis from both the eastern and western points of view. The purely observational film The Limits of Europe, underscored by the noise and sounds of protests, explores the spontaneous architecture of seven Kiev barricades erected in the streets leading to Independence Square. The contemplative and imaginatively filmed The Length enters the world of jazz legend Ted Curson.
First Lights
Competition for the Best Debut of 2014
Further evidence of Jihlava’s mission to support the film industry and share in the discovery of new talents is the presentation of a new competition section that rewards the best first work. Debut films presented as part of the traditional competition sections Opus Bonum, Czech Joy and Between the Seas have the opportunity to “battle it out” in a space that is not limited by territory. Comparing Czech and other Eastern European documentaries with their competition from the rest of the world can be a valuable experience, an opportunity to see commonalities and differences. It can also provide mutual inspiration not only for the films’ creators, but also for producers and other film professionals.
5. Non-competition Sections
Exprmntl.Cz
Experimental films from the Czech lands
This section is a non-competition survey of contemporary trends in Czech experimental film. Screenings will include films by renowned artists as well as filmmakers who just starting out.The unsettling video art of Zbyňek Baladrán, who focuses primarily on “archaeological” work with found material, can be seen in Dead Reckoning, showing the sterility of modern man’s life in four sequences featuring statistics, psychoanalysis, income and paranoia in the leading roles. Alice Růžičková’s film Autonomous Calábek takes a look into the plant kingdom. Made from a montage of scientific and film experiments, her portrait of a pioneer in plant physiology takes on surrealistic qualities.
Special Event
New world and Czech films, pre-premieres and festival hits
Alice Nellis presents Adoption: A Piece of Fortune, a kaleidoscope of stories with the same ending – a longed-for child. This opening film of the Jihlava Idff is a documentary exploration of a complex topic. In contrast, American master Errol Morris’ film The Unknown Known is a chilling look at former Us Secretary of Defence Donald Rumsfeld. The Last of the Unjust by Claude Lanzmann captures the testimony of Benjamin Murmelstein, the “puppet king” appointed at the end of the Nazi era to the position of the last “Ältester” of the Judenrat at a model Jewish ghetto. Also worth mentioning is Regarding Susan Sontag, director Nancy Kates’s portrait of one the most important intellectuals of the 20th century.
Doc-fi
Documentary and fiction are not opposites
Doc-fi expresses the conviction that the boundary between documentary and fiction is permeable. This year, three unusual films will be screened. Requiem for Beauty by Chinese author and Nobel Prize winner Gao Xingjian examines the space between film, poetry and painting. His multi-language monologues touch on themes that people do not speak about much anymore. In Beyond Icebergland, a man, a woman and a child occupy an invisible common film space, but not the same reality. It’s an ephemeral chronicle of a frozen time and a collage of images from a disappearing world, a film on the frontier of documentary, mystification and delightful genre games. Czech filmmaker Ondřej Vavrečka’s Among Us is an experimentally tinged love story that takes place during the time when the country was coming to grips with the death of Václav Havel.
6. Doc Alliance
Doc Alliance is the result of a creative partnership of seven key European documentary film festivals: Cph:dox Copenhagen, Doclisboa, Dok Leipzig, Fid Marseille, Jihlava Idff, Planete Doc Film Festival and Visions du Réel Nyon.
The aim of Doc Alliance is to help documentary films reach as many viewers as possible, and to systematically support their distribution through their festival markets and through the alliance’s online platform www.DAFilms.com.
Over the course of its existence, the Jihlava festival has become an indispensable Czech and worldwide documentary event, and an active contributor to the promotion and distribution of documentary films. The Jihlava festival is a co-founder and member of Doc Alliance, a prestigious union of seven important European documentary festivals.
Program – Year Eighteen
As in past years, the largest celebration of original documentary film in Central and Eastern Europe will present a diverse range of Czech and foreign films, with many world, international, European, and Czech premieres.
“This year’s festival is a true tribute to the artistic and independent film scene. This tribute will take place in the presence of such special guests as Kidlat Tahimik (which translates to “Quiet Lightning”), founder of independent Filipino cinema, whose films from the 1970s were declared by Werner Herzog to be among the most free to come out during that time, and noted Chinese director Wang Bing, winner of awards at festivals in Venice, Rotterdam, Yamagata and Marseilles,” said festival director Marek Hovorka.
The Face Of The Festival
The central motif of the 18th festival is a stark black-and-white symbol of a factory. It’s not only the dominant visual feature of the festival, but has also found its way into the films themselves. The poster was designed by artist, educator and publisher Juraj Horváth. This year’s festival trailer was created by the legend of Czech and world cinematography Jan Němec. This was his very first experience with this format; the intensity of the final form, however, can be felt in his short statement on the trailer’s filming:
“There are no ‘small’ or ‘big’ films. Twenty seconds expresses concern about the possible demise of film. I sound the alarm myself and the shadow of my hand is my signature.”
1. Organization And Awards
The festival is organized by the Jsaf civic association. In 2013, the festival issued more than 2,900 festival passes. Of these, 782 were for film professionals and festival guests from the Czech Republic and abroad, and 156 were for journalists. The festival screenings were attended by a total of more than 30,000 viewers.
The following awards will be presented as part of the 2014 Jihlava Idff:
· 2014 Best International Documentary Film Award (Opus Bonum competition)
· 2014 Best Central and Eastern European Documentary Film Award (Between the Seas competition)
· 2014 Best Czech Documentary Film Award (Czech Joy competition)
· 2014 Best Experimental Documentary Film Award (Fascinations competition)
· 2014 Best Debut Film Award (First Lights competition)
· 2014 Best Short Film Award (Short Joy competition)
· 2014 Contribution to World Cinematography
2014 Spectators Prize 2014 Respekt Award for the best television or video reportage · Silver Eye Award in the categories of short, mid-length, and feature documentary
(part of the East Silver market organized by the Institute of Documentary Film)
· 2014 Award for the Most Beautiful Festival Poster
· 2014 Audience Award for the Most Beautiful Festival Poster
2. New At The 18th Jihlava Idff
This year’s festival brings two new competitions: the former non-competition section Short Joy, focusing on short films, has received competition status, and in the new competition First Lights, the jury will choose the best debut film from the Opus Bonum, Between the Seas and Czech Joy sections. And of course there’s our annual retrospective of distinctive personalities and unique thematic sections.
The Complete Letters
This unique project is the brainchild of the Centre for Contemporary Culture in Barcelona, in which five pairs of world-renowned directors exchanged audio-visual “letters”. These letters will be presented at Jihlava in their Eastern European premiere. Filmmakers such as meditative artist Naomi Kawase, legend of the New York avant-garde Jonas Mekas, “lone wolf” Albert Serra and critical chronicler of contemporary China Wang Bing invite viewers into their private lives and into the secrets of their artistic poetics.
“It’s remarkable to see how much each letter reflects the personal style of each of the directors. Never have two directors with such radically different styles come together like this,” commented festival programmer David Čeněk.
Forgotten Filmmaker JIŘÍ PolÁK
This photographer, director and sensitive individual who escaped to the “place where dreams are made real” – the island of Hormuz in the Persian Gulf prior to the August occupation of Czechoslovakia – is one of the forgotten figures of Czech cinema. Jiří Polák was able to film Hospital in Kuks, but did not enjoy any domestic recognition. After his emigration and short stays in Vienna and Switzerland, he accepted film assignments in Iran.
Tribute: Alain Resnais
“Renowned French director passed away on 1 March 2014 at the age of 91. In memory of his work, we have prepared two screenings of his lesser-known or completely unknown films. He himself was instrumental to an unprecedented extent to the development of documentary filmmaking in France, and showed its new stylistic possibilities,” says festival programmer David Čeněk about this unique presentation of Resnais’ (mainly) early work. Alain Resnais The majority of Resnais’ works being presented at this year’s Jihlava Idff have been shown only a few times in France, and are being screened in the Czech Republic for the first time ever.
Retrospective: Kidlat Tahimik
A special guest at this year’s Jihlava festival will be the “father of Filipino independent film” – director, actor, screenwriter and producer Kidlat Tahimik, the founder of the so-called Filipino New Wave and an influential commentator on post-colonialism and power imbalances throughout the world, praised in the West by Werner Herzog when he said that [Tahimik’s] films from the 1970s are among some of the most free works on film of their time.
3. Jurors
The jury for the competition section Opus Bonum traditionally consists of just one person – a notable personality from world cinema. This year, this honour has been bestowed on a significant figure from the Yugoslav Black Wave – Želimir Žilnik.
The best film in the Between the Seas section will be chosen by:
· French film theoretician Raymond Bellour
· Spanish director Albert Serra
American artist Deborah Stratman Artist Kateřina Šedá Czech Joy Jury:
Poet Petr Hruška Former director of Czech Television Ivo Mathé Film historian Tereza Czesany Dvořáková Documentary filmmaker Bohdan Bláhovec The winner of the experimental competition Fascination will be determined by the Austrian master of found footage Peter Tscherkassky and his wife, filmmaker Eve Heller.
The historic first judging of the Short Joy section will be conducted by members of the art group Rafani.
4. Competition Sections
Czech Joy
Competition for the Best Czech Documentary Film 2014.
A prestigious selection of new Czech documentaries, including 10 world premieres. Films include Daniel’s World (Veronika Lišková), a look at the last taboo of modern society – paedophilia. The delightful film Long Live Hunting! (Jaroslav Kratochvíl) takes aim at Czech hunting. Shadows of the past are revealed in the film Pavel Wonka Commits to Cooperate ( Libuše Rudinská), which examines whether the last Communist prisoner was a dissident and symbol of the revolution – or an StB collaborator. The section also includes a pair of family portraits: Family Business / from Videodiary (Jakub Wagner), and Marislav Janek’s eagerly awaited new film The Gospel According to Brabenec, about Vratislav Brabenec of the Plastic People of the Universe.
World Premieres · Daniel’s World, Veronika Lišková, Czech Republic 2014, 75 min
· The Gospel According to Brabenec , Miroslav Janek, Czech Republic 2014, 85 min
· Long Live Hunting! , Jaroslav Kratochvíl, Czech Republic 2014, 62 min
· Pavel Wonka Commits to Cooperate , Libuše Rudínská, Czech Republic 2014, 73 min
· The Plan , Benjamin Tuček, Czech Republic 2014, 91 min
· The Czech Way , Martin Kohout, Czech Republic 2014, 90 min
· Family Business / from Videodiary , Jakub Wagner, Czech Republic 2014, 60 min
· František of His Own Kind , Jan Gogola Jr., Czech Republic 2014, 26 min
· Lets Block , Martina Malinová, Czech Republic 2014, 47 min
My Farm Is My Castle , Jiří Stejskal, Czech Republic 2014, 87 min
Opus Bonum
Competition for the 2014 Best World Documentary Film
Opus Bonum selects the best noteworthy documentaries representing diverse trends from around the world. Sixteen films are in the Opus Bonum competition for best world documentary film, including 5 world premieres, 5 international premieres and 1 European premiere. Films in this section include Rock On Bones, a personal view of the Russian independent music scene, and the film-poem Fovea Centralis, which skirts the fringe of video art, composed of multiplied images from the Fukushima nuclear power plant’s closed-circuit cameras.20 Cents shows what happens when public transportation fares in São Paulo are increased and the carnival atmosphere is replaced by one of guerrilla warfare.
World Premieres · Aged , Philip Hoffman, Canada 2014, 45 min
· Rock on Bones , Caroline Troubetzkoy, France 2014, 145 min
· I Am the People , Anna Roussillon, France 2014, 110 min
· In Your Eyes , Pietro Albino Di Pasquale, Italy 2014, 78 min
Fovea Centralis , Philippe Rouy, France 2014, 50 min International Premieres · Chasing After The Wind , Juan Camilo Olmos Feris, Colombia 2014, 60 min
· Water to Tabato , Paulo Carneiro, Guinea-Bissau, Portugal 2014, 45 min
· 20 Cents , Tiago Tambelli, Brazil 2014, 52 min
· Buenos Aires Free Party , Homero Cirelli, Argentina 2014, 74 min
The Shelter , Fernand Melgar, Switzerland 2014, 101 min European Premiere The Beijing Ants , Ryuji Otsuka, China 2014, 88 min
Between The Seas
Competition for the 2014 Best Documentary Film from Central and Eastern Europe.
Between the Seas is a competition section for the countries and nations of Central and Eastern Europe. Between the Seas presents 17 films, of which 4 are world premieres, 2 are international premieres, and 2 are European premieres. The Serbian Lawyer is one of the films seeing its world premiere at Jihlava – a film about the man who defended Slobodan Milošević and Radovan Karadžić, criminals from whom he had fled during the old regime. Another premiere in this section is Zuzana Piussi’s Transference , which sketches a dark picture of the state social care system for threatened children in Slovakia after the death of an abused child. Also in competition is the latest film by unsparing Austrian analyst Ulrich Seidl. In the Basement reveals that the basement is a rather important place for many Austrians, where you’ll find the usual hunting trophies and unusual bars, but also town council members and their swastikas, sadomasochism and other “hobbies”.
World Premieres · Transference , Zuzana Piussi, Slovakia/Czech Republic 2014, 57 min
· The Serbian Lawyer , Aleksandar Nikolić, Germany/Great Britain/Serbia 2014, 82 min
· Pill Junkies , Bartosz Staszewski, Poland 2014, 76 min
Ocean , Tamara Drakulić, Serbia 2014, 77 min International Premieres · 6 Degrees , Bartosz Dombrowski, Poland 2013, 81 min
A Last Year in 114 Minutes , Daniel Nicolae Djamo, Romania 2014, 114 min European Premieres Euromaidan: Rough Cut , Roman Bondarchuk et al., Ukraine 2014, 60 min Don’t Breathe, Nino Kirtadzé, France 2014, 86 min
Fascinations
Competition for the 2014 Best Experimental Documentary Film.
Fascinations is a competition screening of experimental films that offer us unique approaches to the depiction of reality. The section will present 33 films, including 7 world premieres, 6 international premieres, and 4 European premieres.
Premiere films include:
An animated work based on Ludwig Wittgenstein’s Tractatus Logico-Philisophicus (Active Image O directed by Becky James); the unguided choreography of white points in black space (Fascinating Moments by Yoshiki Nishimura); a memorial to one’s father using old photographs and chemical manipulation of the film itself using salt and seaweed (Dark Matter by Karel Doing); and a journey through a digitally manipulated landscape (L by Jacques Perconte).
World Premieres
· Active Image O , Becky James, USA 2014, 8 min
· Dark Matter , Karel Doing, Netherlands/Great Britain 2014, 20 min
· Fascinating Moments , Yoshiki Nishimura, Japan 2014, 4 min
· L , Jacques Perconte, France 2014, 15 min
· Our Hands Are Empty , Sj Ramir, Australia/New Zealand 2014, 10 min
· Jupiter Lolopop , Charlotte Dunker, Belgium 2014, 5 min
Study of Synchromy , Patrick Bergeron, Canada 2014, 3 min International Premieres
· Cut Out , Guli Silberstein, Great Britain 2014, 4 min
· The Civilization Desire , Carolina Astudillo, Spain 2014, 7 min
· A.D.A.M. , Vladislav Knežević, Croatia 2014, 13 min
· Digital Landscaping , Sangsok Ko, South Korea 2013, 4 min
· Field , Yi Myun, South Korea 2014, 6 min
Salers , Fernando Dominguez, Argentina/France 2014, 9 min European Premieres
· Beep , Kyungman Kim, South Korea 2014, 10 min
· Callisto , Youjin Moon, USA 2014, 14 min
· Droga! , Miko Revereza, Philippines 2013, 7 min
Frame Walk , Hayoung Jeon, South Korea 2014, 6 min Short Joy
Competition for the Best Short Film 2014 .
This year, this originally non-competition section devoted to short films has been transformed into a new competition section. The fifteen competition entries include films from all over the world, dealing with a wide spectrum of topics, and representing many current trends in contemporary documentary filmmaking. The Czech entry, Arguments by Andran Abramjan (who received an honourable mention in last year’s Czech Joy competition), considers the possibilities of dialogue on the Ukrainian crisis from both the eastern and western points of view. The purely observational film The Limits of Europe, underscored by the noise and sounds of protests, explores the spontaneous architecture of seven Kiev barricades erected in the streets leading to Independence Square. The contemplative and imaginatively filmed The Length enters the world of jazz legend Ted Curson.
First Lights
Competition for the Best Debut of 2014
Further evidence of Jihlava’s mission to support the film industry and share in the discovery of new talents is the presentation of a new competition section that rewards the best first work. Debut films presented as part of the traditional competition sections Opus Bonum, Czech Joy and Between the Seas have the opportunity to “battle it out” in a space that is not limited by territory. Comparing Czech and other Eastern European documentaries with their competition from the rest of the world can be a valuable experience, an opportunity to see commonalities and differences. It can also provide mutual inspiration not only for the films’ creators, but also for producers and other film professionals.
5. Non-competition Sections
Exprmntl.Cz
Experimental films from the Czech lands
This section is a non-competition survey of contemporary trends in Czech experimental film. Screenings will include films by renowned artists as well as filmmakers who just starting out.The unsettling video art of Zbyňek Baladrán, who focuses primarily on “archaeological” work with found material, can be seen in Dead Reckoning, showing the sterility of modern man’s life in four sequences featuring statistics, psychoanalysis, income and paranoia in the leading roles. Alice Růžičková’s film Autonomous Calábek takes a look into the plant kingdom. Made from a montage of scientific and film experiments, her portrait of a pioneer in plant physiology takes on surrealistic qualities.
Special Event
New world and Czech films, pre-premieres and festival hits
Alice Nellis presents Adoption: A Piece of Fortune, a kaleidoscope of stories with the same ending – a longed-for child. This opening film of the Jihlava Idff is a documentary exploration of a complex topic. In contrast, American master Errol Morris’ film The Unknown Known is a chilling look at former Us Secretary of Defence Donald Rumsfeld. The Last of the Unjust by Claude Lanzmann captures the testimony of Benjamin Murmelstein, the “puppet king” appointed at the end of the Nazi era to the position of the last “Ältester” of the Judenrat at a model Jewish ghetto. Also worth mentioning is Regarding Susan Sontag, director Nancy Kates’s portrait of one the most important intellectuals of the 20th century.
Doc-fi
Documentary and fiction are not opposites
Doc-fi expresses the conviction that the boundary between documentary and fiction is permeable. This year, three unusual films will be screened. Requiem for Beauty by Chinese author and Nobel Prize winner Gao Xingjian examines the space between film, poetry and painting. His multi-language monologues touch on themes that people do not speak about much anymore. In Beyond Icebergland, a man, a woman and a child occupy an invisible common film space, but not the same reality. It’s an ephemeral chronicle of a frozen time and a collage of images from a disappearing world, a film on the frontier of documentary, mystification and delightful genre games. Czech filmmaker Ondřej Vavrečka’s Among Us is an experimentally tinged love story that takes place during the time when the country was coming to grips with the death of Václav Havel.
6. Doc Alliance
Doc Alliance is the result of a creative partnership of seven key European documentary film festivals: Cph:dox Copenhagen, Doclisboa, Dok Leipzig, Fid Marseille, Jihlava Idff, Planete Doc Film Festival and Visions du Réel Nyon.
The aim of Doc Alliance is to help documentary films reach as many viewers as possible, and to systematically support their distribution through their festival markets and through the alliance’s online platform www.DAFilms.com.
- 10/28/2014
- by Peter Belsito
- Sydney's Buzz
Bong Joon-Ho’s Snowpiercer has brought in a combined box office of nearly $11 million from on-demand and theatrical revenues, RADiUS-twc said. The company also updated VOD revenues for Charlie McDowell’s quirky comedy The One I Love, adding more than $200K in on-demand to totals reported two weeks ago.
RADiUS, practically alone among distributors using more-or-less simultaneous theatrical and on-demand releases of their specialty films, has regularly revealed VOD numbers since last fall. The company’s decision to make the numbers routinely available came soon after John Sloss gave VOD numbers for Escape From Tomorrow, then challenged other companies to do the same.
But no other company but RADiUS has responded to Sloss’ call to consistently reveal non-theatrical grosses. In June, RADiUS released to Deadline VOD data on its Oscar-winning 20 Feet From Stardom and The Unknown Known. Two weeks ago, RADiUS included updated VOD numbers when reporting weekend theatrical grosses and did so again today.
RADiUS, practically alone among distributors using more-or-less simultaneous theatrical and on-demand releases of their specialty films, has regularly revealed VOD numbers since last fall. The company’s decision to make the numbers routinely available came soon after John Sloss gave VOD numbers for Escape From Tomorrow, then challenged other companies to do the same.
But no other company but RADiUS has responded to Sloss’ call to consistently reveal non-theatrical grosses. In June, RADiUS released to Deadline VOD data on its Oscar-winning 20 Feet From Stardom and The Unknown Known. Two weeks ago, RADiUS included updated VOD numbers when reporting weekend theatrical grosses and did so again today.
- 9/7/2014
- by Brian Brooks
- Deadline
What’s new, what’s hot, and what you may have missed, now available to stream.
streaming now, before it’s on dvd
The Fault in Our Stars: yes, it’s a teenaged girl’s romantic fantasy… and some of it might be in a secret code for young women; imagine that [my review] [iTunes Us] Godzilla: elegantly updates the King of All Monsters for the 21st century in ways that have moved with the global zeitgeist, but Hollywood’s tedious myopia means the movie as a whole isn’t quite so beautiful [my review] [iTunes Us]
new to stream
The German Doctor (aka Wakolda): the subtle veil of horror draped over things we take for granted as good and wonderful aspects of humanity is deeply unsettling [my review] [iTunes Us] The Love Punch: the jokes are as creaky as the aching bunions and bad backs onscreen, but Emma Thompson and Pierce Brosnan are incandescent together [my review] [iTunes Us]
streaming now, while...
streaming now, before it’s on dvd
The Fault in Our Stars: yes, it’s a teenaged girl’s romantic fantasy… and some of it might be in a secret code for young women; imagine that [my review] [iTunes Us] Godzilla: elegantly updates the King of All Monsters for the 21st century in ways that have moved with the global zeitgeist, but Hollywood’s tedious myopia means the movie as a whole isn’t quite so beautiful [my review] [iTunes Us]
new to stream
The German Doctor (aka Wakolda): the subtle veil of horror draped over things we take for granted as good and wonderful aspects of humanity is deeply unsettling [my review] [iTunes Us] The Love Punch: the jokes are as creaky as the aching bunions and bad backs onscreen, but Emma Thompson and Pierce Brosnan are incandescent together [my review] [iTunes Us]
streaming now, while...
- 8/26/2014
- by MaryAnn Johanson
- www.flickfilosopher.com
If this was a typical Sunday morning, I’d report that The One I Love, the latest quirky quasi-comedy exec-produced by the Duplass Brothers, had a solid but not scintillating debut weekend at the specialty box office. But this has not been a typical Sunday morning. When I opened my email from RADiUS-twc, I found not only their theatrical box office results for The One I Love but also the film’s VOD numbers. Wow!
The combined numbers arrived with no fanfare, just honest transparency. RADiUS deserves kudos for being a trailblazer here, and I at least want to make sure this moment is duly noted, and with enthusiasm. The company has given me non-theatrical metrics before, but to give it alongside theatrical is a first, and something unique that I hope quickly becomes common.
Last fall, Radius gave Deadline VOD numbers for its action pic Man Of Tai Chi,...
The combined numbers arrived with no fanfare, just honest transparency. RADiUS deserves kudos for being a trailblazer here, and I at least want to make sure this moment is duly noted, and with enthusiasm. The company has given me non-theatrical metrics before, but to give it alongside theatrical is a first, and something unique that I hope quickly becomes common.
Last fall, Radius gave Deadline VOD numbers for its action pic Man Of Tai Chi,...
- 8/24/2014
- by Brian Brooks
- Deadline
★★★★☆There's a fabled quote from 2004 written in The New York Times by Ron Suskind, quoting an unnamed aide to the George W. Bush administration (later attributed to Karl Rove): "We're an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you're studying that reality - judiciously, as you will - we'll act again, creating other new realities" Whilst watching Errol Morris' The Unknown Known (2013), one can't help but think that his subject, former United States Secretary of Defence Donald Rumsfeld, is the living embodiment of the ideologies embedded in said quote. Taking a similarly structured approach to 2003's The Fog of War, here Morris charts his interviewee's long political career.
- 8/12/2014
- by CineVue UK
- CineVue
What’s new, what’s hot, and what you may have missed, now available to stream.
streaming now, while it’s still in cinemas
Lilting: heartbreakingly lovely film about the seemingly insurmountable distances between us when sharing grief is too painful [my review] [Curzon Home Cinema]
streaming now, before it’s on dvd
Locke: we say things like, “Oh, I’d watch that guy read the phone book,” and this is almost that, except it really is absolutely riveting, and that’s no joke; a tour de force for Tom Hardy [my review] [iTunes UK]
streaming now, before it’s on dvd
Locke: we say things like, “Oh, I’d watch that guy read the phone book,” and this is almost that, except it really is absolutely riveting, and that’s no joke; a tour de force for Tom Hardy [my review] [Amazon UK Instant Video]
new to stream
The Unknown Known: documentary interview with Bush-era insider Donald Rumsfeld is like a...
streaming now, while it’s still in cinemas
Lilting: heartbreakingly lovely film about the seemingly insurmountable distances between us when sharing grief is too painful [my review] [Curzon Home Cinema]
streaming now, before it’s on dvd
Locke: we say things like, “Oh, I’d watch that guy read the phone book,” and this is almost that, except it really is absolutely riveting, and that’s no joke; a tour de force for Tom Hardy [my review] [iTunes UK]
streaming now, before it’s on dvd
Locke: we say things like, “Oh, I’d watch that guy read the phone book,” and this is almost that, except it really is absolutely riveting, and that’s no joke; a tour de force for Tom Hardy [my review] [Amazon UK Instant Video]
new to stream
The Unknown Known: documentary interview with Bush-era insider Donald Rumsfeld is like a...
- 8/11/2014
- by MaryAnn Johanson
- www.flickfilosopher.com
What’s new, what’s hot, and what you may have missed, now available to stream.
streaming now, before it’s on dvd
The Unknown Known: documentary interview with Bush-era insider Donald Rumsfeld is like a horror movie with a calm sociopath at its center [my review] [iTunes UK] The Last Days on Mars: the near-future space-geek atmosphere is very cool, but ultimately it’s just another xerox of Alien [iTunes UK] The Quiet Ones: there aren’t many outright scares here, and when they do come, they are curiously circumspect, but the old-fashioned Hammer Horror atmosphere is appealingly spooky [my review] [iTunes UK]
new to stream
Half of a Yellow Sun: oh what a lovely film! as romance and history, this is by turns funny and tragic, suspenseful and celebratory, and never less than solidly entertaining [my review] [iTunes UK]
streaming now, before it’s on dvd
The Last Days on Mars: the near-future space-geek atmosphere is very cool,...
streaming now, before it’s on dvd
The Unknown Known: documentary interview with Bush-era insider Donald Rumsfeld is like a horror movie with a calm sociopath at its center [my review] [iTunes UK] The Last Days on Mars: the near-future space-geek atmosphere is very cool, but ultimately it’s just another xerox of Alien [iTunes UK] The Quiet Ones: there aren’t many outright scares here, and when they do come, they are curiously circumspect, but the old-fashioned Hammer Horror atmosphere is appealingly spooky [my review] [iTunes UK]
new to stream
Half of a Yellow Sun: oh what a lovely film! as romance and history, this is by turns funny and tragic, suspenseful and celebratory, and never less than solidly entertaining [my review] [iTunes UK]
streaming now, before it’s on dvd
The Last Days on Mars: the near-future space-geek atmosphere is very cool,...
- 8/4/2014
- by MaryAnn Johanson
- www.flickfilosopher.com
A riveting BBC political thriller offering one of the most trenchant explorations yet of the sick symbiosis between big government and big business. I’m “biast” (pro): love Jason Isaacs and Ben Daniels
I’m “biast” (con): nothing
(what is this about? see my critic’s minifesto)
I wasn’t planning on writing anything about this. I only came across it on Netflix (it’s available in the U.S. and the U.K., but not Canada) because I’m crushing on Ben Daniels (just inducted into the Boyfriend Hall of Fame) and there were no Law & Order: UK reruns on at that moment and I needed a fix. And this had Jason Isaacs in it, too! Double yum.
But oh my god, now that I’ve finished all seven episodes — it’s a limited miniseries, so that’s all there will ever be — I feel like I...
I’m “biast” (con): nothing
(what is this about? see my critic’s minifesto)
I wasn’t planning on writing anything about this. I only came across it on Netflix (it’s available in the U.S. and the U.K., but not Canada) because I’m crushing on Ben Daniels (just inducted into the Boyfriend Hall of Fame) and there were no Law & Order: UK reruns on at that moment and I needed a fix. And this had Jason Isaacs in it, too! Double yum.
But oh my god, now that I’ve finished all seven episodes — it’s a limited miniseries, so that’s all there will ever be — I feel like I...
- 7/9/2014
- by MaryAnn Johanson
- www.flickfilosopher.com
The poster of Errol Morris’s newest interrotron bonanza, The Unknown Known, features former secretary of defense Donald Rumsfeld sporting his signature squinty eyed, cheese eating grin with an ironic question floating just left of his forehead: Why is this man smiling? Why indeed. Using the same straight shooting interrogation style employed for his bouts with Robert S. McNamara in The Fog of War, Morris fails to really answer this fairly simple seeming question, but that’s the point. Where Morris successfully coaxed the facts of controversial political lineage from McNamara, with Rumsfeld, there seems only to be the eloquent facade of deflections and fortune cookie phrases we are all too familiar with from his daily white house press conferences as the public face of the war on terror post-9/11. Less politically enlightening than its cinematic predecessor, The Unknown Known succeeds instead in highlighting with a blacked out layer of...
- 7/8/2014
- by Jordan M. Smith
- IONCINEMA.com
The Unknown Known - RadiusTWC - Blu-ray and DVD Director: Errol Morris Cast: Donald Rumsfeld The Unknown Known is one of the most fascinating movies of the year. It doesn't matter what your politics are, this is an engrossing look inside the brain of a highly influential man in world politics, and the many different ways people are able to rationalize and justify actions taken against others. In this case, that person just so happens to have been an integral component of America's war on terror. But as with brilliant documentarian Errol Morris' equally brilliant documentary The Fog of War, what makes The Unknown Known work so well as a film is its ability to live with its subject, and to understand and observe it without passing any kind of overt judgment...
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- 7/1/2014
- by Peter Hall
- Movies.com
I'm not sure what the deal is this week, but there are pretty much no new releases to discuss seriously in terms of purchasing. Thankfully, that opens the door for you to use all that money you've saved up for the Barnes & Noble 50% Off Criterion sale. I posted an article yesterday with a bunch of recommendations, which you can check out here, but here were the top eleven suggestions: Zatoichi: The Blind Swordsman Persona Breathless 8 1/2 Seven Samurai Yojimbo and Sanjuro The Battle of Algiers The Seventh Seal Sweet Smell of Success The Wages of Fear The Night of the Hunter The fact you can now get the Zatoichi collection of 25 films for only $112 when it's regularly $224 is a steal. I own this set and have been watching Zatoichi movies since Christmas and have gone through 23 of them so far and still have the special features to watch. So check out those titles,...
- 7/1/2014
- by Brad Brevet
- Rope of Silicon
Moviefone's Top DVD of the Week
"Like Father, Like Son"
What's It About? Two families are thrown into upheaval when it's discovered there was a mistake at the hospital where their respective sons were born. Ryota (Masaharu Fukuyama) has to decide what's more important to him, the relationship he's developed with the six-year-old child he thought was his biological son or his "real" son. Hirokazu Kore-eda explores what it means to be a family and a father in this intimate drama.
Why We're In: Kore-eda's a critically acclaimed filmmaker and beloved arthouse auteur whose work deserves to be seen on a wider scale. Don't let the subtitles scare you -- check it out!
Moviefone's Top Blu-ray of the Week
"Cry-Baby"
What's It About? Johnny Depp plays a swoon-worthy bad boy who falls for Allison (Amy Locane), a sweet girl who's feeling a little feisty. This doesn't sit well with Allison's...
"Like Father, Like Son"
What's It About? Two families are thrown into upheaval when it's discovered there was a mistake at the hospital where their respective sons were born. Ryota (Masaharu Fukuyama) has to decide what's more important to him, the relationship he's developed with the six-year-old child he thought was his biological son or his "real" son. Hirokazu Kore-eda explores what it means to be a family and a father in this intimate drama.
Why We're In: Kore-eda's a critically acclaimed filmmaker and beloved arthouse auteur whose work deserves to be seen on a wider scale. Don't let the subtitles scare you -- check it out!
Moviefone's Top Blu-ray of the Week
"Cry-Baby"
What's It About? Johnny Depp plays a swoon-worthy bad boy who falls for Allison (Amy Locane), a sweet girl who's feeling a little feisty. This doesn't sit well with Allison's...
- 6/30/2014
- by Jenni Miller
- Moviefone
The Academy has announced the new class of invited members for 2014 and, as is typical, many of which are among last year's nominees, which includes Barkhad Abdi, Michael Fassbender, Sally Hawkins, Mads Mikkelsen, Lupita Nyong'o and June Squibb in the Actors branch not to mention curious additions such as Josh Hutcherson, Rob Riggle and Jason Statham, but, okay. The Directors branch adds Jay and Mark Duplass along with Jean-Marc Vallee, Denis Villeneuve and Thomas Vinterberg. I didn't do an immediate tally of male to female additions or other demographics, but at first glance it seems to be a wide spread batch of new additions on all fronts. The Academy is also clearly attempting to aggressively bump up the demographics as this is the second year in a row where they have added a large number of new members, well over the average of 133 new members from 2004 to 2012. As far as...
- 6/26/2014
- by Brad Brevet
- Rope of Silicon
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is extending invitations to join the organization to 271 artists and executives who have distinguished themselves by their contributions to theatrical motion pictures.
Those who accept the invitations will be the only additions to the Academy’s membership in 2014.
“This year’s class of invitees represents some of the most talented, creative and passionate filmmakers working in our industry today,” said Academy President Cheryl Boone Isaacs. “Their contributions to film have entertained audiences around the world, and we are proud to welcome them to the Academy.”
The 2014 invitees are:
Actors
Barkhad Abdi – “Captain Phillips”
Clancy Brown – “The Hurricane,” “The Shawshank Redeption”
Paul Dano – “12 Years a Slave,” “Prisoners”
Michael Fassbender – “12 Years a Slave,” “Shame”
Ben Foster – “Lone Survivor,” “Ain’t Them Bodies Saints”
Beth Grant – “The Artist,” “No Country for Old Men”
Clark Gregg – “Much Ado about Nothing,” “Marvel’s The Avengers”
Sally Hawkins – “Blue Jasmine,...
Those who accept the invitations will be the only additions to the Academy’s membership in 2014.
“This year’s class of invitees represents some of the most talented, creative and passionate filmmakers working in our industry today,” said Academy President Cheryl Boone Isaacs. “Their contributions to film have entertained audiences around the world, and we are proud to welcome them to the Academy.”
The 2014 invitees are:
Actors
Barkhad Abdi – “Captain Phillips”
Clancy Brown – “The Hurricane,” “The Shawshank Redeption”
Paul Dano – “12 Years a Slave,” “Prisoners”
Michael Fassbender – “12 Years a Slave,” “Shame”
Ben Foster – “Lone Survivor,” “Ain’t Them Bodies Saints”
Beth Grant – “The Artist,” “No Country for Old Men”
Clark Gregg – “Much Ado about Nothing,” “Marvel’s The Avengers”
Sally Hawkins – “Blue Jasmine,...
- 6/26/2014
- by Michelle McCue
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
Michael Fassbender and Lupita Nyong’o of 12 Years a Slave were two of the 271 artists and industry leaders invited to become members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, which determines nominations and winners at the annual Oscars. The entire list of Academy membership—which numbers about 6,000—isn’t public information so the annual invitation list is often the best indication of the artists involved in the prestigious awards process. It’s worth noting that invitations need to be accepted in order for artists to become members; some artists, like two-time Best Actor winner Sean Penn, have declined membership over the years.
- 6/26/2014
- by Jeff Labrecque
- EW - Inside Movies
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