Movie City Indie Archive for June, 2011
Trailering ROBERT MUGABE… WHAT HAPPENED?
“The documentary, Robert Mugabe… what happened? directed by Simon Bright and produced by Michael Auret, has its World Premiere as the Opening Night film of the Encounters South Africa International Documentary Festival in Cape Town on Thursday 9 June 2011. Billed as the definitive account of Mugabe’s life, it dramatically illustrates his successful liberation and development of the country but also his ruthless and cunning retention of power at all costs. Bright says that this film “gives Mugabe the credit where its due. It’s an exploration of what happened to a promising African leader who was well respected and it recognises his fight for freedom and against Apartheid. But it also explores the forces that caused him to effectively destroy a lot of what he built.”
Jonathan Demme at Aruba Int’l Film Fest (5’45”)
On budgets, YouTube as “a revenue-less void” and more. Of a new project: “It’s on my mind that I want to figure out ways to make it as inexpensively as possible, make it tremendously effectively. I never went over budget. I’ve never gone over budget. I started out with Roger Corman. You don’t go over budget with Roger Corman and stay on the job… You see something like Napoleon Dynamite, which was made for less than a hundred thousand dollars, and you go like, ‘Fuck!’, you can’t beat that!”
RIP John Mackenzie, 1928-2011
One of the fiercest happy accidents in all of English-language cinema. The final scene with Bob Hoskins is shockingly great.
“Hi, Guys… I’m Following You” (3’15”)
From the English National Opera, before the premiere of Nico Muhly‘s internet-themed opera, “Two Boys.”
Will Self Asks, “Is The Internet Inherently Psychotic?” (vid)
The novelist thinks about the internet for the English National Opera before the premiere of Nico Muhly‘s opera, “Two Boys.”
And: “The Internet is a false friend”
And: “On the rituals of our digital life”
SUPER 8’s Strip
Some one-sheets and other media for Super 8 are in a vertical format… emulating Super 8 film through the gate… the perspective of the kids’ camera during a key scene… plus! A lightning burst of simulated blue lens flare that looks even more superfluous! More nostalgically, it resembles the “insert” format that was longer, more narrow, of lobby paper of decades past.
On Monte Hellman’s ROAD TO NOWHERE
Monte Hellman’s Road To Nowhere opens Friday at the Village East in Manhattan, and next week at several venues in and around Los Angeles. It’s a captivating puzzle of a movie, an elliptical noir, from a director who claims to have had dozens of dashed projects since his last feature release over twenty years ago. I hope to see it a second time before writing it about it for next week. The photography’s an important element, shot with lightweight DSLRs, and capturing an unusual range of color and shadow. The trailer below shows the camera at work, as well as sort of spoiling one of the most gratifying images in memory. Quintin writes about the shuffled levels of Road to Nowhere at Cinema Scope: “The confusion about the nature of every shot leads also to this endless chain of cameras and crews shooting each other, creating the illusion of an illusion of an illusion… It may be concluded that the famous suspension of disbelief is finally impossible once you come to realize that everything can be part of a set, and the same goes for the making of the set and so on. Actually, there is no film that exists without a camera filming whatever is happening, but films are made with the pretense of ignoring the camera and that you are watching “the facts,” but also fearing that there would always be a film n+1 behind a given film n. This is the true principle of horror in film, and Road to Nowhere is among other things a horror film.”
Key Art For Stephen K. Bannon’s THE UNDEFEATED, From AMC And Cinedigm
Please comment on any traditions of graphic design you can identify in the splash page from the website for the new Cinedigm-AMC documentary on the life of Sarah Palin. (Click twice for full-screen size.)
A Tribute Reel To Sundance Institute’s Michelle Satter
“Sundance and 420 supporters gathered to honor Michelle Satter and her 30 years of work for artists as Director of the Feature Film Program.”
Casey Neistat On Being Told To Stay In NYC Bike Lanes (3’04”)
How Hahn Super-Dry Beer Is Made (in an epic 60 seconds)
Ann Richards’ Alamo Drafthouse Shut-Up PSA
One more reason I did not know to admire the late Governor of Texas.
