Movie City Indie Archive for November, 2016

“Under The Influence”: Barry Jenkins on Wong Kar-wai

Trailering Richard Kelly’s DONNIE DARKO Restoration (1’35”)

Scenes From Editor Anne V. Coates’ Governor’s Award

Scenes From Frederick Wiseman’s Governors’ Award



Jon Brion On PUNCH-DRUNK LOVE And The H’wd Musical (2’40”)

Criterion Video-Tributes Raoul Coutard (4’43” vid)

Media Nonprofits Solicit In Current Moment: IDA, The Baffler

THE INDEPENDENT DOCUMENTARY ASSOCIATION

A Message from the IDA
Documentary storytelling expands our understanding of shared human experience, fostering an informed, compassionate and connected world. That’s the first sentence of our mission statement. It’s what we believe and why we do what we do.
At the moment there is a lot of uncertainty about what this election and incoming administration will mean for many of the values we hold dear and the issues we care most deeply about. But it is absolutely certain that the work of independent documentary makers is more important now than ever. And we know that makes our work supporting this community more important than ever.
The IDA has always highlighted the vital role that documentary artists, activists and journalists play in our democracy. And in the days and years ahead, we promise to support you as you tell important stories that shine a light on dark places, call out injustice and speak truth to power. As an organization, we will work hard to defend your rights and amplify your voices.
As a community, you are resourceful, scrappy, passionate and brave. Keep making movies. Keep making a difference.
We see this new reality we’re facing as an opportunity to redouble our efforts, so we want to hear from you about how we can best support our community. Reach out to us at listen@documentary.org or by responding to this letter.
In partnership,
The IDA

THE BAFFLER

Dear friend,

I’m thirty-four. I voted for the first time in 2000. Now, for the second time in my adult life, we face the prospect of a right-wing idiot in the White House, surrounded by the scum of the earth as his appointees and advisers. And, amazingly, this time around the nation’s future looks even more grim. We hope you’ll agree that the work of The Baffler is going to be crucial in the time ahead.


We have the best analyses of what’s wrong with the American political, media, and business establishment—and we will help figure out the best strategies for fighting a new breed of fascism with American characteristics. Reading The Baffler will be a source of solace, of community in the face of danger, and of constructive suggestions in the face of helplessness.


The Baffler Foundation, our parent organization that exists solely to publish the magazine, relies mostly on donations. As we enter this perilous era, please give now and help us get the intellectual fight back into gear before it’s too late.

Yours,
Noah McCormack
Publisher

Movie City Indie

Quote Unquotesee all »

It shows how out of it I was in trying to be in it, acknowledging that I was out of it to myself, and then thinking, “Okay, how do I stop being out of it? Well, I get some legitimate illogical narrative ideas” — some novel, you know?

So I decided on three writers that I might be able to option their material and get some producer, or myself as producer, and then get some writer to do a screenplay on it, and maybe make a movie.

And so the three projects were “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep,” “Naked Lunch” and a collection of Bukowski. Which, in 1975, forget it — I mean, that was nuts. Hollywood would not touch any of that, but I was looking for something commercial, and I thought that all of these things were coming.

There would be no Blade Runner if there was no Ray Bradbury. I couldn’t find Philip K. Dick. His agent didn’t even know where he was. And so I gave up.

I was walking down the street and I ran into Bradbury — he directed a play that I was going to do as an actor, so we know each other, but he yelled “hi” — and I’d forgot who he was.

So at my girlfriend Barbara Hershey’s urging — I was with her at that moment — she said, “Talk to him! That guy really wants to talk to you,” and I said “No, fuck him,” and keep walking.

But then I did, and then I realized who it was, and I thought, “Wait, he’s in that realm, maybe he knows Philip K. Dick.” I said, “You know a guy named—” “Yeah, sure — you want his phone number?”

My friend paid my rent for a year while I wrote, because it turned out we couldn’t get a writer. My friends kept on me about, well, if you can’t get a writer, then you write.”
~ Hampton Fancher

“That was the most disappointing thing to me in how this thing was played. Is that I’m on the phone with you now, after all that’s been said, and the fundamental distinction between what James is dealing with in these other cases is not actually brought to the fore. The fundamental difference is that James Franco didn’t seek to use his position to have sex with anyone. There’s not a case of that. He wasn’t using his position or status to try to solicit a sexual favor from anyone. If he had — if that were what the accusation involved — the show would not have gone on. We would have folded up shop and we would have not completed the show. Because then it would have been the same as Harvey Weinstein, or Les Moonves, or any of these cases that are fundamental to this new paradigm. Did you not notice that? Why did you not notice that? Is that not something notable to say, journalistically? Because nobody could find the voice to say it. I’m not just being rhetorical. Why is it that you and the other critics, none of you could find the voice to say, “You know, it’s not this, it’s that”? Because — let me go on and speak further to this. If you go back to the L.A. Times piece, that’s what it lacked. That’s what they were not able to deliver. The one example in the five that involved an issue of a sexual act was between James and a woman he was dating, who he was not working with. There was no professional dynamic in any capacity.

~ David Simon