Lina Vdovîi and Radu Ciorniciuc’s TIFF-debuting Tata originated with a cry for help from a migrant worker being physically assaulted by his boss. The Romania-based filmmakers, partners in life and art, are both veteran investigative journalists in their region — Vdovîi an award-winning reporter from the Republic of Moldova who’s been nominated for the European Press Prize, Ciorniciuc a co-founder of the first independent media organization in Romania — so worker exploitation was a familiar beat. More troubling, however, was the familiarity of the man video messaging the duo from Italy: Vdovîi’s dad, a father who she’d long been estranged […]

The post “My Father Started Using the Hidden Camera to Send Messages Expressing What Seemed Like Regrets”: Lina Vdovîi and Radu Ciorniciuc on their TIFF-Premiering Doc Tata first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.

Around a decade ago, Sofia Bohdanowicz began what would become a cycle of films, encompassing the features Never Eat Alone, MS Slavic 7 and A Woman Escaped (co-directed by Blake Williams and Burak Çevik) and the shorts Veslemøy’s Song and Point and Line to Plane, starring Deragh Campbell (who is often credited as cowriter or codirector) as Audrey Benac, a sort of fictional alter-ego who has encounters with art, and in particular with the artistic legacy of Bohdanowicz’s forbears. In Veslemøy’s Song, Audrey travels to the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts to listen to a haunting vintage […]

The post Resurrecting Kathleen Parlow: Sofia Bohdanowicz on Her TIFF-Premiering Measures for a Funeral first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.

“When George W Bush becomes president, for the first time, I knew someone dumber than me was president, and the whole fucking thing fell apart. It’s all been a house of cards, it’s all been a shell game, and a mirror illusion, and George W. Bush made it so you could finally see through the mirror, at all the wrong angles.” — Quentin Tarantino. Over the last four presidential administrations, Christopher Jason Bell has produced an estimable body of work, directing more than13 shorts and three features, devoted to creating off-beat, experimental, and challenging microbudget cinema, spanning narrative, documentary and […]

The post The Devil, Most Definitely: Christopher Jason Bell on His Ten-Part Archival George W. Bush Docu-Series Miss Me Yet first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.

With the 2024 Toronto International Film Festival now underway, we at Filmmaker picked 12 films we are anticipating seeing. Consider it a given that higher-profile Telluride and Venice premieres such as the two Sigrid Nunez adaptations (The Friend and The Room Next Door), Conclave, Saturday Night are on our list too, but don’t overlook these films, for which TIFF is either their world premiere or North American launch. Bonjour Tristesse. For her debut feature author (Too Much and Not the Mood) and cultural critic Durga Chew-Bose — she interviewed Mia Hansen-Love for Filmmaker several years back — has ambitiously adapted […]

The post 12 Films to Anticipate at the 2024 Toronto International Film Festival first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.

To be a standout on a show featuring Jason Segel and Harrison Ford is quite a feat, but that’s exactly what Luke Tennie did in his breakthrough role as Sean in the hit Apple TV+ series Shrinking. On this episode, the seemingly effortlessly-talented young actor takes us back to his early days and details how football played a pivotal part in helping him with the disciplines required for acting. He explains his belief that there can be no real “play” without massive preparation; talks about coming to a place of understanding that auditioning is simply a “demonstration of my capabilities;” […]

The post “Those Guidelines, Those Gates, Those Boundaries, Can Free You to Find the Infinite Within Them”: Shrinking’s Luke Tennie, Back To One, Episode 307 first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.

Since the late 1990s, Lav Diaz’s cinema has explored the Philippines’ troubled history with colonization, authoritarianism, corruption, poverty, macho-feudalism and the tensions that animate and enliven the sociopaths of today. His durational works are simultaneously a test of patience and spirit and assertions that the stories of Filipinos deserve time and space to unfold in all of its complexities.  Diaz’s works paint portraits of good men and women whose morals disintegrate along with their minds, poisoned by the pressures of the world, leading them to commit uncharacteristic acts of violence one would think they are too progressive or too intelligent […]

The post “Sit Here. Stand Here. Work Here. Slap Her Here”: Lav Diaz and Hazel Orencio on Phantosmia first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.

The Gotham Film and Media Institute, Filmmaker’s publisher, announced today the programming for the 2024 Gotham Week Expo, taking place during Gotham Week on Monday, September 30th – Thursday, October 4th in locations throughout New York City. As announced in a press release, The Gotham “brings together partners from The Gotham’s Expanding Communities initiative to provide community and thought leadership on topics pertinent to film and media creators, including discussing challenges and solutions on how to approach advocacy and career advancement.” Opening the Expo will be a demo and conversation with Kamala Avila-Salmon, Lionsgate’s Head of Inclusive Content. The presentation […]

The post The Gotham Film & Media Institute Announces Programming for 2024 Gotham Week Expo first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.

Production studio Wavelength has announced its official sponsorship of the Yellow Springs Film Festival. From the press release: On Sunday, October 6, 2024, at 1:45 PM ET, Wavelength, in partnership with YSFF, will host its first-ever WAVE Grant showcase featuring short films from WAVE Grant alumni including Ana Verde’s Te Llaman Las Olas (The Waves Call You), Geena Hernandez’s Chicks, Sofia and Andrea Riba’s American Girl, Hannah Patterson’s Late to the Party, Amanda Gordon’s Sugar Honey, Leena Kurishingal’s No Escape, and Neha Aziz’s So, That Happened. The screenings will be followed by a panel discussion moderated by Wavelength’s Head of […]

The post Production Studio Wavelength Sponsors Yellow Springs Film Festival, Hosts First Live WAVE Grant Showcase and Panel Discussion first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.

Since its inception in 2012, Blackstar Film Festival has become one of my favorites. In a recent interview in Essence, founder Maori Karmel Holmes said, “When I started the festival, I didn’t realize that it was going to be an annual event, and I was mostly interested in seeing films that I knew existed in the world but hadn’t been shown in Philadelphia. I was also interested in a specific kind of film, mostly experimental, largely made by independent filmmakers and wanting to put them together in a way that would put artistic films next to social justice documentaries and […]

The post At the Movies with Notorious B.I.G.: dream hampton on It Was All a Dream first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.

He was in The OA, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, and played Roy Cohn in Fellow Travelers, but the stage is where Will Brill has found the most satisfaction and success recently, in A Case For The Existence of God, Uncle Vanya, and, just this year, as Reg in Stereophonic on Broadway, for which he received a Tony Award. On this episode he talks about building Reg by starting with his voice, why following playwright David Adjmi to a bar was a pivotal move, the importance of directorial affirmation, how his pre-show ritual has changed, and much more. Back To One […]

The post “Eventually What I Realized I Was Doing Was Trying to Create an Empathy Machine”: Will Brill, Back To One, Episode 306 first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.