September 2010
All Signs Point North
The Sixth Camden International Film Festival focuses on filmmakers’ growth as it grows in leaps and bounds itself.
September 29th, 2010 | Maddy Kadish
For six years now Ben Fowlie has been luring the documentary world north to the Camden International Film Festival. They come for pitch opportunities, a seminar for film professionals, a semester-long partnership with the University Maine, and for docs that embrace an activist edge.
The Camden International Film Festival (CIFF) is a documentary-exclusive festival that takes place September 29th through October 3rd in a picturesque Maine coastal town. It’s a small, but growing festival founded six years ago by Ben Fowlie, who also programs and coordinates the event.
Lessons in Perseverance
Print journalist Geoff Edgers takes a turn as a documentarian with "Do it Again," about his tireless effort to reunite the Kinks.
September 23rd, 2010 | Erin Trahan
What if your favorite band had separated and you could be the reason they reunited? What if you could convince Sting to sing and play guitar with you backstage? Music journalist Geoff Edgers dared to dream and from those dreams came his first documentary, Do it Again. He discussed the making of with The Independent's Erin Trahan.
With latent teen rocker angst and a career as a print music journalist threatened to the point of extinction, Geoff Edgers hit mid-life determined to shake things up. Part one of his plan: get the Kinks back together after a decades-long split between the band’s two lead figures, brothers Ray and Dave Davies. Part two: in lieu of a reporter’s notebook, bring a documentary film crew.
New York Film Festival 2010 - Critic's Choice
September 22nd, 2010 | Kurt Brokaw
The Independent's senior film critic Kurt Brokaw offers his picks from the 2010 New York Film Festival. New films will be added to this list throughout the fest, which runs September 24th through October 10th.
The Independent's senior film critic Kurt Brokaw offers his picks from the 2010 New York Film Festival. Below are excerpts of full reviews. New films will be added to this list throughout the fest, which runs September 24th through October 10th.
The Robber
(Benjamin Heisenberg. 2010. Austria-Germany. 96 min.)
Do Canadian Indies Depend on American Celebrity?
Getting your independent film seen often means packing it full of famous actors. At the Toronto International Film Festival, Katherine Brodsky discovered that to be especially true for films made in Canada.
September 21st, 2010 | Katherine Brodsky
At the close of the Toronto International Film Festival and after taking in most of the fest's new Canadian releases, Katherine Brodsky noticed a common import: American fame.
Barney's Version is a Canadian film with a lot of stars, especially American ones like Paul Giamatti and Dustin Hoffman.
“Catfish” and Lies the Internet Never Told You
Is "Catfish" the warm-up act for this fall’s "The Social Network," the David Fincher/Aaron Sorkin big-budget opening night selection of the New York Film Festival?
September 15th, 2010 | Kurt Brokaw
In anticipation of the New York Film Festival, and its already ad-blitzed premiere of The Social Network, Kurt Brokaw reviews Catfish, a topsy-turvy Facebook reality thriller.
You might want to refresh your memory of Marc Ecko’s 2007 fabulously successful lnternet stunt—the spray-painting of what seems to be
Behind the Scenes with Six Masters of Design
In a special to The Independent, Kurt Brokaw reviews the new documentary, “Something’s Gonna Live.”
September 9th, 2010 | Kurt Brokaw
The documentary Something's Gonna Live, and Kurt Brokaw's review of it, pay homage to the often unsung cinematic auteurs -- production designers, art directors, and directors of photography. Brokaw says it's, "one to watch for."
Chances are you didn’t know who decided to make Jimmy Stewart a stamp collector in Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo, but it was the production designer, Henry “Bummy” Bumstead. You might also have forgotten who aged the wood in the bleak gallows from which the convicted killers in In Cold Blood are hanged, but that was another production designer, Robert Boyle.
The Desperation of Independence
David Pierotti loves PBS but asks: What would it take for PBS to keep its fiction productions on this side of the pond?
September 8th, 2010 | David Pierotti
"You could argue that there's plenty of fiction on PBS. Strictly speaking, that’s true. My complaint is that it all comes with an accent," writes David Pierotti. Why can't his most beloved source of TV programming, PBS, bring the same charisma to its American-made fiction as it does its nonfiction?
As we enter another fall broadcast season and the networks prepare to launch new fare like Mike & Molly or hype established shows such as House and Modern Family, television viewers do not lack choices. Granted, most will be awful, but not awful enough to drive more viewers to my favorite programs over at PBS.
So Baaad it's Good? "Step Up 3D" Tells the Honest to Tea Party Truth
Courtney Sheehan calls "Step Up 3D" a zeitgeist film, Erin Trahan allows it's a fun 3D romp with questionable relevance to indie filmmakers.
September 3rd, 2010
The Independent has been thinking a lot about 3D lately. So when Courtney Sheehan went over the moon for Step Up 3D, Erin Trahan decided to see for herself if dance really can change the world. Short answer: possibly. Bigger question: what's 3D's relevance to indie filmmaking?
Erin Trahan: So, why did you implore me to see Step Up 3-D? It’s not exactly an A+ movie, nor is it independent.
Courtney Sheehan: Dunks. Step Up 3-D is about Nike Dunks. Step Up 3-D is about American values.
Trahan: I can watch Tea Party rallies if I want to conflate Nike with American values. Please elaborate.
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