April 2005

Lois Vossen thinks she has the best job in the world. She works 60 hours a week, and much of her time is spent thinking about or watching films about some of the most deeply troubling aspects of humanity: genocide, the child sex trade, domestic abuse, and sweat shops, to name just a few. But Vossen remains optimistic. “A really well-made film even on the most troublesome topic can be uplifting because it’s helping to make the world more humane,” she says.

Dear Doc Doctor:

My film projects and ideas are well-suited for public television. But as an independent filmmaker I can’t envision my work fitting into pre-formatted programs. Do I have any options besides just selling a finished film?

In New York, a rooftop is not merely a rooftop. Part refuge, part observation deck, the roof is where New Yorkers go to escape, embrace, and celebrate their city. It’s no surprise then, that filmmakers have long used rooftops to convey New York life: they’re ubiquitous, photogenic, and, most of all, emblematic. Think of all the rooftop shootouts and foot chases in the great New York gangster films—from The Musketeers of Pig Alley (1912) to Once Upon a Time in America (1984).

Rebecca Carroll: Where are we with public television? What do people—both those who are watching and not watching—need to know about public television now that’s different from 10 years ago?

Inside Manhattan’s City Hall Academy on a dark and wet Friday morning this past February, actor Liam Neeson introduced some 35 New York City public school teachers to Journeys in Film, a nonprofit educational program using feature-length foreign films such as Whale Rider, Bend it Like Beckham, and The Cup as a springboard to instill cultural awareness and tolerance among middle school students.

In June 2004, I watched Ted Demme’s inspirational profile of 70s filmmakers, A Decade Under the Influence, which is basically a call-to-arms for indie auteurs to use whatever means they have at their disposal to make movies. Afterward, I just started riffing with a producer friend, Bob Jason, on how the time was ripe for a radically politicized homage to the Cassavetes era. Jason agreed, so I went full force and pitched him and his production company Co.Op, the concept of an updated homage to Haskell Wexler’s cinema verité classic, Medium Cool.