Filmmaker Magazine | The Magazine of Independent Film

“Restrepo”
Sebastian Junger and Tim Hetherington look inside Afghanistan’s deadly Korengal Valley in their Sundance-winning doc.
No Wave Thinking
Amos Poe opines on indie film, oil and the search for the sweet new style.
A Heart of Darkness
Our look inside The Killer Inside Me.
“Wah Do Dem”
Directors Ben Chace and Sam Fleischner on their LAFF winner.
EditFest NY
Jamie Stuart looks at this year’s conference in his short, Splice This.

The Guide

READ: Gasland director Josh Fox tells us the hardest decision made to complete his film (currently airing on HBO)
WATCH: Sofia Coppola's Somewhere trailer
IN THEATERS: Alain Resnais' Wild Grass opens Fri.

ADVERTISE WITH FILMMAKER

Our RSS Feeds Have Changed!

If you haven’t been receiving our content, please take a minute to rebookmark and subscribe.

DIRECTOR INTERVIEWS

SEBASTIAN JUNGER AND TIM HETHERINGTON, “RESTREPO”
Wednesday, June 23, 2010 Lauren Wissot
Most documentary filmmakers attempt to see the world through the lens of the subjects they’re shooting, but few put their lives on the line to do so. That perhaps is what most separates first-time directors Sebastian Junger and Tim Hetherington from a few of their colleagues who didn’t take ...read more
BEN CHACE AND SAM FLEISCHNER, “WAH DO DEM”
Wednesday, June 16, 2010 Brandon Harris
With Jamaica in the American news again (just barely) due to the ongoing siege and popular counter resistance taking place surrounding the attempted U.S. extradition of alleged Jamaican drug kingpin and folk hero Christopher Coke, perhaps there is something timely about the release of Ben Chace and ...read more

more director interviews...

OUR VIDEOS

JAMIE STUART’S “SPLICE THIS”: A TRIP TO EDITFEST NY
Wednesday, June 16, 2010
Caffeine, The Departed and too much B-roll brings out Jamie Stuart’s hardboiled, affectionately profane persona in Splice This, a short film based around his trip to EditFest NY this weekend. It features interview material with longtime Scorsese-collaborator Thelma Schoonmaker and ace editor ...read more

WEB EXCLUSIVES

“SHIT YEAR” DIRECTOR CAM ARCHER AT CANNES | By Scott Macaulay
Tuesday, June 01, 2010
It is both accurate and reductive to call Cam Archer’s Shit Year, which premiered at this year’s Cannes Film Festival in the Director’s Fortnight section, the story of a retiring actress grappling with the emotions produced by her move away from the Hollywood spotlight. Of course, ...read more

more web exclusives...

FESTIVAL COVERAGE

CANNES DIRECTORS DIRECTING 2010 | By Livia Bloom
Wednesday, June 02, 2010
Each year, before the movies and parties and deals go down at the Cannes Film Festival, thousands of international participants go through the same steps. They complete their registration, receive the color-coded badge that designates their place in a screening hierarchy as rigid as that of a ...read more
2010 CANNES FILM FESTIVAL | By Livia Bloom
Tuesday, June 01, 2010
“You know the kind of movie where people laugh and cry?” asked a filmmaker character in Kornél Mundruczó’s Tender Son: The Frankenstein Project (seeking American distribution). “I want you to cry.” “I am crying,” responded the would-be actor before him, his face frozen solid. The ...read more

PLUS: Festival Ambassador - The latest news from the film festival circuit

more festival coverage...

THE BLOG

VIC SKOLNICK, R.I.P.
Thursday, June 24, 2010 Melissa Silvestri
I was saddened to hear of the death of Vic Skolnick, an influential co-founder of Long Island’s first major art house movie theater, The Cinema Arts Center, in Huntington, N.Y. Passing away at 81 on June 10th, Skolnick, along with his wife, Charlotte Sky, founded what was originally known as the New Community Cinema in 1973. Skolnick, a teacher for twenty years at N.Y. public schools, combined his passion for history with a lifelong love of films. His ambition was to show as many diverse films ...read more
SUNDANCE DIRECTOR’S LAB DIARY: SAODAT ISMAILOVA
Thursday, June 24, 2010 Scott Macaulay
The Sundance Director’s Lab is currently wrapping at the Sundance Institute in Utah, and we have two filmmakers blogging about their experience. First up is Uzbekistan writer/director Saodat Ismailova, whose project, 40 Days of Silence, is described like this: “Four generations of women under one roof in Uzbekistan look to each other for comfort as they try to overcome their destinies.” Yesterday, June 19th, the director’s lab came to the end. When I look back at the past ...read more
“THE IMPERIALISTS ARE STILL ALIVE!” SCREENS IN BROOKLYN
Thursday, June 24, 2010 Scott Macaulay
Filmmaker Zeina Durra’s Sundance Competition film The Imperialists are Still Alive! has its East Coast premiere tonight, June 24, in an Indiewire-hosted screening at the 2nd Northside Festival of Film and Music in Brooklyn. The film, a graduate of the IFP Narrative Lab, is an upscale Manhattan comedy of manners with an internationalist flavor and a post-9/11 paranoid bent. It also has the most arresting first shot of the year. Writing for Filmmaker, Eric Kohn said of the film: Consider the ...read more
SUNDANCE INSTITUTE UNVEILS SHORTSLAB: LA
Tuesday, June 22, 2010 Jaimie Stettin
The Sundance Institute has announced the inaugural Shortslab: LA, a three-part, all-day workshop that will offer filmmakers inside guidance through the development, production, and exhibition of short films. Shortlabs: LA will be held Saturday, July 31st at the Downtown Independent Theater (251 South Main Street) in Los Angeles. Tickets are $150. For information or to purchase tickets visit: www.sundance.org/shortslab Here is the workshop schedule: Story Development (9:30 a.m. – 12:00 ...read more
INTRODUCING “THE GREEN HORNET”
Tuesday, June 22, 2010 Scott Macaulay
I’m not sure I see the Michel Gondry in this trailer for his The Green Hornet. On the other hand, as this interview with Gondry, Seth Rogen and producer Neil Moritz at Ain’t It Cool News points out, the trailer is intended for newcomers to the comic and doesn’t get into the intricacies of the film or some of its more innovative visual elements. I’m not a fan of the comics but am a big Gondry fan. What do you think? ...read more
EXPLAINING THE PERILS OF NATURAL GAS
Tuesday, June 22, 2010 Scott Macaulay
Josh Fox’s Gasland was a huge hit at Sundance and plays this week on HBO. Here’s a quick piece on Fox and the issues surrounding natural gas explored in his film. ...read more