Obsessed with Independent Film Since 1976
Filmmakers and Their Global Lens: Sophie Deraspe
By Dana Knight“It is indeed a documentary about a huge fiction!” says Sophie Deraspe, the director of The Anima Profile, to Staff Writer Dana Knight, during their recent conversation.
Filmmakers and Their Global Lens: Liam Aiken
By Dana KnightIn November 2014, staff writer for The Independent, Dana Knight spoke with director/writer Hal Hartley. Knight also sat down with Liam Aiken to look at the Hartley’s work from a new perspective. Dana Knight (DK): This must be a very special project for you since your film debut was in Hal Hartley’s Henry Fool. What do you remember about… Read more »
RIDM ’14: The Use and Abuse of Poetry in Documentary Film
By Patrick PearceGusts of bitingly cold wind eat away at the inch of precocious snow on the ground, offering a fittingly bracing backdrop to the Rencontre Internationales de Documentaire de Montréal (RIDM). Now in it’s 17th year, the festival offers a late-in-the-season “best-of” selection of international and Canadian films that favors essays, cross-genre films and other non-traditional… Read more »
FNC 2014: Hybrid Filmmakers find Common Ground
By Patrick PearceMontreal’s Festival du Nouveau Cinema (FNC) is a festival that doesn’t like to be put into neat and tidy boxes. This year’s boundary-blurring program includes everything from satirical mockumentaries to poetic documentaries that include reenacted scenes. Staff writer Patrick Pearce sat down with the directors of two narrative first features with non-fiction characteristics to chat… Read more »
TIFF 2014: The Cinema Guild is Evolving with Cinephiles On and Offline
By Courtney SheehanSprinkle a little adamant optimism over a new digital partnership with The Flaherty Film Seminar and a heaping embrace of the educational market, and you have a few of the most recent distribution strategies that The Cinema Guild’s Ryan Krivoshey discussed with The Independent’s Courtney Sheehan at TIFF.
10 Filmmakers to Watch in 2014: Miho Yamamoto
By Erin TrahanFrom making news to making indie films, Miho Yamamoto is on our 10 to Watch list for her work on the powerful documentary about one of Canada’s most horrific crimes, <i>The Exhibition</i>.
The Free Spirits of Contemporary Canadian Cinema
By Patrick PearceMontréal’s Festival du Nouveau Cinéma (FNC) just wrapped up its 42nd edition. Following up on his evening-in-the-life of FNC Temps 0 section programmer Julien Fonfrède, The Independent’s Patrick Pearce decided to find out what’s going on in the festival’s Canadian-dedicated Focus section by speaking to a few of the directors featured in it. In 2012,… Read more »
Zero Time with Programmer Julien Fonfrède
By Patrick Pearce“That day is not good for him—he’s really tied up,” writes my usually agreeable Festival du Nouveau Cinéma (FNC) communications point person. Now in its 42nd year, this Montréal festival is a broad sweep of contemporary cinema with a dozen sub-programs from “the year’s best films” in Présentation Spéciale to “gems from around the world”… Read more »
Tribeca 2013: From Novel to Screen in “A Single Shot”
By Katherine BrodskyAs indie filmmakers know, making a film is a long process that requires a passion that burns deeper than the holes is your pocket. There’s a certain dedication that goes into bringing a story alive that is borderline obsessive compulsive. But without that commitment, most films will never make it onto celluloid, let alone into… Read more »
The New in Nouveau is a Moving Target
By Patrick PearceMontreal’s Festival du Nouveau Cinema deals in the new, from new cinematic territories to new media forms that take their cues from film. The Independent’s Patrick Pearce met with FNC Lab section and short film programmer Philippe Gajan to chat (in English and French) about what “new” means to him, and why it is so… Read more »