How did the buying and selling stack up at this year’s TIFF? Courtney Sheehan takes the temp of the ever-feverish world of independent film exhibition and distribution by talking with Adam Birnbaum (Avon Theatre), Julie Anderson Friesen (Cinema Falls), and Andrew Carlin (Oscilloscope Laboratories).
Fittingly, Frederick Wiseman attended the 40th edition of the Toronto International Film Festival with his 40th documentary, In Jackson Heights, about a diverse New York neighborhood in flux. The Independent asks Wiseman to discuss the editing process, the communities he discovered in Jackson Heights, and the notion of screening all of his films in a continuous 100 hour stretch.
If cinema can function as a vehicle for a nation’s collective memory, Afghanistan only recently began to recollect itself. Pietra Brettkelly’s documentary, A Flickering Truth, mines the Afghan Film Archive for the nation’s cultural history and follows the team of people who are working to protect it and share it with the world.
Maddy Kadish reviews films featured at the 58th San Francisco International Film Festival, which is now extending the festival fun with an online screening room.
The Filmatic Festival is a forum for that film geek and science nerd in all of us. It describes itself…
Senior critic Kurt Brokaw commends Tribeca’s Sharon Badal on her “peerless curating” in his annual selection of festival favorites. From the buzzy The Wolfpack to the under-the-radar shorts such as Big Boy selected by Badal, this year’s picks thus far include dramatized dance, rock legends (but not conspiracy theories), and under-helicoptered children.
“Oh, he was frustrated with me and I was frustrated with him through the process of making this film, but I’m a fan of the man,” says Ondi Timoner to The Independent’s Dana Knight. The pair talks shop about filming Russell Brand for Brand: The Second Coming, which premiered at SXSW 2015.
From two boxing documentaries to the viewpoints of Afghan photojournalists, much of the buzz during this year’s SXSW surrounded films by or about women. Steven Abrams offers up his observations of this festival, growing each year in every direction, as it struggles to keep the margins front and center.
With more than 240 offerings, even seasoned SXSW attendees like Steven Abrams can feel overwhelmed. Abrams took a step back and gleaned the best nuggets from the film panels so that those of us who couldn’t attend can get a sense of what’s what.