https://independent-magazine.org/1999/10/01/thefutureishere-com/
Obsessed with Independent Film Since 1976
Obsessed with Independent Film Since 1976
Documentary filmmakers often struggle for years doing whatever it takes to finish our labors of love, only to find one roadblock after another thrown up between the completed work and the audience we know is out there. Now comes the Internet, with its extraordinary power to target and reach potential viewers, as well as broadband,… Read more »
Mary Katzke got both the idea and the money for her latest documentary unexpectedly: via a life-threatening illness. Misdiagnosed in 1991, Katzke later found she had advanced breast cancer, requiring massive chemotherapy. Dropped by her insurance company, she sued her doctor to cover medical bills, promising herself that if she survived five years, she’d make… Read more »
The Celebration (1998), 105 min., color Director: Thomas Vinterberg [www.dogme95.dk] Original Format: Mini DV (PAL) Transferred to: 35mm Synopsis: The story of a family celebration which explores the explosions that occur when family tensions reach critical mass. Camera used: Sony PC 7 (palm-sized mini DV camera; predecessor to the PC10 and PC1). Sound: Mixed to… Read more »
My desk is festooned with the fruits of two previous Independent Feature Film Markets: a cupful of pens, buttons, a mousepad, a key ring. And that’s not counting the baseball caps and t-shirts that are given out by filmmakers each September to promote their work. Navigating the IFFM can be bewildering for newcomers. But the… Read more »
We’re trying to get rid of the film print as a distribution format," explains James Boyd, the man responsible for No Dance, one of a number of micro-fests that screened in the shadow of the 1999 Sundance Film Festival–but the only one presenting films on DVD. "DVD is a finishing format, like a print, only… Read more »
When the year was young, the hot topic was Monica, not Kosovo. So at the Sundance Film Festival in January, war was the furthest thing from most people’s minds — unless they happened to catch Regret to Inform,Rabbit in the Moon, or Return with Honor,three documentaries dealing with war and its aftermath. Ten years in… Read more »
Picking a producer is like hiring your own boss. Indie veteran Gill Holland offers some words of advice to novice directors looking for that special someone to produce their films There have been many stereotypes of movie producers over the years, but the quintessential one has to be the fat cat smoking cigars with a… Read more »
Producer Sandra Katz has tried for three years to raise money for Nothing Men, a film by first-time director John Serpe. “It’s a vicious cycle,” she says. “You can’t get all your financing until you get a name actor, and you can’t get a name actor until you get your financing.” Sound familiar? It’s a… Read more »
Between the impeachment proceedings in Washington and the bombing runs over Iraq, the mid-December release of a final report by the Advisory Committee on Public Interest Obligations of Digital Television Broadcasters didn’t stand much of a chance. Even on a slow news day, this was not the kind of material to create much of a… Read more »
Over the past 30 years, St. Clair Bourne has amassed a substantial body of work about strong and controversial black artists and leaders: LeRoi Jones, Langston Hughes, Spike Lee, and John Henrick Clarke, among others. Most recently he’s set his sights on the singer, actor, and activist Paul Robeson and former Black Panther Stokely Carmichael…. Read more »