See Marwencol. That’s it. I can try to explain it to you, I can try to let you know how I feel about it, but you and can’t really talk about Marwencol until you see Marwencol.
Okay, I’ll tell you a few things about it since you asked so nicely. The film follows Mark Hogancamp, a man who starts his life over after being beaten half to death. Once he can walk and talk and read again, he begins to learn a few things about his former life, of which he remembers nothing. He was a drunk; a drunk who kept detailed and often horrific journals of his darkest moments. As he slowly tries to put his life together, the pain of dealing with his attack and coming to terms with his former self, he begins practicing his own kind of unconventional therapy. Read on…
Wow, South by Southwest (SXSW) is one helluva whirlwind event. Luckily, between screenings my schedule allowed for a quick chat with David Bond, whose film Erasing David had its U.S. Première here last night. The documentary, which the director concedes is something of a sensationalist thriller, deals with the issue of modern privacy in a world where we are obsessed with sharing so much of our personal information.
In the film, David opts to “drop off the map” as it were. Two of the best private investigators in the U.K. are given his picture and his name, but nothing else. While the film crew follows them around, they must find David who is doing everything in his power not to get caught. Within hours of them beginning their assignment, they gather more information than he originally thought was possible. They even started a fake Facebook account for David, spoofing his friends into giving them leads to move forward on.
Lucky for us (or for me, really), the U.S. ranks much higher in terms of privacy awareness than the U.K. Surprisingly, the U.K. is the third worst country in terms of availability of private data in the world. Their competition? China and Russia. This may seem startling, but the U.K. does have CCTV cameras all over the country recording almost every public area. With facial recognition technology slowly being integrated with the system, David purports, it is only a matter of time before our social networks become meshed with state infrastructure.
The fact that this film is receiving such a warm reception at a conference such as SXSW says a lot about how much of a paranoid Luddite the director isn’t. After all, the Interactive wing of SXSW is where Twitter and Foursquare, a geo-location social network, were launched. All day long people are sharing their location, their thoughts, and perhaps even more sensitive data than they realize on their mobile phones as they wander about the Austin Convention Center. But as I said, Mr. Bond is no Luddite. He is simply more aware of these issues after his experience of making the film. It is his hope that the film’s audience will be more aware as well.
Erasing David will be screening again on Tuesday, March 16th at 11am in the G-Tech theater. The film is also available VOD through Amazon during the festival. For more information on both the film and issues of privacy and information, you can check out the film’s Official Website.
The other day, director Miao Wang invited me to her Brooklyn home to discuss her new film, Beijing Taxi. The documentary follows three Beijing cab drivers over the course of two years leading up to the 2008 Beijing Olympics. All working class locals, each character offers a unique perspective on the society that has seemed closed for so long to westerners. The film is an eye-opener for anyone who has ever wanted to take a closer look at China’s capital, even, as Ms. Wang explains in our interview, for the taxi drivers themselves. Beijing Taxi will have its world première next week at SXSW in Austin, Texas. For more details, you can visit the film’s official website. Listen in as we discuss the current state of China, the making of the film, and what bands Miao is most excited to hear when she heads to Austin for the festival.
Music Featured in this Podcast (from the Beijing Taxi soundtrack):
• An Yang “安阳” — Miserable Faith
• Our Healthy Upward Ideals “我们目前健康向上的小理想” — Sand
• Together “在一起” — Sound Fragment
Certainly new media has changed the way we approach filmmaking, but how does that mentality actually manifest itself? To find out, I talked to Todd Tue of Milk Products Media this week. Where once makers would upload their work to the web in hopes of gaining exposure to head down a traditional distribution path, Todd is now finding that the internet may be the best outlet for his work, period.
The bulk of our conversation is about Milk Products’ latest documentary endeavor, a feature film about a family owned and operated dairy farm in Ohio. You can view the short documentary on Vimeo right now, then head on over to their Kickstarter page to learn more about the feature they plan to make. As Todd tells me in our interview, the fact that over 10,000 people have already viewed a short piece he made is pretty satisfying, but he hopes they will get to make the full length story. Listen in as we talk about making films on the cheap, bringing some creativity to paying gigs, and why it is such a great time to be making media.
Apple’s iPad is 2 months from release and the Internet seems to have already made up its mind on the device, one way or another. This is all based on total speculation as even those who have handled the tablet haven’t done so long enough to offer an informed opinion. So while the mud and rainbows sling elsewhere, I would like to speculate how the device will impact filmmakers should it be embraced after launch.
First off, let’s look at the iPhone/iPod Touch which has enjoyed decent success in the film community. There are apps available as simple as AJA’s data rate calculator for estimating video file sizes and as complex as screenwriting applications. You can plug your iPod into an Alesis ProTrack and record audio via XLR mics. This doesn’t even to mention the simpler things like the video capabilities of the iPhone 3GS which gives any maker the ability to shoot a walkthrough or concept video whenever they deem necessary. Today, the filmmaker finds a decent tool in the iPhone/iPod Touch.
So when voices on the internet decry the new iPad “just a big iPod Touch”, I would ask the dissenters how they could consider that a bad thing. The truth is that if it were just a big iPod Touch, it would already solve a great deal of problems with the smaller screen on Apple’s mobile devices. Even though the device isn’t available in the wild yet, it is fast becoming clear that the iPad is something more than a glorified iPhone. Take a look at some of the advanced gestures possible on the iPad in this video compiled by Gizmodo:
The way Phil Schiller “stacks” those Keynote slides with a two touch gesture is something that has never been available on any Apple touch device before, and it is a sign of things to come. Gesturing is about to go way past touching and swiping. So how could this impact filmmakers? Let’s break it down by department. Read on…
The sweet irony of Paul Osborne’s documentary, Official Rejection, a backstage tell-all of American film festival culture, is that the film has gone on to be something of a fest favorite around the country. I first reviewed the film at last year’s Deadcenter Film Festival in Oklahoma City, where Paul and I agreed we would find time for an interview. Finally, we have come together to chat about his film, which is still running the festival circuit, and movies in general. As Sundance 2010 begins, we thought it would be a perfect time to discuss what festivals represent in the dreams of filmmakers and what they really are. Believe it or not, a lot has changed since Paul made the film, so listen in as he explains where we stand today. Other points of interest: my own bitching about Blu-Ray, the films Paul is most excited to see, and the two of us compare war stories on both sides of the critic-filmmaker lines.
Ed. Note: My microphone suffered some fits of serious crackling for this one. I’ve been trying to scrub it out but I’m finding it impossible. I’ll fix the problem by the next Candlercast. Sorry for the ear-strain.
After a great deal of discussion on our bests of the decade podcast, we are finally ready to let you in on our director of the decade: Steven Soderbergh. He won an Oscar, made a slew of successful films while keeping his arthouse street cred, legitimized the RED Camera, and pretty much just blew everyone out of the water in the last ten years. But don’t take my word for it, Sunrise provided a great writeup of the man and his decade. Let us know in the comments if you think we chose wisely (or not).
The way in which Steven Soderbergh starts off this decade is with such veracity and force with Traffic and Erin Brochovich, it is a wonder that he not only maintains such consistency towards the end, but implements a fascinating success that is important not only for him as an artist, but for us as an audience.
Leaving the nineties as a “Sundance” poster boy with questionable box office draw, he made a sudden turn with 1998’s Out of Sight and opened the decade with winning one of two Best Director nominations, to which only Michael Curtiz’s 1938 double nomination loss comes close in comparison. While Curtiz was just as much of a workhorse, what makes Soderbergh’s nomination so amazing is the metaphoric weight of self-challenge it represents. This challenge, as it were, is extended beyond his own growth as an artist into the ever-growing challenges he places upon his peers and audience. Read on…
And finally, the moment you’ve all been waiting for: the best directors of the decade according to the candler blog. I’m going to do this a little differently than our first installments on Notable Events, Writers and Actors. When Sunrise Tippeconnie and I recorded this podcast, we tried to sum up the entire decade in 90 minutes. We found it completely impossible. In fact, the time we spent on directors alone was about that much. The discussion was good enough that I thought we should share it here. Instead of telling you who we pick as filmmaker of the decade, we thought you should listen in and hear for yourself. Okay, maybe we’ll tell you soon so keep your eyes peeled for a post about our favorite filmmaker of the decade. In the meantime, sit back, relax and listen in on the musings of a few cinephiles.
See Marwencol. That’s it. I can try to explain it to you, I can try to let you know how I feel about it, but you and can’t really talk about Marwencol until you see Marwencol.
And finally, the moment you’ve all been waiting for: the best directors of the decade according to the candler blog. I’m going to do this a little differently than our first installments on