Here’s a quick roundup of some of my favorite links from the first couple weeks of 2015. The idea for the new year is to post things like this more regularly but with much more self selection and curation so I don't go insane trying to keep track of everything.
Tired of Awards Season Bloat? Here are some alternatives.
When even something like the Independent Spirit Awards seem to be colonized by movies that are not, by current standards, independent (4 of the ISA nominees for Best Picture also have an Oscar Nomination for same, and the line for eligibility is that a film have a budget under $20 million) it’s time to look elsewhere. It should go without saying that I don’t have anything against larger budgeted films, but the field of view on what’s happening in contemporary cinema shouldn’t be so narrow. Thankfully we have a few able guides.
Hammer to Nail has been making their own lists for a few years now, and their model for selection is much more in tune with the realities of independent film in the age of non-theatrical release and micro-budgets (their focus is on American films made for under $1 million). They also have good taste.
Indie Documentarian and Editor Robert Greene has posted a personalized list of “Cinematic Non-Fiction” at the BFI. His picks are wonderfully personal and make you want to search out things you missed, as well as keep an eye out for ones still one the festival circuit.
On the internet video front, critic and video essayist Kevin B. Lee has curated a list of the best video essays of the year over at Keyframe, including his own breakdown of contemporary video essay vernacular “What Makes a Video Essay Great?” (embedded below). Please do go check out the other videos on his list.
Assorted Nuggets
DP/30 goes long with an interview with Selma and A Most Violent Year cinematographer Bradford Young. It is worth your time.
Vadim Rizov has gathered a small feast of tidbits from cinematographers talking about why they chose to shoot on film in 2014.
I’ve only begun to dig into Tayarisha Poe’s Selah and the Spades project which I was alerted to by raves from Terence Nance and Scott Macaulay on Twitter, but what I’ve seen thus far is very promising and worth checking out for a sample of non-traditional formatting for cinematic storytelling.
An Only Slightly Film-Related Tangent
A short history of the paperback book phenomenon over at the New Yorker.
No comments:
Post a Comment