Independent Films

Filmmaker Magazine

• “There Is a Bombardment of Violent Images in Our Lives”: Director Pascal Plante on His High-Tech Serial Killer Drama Red Rooms October 9, 2024
  Real world inspirations and dark web folklore converge in Red Rooms, the third feature from Quebecois filmmaker Pascal Plante that has conjured much buzz since its U.S. theatrical release last month. Named after the fabled sinister backdrop of covertly circulated online snuff videos, the film dissects our culture’s obsession with gorey details. As the first […]
  Natalia Keogan
• IDA Honors Dawn Porter, Shiori Ito and No Other Land Directors Basel Adra, Hamdan Ballal, Rachel Szor and Yuval Abraham October 9, 2024
  Today, the International Documentary Association (IDA) announced the recipients who will receive honorary awards on December 5, 2024, at the 40th annual IDA Documentary Awards. The show will be held at the Orpheum Theater in Los Angeles and will be live-streamed on the IDA’s social media. From the press release: International Documentary Association (IDA) announced […]
  Emily Huse
• “You Really Have To Let Go and Trust That Something Funny Will Happen”: Michael Urie, Back To One, Episode 312 October 8, 2024
  Michael Urie is one of those mega-talented actors who seems to jump effortlessly from theater (like Torch Song, Spamalot, and, currently, the revival of Once Upon A Mattress) to television (like Ugly Betty, Younger, and, currently, Shrinking), with a genuine love for both. On this episode, he talks in-depth about his acting process with a […]
  Peter Rinaldi
• Proud Boys, Bears and BDSM: Camden International Film Festival 2024 October 7, 2024
  Given the jittery churn of U.S. election year media in a late-capitalist death spiral, it can help to look elsewhere for a parallel perspective on the rise of illiberal authoritarians and a mass public siege on the seat of national governance, a la the Jan. 6 insurrection, amid their downfall. If nothing else, what has […]
  Steve Dollar
• TIFF 2024: Wavelengths October 7, 2024
  As someone who finds the feature film a more or less moribund form at the moment, the only real draw for returning to TIFF after five years away was the Wavelengths program. It’s ridiculous, of course, to think that three group shows of shorts could summarize the activity of any corner of the film world, […]
  Phil Coldiron
• “Day Car Work on Stage is Really Tough”: DP Larkin Seiple on Wolfs October 4, 2024
  It seems strange to call a $100-plus million dollar Brad Pitt and George Clooney movie a return to a director’s roots, but in a way that’s exactly what Wolfs is for Jon Watts. Like his breakthrough feature Cop Car—a spartan and sinewy 2015 neo-noir made for $800,000 that impressed Marvel enough to land Watts a […]
  Matt Mulcahey
• Illness and Empathy: San Sebastian Film Festival 2024 October 2, 2024
  If San Sebastian Film Festival director José Luis Rebordinos ever wanted to choose a poster child for how the new voices of today can become the established veterans of tomorrow, he could do a lot worse than Pedro Almodóvar, whose debut Pepi, Luci, Bom and Other Girls Like Mom played at the festival back in […]
  Amber Wilkinson
• “North Dakota is Trump Country Today”: John Hanson and Rob Nilsson on the 4K Restoration of Northern Lights October 2, 2024
  It would be easy to call 1979 a red letter Cannes for New Hollywood: Apocalypse Now got Francis Ford Coppola his second Palme d’Or (split with Volker Schlöndorff for The Tin Drum), Terrence Malick received Best Director for Days of Heaven. Outside of the spotlight of official competition, another American film playing in the International […]
  Alex Lei
• Cap’n Crunch and the Serial Killer: John McNaughton on His Career October 2, 2024
  Currently underway at the the Nitehawk Cinema in Prospect Park, “Portraits of Wild Things: The Films of John McNaughton” is a long overdue retrospective of the Chicago-based filmmaker of Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer (1986). Like The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974), I’ve always felt that the most exploitative aspect of McNaughton’s film was […]
  Erik Luers
• The Gotham Pages: Community News October 1, 2024
  It’s that time of year again. Fall is setting in, with cooler temperatures and a flurry of exciting film and media events on the horizon. Chief among these is Gotham Week’s Project Market, the nation’s oldest and largest marketplace for film and TV creators, slated for September 30 to October 4. Mark your calendars and […]
  Filmmaker Staff