October 2007

Screenwriter and blogger David L. Tamarian says that he was fascinated, even as a young child, by images of Norman Bates wielding his overactive knife and Damien's sweet British nurse hanging herself. Today, he makes his own gory, grindhouse films, taking inspiration from the likes of Japan's Takashi Miike, the director of Audition and the forthcoming God's Puzzle. So for Halloween, we asked David to compile his list of the ten scariest movies of all time. Rent them at your own risk.

And check out Michele's interview with documentarian Marlo Poras about the making of Run Granny Run, a film about political activist Doris "Granny D" Haddock.

Family secrets are kind of like community secrets,” observes filmmaker and Duke University professor Tom Rankin. “The energy that guards them really inflates their value.” In Airing Your Dirty Laundry, Erin Trahan talks with filmmakers Doug Birch (51 Birch Street) and Lucia Small (My Father, The Genius) about the difficult choices they were compelled to make when they decided to make films about their families.

"I used to be a lawyer who wanted to be an artist, but then I went to therapy. Now I am an artist whose medium is the rule of law. That sounds so pretentious, I want to puke." So says California law professor James Cooper, who talks with Mike Hofman about how his grassroots group, Proyecto Acceso, uses various forms of media—including documentary film, reality television, music videos, and animation—to promote the rule of law in Latin America.

David Tamés asks Flower Films pioneer Les Blank about his one-time subject, Werner Herzog; filming his latest, All in This Tea, digitally and in China; and why he self-distributes his films. To view a clip from All in This Tea or any of the films mentioned in this month's feature articles, visit the Watch page.