Interviews
10 Filmmakers to Watch in 2013: Dawn Porter
Dawn Porter makes our 10 to Watch list in 2013 with her documentary "Gideon’s Army."
May 2nd, 2013 | Mike SullivanSince her Sundance premiere, Dawn Porter has been turning heads and hearts with Gideon's Army, her first feature documentary about the tough but vital role of public defenders in the US justice system. Here's why The Independent has an eye on her in 2013.
The odds may be long, but it is possible to see your first film be accepted by Sundance, win a Sundance award, and be bought by HBO. All you need is talent, passion, drive, determination, discipline, great collaborators, support, luck, perspective, intelligence and a killer idea at the perfect time. Do you have all that?
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Outsider Writers: Four Not-in-LA Grad Programs in Screenwriting
Jared M. Gordon interviews graduate program directors at schools in Pennsylvania, Virginia, Illinois, and Nevada.
March 26th, 2013 | Jared M. GordonJared M. Gordon is convinced that studying screenwriting outside of NY or LA can greatly benefit budding scribes. He spoke to graduate program directors at Carnegie Mellon University, Hollins University, Northwestern University, and the University of Nevada, Las Vegas to gather facts and substantiate his theory.
You don’t have to spend your whole savings and attend a graduate program in Los Angeles or New York to learn screenwriting. In fact, could a program, unshackled from geographic proximity to Hollywood, actually be a unique and advantageous experience for its students?
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The New in Nouveau is a Moving Target
Festival du Nouveau Cinema's Philippe Gajan considers the shifting landscape of his programmatic specialities: short format and new media.
October 29th, 2012 | Patrick PearceFestival du Nouveau Cinema's Philippe Gajan explains how web docs are new media and not just documentaries on the web: "The place of the viewer is completely different now. You can choose the way you participate in the documentary." The Independent's Patrick Pearce gets the whole scoop on how the definition of nouveau changes from year to year.
Montreal’s Festival du Nouveau Cinema deals in the new, from new cinematic territories to new media forms that take their cues from film.
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The Ascent of Assange
Katherine Brodsky talks with director Robert Connolly, who premiered an adapted biopic of Julian Assange at TIFF 2012.
October 11th, 2012 | Katherine BrodskyTiming is everything. Though Robert Connolly took six years to make his last film, he turned out the first Julian Assange biopic in a year. The Independent's Katherine Brodsky caught up with him at TIFF 2012.
Hushed tones. Top-secret documents. Governments, pissed-off across the globe. Whether praised or demonized, few people can debate the significance of Australian-born Julian Assange, founder of the contentious WikiLeaks.
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Five TIFF Filmmakers Who Play it Short
At TIFF 2012, Katherine Brodsky talks with Canadian short filmmakers about the benefits of an abbreviated form.
September 29th, 2012 | Katherine BrodskyShorts programs may not garner headlines, or coverage at all for that matter, but there are MANY reasons to cut it short. The Independent's Katherine Brodsky spoke to five Canadian filmmakers at Toronto International Film Festival about why short is soo sweet.
Sometimes it's difficult to see beyond the flashing bulbs, glitz, and glamour of a high-profile film festival like the Toronto International Film Festival, or TIFF. There's no shortage of star power and tent-pole films. Even the top indie features have to fight to get noticed and are the unsung heroes of festivals.
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Making CONNECTIONS
Rebecca Reynolds asks the "Missed Connections" team how they pulled off their festival-favorite comedy on a shoestring budget.
September 26th, 2012 | Rebecca ReynoldsOn and off-screen partners Kenny Stevenson and Dorien Davies teamed up with producer Lisa Rudin and director Eric Kissack on the indie festival comedy hit Missed Connections, which makes its international debut later this month. Rebecca Reynolds inquires about casting, budgeting, and the recipe for "comedy chops."
Writer/actor Kenny Stevenson and his wife, actress Dorien Davies, joined forces with producer Lisa Rudin and director Eric Kissack to make the award-winning indie comedy, http://mi
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Julia Bacha on the Art of Non-Violent Filmmaking
After "Budrus," Bacha documents a coming-of-age story set in East Jerusalem.
September 10th, 2012 | Rebecca ReynoldsJulia Bacha's follow up to Budrus is My Neighborhood, which follows a young boy who comes of age in East Jerusalem through eviction, protests, and unexpected allegiances. She told The Independent that "the story of My Neighborhood isn’t over. We wanted to get the film out as soon as possible, because we didn’t want the window to close while there was still time to try and stop the settlements there."
In a conversation via Skype over the summer, acclaimed writer/director Julia Bacha talked with The Independent’s Rebecca Reynolds about Bacha’s work at Just Vision, a nonprofit organization dedicated to documenting the lives of Palestinian and Israeli civilians who are working to promote peace and fre
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Laura Colella's Seminal Summer
Laura Colella's third narrative feature, a summer story about neighborly, multi-generation relationships, stars Colella's real-life housemates and has its world premiere this week.
June 13th, 2012 | David Pierotti"I think everyone has a particular summer when your life took a real shift," says Laura Colella to The Independent's David Pierotti within days of her third narrative feature debut. Colella calls Breakfast With Curtis a no-budget feature. It takes place in her real-life backyard starring her real-life neighbors... and marks at least one character's seminal summer.
Providence, Rhode Island, director Laura Colella was gearing up for the Los Angeles Film Festival earlier this week. Her third narrative feature, Breakfast With Curtis, will get its world premiere screening before an audience on June 14th.
10 Filmmakers to Watch in 2012
The Independent chooses the 10 Filmmakers to Watch in 2012.
June 12th, 2012The Independent shines a spotlight on 10 innovative filmmakers to keep your eye on this year, and coming years. We've got web series creators, animators, and filmmakers of all genres... and in the last month we've been releasing exclusive new extras on Facebook.
It's another year, and time to announce 10 filmmakers we at The Independent think you should keep your eye on. It's a varied group, to be sure, but each filmmaker has a few key things in common: talent, drive, and the desire to innovate.
That's Classic - Bill Hader on 'Essential' Hollywood Films for the Whole Family
Want to learn the fundamentals of filmmaking and a little something about jury duty? Saturday Night Live star Bill Hader suggests an education in Hollywood classics.
June 1st, 2012 | Beth BrosnanIn another installment of "That's Classic," a column that connects classics to indie film, The Independent's Beth Brosnan checks in with Saturday Night Live's Bill Hader, who kicks off another season hosting TCM's Essentials Jr. this weekend.
Talk to actor-writer Bill Hader for even a short while, and you quickly realize that the affably offbeat Saturday Night Live comedian is—as his castmate Andy Samberg once remarked of Michael Bolton—“a major cinephile.”
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