The making of 2 Makes 1

Here’s a sneak behind-the-scenes preview of the how the film was produced. We brought in the fantastically talented Kenji Hirata to work with D.P. Eric Egerton to produce a stop-motion animation for Scion’s Easy10, a film festival to premiere in New York in January (and LA in February.) The film is titled 2 Makes 1, and is a culmination of months of preparation and weeks of painstaking animation. The music was done by Obi, a good friend of Kenji’s, who lives in in a secluded upstate hideaway.

The making of 2 Makes 1

2 Makes 1 is a stop-motion animation based on the core human emotions of love, betrayal, inspiration and then redemption. With a refined, minimalistic style, artist Kenji Hirata plays with the layers of understanding and complexities that make up relationships between people in our everyday lives. The colorful characters are inspired by Hirata’s real-life experiences and he is guided by the Buddhist belief that emptiness is everything eternal

The making of 2 Makes 1

We’ll be posting more snippets from the film soon, as well as locations and schedule for upcoming screenings.

The making of 2 Makes 1

The making of 2 Makes 1

The making of 2 Makes 1

TAGS: Reviews, Film Reviews

Laurel Nakadate’s Stay The Same Never Change

Here’s a message from Laurel about the film:

dear friends,

I made my first feature-length movie.
It’s called “ Stay the Same Never Change”. 
I wrote, shot and directed it.
It features original music by Casiotone for the Painfully Alone.
I shot it in Kansas City during the very hot summer of 2007 and finished it in June of 2008.
It will premier in January, at the 2009 Sundance film festival.
I miss you all and can’t wait to celebrate with each of you.

laurel

Find out more about the film on Laurel’s website.

Laurel Nakadate’s Stay The Same Never Change

TAGS: Reviews, Film Reviews

Baz Lurhmann, (born Mark Anthony Luhrmann) the director of Moulin Rouge and Strictly Ballroom comes to us again with a new offering, this time armed with the story of the world’s only island continent, Australia. Take a look at the trailer. With shades of the Thorn Birds and Pearl Harbor, thrown together with Moulin Rouge, the film looks good, if not a bit boring. There seems to be some hype from Oprah’s endorsement of it, she dedicating a whole episode to the movie’s release.

Australia, the country, home to the draconian White Australia Policy until the 1970’s - where it was almost impossible for non-whites to emigrate to the country - has always been second to South Africa on the racist totem pole in many people’s views. The trailer for Australia, the movie features some Aboriginal actors, (but no Asian ones - or maybe just a few Japs as they come hurtling at you in their zeroes) and hopefully tells the story, at least in part, of the plight of the real natives of Australia, a-la movies like Rabbit Proof Fence.

Lucky for Australia, it only has to contend with Four Christmases, Transporter 3 and Bolt in its opening weekend, so no doubt you’ll find it being flouted as the “#1 movie in America!” Twenty years ago this might have been an epic for the ages, but today Australia almost feels like Titanic 2.0 - an ok movie if you have nothing better to check out.

TAGS: Reviews, Film Reviews

Auge and de Rosnay overlooking Los Angeles

Boobs, Bottles, and Bouchon. Three words sum up the new film, A Cross the Universe, a documentary about French electro-rock producers/remixers Justice’s spring 2008 tour. The film follows duo Gaspard Auge and Xavier de Rosnay as they crowd surf across the country, rock out to stadiums full of adoring fans, step over drunk groupies, and get wasted, city after city. Meanwhile, road manager Bouchon marvels at the lax gun laws in the United States, receiving a handgun through Fedex, he shares wisdom from the concealed firearms handbook, takes Auge and de Rosnay to their first gun range, and gets arrested after putting his gun out on the table to order at a restaurant in middle America.

Shot using a digital camera, the film moves quickly from city to city capturing the highs of performing to the electrified masses to the lows of changing a blown tire at the side of the road and all the madness of touring in-between. Some of the most revealing moments show the musically gifted Auge and de Rosnay as they play around on pianos and other instruments in their downtime. The obvious affection the team shares for one another, including appearances by label owner/manager Pedro Winter and their gospel-singing tour bus driver, an aspiring guinness book entrant for “lowest vocal tone”, keeps this film together and provides an intimate, if somewhat superficial, portrait of life on the road in 2008. Check director Romain Gavras previous collaboration with Justice for their music video for “Stress” after the jump. This film is everything you’d expect from a rock ‘n’ roll tour documentary—boys behaving badly with subtitles.

Continue reading »

TAGS: Reviews, Film Reviews

The film plays at the Savannah Film Festival October 27 and 29th as well as at the Santa Fe Film Festival December 3-7. More here.

TAGS: Reviews, Film Reviews

If you get a chance, you should definitely check out this debut feature by director Lance Hammer. It’s an official Sundance selection. Here’s a synopsis from Sundance’s Caroline Libresco:

BALLAST is one of those rare films that maximize the medium through an aesthetic of understatement. Every frame is deliberately and beautifully composed, every cut artfully and economically executed – not only to transmit a quietly gripping story but to reveal characters’ layered emotional experiences and the specific textures and sensations of their locales. Because it is grounded by three exquisitely nuanced performances, it’s not surprising that BALLAST is the product of intensive collaboration with local nonactors organically connected to the material. First-time director Lance Hammer is a distinctive voice with a remarkable sensitivity to the topography of human relationships and a powerfully cinematic social-realist vision.

Here is a list of screenings around the country.

TAGS: Reviews, Film Reviews

This trailer looks very apropos for the times. Michelle Williams performance is said to be heart wrenching and well deserving of an Oscar. I can’t wait to check this out. Wendy and Lucy screens at the New York Film Festival before a winter run at the Film Forum in New York.

TAGS: Reviews, Film Reviews

Head down there if you’re in the area. The SDAFF goes until the 16th in San Diego and at Riverside from the 21st to the 23rd.

TAGS: Reviews, Film Reviews

This thriller sends you in a hunt for clues in order to solve the mystery of a wife murdered on her anniversary. The film follows a grieving husband fast forward to eight years; where bodies turned up near where his wife was found; the husband played by François Cluzet is so convincingly the wounded husband pegged as the prime suspect in his wife’s murder. As the movie progresses the viewer and François Cluzet are taken for a spin when emails appear with information only his wife’s lover would know.  Amid the anonymous emails, there are multiple point of view characters that bring their fragmented knowledge to the table and the process in which the puzzle is solved is a suspenseful ride. When the story unfolds, be prepared, even with the clues leading up to the discovery you will be shocked at the outcome. The marriage between first time director Guillaume Canet and the material adapted from Harlan Coben’s 2001 best selling novel makes for a seamless bridge between different cultures. Last note; the music of the film is composed by Matthieu Chedid a.k.a.; -M-, the son of jazz great Louis Chedid, Matthieu Chedid brings an intentionally melodic tone to the movie. In addition to the scores specifically made for the movie, Chedid added U2 and Otis Redding in pitch perfect scenes.

It is available for purchase on DVD, October 15th. 

TAGS: Reviews, Film Reviews

He was a postal clerk. She was a librarian. With their modest means, the couple managed to build one of the most important contemporary art collections in history. Meet Herbert and Dorothy Vogel, whose shared passion and commitment defied stereotypes and redefined what it means to be an art collector.

A film by first-time filmmaker Megumi Sasaki, Herb & Dorothy is an intimate portrait documenting the life and passion of this storied couple. This inspiring documentary was five years in the making and surprisingly, the first documentary film about the Vogels. As Sasaki explained, the film is really a, “love story,” telling the tale of the love between Herb and Dorothy themselves, and their commitment and passion for collecting art.

Continue reading »

TAGS: Reviews, Film Reviews