Declare Your Independents: Volume 6
GITS development assistant Wendy Cohen here, and welcome to another edition of Declare Your Independents, our new series highlighting the latest developments in the world of independent film.
This week…
“Blue Jasmine” to Go Wider — and Outgross — Any Woody Allen Film
Edgar Wright Talks “The World’s End,” Completing The Cornetto Trilogy, “Ant-Man” & Much More
Critics Pick Their Favorite Films and Performances from the 2013 Locarno International Film Festival
Interview with Kickstarter’s Yancey Strickler: “It’s Understandable that Filmmakers Would Feel Anxiety”
TIFF 2013 Trailers: Ken Watanabe’s “Unforgiven” Remake, Zhangke’s “A Touch of Sin,” “Blue Is the Warmest Color” and More, Updated
Spike Lee Says He’ll Set Up A Kickstarter Endowment To Fund Other Projects If His Is Profitable
For Your Consideration: The 10 Summer Indies That Stand The Best Shot At Oscar Nods
“Inch’ Allah”’s Anais Barbeau-Lavalette: “In My Country, A Female Director Is A Rare Exception”
Sundance Favorite Short Term 12 Reviewed
NYFF Announces Its 2013 Slate
Again, a reminder from last week’s post:
- Scott and I encourage any of you who go to see an independent movie to post your reactions to the film in these posts. Good, bad, indifferent, whatever. If there’s a film you want to recommend, do it. Use your words to inspire readers to transport themselves into a local cinema.
- When you go to the theater, why not whip out your cellphone and snap a shot of something that demonstrates you were there? A photo of the movie poster in the lobby. A shot of your ticket stubs. An image of the movie theater itself. You and your iconoclastic indie film freaks.
- For any conversations on Twitter re: this initiative, let’s use these two hashtags: #independents and #declareyourindependents
- While we’re at it, why not add our photos to CydM’s fantastic Pintrest page for everyone to enjoy?
- And if we come up with a nifty Declaration of Independents, we could try to make it go viral. If you were going to write a Declaration of Independents, what would you include? What if we made it a video manifesto?
We can’t make this work without your participation. Share your experiences with the community so we can open up readers to the fantastically diverse, exciting and evolving world of independent film. We’ll all be extremely grateful that you did!
INDIE SPOTLIGHT: MOVIES TO SEE IN THEATERS THIS WEEK
OPENING FRIDAY (8/23)
Short Term 12 is told through the eyes of Grace (Brie Larson), a 20-something supervisor at a facility for at-risk teenagers. Passionate and tough, Grace is a formidable caretaker of the kids in her charge — and in love with her long-term boyfriend and co-worker, Mason (John Gallagher Jr.). But Grace’s own difficult past — and the surprising future that suddenly presents itself — throw her into unforeseen confusion, made all the sharper with the arrival of a new intake at the facility: a gifted but troubled teenage girl with whom Grace has a charged connection. While the subject matter is complex, this lovingly realized film finds truth — and humor — in unexpected places.
Read /Film’s coverage of the movie here.
Q&A with director Destin Cretton and cast to come.
Indie filmmaker Joe Swanberg wrote and directed this romantic comedy drama centering on the sexual tension between craft-brewery employees Luke (Jake Johnson) and Kate (Olivia Wilde), who wrestle with their growing attraction to one another due to the fact that they’re already both in committed relationships. With Luke’s marriage-minded girlfriend Jill (Anna Kendrick) and Kate’s boyfriend Chris (Ron Livingston) out of the picture for a weekend, the flirtatious co-workers learn there is no denying what the heart really wants.
Watch an in-depth interview with the director here.
Q&A with director Joe Swanberg and star Olivia Wilde to come.
Five lifelong friends reunite to complete a historic pub crawl from their youth, and find that reaching the fabled World’s End tavern will be no simple undertaking while they also fight for the future of all mankind. Twenty years ago, Gary King (Simon Pegg) and his pals embarked on the ultimate drinking marathon. But the beer got the best of them, and they failed to drink their final pint at the World’s End pub. Now, as die-hard rebel Gary approaches middle age, he summons his old friends back to their hometown for another round. With each pint down, Gary and the gang take another step toward reconciling with the past. Yet just when it starts to look like their goal is in sight, the pals realize that a much larger struggle is currently taking place, and that the future seems particularly grim — not only for them, but for the entire human race. Nick Frost, Paddy Considine, Martin Freeman, Eddie Marsan, and Rosamund Pike co-star in the final chapter of Edgar Wright’s “Three Flavors Cornetto Trilogy,” which began with 2004’s Shaun of the Dead and continued in 2007’s Hot Fuzz.
Watch The Guardian’s interview with director Edgar Wright and stars Simon Pegg and Nick Frost here.
The Frozen Ground is inspired by the incredible true story that follows Alaskan State Trooper Jack Halcombe (Nicolas Cage) as he sets out to end the murderous rampage of Robert Hansen (John Cusack), a serial killer who has gone unnoticed for 13 years. As the bodies of street girls start to pile up in Anchorage, fear strikes a chord with the public. Risking his life, Halcombe goes on a personal manhunt to find the killer before the next body surfaces. When a seventeen year old escapee (Vanessa Hudgens) reveals key information about the case, Halcombe is finally on the trail of the killer. But will he catch him in time to save the next victim?
Star Nicolas Cage talks about the movie here.
Q&A with director writer/director Scott Walker to come.
Directed by acclaimed filmmaker Wong Kar Wai, THE GRANDMASTER is an epic action feature inspired by the life and times of the legendary kung fu master, Ip Man. The story spans the tumultuous Republican era that followed the fall of China’s last dynasty, a time of chaos, division and war that was also the golden age of Chinese martial arts. Filmed in a range of stunning locations that include the snow-swept landscapes of Northeast China and the subtropical South, THE GRANDMASTER features virtuoso performances by some of the greatest stars of contemporary Asian cinema, including Tony Leung and Ziyi Zhang.
A family reunion turns into a full-on massacre when a gang of masked killers invade a sprawling country mansion on a ruthless mission of murder. Paul (Rob Moran) and Aubrey Davison (Barbara Crampton) are about to celebrate their wedding anniversary, and they’ve invited their grown-up children out to the country to share in the revelry. The first to arrive are Crispian (A.J. Bowen) and his new girlfriend Erin (Sharni Vinson). It isn’t long before the rest of the family has filed in as well, and the party gets under way. Later, at the dinner table, old sibling rivalries begin to resurface and parental preferences quickly become apparent. Just as tensions begin to flare up, however, a crossbow arrow blasts through the glass window and panic sets in. The family is under attack. But who are the savage invaders donning eerie farm-animal masks, and what is their motive behind slaughtering everyone in the house? No one is safe as the blood starts to flow, but Erin is determined to see the dawn, and she’s got the survival skills to strike back at her attackers with deadly force.
A veteran chef faces off against his restaurant group’s new CEO, who wants to the establishment to lose a star from its rating in order to bring in a younger chef who specializes in molecular gastronomy.
Two longtime friends (Josh Duhamel and Dan Fogler) whose bond has grown frail become locked in a bitter life-or-death struggle after their pickup truck breaks down in the desert in this drama from the directing duo of Michael and Kevin Goetz.
When stage fright gets the best of her, a former actress (Marin Ireland, “Homeland”) stops leaving her apartment, crippled by fear of the outside world. Living off delivery food and residuals from her acting career, she spends her days watching bad TV and spying on the city from her window. But when her toilet overflows and a kind, compassionate plumber (Paul Sparks, “Boardwalk Empire”) shows up, she reluctantly allows him into her refuge. A tender, comical love story, grounded by exceptional performances by Ireland and Sparks.
Savannah is the true story of Ward Allen, a romantic and bombastic character who rejects his plantation heritage for the freedom of life on a river. Ward navigates the change of early 20th century America on the wrong side of the law and society, his long-time friend, a freed slave named Christmas Moultrie, at his side. Master of Shakespeare, and the shotgun that provides Savannah’s markets with fowl, Ward fights for his rights as a hunter. His charisma and eloquent rhetoric win the heart of a society woman who defies her father to marry him. An elderly Moultrie tells the story of life on the river with his friend to a little boy, who passes the legendary Ward Allen down to the next generation.
In “PARADISE: Faith” Ulrich Seidl explores what it means to bear the cross. For Anna Maria, an X-ray technician, paradise lies with Jesus. She devotes her vacation to missionary work, so that Austria may be brought back to the path of virtue. On her daily pilgrimage through Vienna, she goes from door to door, carrying a foot-high statue of the Virgin Mary. One day, after years of absence, her husband, an Egyptian Muslim confined to a wheelchair, comes home. Hymns and prayers are now joined by fighting. “PARADISE: Faith” recounts the stations of the cross of a marriage and the longing for love.
Brash boxer Cassius Clay burst into the American consciousness in the early 1960s, just ahead of the Civil Rights movement. His transformation into the spiritually enlightened heavyweight champion Muhammad Ali is legendary, but this religious awakening also led to a bitter legal battle with the U.S. government after he refused to serve in the Vietnam War. This film reveals the perfect storm of race, religion and politics that shaped one of the most recognizable figures in sports history.
The Machine Which Makes Everything Disappear
The story begins with an experiment. A filmmaker in the country of Georgia posts an ad inviting youth to audition for her film. Facing the camera, the hopefuls confess their struggles and dreams. These raw interviews unfold seamlessly into cinematic slivers of Georgian life. A teenager awaits news of his father’s surgery. A girl anticipates her wedding. The governor of a tiny village faces a monumental decision. A soldier attempts to link his imprisoned brother to the world outside, and a young woman confronts the mother who abandoned her. These threads form a fluid Altman-esque collage of characters — and a nation — teetering on the brink of change. It’s a world where tradition and modernity subtly intermingle: singing traditional ballads is as common a self-expression as listening to hip-hop or playing online poker.
A Havana teen with Miami dreams is torn between his devotion to his sister and his loyalty to his best friend when their escape plan hits an unexpected hitch. Convinced that Havana holds no future for them, desperate teens Raul and Elio begin plotting their flight to Miami. When Raul is charged with assault, he pleads with Elio to leave their old lives behind. Unfortunately that decision won’t come easy for Elio, because that would mean abandoning his twin sister. With time quickly running out for Raul, Elio must reconcile his deep-rooted desire for a better life with his steadfast devotion to the one person who has always remained loyally by his side.
Thérèse has married less for love than for convenience, but it is not long before the casual disinterestedness shown her by her arrogant husband, Bernard (Gilles Lellouche), sets her mind in motion. Life is easy at first, as Bernard’s pinewood estates keep them both in the lap of luxury. But when Thérèse’s best friend Anne (Anaïs Demoustier), who also happens to be Bernard’s younger sister, falls madly in love with a handsome young Portuguese man, Thérèse begins to see what she has been missing in her life. Corralled by Bernard’s family into persuading Anne to forego her planned nuptials, she begins to see first-hand the awesome power of passionate love, as Anne will go to any length to keep her lover by her side. Soon, Thérèse begins her own fight against the oppressive Desqueyroux family.
Haunted by a tragic incident, Nihat isolated himself by becoming a fire warden in a remote observation tower far out in the wilderness. Seher lives in a makeshift room at a rural bus station, and she has taken a job as a bus hostess to escape her own traumatic past. Destined to come to a crossroads, they go about their solitary lives until their fates collide. Beginning at first as muted antagonism, their relationship quickly turns into tender domesticity as they settle together at Nihat’s mountain-side watchtower. Yet the weight of the past presses on the silence between them, serving as the ultimate catalyst in their impassioned relationship with each other, and with higher powers that guide their spiritual lives.
17 riders with avarage age 81 decide to follow the dream of their youth and start their journey to ride around Taiwan island.
NOW IN THEATERS
Chennai Express is a story of Rahul (Shahrukh Khan) who embarks on a journey to a small town in Tamil Nadu, only to fulfill the last wish of his grandfather to have his ashes immersed in the Holy water of Rameshwaram. En route, he meets a South Indian girl (Deepika Padukone) hailing from a unique family down South. As they find love through this journey in the exuberant lands of South India, an unanticipated drive awaits them. What follows is a series of adventures where he finds himself in estranged situations, challenged with an unfamiliar language! Chennai Express is an action-packed romantic journey.
Chloe (Evelyne Brochu) is a young Canadian obstetrician working in a makeshift clinic in a Palestinian refugee camp in the West Bank, where she treats pregnant women under the supervision of Michael (Carlo Brandt), a French doctor. Facing daily checkpoints and the separation barrier, Chloe is confronted with the conflict and the people it affects: Rand (Sabrina Ouazani), a patient for whom Chloe develops a deep affection; Faysal (Yousef Sweid), Rand’s older brother, a fervent resister; Safi (Hammoudeh Alkarmi), their younger brother, a child shattered by war who dreams of flying across borders; and Ava (Sivan Levy), a young soldier who lives next door to Chloe in her apartment in Israel. Her encounter with the war draws Chloe into an adventure that’s both deeply personal and as large as the land. She loses her bearings, is uprooted, and goes into freefall. There are trips that shake us and transform us. There are trips that shatter all of our certainties.
The Machine Which Makes Everything Disappear
The story begins with an experiment. A filmmaker in the country of Georgia posts an ad inviting youth to audition for her film. Facing the camera, the hopefuls confess their struggles and dreams. These raw interviews unfold seamlessly into cinematic slivers of Georgian life. A teenager awaits news of his father’s surgery. A girl anticipates her wedding. The governor of a tiny village faces a monumental decision. A soldier attempts to link his imprisoned brother to the world outside, and a young woman confronts the mother who abandoned her. These threads form a fluid Altman-esque collage of characters — and a nation — teetering on the brink of change. It’s a world where tradition and modernity subtly intermingle: singing traditional ballads is as common a self-expression as listening to hip-hop or playing online poker.
Somewhere, in Afghanistan or elsewhere, in a country torn apart by a war… A beautiful woman in her thirties watches over her husband who has fallen into a coma. After ten years of living under his control, with no voice of her own, she finally has the upper hand. And with that, the safety to reveal to him her deepest desires, pains and secrets, stories she could never share with anyone for fear of retribution. And it is an extraordinary confession, without restraint, about love and her anger against a man who never understood her, who mistreated her, who never showed her any respect or kindness. This paralyzed man unconsciously becomes syngué sabour (the patience stone), a magical black stone that, according to Persian mythology, absorbs the plight of those who confide in it. It is believed that the day it explodes, after having received too much hardship and pain, will be the day of the Apocalypse.
Watch the Abu Dhabi Film Festival’s interview with director Atiq Rahimi here.
Since they met at a party, ambitious high-flyer Nat (Rose Byrne) and struggling novelist Josh (Rafe Spall) have been deliriously happy despite their differences. Josh is a thinker, Nat’s a doer, but the spark between them is undeniable. Their wedding is a dream come true, but no one — family, friends and even the minister who marries them — is convinced that they will last. Josh’s ex-girlfriend, Chloe (Anna Faris), and Nat’s handsome American client Guy (Simon Baker) could offer attractive alternatives.
Read an interview with director Dan Mazer here.
Thanks, Wendy! This week, Declare Your Independents by checking out some of these movies via VOD or in a theater near you!