FILM + VIDEO
Is Love Real? or, How Do I Get Money For My Movie?
by Adam Leipzig
This weekend I trained two workshops of creative people and entrepreneurs in the steps that get one’s best work into the world. One of the questions that came up in both workshops was, “How do I get money for my movie?”
The answer applies to every creative or innovative endeavor, where outside financing is required, and it requires a shift More...
Sports Expendables
by Jerry Kavanagh
In The Mikado, the Lord High Executioner Ko-Ko compiles his little list of “society offenders” who, if executed, “would not be missed.” Among other expendables, he notes, “There’s the pestilential nuisances who write for autographs [and] all people who have flabby hands and irritating laughs.” I once asked several notable sports figur More...
The Value of “No”
by Garner Simmons
In March of 1982, Warren Beatty, along with his co-writer Trevor Griffths, won the Writers Guild of America Award for Best Original Screenplay for the film Reds. In accepting the award, Beatty did a remarkable thing. He began by thanking all those who had had the courage to tell him “no.” While the line got a laugh, Beatty was serious. More...
The Exhaustion of Latency: Thoughts on Von Trier’s ‘Melancholia’
by John Steppling
In 19th century portraiture there was a fascination in photography (and
to a lesser degree in painting) with backgrounds littered with relics and
décor that were suggestive of the ‘Orient,' the colonized world, the
‘other.' These trappings served several purposes. They reinforced the
mastery of white Europe, but they also, less consciously More...
Why Historical Dramas Set Our World Right
by Norman Allen
All is well in American television now that Downton Abbey has returned to PBS. Rosy sunsets again cast their light over the stones of Lord Grantham’s vast home, the downstairs staff rises above their under-educated prejudices and the family upstairs lowers their standards while opening their hearts. And it never rains—in England.
Historic dr More...
Of Hard Work and Privileged People
by Rosa Maria Pegueros
My daddy had one necktie: It was permanently knotted, so on the rare occasions when he needed to wear it, he would just pull it over his head and tighten it. I could probably count on both hands how often I saw him wear it over the course of my life. He was a little guy, barely 5’3”, heavyset, with powerful hands. When I made brownies, he would More...
Beauty Queen and Drug Wars
by Adam Leipzig
It’s a full three minutes before we see Laura’s face in Gerardo Naranjo’s film Miss Bala. Until then we’ve been tracking Laura (actor Stephanie Sigman) over her shoulder, following her as she goes about the daily chores in her house, where she lives with her father and younger brother, in a border city in Baja, Mexico.
When Laura final More...
