the stranger ( 2014 film )
i don' t have time to list my many personal regrets, but i do have one major societal regret for 2014: that people still have to take to the streets to demand basic civil rights and survival wages. —bob nelson, screenwriter, 2014 academy award nominee (best original screenplay, nebraska), 2014 stranger genius award nominee
stranger things star millie bobby brown has nabbed her first film role … and it’s monstrous .
' krampus' director michael dougherty is directing the follow - up to gareth edwards' 2014 creature feature .
reviewed at locarno film festival (critics’ week), august 13, 2014. (also in galway film fleadh — new irish cinema .) running time: 88 min .
brown has signed on to star in godzilla: king of the monsters, legendary’s sequel to its 2014 creature feature .
stranger by the lake (2013, france): consuming, intoxicating, and unapologetic portrayal of homosexual passion and crime. sexually graphic, stranger by the lake aptly identifies as a powerful vision rather a pornographic mission. stranger by the lake is truly a cannes film festival gold .
the dog, a documentary telling the true story behind dog day afternoon, was acquired by cinedigm and drafthouse films for theatrical release in 2014 .
i regret going to film school for two and a half months. —scott blake, director, 2013 stranger genius award nominee
the financial statements say that “the directors consider the company’s key non - financial performance indicator to be whether ‘pirates of the caribbean on stranger tides’ qualifies as a british film under uk film tax credit legislation. this is likely to be achieved as ‘pirates of the caribbean on stranger tides’ has been awarded a final british film certificate. ”
“stranger fruit, ” a documentary film that debuted last weekend at sxsw reveals previously unseen security footage of michael brown that the filmmaker claims casts doubt on the police narrative that the ferguson, mo. , teen robbed a convenience store minutes before he was fatally shot by a police officer in 2014 .
you know for a vampire, the stranger sure loses a lot of fights to random townspeople .
born and raised in mexico city, fernando frias currently attends columbia university graduate school of the arts as a fulbright scholar. his first feature, rezeta, won the jury award for best narrative feature at the 2014 slamdance film festival .
his new theory relies heavily on an interaction 11 hours before brown was killed, inside the same convenience store that he allegedly robbed on aug. 9, 2014 .
a film maker has to raise a child by himself whilst looking for an inspiration for his new film .
the film version of “doctor stranger” will shorten the original drama into 120 minutes for the big screen. this will be accomplished by cutting out a lot of the background information on the main characters. instead the film will focus on the plot points that unfold during the drama .
hong khaou’s debut feature film lilting premiered in world cinema competition at the 2014 sundance film festival where it also won the cinematography award. he is also the director of three short films, including spring, which premiered at the 2011 sundance film festival, and summer, which premiered at the 2006 berlinale. this year, khaou was named one of the stars of tomorrow by screen international .
sbs ‘s hit drama “ doctor stranger ” will be re - edited as a film for the chinese audience, but with a different ending from the original source material .
according to the financial statements, disney didn’t overspend when making on stranger tides. they say that “the directors consider the company’s key financial performance indicator to be whether ‘pirates of the caribbean on stranger tides’ is produced in line with the agreed budget. at the period end, the estimated cost of the film was in line with its budgeted cost, and the film continued to be funded by the financiers. ”
the additional shooting for the chinese film wrapped up on july 14. according to an insider, the film version will have a different ending from the drama .
ok, that was just me beind side tracked by my own thoughts. let me talk about the stranger !
jeremiah zagar is the co - founder of public record, a production company in brooklyn. his documentary, in a dream, screened theatrically across the us and was broadcast on hbo. his newest film captivated: the trials of pamela smart, premiered in competition at the 2014 sundance film festival and will air on hbo later this year .
though the full title of guillermo amoedo’s “ the stranger ” bears the name of one of the film’s producers, the horror specialist eli roth (“hostel”), it has its own singular, and gruesome, distinctions .
ursula dabrowsky is a name to watch in horror. she’s also been a supporter of the stranger with my face horror film festival from the start, and we’re thrilled that she’ll be a guest of the festival in 2014 once again. ursula wrote her first psychological horror screenplay, family demons, and shot the film in early 2006 in two weeks with a production budget of $ 6, 500. three years and $ 35, 000 later, the film went on to screen at numerous national and international film festivals and won best foreign film and best actress at the fright night international film festival in the united states. ursula dabrowsky has recently completed the second instalment of her demon trilogy inner demon, a supernatural revenge horror film that obtained financing through the safc’s filmlab. she’s writing the third one too, it’s called demonheart. here’s the facebook page for inner demon .
guillermo amoedo' s the stranger is a bloody, brutal horror extravaganza! one of my heroes, eli roth produced / presented the stranger, but after witnessing this film i have quickly come to realize filmmaker, guillermo amoedo isn' t going to need much help getting films made by using another filmmaker' s name, as mr. amoedo is insanely talented and after viewing the stranger... he' s going to be a household name in a few years. the stranger is a horror / mystery / drama about an unknown stranger, who comes into a small town in hopes of finding his long lost love, he comes to find out she has died, as things then spiral out of control for the town, the stranger, and the people that come across him. why? the…
stranger fruit is a play off the poem “strange fruit, ” about lynchings made famous by billie holiday’s song of the same name .
that doesn' t make
the stranger
good, just well meaning, which in its own way is problematic .
because martin' s problems are the main source of conflict in
the stranger ,
the film' s pitilessly grim drama serves to confirm its main character' s myopically cynical perspective. and then we get an unearned happy ending! the disconnect between the ugly world that viewers inhabit for the majority of
the stranger
and the unconvincing glimmer of hope that the film concludes with is vast and contains a multitude of macho posturing. writer / director
see where you can watch
the stranger
now, or set an alert and be notified once it' s available .
but “stranger fruit, ” created by documentarian and activist jason pollock, suggests an alternative narrative to the one police have put forward .
despite the profusion of gore, the film never achieves sufficient dramatic tension, and the performances, with the exception of duran as the teen whose beneficent impulses set the plot in motion, are mostly unconvincing. stronger on atmosphere than coherence, the stranger mainly just seems strange .
movie news, screening invitations and reviews from the world of independent film and beyond .
what sets the engrossing
stranger by the lake
apart is that its excesses seem to point to a moral purpose beyond shock or entertainment value .
sofia exarchou is the writer / director of the short films mesecina and distance. she pursued post - graduate studies in toulouse and at the stella adler studio in new york. exarchou is based in athens, greece, where she received degrees in electrical engineering and film studies. park, which has been developed with the support of the centre nationale de la cinematographie (cnc, france) and the eurimages council of europe, is her first feature film. the film is slated for production in late summer 2014 in athens .
it then ends with a touching message from simon who explains that a stranger saved his life by donating stem cells to him .
if you were to watch the stranger without knowing all that much about it, it would be easy to wonder why the film – a cheap slice of canadian horror tat made by a chilean – is even troubling these shores at all. however, under its full title eli roth presents the stranger, it becomes clear that the clout of its producer has given it a free travel pass. it’s certainly not a film that made it across the atlantic on the basis of quality .
dan kitrosser is an award - winning writer and storyteller living in manhattan. his plays include the mumblings (published on indietheaternow. com), tar baby, which will go on a national tour in 2014, and the upcoming dead special crabs .
on saturday, the day stranger fruit debuted at sxsw and the new york times published a clip of the film, pollock tweeted: “i’ve waited a long time to release this information to the world. today is a big day for the history of mike brown. ”
sundance film forward is a touring program which introduces a new generation of audiences to the power of story through the exhibition of film and conversations with filmmakers to create greater cultural awareness .
it’s clear that amoedo has filmmaking talent, but the stranger is not a strong showcase for his abilities. this is a horror film without anything in the way of scares and desperately in need of some sort of roth - esque levity .
the film takes place in a gay lakeside cruising spot during the summer in france. there, franck (
excellent direction by guiraudie outshines even the spot - on performances by padu and deladonchamps. an eerie masterpiece of isolation, loneliness and suspense. undoubtedly one of the best films of 2013 - 2014. however, be forewarned that the film is extremely sexually graphic (on the level of
shortbus
), but not gratuitously so. this would be quite an awkward film to watch with children in the room. but for adults, it' s exceptional .
ana lily amirpour has a varied background in the arts including painting and sculpting, and was the frontwoman of an art - rock band before she eventually moved to los angeles to make films. in 2014, her debut feature film, a girl walks home alone at night, described as the world’s first iranian vampire western, premiered in the next section of the sundance film festival and opened the lincoln center' s new directors / new films festival at moma in new york .
how to describe
the stranger
without giving its only novelty? here' s a film that struggles to impress viewers with its humanity by immediately impressing us with sadistic violence. an aura of un - pleasantness surrounds drifter martin (
i regret trying to drive an automobile on a day when both the sounders and the seahawks were playing. i regret shouting the very strange and incomprehensible curse words at the sports fans in various shades of green. i regret the bad thoughts i thought about people who enjoy watching men hit each other and run around for hours at a time in a sterile and commercially fetishized atmosphere. —drew christie, director (the beast inside), animator, 2014 stranger genius award winner
after the film’s debut, local authorities told the times the unseen footage was not released because it was irrelevant to their investigation .
theatrical release and is worth seeking out). still ,
the stranger
is not really like roth' s films since that implies it has a sense of humor, and is effectively unnerving. instead ,
the stranger
is a one - trick film with strained self - seriousness that rests squarely on the shoulders of a plot twist. it' s a lousy little film that is so dark and joyless that it leaves you feeling like you wasted your time watching it. but while
the stranger
is bad, the fact that it makes you wait and wait for its excessively dismal perspective to be justified by a measly little twist is even worse .
john completes telling this story to the barkeep. however, the barkeep knows all of this. it is his own life’s story after all. he doesn’t reveal that yet. barkeep tells john that he knows the location of the “stranger” who ruined jane’s life. barkeep promises that he will give john the opportunity of revenge, of killing that stranger free of any consequences. john and barkeep use the violin box to travel back in time to the point where jane was attending night school. john equips himself with a gun and goes looking for the stranger. john bumps into jane. john soon realizes that he is that “stranger”. he falls in love with jane and has sex with her .
fostering artists at the convergence of film, art, media, live performance, music & technology .
our film studio was founded initially to support the a travel web series about beijing. our founder ,
the stranger is a murky drifter story with vampiric influences, but what starts as a mysterious quest soon turns into just another run - of - the - mill monster movie .
guiraudie fills the movie with remarkable point - of - view shots, which are both the visual and the psychological core of the film. (i mentioned them here when the film was shown, last fall, at the new york film festival .) they conjure the contrast between inwardness and privacy, between the unspoken and the unspeakable, and between the physical and the subjective aspects of sex—those that aren’t in the body but in the mind .
today we release our moving new film about the kindness of strangers, together with our # thankyoustranger campaign .
“doctor stranger” was a smashing hit in korea, coming first place in its time slot. its popularity has also led to the chinese version to be released later this year .
what value then does the major twist at the heart of
the stranger
have? not much, unless you crave further validation of martin' s nihilistic philosophy. there are moments throughout the film that suggest that martin is wrong, and that people are better than he gives them credit for. but many of these scenes feel tacked - on when they should be the entire point of
the stranger .
the film' s relentless drab - ness (seriously, could they not afford better lighting rigs ?) is suffocating, but what really rankles is amoedo' s half - hearted attempt at waving away his film' s abundant nastiness by half - heartedly suggesting that even long - suffering masochists can do good too. if the world outside your door ever looks as bleak as it does in
the stranger ,
don' t find religion: seek out a good therapist .
director guillermo amoedo manages to conjure up some impressive visuals in the stranger, despite the evident budgetary constraints of the film. the lighting suffers and the post - synched dialogue is all over the place, but the gore is delightfully gruesome. the performers, though, are an issue. despite their solid performances, especially from youngster nicolás durán, it seems that some of the direction got lost in translation along with the dialogue. for reasons best known to amoedo, the film eschews the native spanish language of many of its actors and is instead made in english. there’s a definite second language feel to the film, which leaves it rather awkward .
here is a movie unlike predestination. a film based time travel, with massive plot holes .
a movie - industry struggle is part of the drama behind a new sci - fi film (above) .
a mysterious stranger is always intriguing, whether famous or not. in “the stranger, ” neasa ni chianain (“fairytale of kathmandu”) crafts an evocative portrait of neal macgregor, a jewelry designer who turned his back on the world and ended his days in a stone shack on an inaccessible irish island. curiosity is certainly piqued, yet apart [ … ]
the film is designed to build on the success of our kindness of strangers campaign which launched earlier this year to mark the charity’s 40th anniversary .
the spending brought a tremendous boost to the uk economy in addition to keeping british production staff in jobs. it explains why big ticket movies are eligible for the tax break and on stranger tides is no exception .
disney was handed a total of $ 32. 1 million (£18. 8 million) from the uk tax authorities to make on stranger tides and it was money well spent .
i regret my distinct lack of 2014 karaoke injuries. at press time, only one busted knee and three ripped crotches have been reported. i also regret leaking the sony e - mails and letting north korea take the heat. i regret not reading gone girl, the wolf of wall street, or the fault in our stars before seeing the films. but at least i started inherent vice. —mel eslyn, indie film producer (the one i love, safety not guaranteed )
the stranger is ultimately about family, the legacy we pass on to our children and the lengths we go to protect and ensure their survival, no matter how dark and deadly they might become. (james shapiro )
stranger by the lake is a grade a masterpiece. one of the most acclaimed films of this year. playing across the world to mesmerized audiences, the film has a 95% score on rotten tomatoes and won the queer palm and un certain regard award for best directo r at cannes in 2013. exquisitely crafted, perfectly written, and imbued with a dangerous eroticism unmatched by any other film in recent memory, this is a must - see .
it’s no surprise that the film made very little waves when it played last year’s fantastic fest. it’s utterly forgettable and really makes one wonder what they’re putting in the coffee over at ifc midnight, who will be releasing the film on june 12 .
the tomatometer score — based on the opinions of hundreds of film and television critics — is a trusted measurement of critical recommendation for millions of fans. it represents the percentage of professional critic reviews that are positive for a given film or television show .
jordana spiro is a writer, director, and actress currently finishing her mfa in film at columbia university. her short film skin won the women in film grant at the 2013 sundance film festival and screened at several other festivals including sxsw, telluride, palm springs, and afi. as an actress, she has starred in numerous films and television series, and studied drama at the circle in the square theatre school in new york and the royal academy of dramatic arts in london .
this is a tale of danger and desires and extremely gay sportswear: possibly the frenchest film i have ever seen .
another rising trend is filmmakers touring with their films. the most prominent example i know is gary hustwit as i wrote about in a case study of his film objectified. below andrew cohn describes his recent experience with the film medora .
it almost wasn’t. back in 2012, harvey weinstein of the weinstein co. bought us rights to the film based on its script and a few sample scenes, but when bong turned in the finished film the distributor balked. the 126 - minute runtime wasn’t as much an issue as the film’s dark tone, often brutal violence, and general creative weirdness. the wide release weinstein envisioned now seemed risky; secondhand reports had company executives claiming the film wouldn’t be understood by audiences in iowa and oklahoma. bong was told he had to cut 20 minutes or the film wouldn’t be released. in effect, he was being penalized for being too visionary .
programs for utah audiences to experience independent film, theatre, and music through free screenings and discussions .
try to manage expectations. if you do think your film is a good fit for theatrical, take a look at the box office numbers for other films similar to your own to try to gauge how theatrical distributors expect your film to do. offers are based on what they project the return to be–not how much they love your film .
i typically enjoy character - driven slow burns, but amoedo’s film doesn’t offer any compelling relationships or conflicts for the viewer to latch on to. the titular stranger is completely uninteresting throughout as he stiffly interacts with the other players in the rickety narrative. amoedo never builds up our identification with the characters – making all of their melodrama ineffective and unintentionally silly at times .
surveillance footage of that alleged robbery was released within days of the shooting on aug. 9, 2014. it showed brown, a recent high school graduate, entering the ferguson market & liquor, approaching the counter and then, after several moments, reaching for cigarillos. brown leaves the store with a handful of them, shoving a store clerk who tries to block him .
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charming stranger films has been producing and directing short films in san francisco since 2012. our team is incredibly passionate about film - from the initial creative process to the nitty gritty details. we are a group of highly driven professionals that are ready to dedicate their time, speciality and expertise to create award - winning films .
one recurring theme in the advice is the need for advance preparation (see ana vicente under the section international sales; and the makers of indie game: the movie under hybrid distribution). as i compiled these comments, i was corresponding with several filmmakers headed to the 2014 sundance film festival and still completing their edits and sound mixes only two weeks before opening night. if filmmakers want to take full advantage of the strategies below, they need to build in more time to plan. once your festival premiere happens, the clock starts ticking on the marketplace asset of being new .
the companies tend to have code names and the one which produced on stranger tides is known as blackbeard productions in a nod to the infamous pirate who is played in the movie by british actor ian mcshane. it is ultimately owned by the walt disney company which produced and distributed the movie .
there is no music in the film, either nondiegetic (a musical score) or diegetic (on - screen music) .
a native north carolinian, karrie crouse is co - writer of the feature film pilgrim song (sxsw narrative competition 2012, oxford american best southern film award 2012) and the feature screenplay papaw easy (sundance creative producing fellowship 2013, winner of tribeca all access grant 2013, ifp emerging narrative 2012). she also writes and directs for the darkly comedic film collective sunset television .
peter (nicolás durán) is the pure soul here that seemingly wants to help, understand, and do the right thing. he begins to discover more about the stranger than he asked for bringing the realization of martin and anna full circle into his past .
the stranger can charitably be described as a rather muddled film. it’s one that seems unsure of its central ethos, only really expending effort on employing the dialogue gymnastics necessary to avoid the word “vampire”. one moment, it’s gory exploitation cinema in the mould of roth’s hostel movies and the next it’s reaching lifelessly for the kind of soulful musing of tomas alfredson’s let the right one in. it desperately wants to be a sophisticated film, but its exploitation blood runs far too strongly through its veins, leaving it caught between two stalls .
vasan bala was born and raised in mumbai. both his father and grandfather were film buffs whose love of film inspired his own. bala has collaborated in various capacities with filmmakers including anurag kashyap, michael winterbottom, and danis tanvoic. his debut feature as a writer / director, peddlers, screened in critics week at the 2012 cannes film festival .
an interview with writer / director boots riley about his incendiary new film ,
sorry to bother you .
cristobal tapia montt stars as the titular stranger, martin, who shows up one day at the house of nurse monica (alessandra guerzoni) and her petulant graffiti artist son peter (nicolas duran). the perpetually sullen martin is searching for his lost love who once resided at monica’s house. shortly after, martin is beaten and left for dead by the malicious son of a corrupt cop. peter saves martin from bleeding out in a ditch and from there the stranger unfurls in a loosely coiled horror drama that’s sort of like a vampire movie and a lot like a forgettable film .
pirates of the caribbean on stranger tides was released in may 2011 and stars a lister johnny depp as captain jack sparrow on a quest to find the fabled fountain of youth. the movie was filmed in england at the historic royal naval college in greenwich and pinewood studios where the production used the vast majority of the sound stages .
jane gives up and attends night school where she bumps into a stranger. she falls in love with him, but the stranger disappears on jane one day, leaving her waiting on a bench. we will get back to who this stranger is in a bit. jane realizes that she is pregnant. she delivers a baby successfully but the doctor tells her that jane has an “odd” physiology – she has fully formed male and female organs. complications in delivery result in the doctors only being able to save the male organs. jane will need to change to a man as a result. soon after this, her baby gets stolen. jane becomes john over time .
as we start off 2014 and head into sundance, i want to explore how filmmakers can make better deals for themselves in all distribution channels: theatrical, television, digital and international. most filmmakers go into distribution negotiations for the first time, or with a gap of several years since their previous film–which might as well be their first time in this changing landscape. that puts them at a disadvantage negotiating with distributors who are regularly making deals and confident about stipulating what’s “normal. ”
peter broderick (distribution consultant): “ hybrid distribution” is the alternative to giving one company total distribution control of your film for many years. the hybrid approach enables you to retain overall distribution control of your film, choose great distribution partners, and retain the rights to sell directly to north america and the rest of the world .
set entirely at a lakeside hot spot for cruising gay men, the film starts off like an odd romance before turning into a mystery .
i probably shouldn' t even tell you that stranger by the lake is a thriller, since so much of this beguiling film' s beauty is in how it sneaks up on you, the way genre elements quietly insinuate their way into the story. set entirely at a lakeside hot spot for cruising gay men, alain guiraudie' s film starts off like an odd romance, maybe even a mild comedy, before turning into a mystery and finally becoming … briefly, tantalizingly, something else .
his acting career was launched in the year of 2012 when short film noah dreams of origami fortunes was released, with him starring as the main character noah .
despite the huge production costs, disney’s haul from on stranger tides was impressive. the movie had a worldwide box office gross of $ 1, 045, 713, 802 according to analysts box office mojo with theaters taking around half of that .
kush patel, right, carries out bags of merchandise while helping his uncle andy patel, rear, clean up the looting damage from riots at his store, ferguson market & liquor, in ferguson, mo. , in november 2014. the store is disputing a new documentary’s claims that surveillance video suggests michael brown didn’t rob the store before he was fatally shot by police in ferguson. (david goldman / ap )
own the long tail: it allows you to own the long tail of your film and capitalize off of organic search. your film will have a long life well beyond your initial marketing & promotional push. once the marketing spend is done & sales chart momentum begins to wane, the vast majority of people will discover your film in much more organic, word - of - mouth ways – many of which end up with a google search for your film. and, if you’ve done things right, you should be at the top of that results page. you want to be able to sell your film one click after that point. roughly a third of all digital sales for indie game: the movie happened on urltoken .
, then travelled to northern mongolia to shoot dukha in summer, and then to create her first narrative short, real artists, with charming stranger films. since then we' ve moved to producing feature films .
she added: “what many people may not realise is that when it comes to saving a stranger with blood cancer, there is a very simple way to do something truly life - changing for another family. ”
originally from nigeria, angelica nwandu has travelled around the world as an advocate for foster youth after her own 12 years’ experience living in foster care. a recent graduate of loyola marymount university, she is a writer, a spoken word poet who has performed nationwide, the owner of her own fashion boutique, and serves on the board of the fostering change organization, which seeks to define the culture of foster youth. angelica is a 2014 sundance institute | time warner fellow .
liked predestination? have you watched triangle? it is definitely another mind boggling film to catch. click below to read more :
one of the biggest costs of making on stranger tides was paying the production staff and actors with mr depp alone believed to have received $ 55 million for the movie. the production staff peaked at 895 and they were paid a total of $ 17. 8 million (£10. 4 million) .
a sunbathed murderous man who can ignite a morally corrosive desire in those around him, at a lakeside homosexual cruising spot, is at the center of alain guiraudie’s latest erotic mystery stranger by the lake. unafraid to present the promiscuous sexuality of its characters with unapologetically explicit imagery, the film is the perfect exposition of passion overruling rationality. this man, whose charm is inexplicably magnetic for a younger visitor to the clandestine meeting place, commits a murder of which his prospective lover is the only witness. guiraudie’s astonishing atmospheric delivery combined with the evocative and unsettling idea of being in love with a dangerous individual make for a truly suspenseful film. the fact that everything occurs under the bright sunlight of a beautiful french summer adds a layer of captivating duality that plays with the thin line between fear and infatuation, pain and pleasure, or seduction and manipulation. i talked to mr. guiraudie during his visit to this year’s sundance film festival where the film screen in the spotlight section as one of the most acclaimed works from last year’s festival circuit .
i regret that no one wants to rep me out of la. i regret that a year just passed without me noticing. i regret that rewrites for writer rider, which i will shoot next year, took so long. i regret that flagrant act of self - promotion. i regret that it took four months to recuperate from shoulder surgery. i regret that wes anderson, michael bay, tyler perry, and christopher nolan didn' t call me. i don' t regret land ho! being nominated for the john cassavetes award at the independent spirit awards. —paul eenhoorn, actor (land ho !), 2014 stranger genius award nominee
anthony nolan released the results as it announced that, after 40 years of appealing for bone marrow donors, more than three people every day are given a second chance at life, thanks to a generous stranger – but it’s still not enough .
the stranger instantly succeeds where others have tried and failed. the film’s bleakness and cold foundation provides the perfect mood - base needed to pull viewers into the movie’s character base. the protagonist / antagonist relationship is established in the first 5 minutes creating a layer of assumed directions to play out. it is by using this slow - grind approach that we discover details to the story not yet disclosed. effectively this is done using both past and present always suggesting some sort of vampiric interplay without the obvious giveaways. martin does indeed provide the stranger aspect to his story who seemingly invades the town by pure interaction alone. while we get a certain amount of corruption in town handed to us, it really is not the foundation to the movie’s theme, rather we have a broken family that has had to endure some pretty harsh realities haunting them from the past .
the heart - warming short film, available to view on youtube, twitter and facebook, features members of the general public and a bone marrow transplant patient, simon perkin .
the ballad of narayama
is a japanese film of great beauty and elegant artifice, telling a story of startling cruelty. what a space it opens…
heidi ewing (director, detropia): when you get an offer, make sure you understand the details. in how many cities are they planning to release your film? when do they think is the best time to release the film and why? how much (if any) p & a will they put up for the release? what other documentaries are they releasing along with your film? will they pay for any type of oscar campaign if you are shortlisted? it’s not enough to just have “a deal. ” know the business, ask questions directly and in person, advocate for yourself and your film. it’s your job .
) is caleb' s dad. so nobody has a chance in this film because even the cops are crooked. peter' s desperate single mom monica (
work with people who get your film. really listen to what they want to do with your film, who they think the audience is, what ideas they have for how they want to get it out into the world, how they like to work with their filmmakers, how many films do they take on .
do your homework about the distributor. my film racing dreams was sold to a company that was new to the scene, flashed money, and made big promises. but it turned out they were not particularly interested in film distribution and were primarily playing games with their stock price on the penny stock exchange where they traded. they didn’t advertise in most markets; theater owners told me they didn’t even receive trailers or posters; they never paid the mg; and it took years of legal wrangling before we got the rights to the film back .
eli roth at the l. a. times photo & video studio at the sundance film festival, jan. 24, 2015. (jay l. clendenin / los angeles times )
liz garbus (director, love, marilyn): if you’re lucky, your career in the (documentary) film business will be a long one. so in some ways, the most important thing for you right now is to forge relationships and find partners who you may work with for years and years ahead. so, if you feel a real connection with a potential buyer / partner, they really love your film, your talents, and share your vision for what the film should do in the world–that may be the better partner than the one offering a bigger mg. likewise, if you dreamed of a theatrical release but the people who love your film the most, and strike you as the most faithful partners, are tv / cable / streaming buyers, consider them seriously. theatrical documentaries that work are far and few between and what you want is your film to be seen and promoted and loved by those releasing it. and guess what, you might go ahead and get started on your next film with them too .
with the talk in france of the president’s affair, and the question of whether his private life is fair game for the press, it’s worth considering what a new french film that opens here today—“stranger by the lake, ” directed by alain guiraudie—shows and suggests about the tacit boundaries that are built into french society. the story takes place in summertime, in rural france, at a lakeside beach that’s a pickup spot for gay men, and in the neighboring woods where they go to consummate their pickups and where other men, shy of the beach, go to cruise as well .
peter broderick (distribution strategist): make sure that your publicity team focuses on social media as well as film critics and other entertainment press .
that said, as a thriller, stranger by the lake isn’t exactly pulse - pounding. you sense that there’s more going on here than just the basics of plot; if the film had been made in the nineties, we’d all be saying it was an allegory for aids. in truth, guiraudie seems more interested in what lies on the other side of the mystery. can the anonymous idyll of this beach end in anything but emptiness and despair? if these men don’t get too close for fear of getting hurt, the director suggests that there might be good reason for that — and the film gains both suspense and poignancy as it leaves its sun - dappled world behind and plunges us into night. the mystery may be resolved, but the suspense and uncertainty remain. and so, guiraudie ends his film on a cold, almost cruel note of existential solitude that just might, if you let it, break your heart .
amoedo shows a deft ability to turn a bloodthirsty monster movie on its head, into a slow - burn, character - driven film. the stranger takes its time, building the tension through occasional flashbacks and having the audience sympathize with peter, who grew up not knowing his father. peter, like the audience, is kept largely in the dark about his father’s motives or even what he is… because he’s certainly not human. what is apparent is the chaos his dad’s return has on the small town, especially a member of the police force and his violence - prone son .
here' s a movie that was along the lines of the matrix, it even released in the same year as the matrix and got incapacitated by the matrix. not a bad film though, did you watch the thirteenth floor? did you get it? click below to read more :
dan cogan (co - founder, impact partners): do business with the buyer that is most passionate about your film – the one that really gets it. with rare exceptions, there isn’t enough upside in the doc world for even the buyers to be motivated solely by $. they have to love the film. if you sense they don’t get it, or don’t really love it, don’t sell it to them. not only will you will end up being miserable if you do, but if they don’t see the film the right way, they won’t be able to sell it well either .
director bong joon - ho refused to trim for studio boss harvey weinstein despite the threat that the film wouldn’t be released unless it were cut. weinstein relented, and the movie will open in the boston area — at two theaters — friday .
the words
eli roth presents
before a movie title aren' t the most encouraging, and in the case of
eli roth presents the stranger
they are weirdly misleading. this brooding vampire flick from guillermo amoedo — who co - wrote roth' s
the green inferno
— is actually sensitive, a texture that cynical schlock guru roth studiously avoids .
more of a problem, though, is the pace of the stranger. at just over 90 minutes, it isn’t a long film, but the story unfolds at a glacial pace and with little in the way of excitement. it’s not so much a slow burn narrative as a cooker without a supply of gas. even once the machinations of the plot kick in, there’s little increase in momentum and the usual limp trudge of storyline is resumed. there is a nominal twist to proceedings, but it’s telegraphed so early that it barely even registers as a reveal .
in the us, there’s a market around “educational rights” and this is a promising area–but only if it is right for your film. if you’ve done the research and believe there is a university or school market for your film, by all means go for it and retain those rights. it is just not a universal fit for all documentaries .
johnny ma was born in shanghai, china and immigrated to toronto at age 10. he is a dga and national board of review student - award winning director and a graduate from the columbia university mfa program. his most recent short film a grand canal screened at the 2013 toronto international film festival and was nominated for a canadian screen academy award .
' stranger by the lake'. might have enjoyed it if the ratio of suspense to male genitalia was reversed. i appreciated the stillness in the direction, the long takes, the cruising sub - culture, the action taking place in only one location, the repetition, the symbolism and juxtaposition of the detached, carnal acts with nature. was so much hardcore sex required to make a point? the high - point is that long take of the drowning. everything before that piked curiosity. afterwards, it lost me until that tense final scene .
a mysterious stranger is always intriguing, whether famous or not. in “the stranger, ” neasa ni chianain (“fairytale of kathmandu”) crafts an evocative portrait of neal macgregor, a jewelry designer who turned his back on the world and ended his days in a stone shack on an inaccessible irish island. curiosity is certainly piqued, yet apart from macgregor’s definitive act of seclusion, ni chianain only intermittently conveys why this troubled man should hold audience attention for nearly 90 minutes. viewers will likely find the story sad and of passing interest; docu fests, irish showcases and public tv are likely destinations .
amoedo shows a deft ability to turn a bloodthirsty monster movie on its head, into a slow - burn, character - driven film. the stranger takes its time, building the tension through occasional flashbacks and having the audience sympathize with peter, who grew up not knowing his father. peter, like the audience, is kept largely in the dark about his father' s motives or even what he is... because he’s certainly not human. what is apparent is the chaos his dad' s return has on the small town, especially a member of the police force and his violence - prone son .
it begins to slag even before it can begin to inject any kind of interesting supernatural aspects. it fails to grab us before it’s too late and the drab story is made even more weak by it’s loose pace, which rises and falls without managing to build up any suspense. there is some darkly rich cinematography from chechu graf and the film certainly is technically competent. nicolas duran delivers some decent acting that allows the stranger to keep its feet on the ground while the other players are busy delivering lines as if they don’t realize what point in the movie they’re at .
guiraudie, who first drew my attention in 2009 with the supreme
king of escape
( a comedy of a gay man discovering he' s madly in love with a woman), is definitely flirting with hitchcock in
stranger of the lake
, and some of the cutting is instantly recognizable as an homage. however, the complete lack of musical score (replaced by chirping birds, water lapping against the shore, and lovers panting in ecstasy), makes the film something more than a thriller—at its very best, it' s a meditation on the nature od friendship and desire, as well as the maddening incongruity of the two .
one of the very best films of 2014 opens in the boston area friday, and you almost didn’t get a chance to see it in a movie theater. why that’s so is an absurdly complicated story — one that, on its surface, seems to be a struggle between a visionary director and a notoriously heavy - handed studio executive. dig a little deeper, though, and the whole mess may say more about an invisible struggle in the movie industry about which audiences get to see what films when. war of wills or battle for our eyeballs — either way, the drama surrounding “snowpiercer” is almost as gripping as the one on the screen .
announced last year, eli roth (hostel, cabin fever, the green inferno) and nicolás lópez (aftershock) produced a new indie horror that premiered at the fantastic fest film festival in austin, texas.
the stranger is a 2014 horror-thriller film directed by guillermo amoedo . the film stars cristobal tapia montt , ariel levy , lorenza izzo and nicolás durán . it is the third film from sobras international pictures project chilewood . montt plays a drifter who enters a small town , seeking information about his estranged wife . 
the stranger is a 2014 horror-thriller film directed by guillermo amoedo. the film stars cristobal tapia montt, ariel levy, lorenza izzo and nicolás durán. it is the third film from sobras international pictures project chilewood. montt plays a drifter who enters a small town, seeking information about his estranged wife.
the stranger is a 2014 horror-thriller film directed by guillermo amoedo. the film stars cristobal tapia montt, ariel levy, lorenza izzo and nicolás durán. it is the third film from sobras international pictures project chilewood. montt plays a drifter who enters a small town, seeking information about his estranged wife.