We spent the weekend in Appleton, WI with four of our friends — Phil Davis, Butch Vig, Frank Anderson and Peter Anderson — who were playing together for the first time as “The Emperors of Wyoming.” The occasion was The Mile of Music festival. The four of them live in four different cities, two in California and two… more »
From Manny Marquez: “This film documents the days leading up to the birth of my second son, Levon. My wife was almost two weeks overdue with the baby. Although anxious in awaiting the birth, I was inspired to watch my wife and oldest son, Gus, just loving each other and enjoying life that week. I… more »
We are sad to hear that our friend Michael Ruppert had died. He was 63. Michael was the subject of the documentary, COLLAPSE, which we edited in 2009. This is Michael’s last broadcast of the Lifeboat Hour on PRN 13 April 2014.
David Dastmalchian won a well deserved Special Jury Prize for his performance in “Animals” . David wrote and stars in the film Animals. According to Variety: The jury awarded him for his physically demanding portrayal of a homeless addict. “I hope that anyone who sees this movie remembers, you never give up on people,” Dastmalchian said.
We are very flattered and excited to see that the “The Dissolve” is profiling “American Movie” as their featured movie of the week. If you aren’t familiar with “The Dissolve”, it’s the best film writing out there right now — made up primarily of former film critics from the Onion’s AVClub and owned by Pitchfork.
From Soresport Movies… “When a trespasser on the land needs to be dealt with so we see how the Aswang can create a mucus sack around the victim and save the person for consumption later. This of course is never really explained in the legend. Do these creature eat live people as well as infants?… more »
(Short Documentary, 2013) A spirit of Malickian wonder permeates this poignant and lyrical tribute to the stories that parents pass onto their children. This is a very personal, poetic documentary. Directed and edited by Michael Vollmann. Before You from Michael T. Vollmann on Vimeo.
Michael T. Vollman’s Before You won the Cream City Cinema Filmmaker-in-Residence prize. Before You is a beautifully shot, lyrically composed lullaby of sorts which illustrates how the arrival of the filmmaker’s infant daughter was a total game changer. Michael says: “When I begin any edit, I have two main goals – to make you cry or to make… more »
Another blog (Row 3) stumbles upon ASWANG: Shot like it’s an old 1970s relic, it has a similar feel to many of those slow paced, yet engaging horrors from that time period – until it picks up its pace substantially. A great find.
Sad to hear that Kumar passed away. We’ll never forget the fun time we had with him last year when he was in town working on Frankie Latina‘s new movie, SNAP SHOT. From The New York Times: Kumar Pallana, an Indian plate spinner turned Texas yoga instructor turned — in his late 70s and long beyond —… more »
Manny Marquez is down in Oklahoma shooting what we hope will be the final round of pickups and interviews for his documentary epic, PSYCHOPATH. The rest of the film is based upon footage shot back in 2005 and 2010. Lots has happened during these nearly ten years, and the edit is coming together nicely. Time to wrap this… more »
Everyone had a great time at Hollywood Forever Cemetery, where the Sundance Institute just kicked off it’s new LA based film festival, NEXT WEEKEND — with “American Movie.” Press materials said it is “a film that exemplifies what NEXT Weekend is all about: an undying passion to make films against all odds and with limited resources”. As a special… more »
The trailer for the new Cosmic Psychos documentary BLOKES YOU CAN TRUST just launched. We were happy to see that our ancient music video for DEAD ROO is featured in the film (and trailer). Some say that Kurt Cobain’s favorite band was the Cosmic Psychos (he was often spotted wearing one of their tour shirts)…. more »
One of the best ASWANG reviews ever: POSITIVE: “Worth a watch. Pretty decent.” NEGATIVE: “With the limited amount of characters, you don’t get all that many death scenes.”
Congratulations to Frankie Latina for raising over $76,000 on Kickstarter to make his new film, Snap Shot. The project stars Danny Trejo, and was written by Trejo’s son, Gilbert. We helped him edit his promo trailer. (In a pretty awesome Kickstarter prize for that film, you could pledge $5000 to be murdered onscreen by Danny Trejo—several people did it…. more »
Sad news from our friend Frank Anderson… songwriter/musician, Marques Bovre, passed away after a two year battle with brain cancer. From Frank’s Wisconsinology blog: Marques lead the great Madison-based band Marques Bovre and the Evil Twins. Although the band’s popularity peaked in the early 90’s, they continued off and on to the end of that decade… more »
We suspect that, without “Google Alerts”, this one would have passed us by: Canadian filmmaker Jordan Clark first encountered the aswang in Wrye Martin and Barry Poltermann‘s 1994 film “Aswang.” Six years after seeing the film, Clark visited the Philippines, where he observed how Filipinos were both religious and superstitious. Wanting to understand how these two seemingly… more »
Frank Anderson just posted this piece for his film students: 100 Things You Should Know Before You Graduate, Part I”. “I put this together for my students. Thanks to Charlie Chaplin, Charlie Bowers, Harold Lloyd, Buster Keaton, Lillian Gish, Mae Marsh, George Melies, Abel Gance, The Lumiere Brothers,Thomas Edison and so many more from the… more »
Kumar Pallana visited our offices today and treated us all to some old fashioned Mickey Mouse Club plate spinning and magic tricks! He is in town shooting scenes for Frankie Latina’s next Milwaukee opus, SNAP SHOT. UPDATE: While Kumar was here, Frankie directed this piece for the DearMKE series.
We are excited to announce that IFC Midnight is acquiring all North American and U.K. rights to Chris James Thompson‘s documentary “The Jeffrey Dahmer Files”, which retraces the life of the infamous Milwaukee serial killer. In addition to directing, Thompson produced the documentary and co-wrote the script with Andrew Swant and Joe Riepenhoff, with Michael Vollmann… more »
The new American Masters documentary on Johnny Carson debuted last night and it reminded me of a story that I was told by the late, great Charles Nelson Reilly. It was 2004, and Johnny was still alive. We were filming a documentary on CNR and some of us who were working on the film were hanging out… more »