Sisters Nora and Agnes reunite with their estranged father, the charismatic Gustav, a once-renowned director who offers Nora, a stage actress, the main role in what he hopes will be his comeback film. When Nora turns it down, she soon discovers he has given her part to an eager young Hollywood star.
Since his time at the site, Goldman has taken on a number of very cool jobs (including one that helped bring Jamie Lee Curtis into his orbit, more on that one to come), but he has long been dedicated to pursuing his primary passion: filmmaking. He's directed seven shorts and written eight of them, and this weekend, he will premiere his first feature at SXSW, 'Sender.'
What begins as a fairy-tale romance set in the beautiful Mediterranean town of Agde gets more complicated when Stann's family ties prove more durable, and dangerous, than he expects. Stann, the hub of a sprawling, criminally inclined clan, finds himself torn between Gloria, a vibrant Black American woman who offers him a glimpse at a life beyond the one he knows, and his inescapable family obligations.
At least a lot of Hollywood was willfully ignoring the potential of YouTubers here. There is that level of respect that I just haven't met yet. People have made movies before, just that it would be 'woefully unwise' to tackle writing, directing, acting and editing a movie myself.
Take Me Home is a film about a caregiver, and the spirit of caregiving infused the entire production. Writer-director Liz Sargent based the feature, her first, on her short of the same name, which premiered at Sundance in 2023. It stars Anna Sargent, her sister, as a woman with a cognitive disability who is the caregiver for her aging adoptive parents.
At a moment when independent cinemas across Europe are dimming their lights for good, Louis Denavaut breathes new life into the historic venue of the Elysées Lincoln cinema in Paris, France. The architect creates a sequence of atmospheres for this project, reflected in three distinct interior worlds that are clad in various materials and colors, from hushed velvet greens to saturated pinks and soft pastel tones.
In Hal Hartley's new film Where to Land, a 58-year-old director of romantic comedies applies to become a groundskeeper at a graveyard. The director, played by frequent Hartley collaborator Bill Sage, is putting together his last will and testament, taking stock of his life in both the material and metaphysical sense. Joe, Sage's character, must make a list of his belongings-his kitchen table, the china from his first marriage, the rights to his films-while looking to contribute something more "useful and perennial" to the world.
After a tragic loss, college dropout Emily (Zola Grimmer) is desperate for some distance in , the sophomore feature from 22-year-old writer-director Avalon Fast. While her father (Michael Tan) is patient and supportive, the comfort of returning home only seems to make Emily regress into a volatile depression. On a lark of sorts, he suggests that she apply to work as a counselor at a summer camp deep in the Canadian wilderness.
Set deep within the trenches and back alleys of American independent film, Ferrara drills deep into the bedrock, probing fresh wounds and ancient scar tissue alike, emerging with a storied, practically unbelievable career in the pictures. Unbelievable that is, if belonging to anyone other than Abel Ferrara. The director of such masterworks as Bad Lieutenant, Ms. 45, King of New York and Tommaso, Ferrara has seen his fair share of devastating setbacks and miraculous triumphs,
The writer-director has spent the last three-plus decades turning out idiosyncratic independent films that portray their characters with such intimacy that it feels like the screen is offering a temporary gift of telepathy. Her work is known for its deliberate pace as well as its tight scale, though it should be just as acclaimed for its capacity to undermine expectations.
The last time I saw him, when he came to lunch, we discussed art and decided to send each other our first drawings. He was one of a kind and I'm so grateful to have had the opportunity to work with him.
"To be honest with you, I didn't have confidence that I could do comedy well... I've done so many years of very serious roles that I was actually petrified, because comedy is really hard. You can't be saved."
