26 minutes read

FEATURED

Camera Q&A: Walter Mosley on adapting his novels for the screen

Who: Walter Mosley is a New York City-based author, whose 37+ book literary career goes back to 1990’s Devil in a Blue Dress. That novel kicked off a series revolving…..

19 minutes read

FEATURED

Camera Q&A: William Lustig on his New York City Maniacs

Who: William Lustig is a Bronx-born filmmaker who is currently based in Los Angeles, where he runs film distributor Blue Underground — which specializes in re-releasing classic cult and exploitation…..

29 minutes read

FEATURED

Camera Q&A: Billy Corben on Miami’s cocaine ‘n pot haulin legacy

Who: Billy Corben is a Miami-based documentary filmmaker and area native who co-founded and operates film company, Rakontur with his longtime friends/producers Alfred Spellman and David Cypkin. Their 2006 film,…..

40 minutes read

FEATURED

Camera Q&A: Thibault Ehrengardt on Gangs of Jamaica

Who: Thibault Ehrengardt is a Paris-based journalist, and former-editor of French reggae magazine, Natty Dread. A longtime fan of Jamaican reggae music, Ehrengardt began publishing Natty Dread in 2000 —…..

13 minutes read

FEATURED

Camera Q&A: Patsha Bay Mukuna on Viva Riva! and Kinshasa

Who: Patsha Bay Mukuna is a Congo-born singer and star of the Kinshasa-set film, Viva Riva!. He was selected by director, Djo Tunda Wa Munga to play the physically-demanding role…..

10 minutes read

June 10, 2013

Camera Q&A: Christine Delorme on Ousmane Sembène

Christine Delorme is a French filmmaker, and producer for public radio station, France Culture. She first met influential African filmmaker Ousmane Sembène at 1985’s FESPACO. In 1992, while shooting his…..

4 minutes read

May 26, 2013

Camera Kickstarter Watch: Common Chord

“It all comes down to notes we choose to play.” This is the tagline to the Lethbridge, Alberta film Common Chord, a touching story about fatherhood, redemption, and forgiveness. Producer…..

3 minutes read

August 8, 2010

The Rocky Mountains, Alberta

When Clint Eastwood shot his last U.S.-set Western, Unforgiven, in Alberta it wasn’t a surprising move. After all, he had risen to fame during the 1960’s in Westerns that were…..

9 minutes read

July 19, 2012

Cinematic Japan: Ooku

Ooku (The Lady Shogun and Her Men): Gender Roles in a Reversed Society Ooku is a Japanese term comprised of the characters meaning “big” and “inside”, which together refer to…..

12 minutes read

January 2, 2012

Cinematic Japan: Sakuran

Sakuran is a stunningly colorful film by director Ninagawa Mika based on a serialized manga, a Japanese comic, of the same name.  The movie depicts the life of a young…..

6 minutes read

December 12, 2013

The Third Man: Vienna’s Favorite Movie

“You know what the fellow said? In Italy, for 30 years under the Borgias, they had warfare, terror, murder and bloodshed. But they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci and the…..

48 minutes read

August 11, 2012

Camera Q&A: Paul Finelli on Harodim

Who: Paul Finelli is a Pittsburgh-based filmmaker who recently made his feature directorial debut with Harodim, which opens a theatrical run in Europe on October 25th. Prior to Harodim, Finelli…..

34 minutes read

December 9, 2013

Camera Q&A: Alison Martino on Vintage Los Angeles

Who: Alison Martino is a Los Angeles-based television producer, who is also a lifelong resident of the city. Martino’s affection for her hometown’s architecture led her to create Vintage Los…..

7 minutes read

November 13, 2013

Halloween thoughts on Hitchcock

Marion Crane flushes the toilet (the first time in cinematic history), then proceeds to close the door, take her robe off, and step into the shower. What follows is perhaps…..

5 minutes read

March 5, 2014

Harold Ramis, Canada Thanks You

The late 1970s and early 1980s are probably the best time for on-screen comedy that we’ll ever see. Saturday Night Live and SCTV dominated television. Movies like Animal House, Caddyshack,…..

4 minutes read

May 26, 2013

Camera Kickstarter Watch: Common Chord

“It all comes down to notes we choose to play.” This is the tagline to the Lethbridge, Alberta film Common Chord, a touching story about fatherhood, redemption, and forgiveness. Producer…..

6 minutes read

February 20, 2013

Canadians at the Oscars: A History

When people think about the Academy Awards, it’s very rare that Canadians pop into their heads. The Oscars have traditionally been an American award, handed out to actors and filmmakers…..

3 minutes read

August 8, 2010

The Rocky Mountains, Colorado

The towering peaks of Colorado’s Rocky Mountains posed a daunting obstacle for 19th-century settlers pushing America’s expansion, establishing a legacy for later film and television portrayals as a locale where…..

54 minutes read

July 7, 2011

Norman Jewison & Friends Recall His Films

Who: Norman Jewison is a filmmaker whose movie career spanned 41 years and 24 features. Born in Canada, Jewison gained early experience working for CBC Television during the 1950’s, earning…..

3 minutes read

September 7, 2010

Wilmington, Delaware

I believe it was Wayne Campbell who summed up the steep challenge facing Delaware’s film office when it comes to luring major productions to set their movies on location in…..

6 minutes read

December 12, 2013

The Third Man: Vienna’s Favorite Movie

“You know what the fellow said? In Italy, for 30 years under the Borgias, they had warfare, terror, murder and bloodshed. But they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci and the…..

8 minutes read

September 29, 2013

Camera Q&A: Thomas Harding on Hanns and Rudolf

Who: Thomas Harding is the great nephew of Lieutenant Hanns Alexander, who was part of the first British War Crimes Investigation Team in the aftermath of World War II. Alexander…..

5 minutes read

March 17, 2013

The Cinematic World of Oz

Everyone across the globe at one time or another has seen the 1939 classic The Wizard of Oz. The films ranks high on almost every top-ten list, and been named…..

7 minutes read

January 26, 2012

Fantasy Location Primer: Pulp Mythology

From 1905’s Ulysses and the Giant Polyphemus (L’Île de Calypso: Ulysse et le géant Polyphème), and up to 2011’s Immortals and 2012’s Wrath of the Titans, Greek mythology has long proven…..

3 minutes read

July 30, 2010

Miami, Florida

Cocaine Cowboys opens with a look back at the afternoon of July 11th, 1979, when two men were gunned down at the Crown Liquors store in Miami’s Dadeland Mall over…..

2 minutes read

July 30, 2010

The Keys, Florida

In 1898, a Thomas Edison film crew captured the Key West burial of sailors killed when the U.S.S. Maine was sunk in Havana Harbor. The grainy footage is a glimpse…..

18 minutes read

August 26, 2011

Joann Sfar on Serge Gainsbourg's Paris

Who: Joann Sfar is a Paris-based cartoonist and filmmaker who wrote and directed 2010’s [Serge] Gainsbourg: A Heroic Life, based on his own graphic novel about the noted French musician……

8 minutes read

September 29, 2013

Camera Q&A: Thomas Harding on Hanns and Rudolf

Who: Thomas Harding is the great nephew of Lieutenant Hanns Alexander, who was part of the first British War Crimes Investigation Team in the aftermath of World War II. Alexander…..

54 minutes read

July 7, 2011

Norman Jewison & Friends Recall His Films

Who: Norman Jewison is a filmmaker whose movie career spanned 41 years and 24 features. Born in Canada, Jewison gained early experience working for CBC Television during the 1950’s, earning…..

4 minutes read

September 27, 2010

Gotham City, Illinois

It was Washington Irving who pegged New York City with the alias of “Gotham” back in 1807, and modern readers of Batman comic books now know Gotham City as a…..

3 minutes read

August 29, 2010

Shermer High School, Illinois

When John Hughes created Shermer, Illinois he based it on his hometown of Northbrook, and then set several films he made in the 1980’s at mythical “Shermer High School.” These…..

3533
40 minutes read

January 16, 2014

Camera Q&A: Thibault Ehrengardt on Gangs of Jamaica

Who: Thibault Ehrengardt is a Paris-based journalist, and former-editor of French reggae magazine, Natty Dread. A longtime fan of Jamaican reggae music, Ehrengardt began publishing Natty Dread in 2000 —…..

4 minutes read

November 12, 2010

Guns and Reggae in 70's Kingston, Jamaica

Cowboy Westerns have long influenced new filmmakers around the world to pick up movie cameras and shoot. But in Kingston during the 1970’s, those same films inspired a number of…..

9 minutes read

July 19, 2012

Cinematic Japan: Ooku

Ooku (The Lady Shogun and Her Men): Gender Roles in a Reversed Society Ooku is a Japanese term comprised of the characters meaning “big” and “inside”, which together refer to…..

12 minutes read

January 2, 2012

Cinematic Japan: Sakuran

Sakuran is a stunningly colorful film by director Ninagawa Mika based on a serialized manga, a Japanese comic, of the same name.  The movie depicts the life of a young…..

6 minutes read

March 20, 2014

True Detective: An Appreciation

Whether at work, or at school, or simply on the street, you have probably overheard a group of people talk about how good the previous night’s episode of True Detective…..

4 minutes read

October 22, 2010

The French Quarter(s), LA

Ignatius J. Reilly never had very much patience or physical stamina, and yet he’s been standing at the foot of Canal Street in New Orleans for almost 50 years now,…..

33 minutes read

March 9, 2012

Camera Q&A: Kimberly Reed on Montana films & more

Who: Kimberly Reed is a New York-based, Montana-born filmmaker. Her documentary, Prodigal Sons charts her return to Montana on the occasion of her 20th high school reunion, and reconnecting with…..

3 minutes read

August 13, 2010

Reno, Nevada

Turner Classic Movies sometimes airs a 1943 newsreel about Reno, featuring a drive-along shot of the era’s gaming halls and informing us that “the ever-increasing number of vacationists and divorce-seeking…..

3 minutes read

August 13, 2010

The Hoover Dam, Nevada

In the desert, water is essential for human survival, and in the dusty ranges of Nevada water has indeed been the key to that state’s cinematic legacy. When the Corleone…..

4 minutes read

September 27, 2010

Camera Q&A: David Schoner on filming in New Jersey

Who: David Schoner is production coordinator for the New Jersey Motion Picture & Television Commission. He has served as producer on several independent films for New Jersey-based writer/director, Gregory Corrado……

2 minutes read

July 9, 2010

Hudson County, New Jersey

For a place that has played host to as many film and television plots as Hudson County, it’s difficult to find one big recurring landmark that’s actually in this New…..

2 minutes read

July 9, 2010

Atlantic City, New Jersey

Monopoly is the world’s most popular board game created in the past century, with players vying for control over territories bearing the names of various Atlantic City locales. Patented in…..

2 minutes read

July 15, 2010

Las Vegas, New Mexico

If Las Vegas, Nevada is the most unnatural, yet instantly recognizable urban film setting in the modern American West, then its bizarro counterpart is a small town of the same…..

2 minutes read

July 15, 2010

Gallup, New Mexico

Gallup’s cinematic connection with Route 66 really begins in 1937, when R.E. Griffith decided to open the El Rancho Hotel right beside it. As the brother of film director D.W……

13 minutes read

July 7, 2013

Camera Q&A: Pamela Katz on Hannah Arendt

Who: Pamela Katz is a New York City-based screenwriter, whose latest script is for a biographical film about German-Jewish political philosopher Hannah Arendt — whose 1963 book, Eichmann in Jerusalem:…..

30 minutes read

June 21, 2013

Camera Q&A: Christopher Moloney on FILMography

Who: Christopher Moloney is a New York City-based, Canadian-born producer for CNN’s Erin Burnett: OutFront. The proximity of CNN’s Columbus Circle offices to Central Park, and a longstanding love of…..

27 minutes read

April 9, 2011

Camera Q&A: Zina Saro-Wiwa on Nigeria's Nollywood cinema

Who: Zina Saro-Wiwa is a Nigerian-born and New York-based documentary filmmaker whose production company, AfricaLab made the recent HBO documentary This is My Africa. The AfricaLab-produced art exhibition, “Sharon Stone…..

27 minutes read

April 9, 2011

Camera Q&A: Zina Saro-Wiwa on Nigeria's Nollywood cinema

Who: Zina Saro-Wiwa is a Nigerian-born and New York-based documentary filmmaker whose production company, AfricaLab made the recent HBO documentary This is My Africa. The AfricaLab-produced art exhibition, “Sharon Stone…..

6 minutes read

March 20, 2014

True Detective: An Appreciation

Whether at work, or at school, or simply on the street, you have probably overheard a group of people talk about how good the previous night’s episode of True Detective…..

5 minutes read

March 5, 2014

Harold Ramis, Canada Thanks You

The late 1970s and early 1980s are probably the best time for on-screen comedy that we’ll ever see. Saturday Night Live and SCTV dominated television. Movies like Animal House, Caddyshack,…..

3533
40 minutes read

January 16, 2014

Camera Q&A: Thibault Ehrengardt on Gangs of Jamaica

Who: Thibault Ehrengardt is a Paris-based journalist, and former-editor of French reggae magazine, Natty Dread. A longtime fan of Jamaican reggae music, Ehrengardt began publishing Natty Dread in 2000 —…..

34 minutes read

December 9, 2013

Camera Q&A: Alison Martino on Vintage Los Angeles

Who: Alison Martino is a Los Angeles-based television producer, who is also a lifelong resident of the city. Martino’s affection for her hometown’s architecture led her to create Vintage Los…..

4 minutes read

September 17, 2010

Biltmore House, North Carolina

As George Washington Vanderbilt II celebrated his first Christmas at Biltmore House in 1895, it was with the knowledge that he had effectively just given himself the perfect gift for…..

2 minutes read

September 7, 2010

Wilmington, North Carolina

Dino De Laurentiis began his cinematic association with Wilmington when his company secured use of the Orton Plantation Home, 15 miles south of town, for use in 1984’s Firestarter. That…..

2 minutes read

July 23, 2010

Astoria, Oregon

It was Washington Irving who first took liberties with the history of Astoria. His 1836 book, Astoria, was commissioned by John Jacob Astor to put a heroic spin on the…..

2 minutes read

July 23, 2010

Portland, Oregon

The city of Portland has grown quite a bit since Gus Van Sant shot Drugstore Cowboy there in the late 1980’s (but set it in the early 1970’s) – especially…..

6 minutes read

March 23, 2014

Wes Anderson & filmmakers with unique worlds

Wes Anderson is once again taking bright colors, deadpan humor, a completely ridiculous story, and recruited friends Jason Schwartzman, Bill Murray, and Owen Wilson to appear in tiny-but-amusing roles —…..

6 minutes read

March 20, 2014

True Detective: An Appreciation

Whether at work, or at school, or simply on the street, you have probably overheard a group of people talk about how good the previous night’s episode of True Detective…..

37 minutes read

February 2, 2014

Camera Q&A: Sean Oliver on Kayfabe Commentaries

Who: Sean Oliver is the co-founder of Kayfabe Commentaries, which produces interviews with professional wrestlers (and others in the industry) about the history of their business. Oliver conducts the interviews,…..

3 minutes read

September 17, 2010

The T Zone, Pennsylvania

During national elections, Pennsylvania usually finds itself a swing state. And when candidates role through the mostly-rural area between PA’s two major cities of Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, they are courting…..

3 minutes read

August 29, 2010

Camera Q&A: Charlie Humphrey on Pittsburgh-shot films

Who: Charlie Humphrey is Executive Director of Pittsburgh Filmmakers/Pittsburgh Center for the Arts in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Pitt film incentives: A 25% tax credit for producers making projects for a national…..

12 minutes read

February 8, 2012

Camera Q&A: Agnieszka Holland on In Darkness

Who: Agnieszka Holland is a Polish-born filmmaker whose feature directing career began in 1978, and has been highlighted with three Oscar nominations. The first was a Best Foreign Language nomination…..

54 minutes read

July 7, 2011

Norman Jewison & Friends Recall His Films

Who: Norman Jewison is a filmmaker whose movie career spanned 41 years and 24 features. Born in Canada, Jewison gained early experience working for CBC Television during the 1950’s, earning…..

24 minutes read

November 19, 2011

Camera Q&A: Alrick Brown on Kinyarwanda

Who: Alrick Brown is an American filmmaker who wrote and directed 2011’s Kinyarwanda, which takes place during the 1994 Rwandan genocide — a 100-day period that claimed the lives of…..

11 minutes read

June 2, 2011

Camera Q&A: Ni'coel Stark on Film Festival: Rwanda

Who: Ni’coel Stark is the Development Producer for Film Festival: Rwanda, which documents a group of aspiring Rwandan filmmakers producing their own films, and then screening them in remote villages…..

6 minutes read

March 23, 2014

Wes Anderson & filmmakers with unique worlds

Wes Anderson is once again taking bright colors, deadpan humor, a completely ridiculous story, and recruited friends Jason Schwartzman, Bill Murray, and Owen Wilson to appear in tiny-but-amusing roles —…..

6 minutes read

March 20, 2014

True Detective: An Appreciation

Whether at work, or at school, or simply on the street, you have probably overheard a group of people talk about how good the previous night’s episode of True Detective…..

37 minutes read

February 2, 2014

Camera Q&A: Sean Oliver on Kayfabe Commentaries

Who: Sean Oliver is the co-founder of Kayfabe Commentaries, which produces interviews with professional wrestlers (and others in the industry) about the history of their business. Oliver conducts the interviews,…..

28 minutes read

November 21, 2013

Art Spiegelman on his career so far

Who: Art Spiegelman is a New York City-based graphic artist, writer and editor. Since launching his career in New York’s underground comix scene of the 1960s, Spiegelman’s work has helped…..

8 minutes read

October 6, 2013

TV is the New Movie

At the turn of the 19th Century, families were treated to the brand new concept of the motion picture. As technology advanced, it became the social norm for friends and families…..

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