The Academy Awards finds new ways every year, and recently, every month, to ignite controversy—from the Popular Film category (though the Oscars are nothing more than a popularity contest anyway, so why bother?) to the Kevin Hart controversy, to the dispiriting nominations themselves (we won’t get into that), to Academy President…
Read MoreAfter the two-hour early morning excursion from the town to London and back, the meeting point was location—an apartment building complex. We were shooting a scene in which a man and a teen wake up in his apartment the night after a party. Apparently the location manager found the place through a friend who was away…
Read MoreBecause I didn’t go to film school or study anything related to filmmaking, I’ve often found myself putting extra effort into finding projects, resources, and a community of filmmakers with whom to work. At first it was hard, but as I’ve come to know many creators in Madrid (where I’m from) and across the globe over the years, it’s become…
Read MoreJonas Mekas, who passed away at the age of 96 last week, was in love with the invention known as the camera. With it, he captured all the beautiful and lovely things that people often overlook, ignore, take for granted—a row of bushes, a woman planting flowers, his mother getting water from the well in the front yard of his Lithuanian home…
Read MoreMy second time working on a short film in the capacity of the director was a very different story than the first, both on screen and in the process. In case you missed it, I wrote about my first short and the challenges that I faced during its making, both in terms of production, preparation, and delegating projects to my crew. My second short…
Read MoreHirokazu Kore-eda, among the most prolific Japanese filmmakers of the new millennium, not to mention also one of the best, finally won an award on the national stage spotlighting his enormous talent as a compassionate chronicler of individuals who are spiritually down and out. With Shoplifters (2018) winning the 2018 Palme D’Or Award…
Read MoreI was 17 when I wrote and directed my first short film. I had written many other stories previously, but it had been hard for me to find a film crew until then, so all of the stories had remained on paper. My very literal title for this piece was “Discover Your Place in the World.” It was a coming of age story…
Read MoreTo me, the instant appeal of a Brian De Palma film is in the way he splits the experience between deadly fiction and whirlpool reality. In the style of his films, he wears his influences proudly on his celluloid sleeves, yet I can’t help but get wrapped up in the sumptuousness of his very unique approach…
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