After reading about a group of desperate slum dwellers from Sri Lanka who daringly posed as the non-existent national handball team in order to secure their passage out of the country, producer Uberto Pasolini decided to temporarily sit in the director’s chair to bring their true life story to the big screen. Showlinks Machan The Full Monty Related Posts Machan [...]

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Machan (2008) Based on a true story, this tragicomical tale tells the story of a sports team with a difference… Living on the margins of society, under impossible pressures, a group of desperate slum dwellers find an invitation to a handball tournament in Bavaria, Germany. This one-way ticket to the West could be the answer to their [...]

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You know the sinking, gut wrenching feeling you get when your favourite TV show up and quits at the height of its success, or that band you love and adore call it a day after just a couple of kick arse albums? Well that’s something I’d always presumed wasn’t a worry I’d ever need to [...]

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In the third installment of our daily Doc/Fest gems, Super 8 legend Norwood Cheek takes us through the Attack of the 50 Foot Reels filmmaking challenge. . A Buzz Films Production Related Posts Doc/Fest 09 – The International Pitch Doc/Fest 09 – Crossover Summit Doc/Fest 08 Vod03 – Daisy Asquith Doc/Fest 08 Vod02 – Emily James Doc/Fest 08 Vod01 – Lee Kern

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Sheffield Doc/Fest day two sees six filmmakers pitch for a £10k DFID funded opportunity to create a 10 minute short for the Community Channel. Greg Sanderson chairs a panel of judges including Executive Producer Jane Stephenson. . A Buzz Films Production     Related Posts Doc/Fest 09 – Crossover Summit Doc/Fest 09 – Attack of the 50 Foot Reels Doc/Fest 08 Vod03 [...]

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The time has come once again when the documentary film community converges on the city of Sheffield for Doc/Fest. With director Frank Boyd as their guide, Buzz Films‘ Jan Bednarz & Simon Wan captured the goings on at the inaugural Crossover Summit event. . A Buzz Films Production     Related Posts Doc/Fest 09 – The International Pitch Doc/Fest 09 – [...]

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Sadly, we’ve reached the last of our London Film Festival ‘09 afternoon tea interviews, but it’s a great one to go out on. I very selfishly took up a nice chunk of time with directors Matt Harlock and Paul Thomas, who were at LFF for the premiere of their much anticipated documentary, American: The Bill [...]

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For his third feature Passenger Side, director Matt Bissonnette decided to go back to basics and the freedom that comes from shooting a film on a low budget, with a skeleton crew. We sat down over LFF tea and cakes to discuss the process of bringing his tale of road tripping, polar opposite brothers to [...]

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As a fan of many years and with a couple near misses in the past, today’s LFF interview is probably the highlight of the festival for me. It was my pleasure to spend some time (however brief) with director Harmony Korine, to discuss his latest offering Trash Humpers, along with the chances of us ever [...]

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Today’s LFF afternoon tea interview is a doubleheader with co-directors Damani Baker and Alex Vlack, who after over 11 years of patient persistence, were able to bring their documentary Still Bill to the screen; a look at the life, relationships and of course music of the legend that is Bill Withers. Showlinks Still Bill Related Posts DN LFF09: Trimpin: [...]

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Hailing from Germany’s Black Forest region, the artist simply known as Trimpin is a sonic experimenter, who combines the roles of inventor, engineer and composer, with a body of work that also defies categorization. Director Peter Esmonde joins us at the London Film Festival to discuss the challenges of creating a documentary which elucidates the [...]

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Today’s LFF interview comes from Asli O?zge whose debut feature Men on the Bridge began as a documentary concept to explore the distinct lives of three men working at the Bosphorus Bridge in Istanbul. However, after meeting her potential contributors during the research stage, O?zge decided she could better serve their stories through fiction, employing [...]

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Do you believe in true love? If so how do you go about finding that special, once in a lifetime person? These are the questions that send Charleyne Yi and a ‘documentary’ crew on a road trip across America, with a pit stop in Paris to see if the city of love can save her [...]

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Kicking off our series of interviews from the Times BFI 53rd London Film Festival, I got to chat to Bill and Turner Ross, brothers and co-directors of 45365; a verite feature documentary which explores the daily lives of the inhabitants of the American town (and hometown of the brothers Ross) ? Sidney, Ohio. If you [...]

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45356 (2009) 45365 explores the congruities of daily life in an American town – Sidney, Ohio. Through a patient and inquisitive look at the lives and landscapes that make up this community of 20,000 people, it captures the complexities and ambiguities of their shared experience. Conclusions are left to the audience as the component characters speak [...]

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When a person goes missing they leave both a mystery and a tragedy behind. Many filmmakers find themselves drawn to the inherent drama present in the mystery, but in his documentary The Space You Leave, director James Newton focuses on the tragic nature of such disappearances and the life long effects suffered by those who [...]

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The Space You Leave (2009) Each year, an estimated 200,000 people are reported missing in the UK alone. But when a loved one goes missing, the space left behind in their families can mean a future trapped in a tortured present, one obsessed by the past. Related Posts DN EP 147: The Space You Leave ? James Newton We [...]

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We’re joined this week by past guest Luca Dipierro who has combined forces with author Michael Kimball to create I WILL SMASH YOU; a documentary which explores the personal thoughts and feelings associated with objects whilst providing catharsis and realization for its participants through conversation and destruction. Showlinks Little Burn Films Michael Kimball Luca Dipierro Black Biscotti Related Posts I WILL [...]

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`I WILL SMASH YOU (2009) I WILL SMASH YOU is a documentary film in which dozens of people each tell a story about an object that has some personal meaning for them and then destroy that object in whatever manner they wish. Michael Kimball interviews each person about their chosen object and the story behind it, [...]

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It’s always daunting confessing undying love for the first time. Even more so when the girl concerned thinks of you as her ‘little brother’. Throw in the confusion of arriving in a country where you don’t speak the language or even have the correct phone number for the object of your desire and you’re firmly [...]

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Ralph (2008) A teenage boy travels alone to Marseille to tell his best friend that he is in love with her but he hasn’t told her that he’s coming. Related Posts DN EP 145: Ralph ? Alex Winckler White Red Panic – Ayz Waraich The West Side – Ryan Bilsborrow-Koo & Zachary Lieberman The Shovel – Nick Childs The Patterns Trilogy – [...]

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Animation can be a long, arduous process that requires God like patients, however after taking part in a real-time arts project, director David Wilson discovered that combining praxinoscopes with custom record labels created a much faster form of animation that could be completed fully in-camera; without the need for any post or 3D manipulation. David [...]

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Moray McLaren: We Got Time – David Wilson (2009) Using both praxinoscopes and the technique of matching up the frame rate of the spinning record to that of the camera, no computer super-imposing was used; what you see is what rolled off the camera. The transitions between each section of animation was created by simply cutting [...]

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This week’s DN guest Beeple is a director who works across many areas of film, including live action, music promos and animation. For his latest piece Beeple decided to widen his skill set by adding 3D animation to his arsenal and a mere 5 months later completed the frankly impressive continuously rotating, isometric perspective piece [...]

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Subprime (2009) Watch as the American housing market spirals out of control. An urgent cry for simplicity, Subprime uses a constantly rotating isometric perspective to illustrate the current subprime mortgage crisis in the United States. Every successive house that is built folds into itself and sprouts the growth of a bigger one, only to repeat [...]

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After the passing of his mother, director Stewart Copeland embarked on the creation of the documentary Jennifer to address the issues of loss and how a person’s absence can alter the atmosphere of the places they used to occupy for those left behind. Stewart joins us to discuss the difficulties of creating such a [...]

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Jennifer (2008) In the short film Jennifer, filmmaker Stewart Copeland explores his relationship with his mother through a recorded conversation between eighth-grade students and astronauts aboard the international space station. Utilizing home movies, found footage, ambient music and voice over, combined with Copeland?s own imagery, the film explores the distant spaces between memory and history; [...]

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  This week I’m taking a break from the regular Directors Notes episodes to talk to journalist, blogger and author Scott Kirsner about his book Fans, Friends & Followers: Building an Audience and a Creative Career in the Digital Age. The book discusses the tools and techniques used by media producers across a variety of fields, [...]

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It’s often hard to pin down the original intentions behind an experimental piece of work, which can sometimes leave the viewer feeling perplexed and unengaged in the piece. Zhivko Dimitrov’s Body manages to explore the theories of Phenomenology whilst not relying on them to enable the film to be appreciated as a piece of [...]

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Body (2009) A little lonely guy on a journey to himself. Related Posts DN EP 141: Body ? Zhivko Dimitrov _grau – Robert Seidel Virtuosi – Marcelo Garcia To Shoot a Rurf – Shane & Paula Sheils The Reason I Collect – Emma Curtis

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Sometimes you find a piece that has you sharing it across the web before it’s even finished playing and the video for band Sour’s Hibi no Neiro definitely falls into that category. This week I have the pleasure of talking to the promo’s four directors; Masashi Kawamura, Hal Kirkland, Magico Nakamura & Masayoshi Nakamura about [...]

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Sour: Hibi no Neiro (2009) This music video was shot for Sour’s Hibi no Neiro (Tone of everyday) from their first mini album Water Flavor EP. The cast were selected from the actual Sour fan base, from many countries around the world. Each person and scene was filmed purely via webcam. Related Posts DN EP 140: Sour: Hibi [...]

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Founding members of Omni Productions and directing duo Richard Penfold and Sam Hearn have for years employed their filmmaking skills as a tool for social change. They join me to discuss their new short Leaving, a portrait of one women’s struggle to escape domestic abuse and the third film to be released under the Social [...]

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Leaving (2008) A powerful short film drama that tells the story of Helen and her attempt to break free from her violent husband Jim. Related Posts DN EP 139: Leaving ? Richard Penfold & Sam Hearn White Red Panic – Ayz Waraich The West Side – Ryan Bilsborrow-Koo & Zachary Lieberman The Shovel – Nick Childs The Patterns Trilogy – Jamie Travis

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Director Joaquin Baldwin joins us to discuss his award winning dark tale of self-sacrifice, Sebastian’s Voodoo. Sebastian?s Voodoo Materials Stoyboard Video Animatic Showlinks Pixel Nitrate Joaquin’s Twitter UCLA Alias Maya Adobe Photoshop Adobe After Effects Related Posts Sebastian?s Voodoo – Joaquin Baldwin Filmstock #8 DN EP 144: Moray McLaren: We Got Time ? David Wilson DN EP 143: Subprime ? Beeple DN EP 141: Body ? Zhivko Dimitrov

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Sebastian?s Voodoo (2008) A voodoo doll must find the courage to save his friends from being pinned to death. Related Posts DN EP 138: Sebastian?s Voodoo – Joaquin Baldwin _grau – Robert Seidel Zoo – Robin Bushell ZOMBIE ZOMBIE: Driving Clip – Simon Gesrel & Xavier Ehretsmann What We’ve Found Out About Stem Cells – Richard Fenwick

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Inspired by the creation of Francis Ford Coppola and George Lucas’ American Zoetrope filmmaking collective back in 1969, some of Atlanta?s most talented, upcoming filmmakers have banded together under the moniker Poet Zero with the express aim of, pushing the limits of no budget filmmaking through the use of the tools of the digital revolution. [...]

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Cerrado Al Publico (2009) A short film about a police officer and barriers of understanding – physical and otherwise. Related Posts DN EP 137: Cerrado Al Publico ? Poet Zero White Red Panic – Ayz Waraich The West Side – Ryan Bilsborrow-Koo & Zachary Lieberman The Shovel – Nick Childs The Patterns Trilogy – Jamie Travis

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The field of animation is probably the most labour intensive means of filmmaking, but even by those standards most projects look like a breeze when weighed against the 6000+ digital paintings created by my guest Reza Dolatabadi for his sumptuous graduation film Khoda. Khoda Materials Image Sequences & Film Stills Showlinks Reza Art Reza’s Flickr Reza’s Blog The Old Man and the [...]

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Khoda (2008) What if you watch a film and whenever you pause it, you face a painting? This idea inspired Reza Dolatabadi to make Khoda. Over 6000 paintings were painstakingly produced during two years to create a five minutes film that would meet his high personal standards. Khoda is a psychological thriller; a student project which [...]

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