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School of Visual Arts Announces MFA Program in Social Documentary Film

by Jessica Wall | Published Jun. 13, 2008 00:06

Is there value in creating art that is socially aware? The educators at the School of Visual Arts (SVA) certainly think so as they’ve recently announced a new MFA program in Social Documentary Film to begin in Fall 2009. “It’s our goal that graduates leave this program with films which engage larger issues, and perhaps even impact public policy,” says accomplished moviemaker and chair of the program, Maro Chermayeff. (No comments yet)

Shakespeare on Film: Julius Caesar

MM's third week of Shakespeare on Film looks back at 1953's Julius Caesar.

By Daniel Rosenthal | Published Jun. 13, 2008 00:06

MM's third week of Shakespeare on Film looks back at 1953's Julius Caesar. In 1952, MGM coupled its substantial $1.7 million investment in Shakespeare with one of the most inspired casting decisions in Hollywood history. A year after stunning audiences as macho, mumbling Stanley Kowalski in A Streetcar Named Desire, Marlon Brando was to play the “wise and valiant” Marc Antony. Columnists expressed astonishment, TV comedians impersonated Kowalski’s rendition of “Friends, Romans, countrymen,” but the star, declaring himself “sick to death of being thought of as a blue-jeaned slobbermouth,” had decided that Julius Caesar must kill his Streetcar image. (No comments yet)

Bill Maher Finds Religion

Or at least finds Religulous

by Jennifer M. Wood | Published Jun. 11, 2008 12:06

Particularly in an election year, religion is a hot-button topic. So leave it to writer-producer-actor-comedian and all-around opinion-maker Bill Maher to choose this fall to release Religulous. Directed by Larry Charles, who created controversy with Borat just a few years back, the film is being marketed as "an uproarious nonfiction film about the greatest fiction ever told." Who better to help give a sneak peek at the film than Maher himself. (1 comment)

Getting to the Next Level in Wilmington

WiFi Film Conference kicks on in June

by Lauren Barbato | Published Jun. 11, 2008 11:06

While no one can say that Hollywood isn’t a great place to be as a moviemaker, with its star power and extensive history, it’s not necessarily the only place to be. In fact, in the past few decades, the thriving film community of Wilmington, North Carolina has been giving Hollywood a run for its money. There may not be a Grauman’s Chinese Theater or Walk of Fame, yet what Wilmington lacks in legendry it makes up in its hunger for independent moviemaking.

From Friday, June 27th through Sunday, June 29th, the moviemakers of Wilmington will be satiated when the inaugural Wilmington Inside the Film Industry Film Conference brings a chunk of Hollywood to the east coast.

(No comments yet)

Kung Fu Panda Drop Kicks the Competition

by Jennifer M. Wood | Published Jun. 9, 2008 08:06

Seems like all those promos must have paid off—first at Cannes, then the TV commercial onslaught—as Kung Fu Panda kicked some serious butt at the box office over the weekend, out-grossing Adam Sandler's new film, You Don't Mess With the Zohan, by 50 percent. The animated action flick, featuring the voices of Jack Black, Angelina Jolie, Dustin Hoffman and Jackie Chan, took in $60 million over the weekend—while Zohan earned $40 million.

Harrison Ford and Shia LaBeouf's Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull held strong in the number three position with $22.8 million, while last year's surprise topper, Michael Patrick King's Sex and the City, saw a more than 62 percent decline in ticket sales, with a weekend total of $21.3 million. (1 comment)

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Doorpost Awards $300,000 to “Undiscovered” Moviemakers

The Doorpost Film Project, a “contest aimed at discovering and developing moviemakers capable of producing films that inspire and influence rather than simply entertain,” just finished round one and is now left with 15 finalists who are described by Nathan Elliott, the Project's director, as “a globally, ethnically and racially diverse group of filmmakers that have one important thing in common: They're enormously talented."

Posted 07.23.08 | News/Commentary | No comments yet...