Pussy Riot, Sofia Coppola & Film Education Roundtable in Summer Issue #104

In MovieMaker Magazine’s Summer Issue #104, look out for an interview by Timothy Rhys with Mike Lerner and Maxim Pozdorovkin, directors of the Sundance award-winning documentary Pussy Riot: A Punk Prayer.

The documentary tells the story of three young Russian women, two of them mothers, who face seven years in prison for their satirical performance in a Moscow church last year. The documentary is shocking to most viewers not for what the women of Pussy Riot, an “anonymous” art collective, actually did (which was kick up their legs, bang on their guitars, and shout a few words of protest through their balaclavas for 30 seconds) but for the Russian government’s heavy-handed response, which raises the question of who is really on trial—the artists or the repressive, sexist society they’re rebelling against.

The MovieMaker Magazine summer issue also features an interview by David Sterritt with Sofia Coppola about her new film The Bling Ring. The article asks the question: Is The Bling Ring is a critique of young America’s materialism, or an endorsement? Sofia Coppola’s latest opened Un Certain Regard at Cannes. The new movie by writer-director-producer Sofia Coppola takes its cue from “The Suspects Wore Louboutins,” a Vanity Fair article by Nancy Jo Sales about a gaaggle of Valley kids who spend several months in 2008-2009 pillaging the homes of their favorite celebrities (Paris Hilton, Lindsay Lohan, Megan Fox, Orlando Bloom, et al) for clothes, accessories, luggage, artworks, and, well, bling.

Also featured in the summer issue is the 2013 MovieMakers of the Planet, which highlights ten filmmakers who are cleaning up the planet’s messes with the movies they make and the actions they take. They include Mark Ruffalo, Robert Deniro, Robert Stone, Woody Harrelson, Channing Tatum, Gwyneth Paltrow, Cate Blanchett, and more.

Last but not least the new issue will feature Kyle Ruprecht’s “Film Education Roundtable.” In the article Kyle asks how the role of traditional film education is changing in light of the digital filmmaking revolution. Included in the roundtable discussion is Alan Gansberg, Dean of Columbia College Hollywood, Matt Irvine, Director of the School of Cinema and Interactive Media at DePaul University, Bob Tinnell, director of the Factory Digital Filmmaking Program at Douglas Education Center, David Klein, Senior Director of New York Film Academy, Susan Ruskin, Interim Dean of the School of Filmmaking at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts, Ted Jones, Head of Film Production at Vancouver Film School, and Paul Denigris, Program Champion for Digital Video at the University of Advancing Technology.

The summer issue of MovieMaker Magazine, featuring the 2013 Guide to Film Education, plus interviews with Sofia Coppola, and the filmmakers behind the Sundance award-winning documentary on Pussy Riot, goes on sale at newsstands on June 4th. If you want to save 50% off of newsstand prices, consider subscribing to MovieMaker Magazine for 1 year, 2 years or 3 years.