Call for Entries have opened for the 23rd edition of Cine Las Americas International Film Festival (CLAIFF), which will take place June 9-13, 2021. The Austin-based film festival will return with a virtual presentation following the success of this year’s special Virtual Showcase.
Amanda McBaine and Jesse Moss’ BOYS STATE, Charlie Kaufman’s I’M THINKING OF ENDING THINGS, and Eliza Hittman’s NEVER RARELY SOMETIMES ALWAYS, took the top three spots among films released domestically in 2020.
The heads of prominent Dallas and North Texas Film Festivals announced their selections for the Top Ten Films of 2020 today with David Fincher’s MANK, Eliza Hitman’s NEVER RARELY SOMETIMES ALWAYS, and Spike Lee’s’ DA 5 BLOODS taking the top three spots among films released in 2020.
And the twist here is that not all of his art is film related. In fact, it is music themed, as he takes a musician or band and combines a notable song of theirs with a familiar image (book cover style, consumer product ad or packaging, etc.) that dovetails so nicely with the song itself that (as they say) it…makes you think..
Well, I am a HUGE fan of these shirts from TomsTrendyTees. Tom also has a lot of Broadway show-inspired t-shirts, so maybe that will be awesome for you to. But I am ALL about his movie t-shirt collection. He’s got great taste (as far as I am concerned) with the films he chooses, and you’ll find a fun sense of humor inherent there too. A perfect example of what sets his stuff apart are the “Directed By” shirts. First, Tom will strike an homage to how the “directed by” credit appeared in a particular film, AND he even has a few that show some love for DPs, composers, and costume designers. You’ll see what I mean in the gallery that follows.
It’s my “fault” for the most part since I must have A LOT of visual stimulus all of the time. Oftentimes, our guests ask me where I got one poster or image versus another, and since I’m all Golden Rule about this shit, I thought it would be great to promote some artists that I truly think are the best – so much so that Idle Wild Manor (which is what we call our home) serves as an art gallery for their work.
As discussed the first time I did this column highlighting some choice Kino Lorber nuggets, I LOVE their combo of classics versus “You gotta see this shit!” to gems they have rightfully given a home to and made available for people like us to discover. I will routinely call a friend after watching a title (including a couple on this list) to excitedly talk about it. That’s what movie watching should inspire, right? That kind of excitement and thrill – so much so that you just need to talk about it with someone?!
In the interview, Timoner and I talk about what she felt was a need and a gap regarding insight and information on the topic inspiring her to make this her next film, as well as balancing the filmmaker’s agenda for their film versus a subject’s agenda for a personal cause or self-interest. She discusses her technique in and methods in getting interview subjects to open up and give information that is below the surface level.
In the interview, I talk to the film’s producer and writer Mark Stafford about the gift, as I see it, to be able to see and hear the man, and Stafford’s efforts as the writer for the documentary to help craft a coherent path to tell the man’s story. Stafford also talks about the beauty of documentary filmmaking knowing as you are going in, the different and unexpected directions it can go, and then how a filmmaker’s perspective changes after viewing the first cuts with an audience.
In the interview, I talk to Hansen about why he chose to structure the film the way he did to properly portray the “raw, real life junk” that marriages are chock full of. He also discusses how much the actors’ had to shoulder when it comes to delivering a nuanced look at a relationship and how shooting out of order and shooting primarily at night could have complicated that effort – yet didn’t.
