Yes, yes, I blogged about this already. I will not be flowery, but economical. Go see HALF-NELSON. It is beautiful, it is brilliant. You will not be able to get it out of your head. Since I learned how to embed code, I welcome you to watch the trailer, go see it, and shoot me an email about what you think.
PLEEEEEEEEASE. Do yourself a favor. danielle@indiepix.net

Feedback is welcome.

The final Woodstock in the City screening of SHERRY BABY at Makor was a spectacular, sold-out event. The film itself, written and directed by the very talented and charismatic Laurie Collyer, proved deserving of the praise and awards reaped on it. Maggie Gyllenhaal, in skin tight jeans and heavy eye makeup, transforms herself into Sherry, a recovering heroine addict making the transition from jail. Placed in a halfway house, her main concern is trying to win back the affection of her daughter, who has been cared for by Sherry’s brother and his wife. The politics and conflicting emotions of this situation — the delicate connections between biology and attachment, between motherhood and narcissim — are explored in great detail. It is a painful film at times, yet also beautiful in its honesty. People really took to it, and many, such as my mother, left feeling moved yet saddened. The Q & A, as always, was energetic and illuminating, and the reception very lively, continuing late into the night.
Alexandra Siegler at Makor and Michael Lerman, Meira Blaustein, and Laurent Rejto at Woodstock Film Festival — for all of their help. We loved working with you. Thanks also to my lovely parents, Deborah Marinsky and Frank DiGiacomo who attended all but one of these screenings, my friends Jessye McDowell , Anna Spinner , Joe Pacheco of the Brooklyn Independent Cinema Series , documentary filmmaker Matt Kohn , director of Call It Democracy , the hilarious gay hip-hop duo Butch and Belly , filmmaker Kitao Sakurai , Johnny Berlin director Dominic de Joseph and the numerous other friends who came out and supported great independent cinema throughout the summer! For more photos of the events throughout the summer, check out my Flickr page:

www.flickr.com dandig’s Woodstock in the City photoset

The summer after my sophomore year at Wesleyan, while subletting a lovely carriage house with my twin sister Alana and her inimitable boyfriend Tommy, I had a life-changing film viewing experience. We lay on the master bed, absolutely entranced by Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky’s PARADISE LOST: THE CHILD MURDERS AT ROBIN HOOD HILLS . At the end of the movie, I remember sobbing with my sister, and then getting angry at Tommy for not being as emotionally affected. The film, about three alienated, rebellious teenagers convicted of murder in West Memphis, Arkansas, is not overly sympathetic to either side, yet it becomes clear to any non-ignoramus that these boys are absolutely innocent. At the time, my sister and I were completely up-in-arms, very aware that this was an injustice that NEEDED to be rectified. Clearly, many people felt the same. Since then, a national movement has sprung up around the case, and celebrities of all stripes, including Eddie Vedder, Margaret Cho, and Henry Rollins have voiced their support of the “West Memphis 3.” An incredible, consistently updated website tells of the latest news of the case, and gives suggestions for helping the trio out. (more…)

Michel Gondry, director of “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind”, “Human Nature”, and loads of music videos for Bjork, The Chemical Brothers, and Daft Punk, will be present at the Soho Mac store on Tuesday August 29 at 7:30 for an in-depth Q&A with indiewire’s own Eugene Hernandez. Should be interesting…..

In a recent post on her blog, Agnes Varnum proposes the idea of “Trifecta” which she defines as: “3 films that … together [showing] different facets of an issue that have given me a new way to look at or think about something happening in our world.” I think this is a really powerful idea.

Agnes is careful to point out in a reply to a comment that I made that she is not talking about a “sidebar” in a film festival that may give you three tries at the same topic in similar ways. She wants three shots from different sides that illuminate something going on in a useful and stimulating way.

IndiePix is releasing 8 documentaries in cooperation with the Full Frame Documentary Festival that achieve this goal (we hope!). But there are other examples, too … (more…)

In a daring move, the Montreal Film Festival has completely snubbed every American film in competition this season, according to Yahoo Movies. I actually think that’s a good practice that more festivals should start implementing, if only to accentuate a healthy cinematic provinciality. I don’t mean exclusionary tactics, but more that when we go to Toronto, for example, we can rest assured that the films we’ll be seeing are actually Canadian. In fact, if more international film fests only played home-grown pictures, there could possibly be the creation of a sort of film tourism. Like if films could take the place of monuments: nice Gaudi, but, how about that new Almodovar?