As an adult, documentary filmmaker Sara Lamm discovered that she was conceived via sperm donor. She’s spent years trying to track down her biological dad, using her skills as an investigator to dig ever deeper to uncover where half of her DNA comes from. It’s a fraught premise — and one that threatens to upset her seemingly very happy and loving family — but it’s one she embraces fully in her latest film, “Thank You For Coming.”
Lamm’s search forms the heart of the film, along with a few big twists, like meeting another woman who was conceived at the same clinic in the same year who looks an awful lot like her and wrestling with what her now-deceased mother did and did not know about the situation. The film builds together two years of work and discoveries, and ultimately finds Lamm traveling all the way to Hawaii...
Lamm’s search forms the heart of the film, along with a few big twists, like meeting another woman who was conceived at the same clinic in the same year who looks an awful lot like her and wrestling with what her now-deceased mother did and did not know about the situation. The film builds together two years of work and discoveries, and ultimately finds Lamm traveling all the way to Hawaii...
- 5/24/2017
- by Kate Erbland
- Indiewire
Lauded filmmaker Alma Har’el has again brought her distinctive documentarian’s eye to her latest effort, the genre-bending feature “LoveTrue.” After winning Tribeca’s Best Documentary Feature Award in 2011 for her remarkable and similarly boundary-pushingdebut, “Bombay Beach,” the filmmaker screened work-in-progress selections from “LoveTrue” at Tff 2015. The film is now available — thanks to Netflix — and it’s a spell-binding wonder that compellingly explores some very big questions.
“Love is…never as it seems,” subject Will Hunt a.k.a Coconut Willie, opines in the opening of our exclusive clip, which might as well be the tagline for the entire film. The feature-length doc follows three very different love stories around the country — from Alaska to Hawaii all the way to New York City — to get to the heart of what it really means to love someone.
Read More: Female Filmmakers Want to Direct Blockbusters; Here’s Why They Don...
“Love is…never as it seems,” subject Will Hunt a.k.a Coconut Willie, opines in the opening of our exclusive clip, which might as well be the tagline for the entire film. The feature-length doc follows three very different love stories around the country — from Alaska to Hawaii all the way to New York City — to get to the heart of what it really means to love someone.
Read More: Female Filmmakers Want to Direct Blockbusters; Here’s Why They Don...
- 5/23/2017
- by Kate Erbland
- Indiewire
Deb Shoval’s strikingly intimate drama “Awol” was a standout at last year’s Tribeca Film Festival, and now the Lola Kirke- and Breeda Wool-starring feature is available to watch in the privacy of your very own home, thanks to an iTunes and On Demand release. And you might want that privacy, because the finely wrought love story is likely to wring a few tears out of even the most hardened of hearts.
Read More: How Deb Shoval Turned Her Sundance Short ‘Awol’ Into a Stirring New Feature
Based on her 2010 short of the same name — which also starred the immensely talented Wool as Rayna — Shoval’s film follows a shiftless Joey (Kirke) as she attempts to make the next steps in her young life. Initially intrigued by the idea of joining the Army, Joey’s plans are put on hold when she takes up with the vivacious Rayna.
Read More: How Deb Shoval Turned Her Sundance Short ‘Awol’ Into a Stirring New Feature
Based on her 2010 short of the same name — which also starred the immensely talented Wool as Rayna — Shoval’s film follows a shiftless Joey (Kirke) as she attempts to make the next steps in her young life. Initially intrigued by the idea of joining the Army, Joey’s plans are put on hold when she takes up with the vivacious Rayna.
- 5/23/2017
- by Kate Erbland
- Indiewire
The Bordelons are back. Own has released the trailer for season two of its original drama series “Queen Sugar,” created by acclaimed filmmaker Ava DuVernay and executive produced by Oprah Winfrey. The series stars Rutina Wesley, Dawn-Lyen Gardner, and Kofi Siriboe as the estranged Bordelon siblings.
Read More: Agnès Varda, Ava DuVernay, Olivier Assayas and More Discuss the Need For a Global Film Community In the Trump Age — Watch
Season two finds the siblings striving to honor the legacy of their father, who passed away unexpectedly. Ralph-Angel is trying to rebuild his life after jail, and secure a better future for his young son. Meanwhile, tension in the family starts to build when Charley relocates with her teenage son Micah to Saint Josephine, Louisiana, to help run the family business, the 800-acre sugarcane farm Queen Sugar Mill.
Once again, DuVernay enlisted an all-female directing team, including Kat Candler (“12 Monkeys...
Read More: Agnès Varda, Ava DuVernay, Olivier Assayas and More Discuss the Need For a Global Film Community In the Trump Age — Watch
Season two finds the siblings striving to honor the legacy of their father, who passed away unexpectedly. Ralph-Angel is trying to rebuild his life after jail, and secure a better future for his young son. Meanwhile, tension in the family starts to build when Charley relocates with her teenage son Micah to Saint Josephine, Louisiana, to help run the family business, the 800-acre sugarcane farm Queen Sugar Mill.
Once again, DuVernay enlisted an all-female directing team, including Kat Candler (“12 Monkeys...
- 5/22/2017
- by Yoselin Acevedo
- Indiewire
The first trailer has dropped for the upcoming thriller “Numb, at the Edge of the End.” The film is directed by Rodrigo H. Vila (“Mercedes Sosa: The Voice of Latin America,” “Boca Juniors 3D: The Movie”) and stars “Star Wars” actor Hayden Christensen in the lead role.
Read More: The 2017 IndieWire Cannes Bible: Every Review, Interview and News Item Posted During the Festival
Christensen plays Tov Matheson, a war veteran suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder. After meeting a dubious prophet named Noe (Harvey Keitel), Tov is convinced that the end of the world is coming. As he leaves his normal life and begins to prepare for the apocalypse, those around him begin to think he’s gone insane.
The film was written by Vila with script collaborator Dan Bush (“The Signal,” “Ghost of Old Highways”). It also stars Justin Kelly (“Degrassi: The Next Generation”), Marco Leonardi (“The Space Between...
Read More: The 2017 IndieWire Cannes Bible: Every Review, Interview and News Item Posted During the Festival
Christensen plays Tov Matheson, a war veteran suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder. After meeting a dubious prophet named Noe (Harvey Keitel), Tov is convinced that the end of the world is coming. As he leaves his normal life and begins to prepare for the apocalypse, those around him begin to think he’s gone insane.
The film was written by Vila with script collaborator Dan Bush (“The Signal,” “Ghost of Old Highways”). It also stars Justin Kelly (“Degrassi: The Next Generation”), Marco Leonardi (“The Space Between...
- 5/22/2017
- by Yoselin Acevedo
- Indiewire
We've been big fans of Australian writer-director-vfx whiz Michael Shanks for some time now - check out his short film Time Trap here for an example of why - and he just dropped another little gem over on his YouTube channel. Titled The Bourne Wipe it posits a world where everyone's favorite disappearing act goes badly wrong. Check it out below!...
[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...
[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...
- 7/29/2016
- Screen Anarchy
In this sci-fi time travel short called “Time Trap,” a cyborg space traveller crash lands on a barren, post-apocalyptic Earth, where he must use a “Portable Time Bubble Generator” to steal resources from the past to repair his ship. We’re all fascinated by the possibility of traveling through time, and this short features a fun and unique approach that skips the usual tropes and explores the idea of reaching into small pockets of the past to obtain necessary objects, rather than traveling to the past to alter the present/future.
The short was written and directed by Michael Shanks, whose VFX work you should be familiar with if you're one of the millions of people who watched the George Lucas Special Edition Star Wars: The Force Awakens trailer spoof. This original effort of his oozes a retro vibe and successfully mines laughs with virtually no dialogue. What’s that,...
The short was written and directed by Michael Shanks, whose VFX work you should be familiar with if you're one of the millions of people who watched the George Lucas Special Edition Star Wars: The Force Awakens trailer spoof. This original effort of his oozes a retro vibe and successfully mines laughs with virtually no dialogue. What’s that,...
- 12/3/2014
- by Eli Reyes
- GeekTyrant
Australian director Michael Shanks is a pro. He writes, directs, handles VFX and acts in his own films. He also has the most fun on the internet. Need proof? Just check out his latest film Time Trap which debuted in ful online now that its festival stint is over and done with.
Oh yeah, and he's like in his twenties.
Synopsis:
Time traveling, jaunting and telekinesis can be a real handful! Decisions in space are crucial! Villains can be heroes, and even the world of nymphs can be fraught with danger! In the eyes of these talented Australian filmmakers the plight of society and relationships in the future is as certain as the apocalypse is probably tomorrow. Cough. Probably. Remember to always look where you leap!
For more information on Michael Shanks and his word visit [Continued ...]...
Oh yeah, and he's like in his twenties.
Synopsis:
Time traveling, jaunting and telekinesis can be a real handful! Decisions in space are crucial! Villains can be heroes, and even the world of nymphs can be fraught with danger! In the eyes of these talented Australian filmmakers the plight of society and relationships in the future is as certain as the apocalypse is probably tomorrow. Cough. Probably. Remember to always look where you leap!
For more information on Michael Shanks and his word visit [Continued ...]...
- 12/1/2014
- QuietEarth.us
Impossibly young and stupidly talented Australian director Michael Shanks has turned up here in the pages of Twitch several times over the past few year. Now in his early twenties there's seemingly nothing Shanks can't do, starting with a YouTube channel that drew fans with his playful and beautifully executed video game themed videos before broadening out into often surreal music videos and on to short films. Shanks does pretty much everything himself - writing, directing, VFX, often the music, often starring - and has grown from his video game origins to winning awards at festivals and now directing an album's worth (or at least as many as he ultimately decides he wants) of music videos for Guy Pearce.Which brings us to Time Trap, a...
[Read the whole post on twitchfilm.com...]...
[Read the whole post on twitchfilm.com...]...
- 12/1/2014
- Screen Anarchy
Since we last heard from Australian YouTube prankster Michael Shanks, the young talent has been hired on to direct music videos for Guy Pearce - really, see one here - but happily his time spent singing movie stars has not kept the director of Time Trap and other oddities from continuing down his odd little path.And here's his latest micro-opus, an Old West showdown that knows full well the power of an intimidating stare. Check it out below....
[Read the whole post on twitchfilm.com...]...
[Read the whole post on twitchfilm.com...]...
- 10/16/2014
- Screen Anarchy
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