Brandon Harris is a Brooklyn based filmmaker and journalist. He is a 2006 cum laude graduate of SUNY Purchase's Conservatory of Theatre Arts and Film. Brandon has written, produced, directed and edited several award winning short films including Happiness is no fun, a recipient of the 2006 National Board of Review student filmmaking grant, and Evangeleo, which has screened at the 2007 Slamdance Film Festival and NewFest: The NYGLBT Film Festival among twenty festivals worldwide. Among his producing credits is Eva Vives’ (Raising Victor Vargas) short film She Pedals Fast(For A Girl) and Evan Louison’s forthcoming feature directorial debut, A Light In The Window Lost. He has served as assistant to producers Scott Macaulay and Robin O’Hara at Tribeca based Forensic Films (Vargas, Idlewild, Demonlover). He has contributed to Filmmaker Magazine, The National Board of Review online, Variety.com/TheCircuit and his own blog devoted to New York City cinema culture, Cinema Echo Chamber.
Riding a wave of critical good will that began at Fantastic Fest ‘07 and continued through this year’s Sundance Film Festival, Spanish director Nacho Vigalondo’s zippy Timecrimes finally arrives commercially this weekend. Recalling both Philip K. Dick and David Cronenberg (who, along with Steve Zaillian, has been mentioned as a possible helmer for a planned English [...]
One of the most underrated and overlooked titles at Sundance last year was Dennis Dortch’s A Good Day to be Black and Sexy. Over six vignettes, Dortch takes a daring, authentic and frequently hysterical look at the sexual mores of a young black Los Angelenos. The film, which garnered Dortch a nomination at Tuesday’s Gotham [...]
For two and a half years Sujewa Ekanayake has provided the indie film world with one of its funniest and most arresting blogs, DIY Filmmaker Sujewa, where the thirty-four year old Washington D.C. based Sri Lankan offers an insightful glance into the world of the independent filmmaker outside of the New York-LA indie axis. His [...]
For fans of relatively offbeat animation, 2008 seems to have been a banner year. Pixar produced perhaps their most acclaimed effort yet with Wall-E, which is drawing considerable heat for a best picture nomination. Ari Folman’s Waltz with Bashir thrilled and horrified audiences in Competition in Cannes with subject matter and personal introspectiveness not usually broached by animated films. Yet the most satisfying animated film that surfaced in 2008 may well have been Nina Paley’s delightful Sita Sings The Blues, which marries the tunes of obscure 30’s blues songstress Annette Hanshaw to a retelling, by three hip, Gen-Y Indians, of the Indian myth Ramayana and a mildly autobiographical story of a Seattle based female cartoonist loosing her husband to his job in India. The film, a nominee for this year’s Gotham Award for the Best Film Not Playing at a Theater Near You after an impressive festival run that began at this year’s Berlinale, screens at MoMA on Thursday and Saturday. Clearly a dedicated postmodernist, Paley discusses Sci-Fi channel’s Eureka, Lawrence Lessig’s Free Culture and the strange ambiguities of influence after the jump.
In The Guitar, ex-Mike Figgis muse Saffron Burrows plays a terminally ill, freshly laid-off woman who holes up in a downtown loft near the Hudson and doggedly pursues one last series of good times, as represented by the shiny red guitar which informs the title, and sex with Isaach de Bankole and Paz de la [...]
Gypsy punk band Gogol Bordello have drawn an increasingly large following as the decade as worn on, but this year their cinematic profile has raised dramatically. In Berlin this year Madonna unveiled her Filth and Wisdom, staring frontman Eugene Hutz, and now comes a full blown tour documentary filmmaker Margarita Jimeno, Gogol Bordello Non-Stop. The [...]
DEAR ZACHARY director Kurt Kuenne reveals what he reads, watches and listens to when he’s not promoting his devastating doc.
Of the 8,500 or so filmmakers who receive an automated rejection email from Sundance’s Geoff Gilmore every year, usually the Tuesday or Wednesday after Thanksgiving, nearly none receive the sweet revenge Antonio Campos has been privy to. Both his 2005 NYU undergrad short Buy It Now and his 2008 debut feature Afterschool were rejected by [...]
As you can see above, Floridian turned Brooklynite Holly Herrick knows a thing or two about flowers, but this is just where her expertise begins. The programmer of Sarasota’s quickly emerging film festival has taken up programming duties at the Hamptons Film Festival, which kicks off on Wednesday. We spoke recently about why Agnes Varda’s [...]
As the hipster kleptomaniac at the center of Josh Safdie’s adorable debut feature The Pleasure of Being Robbed, Eleonore Hendricks steals a lot of things, but mainly the audiences’ hearts. The twentysomething actress, despite her newfound indie cinema fame, still works at the video store Cinema Nolita and binges on way too much Lukas Moodysson. [...]
Ronnie Bronstein is unlike anyone else I’ve ever met. Whip smart and endlessly self-deprecating, Ronnie’s acidic humor masks a sweetness and empathetic quality that’s rare for someone so talented and driven. His feature debut Frownland was for many, this humble author included, the definitive independent film of 2007, one that brings real credence back to [...]
With her feature ORPHANS coming to DVD, Ry Russo-Young dishes on her favorite movies and books, and explains why the only concert film she’d want to make would involve Amy Winehouse.
Michael Tully does alittle bit of everything. He’s a musician. Journo/blogger/critic. Oh, and he’s directed a pair of acclaimed films, the down and out on drugs in Jacksonville narrative Cocaine Angel and the David Berman rock doc Silver Jew, which will be released on DVD next week by Drag City. Michael is currently the editor [...]
A hit at the most recent Rotterdam Film Festival, Paul Krik’s feature debut Able Danger is a Flatbush, Brooklyn set post 9/11 conspiracy tale that hinges its low budget thrills directly to a studied pastiche of classic film noir and a healthy cynicism of our government’s possible role in the events of 9/11 and the subsequent [...]
The ex-head of Slamdance loves Werner Herzog and Douglas Sirk.
Kevin Buist
FLAME + CITRON Review
Christopher Campbell
Happy Halloween Links. Today in Film...
Brandon Harris
5 80s Literary Adaptations Worse Than...
Kevin Kelly
John Krasinski, Brief Interviews With...
Karina Longworth
SpoutBlog, Now Available in Book Form
Paul Moore
October 31, Karina’s Last Day
Lauren Wissot
Sasha Grey Interview
We’ve had a bit of trouble getting this episode to go through the iTunes feed, so we hope this re-post will fix the problem. The original post, with episode description and embedded player, is here.
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