Taken together, three recent films provoke a profound questioning of how and why we guard the border walls separating documentaries from dramatic features. These movies sabotage genre purity; the modes which are supposed to stay apart—as a matter of ethics, as a matter of aesthetics, as a matter of awards business—touch and pollute each other. … Read more
Fully half of the best films ever—from Charlie Chaplin’s to Claude Lanzmann’s—are replete with cinematic selfies. Yet they are rare over all, perhaps because the camera is an unflinching diagnostician. The medium admits self-portraiture with obvious ease (just step in front of the camera), but few filmmakers can withstand its penetrating gaze, which is surely … Read more
A year ago, I wasn’t sanguine about the state of ultra-low-budget filmmaking; this year, the D.I.Y. domain accounts for many of the best new releases. What I’m still not sanguine about is the economic prospects for such movies, which, even in the best of times, were shaky box-office propositions. This may not matter for the … Read more
The landmark property transaction is for part of a City-owned property in Paardevlei, Somerset West that will pave the way for a massive R900-million film studio development by Cape Point Film Studios (CPFS). The deal was sealed after a site visit by Alderman James Vos, the City’s Mayco Member for Economic Growth. This ambitious project … Read more
On a recent afternoon at his long-time offices in West Los Angeles, Mann, sitting with the youngest of his four daughters, Becca Mann, who worked closely with her father in organising the archives, talked about the project. He appears energised by their work together. The existence of Mann’s extensive personal archive was the initial impulse … Read more
One spring day in 1992, Eric Nies, a twenty-year-old model from New Jersey, walked into a swanky SoHo loft that he shared with six other young people. In the kitchen, he found two of his housemates, Heather B. Gardner and Julie Oliver, flipping through a coffee-table book of nude photographs and giggling. “Did you leave … Read more
2/5 stars Films about filmmaking are nearly as old as the medium itself, yet remain a popular subgenre. At once self-indulgent and celebratory, filmmakers repeatedly rise to the challenge, attempting to convey what attracts them to the art form, despite its difficulty, cost, competition, and every other obstacle standing between them and cinematic success. Such … Read more
In his filmmaking career, Alex Garland has terrified us with zombies, infectious alien hybrids, murderous men and A.I. run amuck. Civil War, the writer and director’s latest film, is not only his most ambitious entry but also his most plausible. The press notes for Civil War describe the setting as “near-future America,” but it feels like … Read more
“Drawing was everything. It’s how I processed the world,” Cameron says. “I was reading, watching films, taking in all the storytelling, and I just had to tell my own. Jake Sully and Neteyam in Avatar: The Way of Water. A third Avatar film is in the works, director James Cameron says. Photo: courtesy of 20th … Read more
Jacob Roach / Digital Trends The two major innovations in gaming displays over the past few years have been OLED and mini-LED. These two types of displays have transformed the rather dire state of HDR for PC gamers, and now, you can find OLED and mini-LED options across gaming monitors, laptops, and TVs. From my … Read more
