Sundance season has kicked off 2012 for the independent film world but CinemATL is looking ahead with a local production that will be making noise in the near future. Encuentrate is a film about a young woman, Anais, who alienates herself from her family, her culture and her grandfather’s spiritual teachings because of issues she has with her [Read More]
Atlanta has some excellent Film Collectives. Obviously, Film Collectives are nothing new, they’ve been around for years and in many places but in Atlanta they occupy a special place in the independent film scene. We’ve had a relatively recent history of success stories that came from film collectives from Atlanta . The thing with [Read More]
The notion that General Orders No. 9 is a ghost was born from the necessity to communicate at once the mystery it preserves, the perspective it exhibits, and the polarized reactions it will continue to yield. For some, this equation reinforces their belief that the film is a transparent spook; they can see right through [Read More]
Most people know Curtis Jackson as 50 Cent, a hugely successful rapper with Platinum albums and a humdinger of a survival story that tops even the most hardcore gangsta Rap peers. Yes, he was shot 9 times and got stronger. What people may not know is how serious Curtis Jackson is at becoming a thespian. [Read More]
The Atlanta Film Festival brings a documentary Beatboxing – The Fifth Element of Hip-Hop that documents the history and evolution of Beatboxing. It has become a multilingual, diverse and technically complex form of expression that almost four decades later continues to cross musical genres and influence artists around the globe. [Read More]
In a lively lobby at the Landmark Theater, a skinny director walks the red carpet of opening night. He's Azazel Jacobs and he's no stranger to festivals as his film Terri as well as his previous work have made the scene at many of the top film festivals around. He was excited about being in Atlanta to kick off the 35th Annual Atlanta Film [Read More]
Everybody loves puppets, or so it seems. Whether they live on Sesame Street and teach kids the alphabet or make prank phone calls or entertain at marquee shows in Las Vegas , it seems that puppets can do little wrong. That idea is put to the test in Sam Carter’s short film Shadow Puppets. It [Read More]
Anthony McHie’s short film LAUGH. takes place in a familiar cinematic world these days. A post-Apocalyptic Zombie world. However, he tells the story of a human survivor unlike many we’ve seen in the genre. From a script by Olufemi Sowemimo, McHie tells the story of a young comedian who is trapped with only a camera at his disposal. What he [Read More]
Snow On Tha Bluff is a raw and vivid, hybrid documentary/narrative film that cuts through the hype and mythology to deliver a clear-eyed, uncensored look at gangsta life—and death—in the inner city. Director/writer Damon Russell teams up with co-writer and lead actor Curtis Snow, a charismatic, self-described dope dealer and robbery boy, to [Read More]
Ryan Prows’ bio describes him, among other things, as a conspiracy theorist which brings us to his film .22 that won the 2005 Atlanta leg of the 48 Hour Film Project. The fact that his film capably took on a JFK-like assassination story also lends credence to his bio’s claim. Ryan spent many years as part of Atlanta ’s film community. He [Read More]
Rebel without a Deal tells the story of Vincent Rocca who shot his first movie in five days for 11K and nearly landed a multi-million dollar deal with National Lampoon. After the fallout from losing that deal, he recovered and released the movie through Warner Bros. where it went on to gross over a million [Read More]
Ever since the phenomenal success of The Blair Witch Project, there seems to be a fascination as well as an eagerness to blur the lines between reality and fiction to keep an audience off guard as to what feelings to be drawn from what they are watching unfold on the screen in front of them. It can be effective marketing to boot. [Read More]
When I was offered the chance to write about my Slamdance experience, I figured I'd approach it as a diary. I'd take notes and break up what I did each morning, afternoon and night. I'd keep a log of the films I saw and my thoughts on them. Maybe even include a lightly embellished anecdote or two for good measure. But my Slamdance experience was [Read More]
When Amazon.com announced in November 2010 that it was launching Amazon Studios with the ultimate goal to produce a film, it was a pronouncement that generated quite a bit of buzz, as well as controversy, raising many questions. First, why was one of the largest online retailers in the world wanting to go from selling and renting movies [Read More]
When it comes to the mysteries of making it as a filmmaker, few independent filmmakers consider the most important aspect of reaching an audience. What could that be? A distributor, in case you were wondering. In the south one might feel like a distributor is thousands of miles away figuratively when truthfully they are literally. [Read More]
CinemATL first caught up with Brandon and his team in 2007 when we first saw the trailer for his then current film Alabaster. He’s gone on to make many other short films in the time since. Of those films, his latest has a message that deals specifically with a startling topic that hits home here in Atlanta. Although it may sound incongruent [Read More]
I had a great experience at Independent Film Week, and most importantly, I felt like myself. Even if I don’t get into any major festivals, even if none of my newfound industry contacts pan out, every bit of exposure represents an opportunity. It’s a tool that I add to my toolbox and down the line, perhaps with my second or third feature, the [Read More]
Bret Wood is an example of an atypical filmmaker for the Atlanta scene. He’s a scholar of classic film and someone bold enough to make period pieces on an ultra-low budget. The fact that he’s also been an enthusiastic participant in the popular community film activities like the 48 Hour Film Project right next to the weekend warrior auteurs [Read More]
Independent filmmaker Joseph Stovall has said, “Atlanta has a GREAT Film Community.” I definitely agree with that sentiment, but Joseph is also quick to challenge that same community to do better while not being frozen by the daunting tasks of doing so that it keeps them from simply doing it. [Read More]
Coming to Atlanta July 15-18 is the 9th edition of ARGFest, a conference and gaming festival that’s all about Alternate Reality Gaming (ARG) and Transmedia Storytelling. If you think you haven’t heard of, or participated in an ARG, who’d be wrong if you followed on any level of The Dark Knight’s Why So Serious, Halo [Read More]