But making a documentary is not without its challenges. Docs are strange beasts and documentarians are a breed unto their own, crafting stories that straddle the line between entertainment and journalism. Where that line is drawn can be complicated and brings into question whether viewers are being informed or manipulated. As we watch the maelstrom that is this year’s Presidential election, we face an endless barrage of information, ideology and propaganda from across the political spectrum, all of which seeks to inform and persuade people on what think and how to vote....

And just like any kind of leader, there’s no one specific style of directing that’s correct—just the style that’s correct for you and your story. Some directors are red-faced drill sergeants, barking orders to maneuver performers and crew into the right spot. Others are touchy-feely art teachers, full of gentle suggestions and eager to empower their collaborators. Some huddle behind the monitor all day; others hover just outside of frame, breath practically fogging the camera lens....

Last Tuesday, September 27 a room full of filmmakers and aspiring filmmakers gathered at the Film Independent offices in Los Angeles to gain some valuable advice on how exactly to go about publicizing your film at festivals. A panel of industry professionals sat down to share their experiences and offer tips on what it takes to fill your theater, get good press—and maybe even sell your film! The panel consisted of Maria Raquel Bozzi, Film Independent Senior Director of Education and International Initiatives, publicist Alia Quart Khan, Rene Ridinger, VP of Entertainment at MPRM Communications (who’s overseen publicity campaigns for Focus Features, RADiUS-TWC, Magnolia Pictures, Roadside Attractions, and NBC Universal, among several others) and Jeremy Teicher, an award-winning writer and director whose latest feature film Tracktown, premiered at the LA Film Festival earlier this year....

“When I first started rapping, I had to remind myself daily: there are no rules except for the ones that you give to yourself. And the same is true with everything. Not just rapping—with movies, with videos, with business, with everything.” Sticky Fingaz, rapper/actor “I found that I had to identify with [Frank Morgan’s] struggles… and I just identified with the struggle it is to be an artist. And if you don’t have self confidence how hard that is and how you can make some really bad choices without that....

These are days of rage and anguish. Rage and anguish over the killings of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, and so many more. Rage and anguish over the systemic racism that allows injustices like these to happen. As dark as things are, we believe these are days of hope and urgency, too. We are inspired by the brave people all over the country – and all over the world – who are demonstrating for and demanding change....

All you have to do is take one quick glance at Project Involve and Producing Lab Fellow (and NAACP Image Award nominee) LaToya Morgan’s recent projects to understand that she lives and breathes politics, and that politics are intrinsic to the media she gravitates toward. Morgan was recently a writer on AMC’s Revolutionary War drama Turn: Washington’s Spies as well as the network’s intense post-apocalyptic martial arts drama Into the Badlands....

Gathering together for a vibrant discussion of their work and hailing from widely diverse backgrounds, the filmmakers included: Marie Kreutzer (Corsage), dialing in from Vienna; Martika Escobar (Leonor Will Never Die), originally from the Philippines but calling from Berlin; Davy Chou (Return to Seoul) in Lyon, France; Alice Diop (Saint Omer) in Paris; and Saim Sadiq (Joyland) in Karachi, Pakistan. The Director’s Close-Up panel was introduced by Fi Senior Director of Educational and International Initiatives Maria Bozzi and moderated by Jenn Wilson, Fi’s Senior Programmer....

OH, LUCY! When You Can Watch: March 2 Where You Can Watch: Theaters Director: Atsuko Hirayanagi Cast: Shinobu Terajima, Josh Hartnett, Kaho Minami Why We’re Excited: Based on her own 2014 short of the same name, Oh, Lucy! is writer/director Atsuko Hirayanagi’s highly engaging cross-cultural drama. The film follows Setsuko (Terajimi)—a depressed, repressed, underachieving middle-aged Japanese woman slogging away as a wage-slave office drone. Setsuko’s outlook on life changes, however, when her niece Mika talks her into taking English lessons with an unconventional American tutor named John (Josh Hartnett), whose quirky techniques include giving his students outlandish wigs to wear as a way to break the confines of cultural rigidity....

How much should I budget for marketing for my $1M film and should it be in place at the onset of pre-production? Traditionally, feature films have the same amount of money spent on marketing (commonly called “P&A,” which is short for “prints and advertising”) as the budget of the film. If a film cost $1 million to make, then the rule of thumb was to spend $1 million on marketing for a theatrical release....

Pariah, which won her the John Cassavetes Award at the 27th Film Independent Spirit Awards in February of 2012, is the first fiction feature directed by Dee Rees and the film’s overwhelming critical reception, starting at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival over a year prior, was deservedly name-making. But Pariah also announced the arrival of cinematographer Bradford Young, who’d been working in independent film for years but whose tactile neon cityscapes and swift, deliberate camera movements here paved the way for a higher profile career that would go on to include an Oscar nomination for 2016’s Arrival....

So congrats again to all of this year’s nominees and winners—including those of our inaugural TV/streaming categories. And whether you watched this year’s show on IFC, streamed it on AMC+ or joined us for our first-ever Virtual Show experience, we can’t say it enough: THANK YOU. Your support—not to mention your streams, likes and shares—enables and empowers Film Independent to do the great work it does all year long to support visual storytelling....

Do you miss going to the movies? We certainly do. And at this point our umpteenth week under COVID-19 safer-at-home orders, we even miss some of the more obnoxious. Oh what we wouldn’t give these days for the texting teens and sticky floors. Pre-show trailers programs that last longer than an entire episode of Law & Order: SUV? Bring ‘em on! Fact is, we miss everything about going the movies—and can’t wait to go back....

Producer Steve Starkey first met Robert Zemeckis in post-production on Who Framed Roger Rabbit. In his first day on the project, Starkey approached Zemeckis and told him he was there to oversee the integration of the live action and animation elements in the film. “Good luck,” said Zemeckis. Despite this inauspicious start to their collaboration, the two of them have been working together ever since. In fact, Starkey hasn’t worked on a project without Zemeckis in the last 29 years....

During a panel discussion entitled Television: The Writers Room at the 2015 Film Independent Forum, five prominent television writers discussed the challenges of staying creatively engaged—and keeping their dream shows alive—while supporting someone else’s vision. “I always come from a place of: my job is to support my showrunner,” said Sonay Hoffman who writes for American Crime under creator and executive producer (and Film Independent Spirit Award winner) John Ridley....

“The magic part that moves the emotion is music.” Emmy- and Grammy-nominated composer Ron Jones, whose TV credits include Star Trek: The Next Generation and Family Guy) summed up the way a score inflects the visceral response an audience will have to any given moment in a film. Jones moderated “Talk Score to Me,” following an ASCAP-hosted screening of the Project Involve short films at yesterday’s Los Angeles Film Festival....

Now in its 28th year, our current crop of equally cool 2021 Project Involve Fellows are already hard at work writing and producing a series of six brand new short films—a regular feature of the PI curriculum. Past PI shorts have included Liberty (2019 SXSW Narrative Jury Award) and Emergency (2018 Sundance Special Jury Award) as well as Lulu Wang’s Touch—which the 2020 Spirit Awards Best Feature winner credits with rejuvenating her career....

Filmmaker Jeff Baena (The Little Hours, Life After Beth) has consistently defied expectations over his career, taking audiences on wild rides that often veer from the comedic, to thrilling, to deeply unsettling—often within the same movie. His latest, Spin Me Round, brings his all-star comedy world repertory to Italy for a tale of sun-dappled Tuscan romance gone way, way wrong. For the second film in a row, Baena co-wrote the script with lead Alison Brie, following their first successful writing collaboration on the 2020 psychological thriller Horse Girl....

The emotion a director wants their audience to feel is what determines the tone of a film score. Examples of a heroic film score tone would be the theme from Indiana Jones or the one from Star Wars—both composed by John Williams. A tone of uneasy darkness is suggested by the main theme from Inception, by Hans Zimmer, and nostalgia by the Nino Rota’s score for The Godfather. A director may want music to accentuate their film’s drama by having a similar vibe as the action we’re seeing on screen....

But of course, no one can see these projects unless someone makes them first. And for underrepresented creators the struggle behind the scenes to make their voices heard is rarely an easy one. That’s why we’re glad to welcome Diversity Speaks back for the 2017 LA Film Festival. Taking place Saturday, June 17 and Sunday, June 18 in the Kirk Douglas Theatre in Culver City, Diversity Speaks features five in-depth panel discussions aimed at expanding the definition of diversity and act as a call-to-action....

The timing of the screening—the day after rapper and community bridge-builder Nipsy Hussle was shot and killed, not far away, in Los Angeles—only seemed to reinforce the series’ emphasis on neighborhood pride, familial loyalty and taking responsibility for one’s city. “The timing is crazy,” Waithe said in an incisive post-screening Q&A, to Film Independent Presents Curator Elvis Mitchell. She continued: “My heart is heavy for our fallen soldier, Nipsy. He left so much behind....