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Based on Margaret Atwood’s 1985 dystopian novel of the same name, Hulu’s award-winning original series The Handmaid’s Tale has reliably kept audiences engaged, empathetic, outraged and generally enthralled ever since its 2017 premiere. In anticipation of the show’s forth season [now streaming on Hulu] Film Independent Presents hosted a special online Q&A with three of the shows stars: Elizabeth Moss, Yvonne Strahovski and Ann Dowd. The June 18 conversation was moderated by Film Independent Senior Programmer Jenn Wilson and was streamed live to Members of Film Independent and SAG-AFTRA....

You’ve probably noticed, but this final year of the 2010s has been, shall we say, rich with incident—a fact that still holds true even when disregarding events of such large-scale global importance as the impeachment of a sitting U.S. president or the TV debut of Baby Yoda. And for Film Independent, 2019 was a year of reinvention and excitement; new events and programs were launched, and older mainstays reimagined. But through it all, Film Independent’s core commitment to celebrating creative independence in visual storytelling remained in place....

The title characters in Me and Earl and the Dying Girl are like mismatched socks that somehow, surprisingly, fit really well together. The most common sentiment between the team was how much they could relate to the characters. When Gomez-Rejon first read the script the subject matter hit home in a very private way. “I really identified with the character of Greg. I was dealing with personal loss myself—my Dad had passed away a year before....

On most sets, the one person keeping the whole thing from spiraling off into abject chaos isn’t the director, or even the producer—it’s the 1st AD. Typically, the 1st AD functions as the production’s designated adult. Part traffic cop, part project manager, the AD’s job is to push the shoot forward, making sure each day wraps with quality footage and minimal harm done to personnel, property or the film’s budget....

Next week the American Film Market (AFM) begins in Santa Monica, California, running from November 5 – 12. AFM is one of the four largest film markets held annually around the world. The others are the European Film Market (EFM), held simultaneously with the Berlin International Film Festival; the Hong Kong International Film & TV Market and the Marché du Film, which takes place alongside Cannes. While some markets are linked to film festivals, they are not the same thing....

We met in the most unlikely of places: an acting class in the Valley. We became fast friends. And since we’re both writers, we would meet in the park for avocado sandwiches to volley new ideas, as writers do. We were both interested in writing about grief and wrestling with the loss in our own lives. We’re both fascinated by how human beings grieve—how we face it, endure it, survive it and hopefully, prevail....

In January, Tender Claws announced their latest offering, The Under Presents—a theatrically driven VR gaming project created with Oculus VR, which will soon be bringing the experience to its Oculus Quest headsets. With The Under Presents, Tender Claws has once again ventured into the next frontier in immersive entertainment, presenting an amalgamation of gaming, live theater and narrative storytelling set aboard a fantastical cruise ship with dwindling supplies and lively onboard entertainment....

It’s debatable whether anyone truly works a billion dollars hard or smart, yet wealth continues to amass in the hands of an obnoxious mega-rich elite, leaving most of us one bad day away from complete financial ruin. That is, if we don’t already exist in a chronic state of economic depression to begin with. But our democracy (and tax dollars!) provides guardrails against such dire domestic predicaments, right? Well, in theory… In practice, however, the US welfare system is under constant threat from within—the kneecapping of government assistance programs becoming a reliable wedge issue for compounding generations of conservative politics....

Inspired by her time working as an actor on sets run by strong women of color including Issa Rae, Tina Mabry and Debbie Allen, Day (whose credits include episodes of Insecure, Buffy the Vampire Slayer and I Think You Should Leave) was further inspired by success of her friend Justin Chon – a Film Independent Fellow – and his films Gook and Ms. Purple, which demonstrated for her a clear pathway for turning her indie-auteur dreams into a reality....

Kiernan (Sally Draper) Shipka stars as Telulah Farrow, a 15-year-old post-Millennial teen who lives for making movies and idolizing her favorite band (the real life pop punk band All Time Low, who is featured in the soundtrack and appears in the film). Meg Ryan plays Telulah’s behind-the-tech-times mom. Here’s what Jarrett told us about the making of Fan Girl—and why it’s so fun. On casting Shipka in her first post-Mad Men role: “We all loved Mad Men, we thought she was so perfect for it, but we didn’t know if she was available....

It’s easy to imagine that the importance of Max Steiner and his score for the 1933 giant ape classic King Kong is attributable to simple timing. The Austrian-born Steiner (1888-1971) arrived in Hollywood just as sound film was being born and coming into its own. And his music for Kong arrived just in time to accompany the emerging marvel of stop-motion animation and other special effects innovation in moving pictures....

But the use of preexisting, copyrighted material—whether for narrative or nonfiction—can be legally tricky. Laws that exist to prevent piracy and protect intellectual property can also, applied indiscriminately, impede the free speech and full creative expression of creators whose projects are dependent on the ability to “quote” previous work. Earlier this year, Film Independent signed on to comments prepared by attorneys Jack Lerner and Michael Donaldson with the goal of making positive changes to fair use law—one of several amicus briefs Film Independent has signed its name to in recent years with the same goal....

One key component to the track’s stratospheric rise was the official music video, directed by buzzy new filmmaker and content wizard Charles Kidd II—better known professionally as “Calmatic,” who managed to combine elements of western movies, sci-fi adventure, Friday-esque urban comedy and square dance into a clip that, to date, has been watched over 360 million times on YouTube. But there’s more to Calmatic than “Old Town Road.” The LA native’s other music video clients include artists from Childish Gambino, to Zayn Malik, Lizzo and Kendrick Lamar, among others....

Film Education Manager and Festival Associate Programer Lee Jameson sat down with writer/directors Anne Bogart and Holly Morris to discuss their documentary The Babushkas of Chernobyl. The film follows a community of unlikely heroines who, for nearly 30 years, have lived in Chernobyl’s post-nuclear disaster “dead zone.” Stylish and stubborn, these fascinating women have survived, and even thrived, on some of the most toxic land on Earth. But the babushkas aren’t the only risk-takers: scientists, bureaucrats and even young men called “stalkers” (who break in illegally to pursue their video game-inspired fantasies) explore the dystopian zone and seek out its radioactive grandmas....

Ten years ago, Film Independent decided that the best way to help up-and-coming filmmakers learn how to navigate the business would be to convene a forum of people who had done it expertly and let them do the talking. We invited some of the savviest independent film people we could find: bold filmmakers (including Mario Van Peebles, who had just made Baaadasssss!, Catherine Hardwicke, fresh off of Thirteen and Jeremy Coon who’d just finished Napoleon Dynamite) to sit on panels alongside the suits (top producers reps, sales agents and distributors)....

In our excitement for the upcoming Film Independent Spirit Awards, we’ve reached out to all of the filmmakers nominated for Best First Feature and asked them all kinds of things about their experience as filmmakers and what it’s like to be up for the indie world’s greatest accolade. Here, writer-director Anja Marquardt, who is also nominated in the Best First Screenplay category for her drama She’s Lost Control, about a sexual surrogate who does just that, shares with us why she almost gave up and what moment surprised her on set....

Who is Justin Giddings? He’s an award-winning actor and filmmaker, and after hearing him speak at the Film Independent offices on September 12 I can also confidently say he knows a ton about crowdfunding. So much that people started referring to him as “The Kickstarter Guy”. Giddings has advised on dozens of crowdfunding campaigns and boasts a remarkable 97 percent success rate of projects funded. Part of that success can be attributed to his passion for the crowdfunding process, a topic he loves discussing with other filmmakers....

Dear Friends, At Film Independent, we support and celebrate creative independence in visual storytelling. We believe that artist-driven filmmaking is critically important to our culture and that films driven by individual artistic vision are of lasting and permanent value. Our mission is to help independent filmmakers get their films made, build the audience for their work and increase diversity within the film industry. As the year draws to a close, I am writing to ask you to help support artist-driven filmmaking and make an end of year tax-deductible donation to Film Independent, or join our annual contributor group, the Arts Circle....

Sure, in a pre-COVID era you might be able to snag a front row seat at The Landmark Theaters if you got there early enough, but even that would’ve put you no closer than 10 or 15 feet from one of the program’s star-studded filmmaker panels. But, in keeping with our efforts to keep Film Independent’s varied and voluminous programming slate accessible late in this very weird pandemic year, the 2021 DCU will be happening entirely online – and you don’t have to wait to get your series pass, because they’re available right now....

But no piece of ancillary cinematic memorabilia can stand apart as its own complete, discrete cultural product like a memorable and effective original score. Paradoxical, since classic films are so often inextricable from their signature musical cues. Just try to imagine The Third Man’s sourpuss post-war noir without its jaunty zither counterpoint, or There Will Be Blood’s ominous ebony oil derricks without Jonny Greenwood’s dread-educing orchestral swells. Chances are you can’t....