Rushes: Carolee Schneemann, The Last Blockbuster, Miyazaki Boosts Tourism

This week’s essential news, articles, sounds, videos and more from the film world.
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NEWS

Carolee Schneemann by Lynne Sachs

  • The great Carolee Schneemann has died, gifting us with an inimitable legacy as a trailblazing avant-garde feminist filmmaker, painter, cat lover, performance artist, and much more. Lynne Sachs's 2017 documentary, Carolee, Barbara and Gunvor, previously screened on MUBI in partnership with the International Short Film Festival Oberhausen. Read Sachs's introduction of the short film, and recollection of a life's friendship with Schneemann, here.
  • The master film editor Thelma Schoonmaker has announced plans to publish the diaries of her late husband, filmmaker Michael Powell (The Red Shoes). "I want people to be able to read about all the great movies we lost," she states. "The ones he had hoped to make.”

RECOMMENDED VIEWING

  • Olivier Assayas's satirical comedy on book publishing, the changing media landscape, and, of course, romantic coupling get a U.S. trailer.

  • In the event of its new restoration, the controversial British dancehall cult-classic Babylon has a shining new trailer.

  • Slacker auteur Joel Potrykus (Buzzard) is back with a new grunge comedy, Relaxer.

  • Following its praised premiere at Sundance, here's the trailer for Rashid Johnson's modernized adaptation of Richard Wright's Native Son.

  • Kiyoshi Kurosawa takes his cinema to Uzbekistan with the forthcoming To the Ends of the Earth. Here's the un-subtitled teaser.

  • Two of the finest filmmakers of their time, Luis Ospina and Julie Dash have thoughtfully uploaded two of their films to Vimeo: Ospina's 1982 (restored!) feature Pura Sangre, and Dash's medium-length performance piece Praise House.

RECOMMENDED READING

Under the Silver Lake illustration by Tavo Montañez.

  • On March 15th, MUBI will be releasing It Follows filmmaker David Robert Mitchell's surreal L.A. noir, Under the Silver Lake, both on its platform and across U.K. cinemas. With Little White Lies, Mitchell talks about moving to Los Angeles with little money and his affections for the LucasArts video games.
  • Marking the 20th anniversary of The Shining on March 7th, Far Out Magazine takes a look at the photos of Kubrick's on-set Polaroid diary, which are almost as chilling as the film itself.
  • Gregg Araki makes his first steps into television with Now Apocalypse, a series that aims to convey how "people should be able to just be themselves and live their lives without fear of violence or oppression."

Penelope Spheeris on the set of Wayne's World.

  • "You can’t screw up when you’re a woman. One little mistake, and you’re done." Wayne's World director Penelope Spheeris discusses her invigorating filmography and her experiences as a trailblazing female filmmaker in Hollywood, including her mistreatment by the Weinstein brothers.
  • A fast-spreading rumor that a spot in Ehime Prefecture inspired the ocean train scene in Hayao Miyazaki's Spirited Away has caused a rise in regular trespassing of the area.
  • Another unintentional cinematic tourist spot, from across the globe: The last Blockbuster continues to endure the changing times in Bend, Oregon. With streaming and on the rise and video rental stores in decline, the store has been "re-energized."

RECENTLY ON THE NOTEBOOK

  • The prolific Kazuhiro Soda speaks with us regarding his bare-bones style of documentary filmmaking (as inspired by Frederick Wiseman) and confronting the "inner workings of institutions and how they’re sustained." MUBI's retrospective, Kazuhiro Soda: Radical Observation, continues until April 17th.
  • In his latest video essay, Scout Tafoya explores the commonalities between Abel Ferrara's King of New York and 4:44 Last Day on Earth as "studies of self-destruction turned outward." Both films are now showing on MUBI in the United States.
  • Daniel Kasman reports from True/False Film Fest, where he finds Anand Patwardhan’s Reason, a 4-hour documentary that "portrays a world that needs to be changed, and by portraying it, becomes a tool for that change."
  • Three reviews of three formally inventive and bracing titles in theaters now after making their way across the festival circuit: Gaspar Noé’s Climax, Hu Bo's An Elephant Sitting Still, and Khalik Allah's Black Mother.

RECOMMENDED LISTENING

  • Jessica Forever filmmaker Caroline Poggi has premiered her first mix on Soundcloud, a mosaic of ecstatic electronic music, hip hop, and beyond. We interviewed Poggi and her directing partner Jonathan Vinel about Jessica at TIFF last year.

EXTRAS AND RE-DISCOVERIES

  • To celebrate the 90th birthday of Stanley Kubrick, dive into a timeline of his life designed by Tubik Studio.
  • Around five months ago Another Gaze interviewed the great Carolee Schneemann about her life and many artistic transgressions and breakthroughs. Additionally, Schneemann writes lovingly about her many cats for Art in America, circa 2015.
  • How are we only seeing this now? An exhilarating look inside one of the finest action films of recent times.
  • No further introduction is necessary...

 


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