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For all his brilliance, Orson Welles was consistently plagued by the inability to secure funding for his own projects, leading to decades' worth of films left unrealized or partially completed. Documentary filmmaker Vassili Silovic follows Croatian actress and screenwriter Oja Kodar, Welles' creative partner and lover during his later years, as she reconstructs Welles' notes and what little surviving footage remains from these abandoned projects from the 1960s to Welles' death in 1985. [more inside]
posted by DirtyOldTown on Jan 8, 2024 - 3 comments

[TRAILER] A forgotten Peter Jackson film? Yep. Co-written and co-directed by Jackson and Costa Botes, this mockumentary purports to tell the story of "forgotten" New Zealand filmmaker Colin McKenzie, and the rediscovery of his lost films, which presenter Peter Jackson claims to have found in an old shed. McKenzie is presented as the first and greatest innovator of modern cinema, single-handedly inventing the tracking shot (by accident), the close-up (unintentionally), and both sound and color film years before their historically documented creation. The film also shows fragments of an epic Biblical film, Salome, supposedly made by McKenzie in a giant set in the forests of New Zealand, and a "computer enhancement" of a McKenzie film proving that New Zealander Richard Pearse was the first man to invent a powered aircraft, several months before the Wright Brothers. [more inside]
posted by DirtyOldTown on Mar 16, 2023 - 6 comments

[TRAILER] Tugg Speedman (Ben Stiller), pampered action superstar, sets out for Southeast Asia to take part in the biggest, most-expensive war movie produced, but soon after filming begins, he and his co-stars, Oscar-winner Kirk Lazarus (Robert Downey Jr.), comic Jeff Portnoy (Jack Black) and the rest of the crew, must become real soldiers when fighting breaks out in that part of the jungle. [more inside]
posted by DirtyOldTown on Dec 12, 2022 - 19 comments

The Found Footage Phenomenon is an independent documentary charting the origins of the found footage sub-genre, tracking it through to the technique's current form, and asking what the future is. [more inside]
posted by DirtyOldTown on Nov 3, 2022 - 0 comments

Melvin Van Peebles was one of the first black directors to challenge the white establishment in his films, which include Watermelon Man and Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song. In this documentary, the life of Van Peebles is discussed, including his work not only in film, but also as a novelist, actor, musician, stock trader and even Air Force pilot. Interview subjects include Gil Scott-Heron, Spike lee and Melvin's son and fellow filmmaker, Mario Van Peebles. [more inside]
posted by DirtyOldTown on Aug 10, 2022 - 1 comment

A former secretary, newly appointed as a scriptwriter for propaganda films, joins the cast and crew of a major production while the Blitz rages around them. [more inside]
posted by elgilito on Aug 5, 2017 - 5 comments