The Sundance Film Festival has already released its full lineup of films for next year’s festival, including a new film by Alex Ross Perry (“Listen Up Philip”), directorial debuts from Taylor Sheridan (“Sicario”) and Macon Blair (“Blue Ruin”) and more. One of the films that will make its world premiere at the festival will be “The Last Word,” starring Shirley MacLaine as a controlling retired businesswoman who wishes to write her own obituary before she dies. She enlists the help of a young journalist (Amanda Seyfried) who ends up searching for the truth, only to be surprised by their burgeoning friendship. The film co-stars Anne Heche (“Hung”), Thomas Sadoski (“John Wick”), Joel Murray (“Mad Men”), Philip Baker Hall (“Hard Eight”) and more. Watch a trailer for the film below.
Read More: Sundance 2017: Check Out the Full Lineup, Including Competition Titles, Premieres and Shorts
The film is directed by Mark Pellington.
Read More: Sundance 2017: Check Out the Full Lineup, Including Competition Titles, Premieres and Shorts
The film is directed by Mark Pellington.
- 12/9/2016
- by Vikram Murthi
- Indiewire
In 1983, after decades of steady deterioration, writer and theologian John Hull became totally blind. To help make sense of the upheaval in his life, he began keeping an audio diary of his experiences as he adjusted to his new reality. Hull believed that if he didn’t try to understand blindness, it would destroy him, and as a result, produced an intimate story of loss and rebirth.
Read More: Reality Checks: This Year’s Sundance Showed How the Documentary Film World is Changing
Pete Middleton and James Spinney’s new documentary “Notes on Blindness” adapts Hull’s experiences into the documentary film. Following their Emmy Award-winning short film by the same name, the feature-length film uses Hull’s original audio recordings coupled with professional actors lip-synching the voices of the family to best document Hull’s journey into a “world beyond sight.” Watch an exclusive behind-the-scenes clip from the film...
Read More: Reality Checks: This Year’s Sundance Showed How the Documentary Film World is Changing
Pete Middleton and James Spinney’s new documentary “Notes on Blindness” adapts Hull’s experiences into the documentary film. Following their Emmy Award-winning short film by the same name, the feature-length film uses Hull’s original audio recordings coupled with professional actors lip-synching the voices of the family to best document Hull’s journey into a “world beyond sight.” Watch an exclusive behind-the-scenes clip from the film...
- 11/25/2016
- by Vikram Murthi
- Indiewire
Theologian John Hull was a family man in his forties when he lost his sight. As a scholar with a deeply reflective bent, he decided to document the experience, keeping an audio diary on cassettes starting in 1983. Those musings led to a lauded memoir, but they become something more artful in Peter Middleton and James Spinney's debut documentary Notes on Blindness. Made with the offscreen participation of Hull, who died last year, the film draws sighted viewers into phenomena they hopefully will never witness firsthand. Certainly it will be welcomed by those whose loved ones have lost their sight...
- 11/18/2016
- by John DeFore
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Two documentaries play with form and evoke suffering on scales small and large, while Melissa McCarthy outshines her own film
In a pretty limp week for mainstream DVD releases, two of the year’s most startling documentaries redeem the pile. The first, Notes on Blindness (Curzon Artificial Eye, U), bends the form most liberally, fusing archival material, performance and highly stylised cinematic trickery to movingly evoke the experience of sight loss. Taking a leaf from Clio Barnard’s similarly fluid The Arbor, directors James Spinney and Pete Middleton have enlisted actors to lip-synch to the audio testimonies of the late Australian theologian John Hull, who began going blind in his mid-40s, and his family, accompanying their first-hand memories with a wealth of inventive imagery and sound design to convey the more abstract aspects of his condition.
Taking a less subversive but no less lyrical approach to documentary form is...
In a pretty limp week for mainstream DVD releases, two of the year’s most startling documentaries redeem the pile. The first, Notes on Blindness (Curzon Artificial Eye, U), bends the form most liberally, fusing archival material, performance and highly stylised cinematic trickery to movingly evoke the experience of sight loss. Taking a leaf from Clio Barnard’s similarly fluid The Arbor, directors James Spinney and Pete Middleton have enlisted actors to lip-synch to the audio testimonies of the late Australian theologian John Hull, who began going blind in his mid-40s, and his family, accompanying their first-hand memories with a wealth of inventive imagery and sound design to convey the more abstract aspects of his condition.
Taking a less subversive but no less lyrical approach to documentary form is...
- 10/23/2016
- by Guy Lodge
- The Guardian - Film News
On-demand video may be ubiquitous, but it’s often inaccessible to many viewers. Now the release of John Hull’s docudrama looks set to turn the tide
There was no access ramp at Andy Warhol’s Factory. When popular culture pushes into new territory, it can be slow to lay the groundwork that might allow disabled people to follow. Today, in the flourishing cinematic playground of VOD, fewer regulations mean more films and less censorship, but also a sad reluctance to bring disabled viewers along for the ride. A recent survey found that less than a quarter of the UK’s on-demand platforms offer subtitles, compared with the vast majority of DVD releases.
Some good news comes courtesy of the acclaimed Notes On Blindness, available to stream from Monday on Curzon Home Cinema, Virgin Media and the BFI Player. Not only is the film available with subtitles, but it also...
There was no access ramp at Andy Warhol’s Factory. When popular culture pushes into new territory, it can be slow to lay the groundwork that might allow disabled people to follow. Today, in the flourishing cinematic playground of VOD, fewer regulations mean more films and less censorship, but also a sad reluctance to bring disabled viewers along for the ride. A recent survey found that less than a quarter of the UK’s on-demand platforms offer subtitles, compared with the vast majority of DVD releases.
Some good news comes courtesy of the acclaimed Notes On Blindness, available to stream from Monday on Curzon Home Cinema, Virgin Media and the BFI Player. Not only is the film available with subtitles, but it also...
- 10/22/2016
- by Charlie Lyne
- The Guardian - Film News
From Birdly to Jesus Vr, Screen’s editorial team pick 10 of the best virtual reality experiences from the festival circuit ahead of the Vr Creative Summit in December.
Having been widely dubbed the Year of Virtual Reality by industry figures and press alike, 2016 has been a watershed moment for the emerging medium.
Film festivals across the globe hosted Vr showcases this year, incorporating Vr films into their programme and markets, many doing so in a serious way for the first time.
Starting at January’s Sundance Film Festival, which hosted Vr experiences including The Martian and Notes On Blindness in its New Frontier programme, Vr remained a consistent presence through Tribeca’s Virtual Arcade in April, Cannes’ Marche Next programme in May, and Pop Vr at Tiff in September, alongside more medium-sized festivals such as Sheffield Doc/Fest, Jerusalem and Sarajevo.
Vr at this year’s Cannes Film Festival
Compiling choices from across those festivals and further...
Having been widely dubbed the Year of Virtual Reality by industry figures and press alike, 2016 has been a watershed moment for the emerging medium.
Film festivals across the globe hosted Vr showcases this year, incorporating Vr films into their programme and markets, many doing so in a serious way for the first time.
Starting at January’s Sundance Film Festival, which hosted Vr experiences including The Martian and Notes On Blindness in its New Frontier programme, Vr remained a consistent presence through Tribeca’s Virtual Arcade in April, Cannes’ Marche Next programme in May, and Pop Vr at Tiff in September, alongside more medium-sized festivals such as Sheffield Doc/Fest, Jerusalem and Sarajevo.
Vr at this year’s Cannes Film Festival
Compiling choices from across those festivals and further...
- 10/13/2016
- by tom.grater@screendaily.com (Tom Grater)
- ScreenDaily
Keep up with the wild and wooly world of indie film acquisitions with our weekly Rundown of everything that’s been picked up around the globe. Check out last week’s Rundown here.
– Oscilloscope Laboratories has acquired U.S. rights to acclaimed filmmakers Dominique Abel and Fiona Gordon’s charming and romantic fourth feature film, “Lost in Paris.” The film will have its premiere this fall and have a theatrical release in 2017.
Filmed in their signature whimsical style, the feature “stars the filmmakers as a small-town Canadian librarian and a strangely seductive, oddly egotistical vagabond. When Fiona’s (Gordon) orderly life is disrupted by a letter of distress from her 93-year-old Aunt Martha (delightfully portrayed by Academy Award nominee Emmanuelle Riva) who is living in Paris, Fiona hops on the first plane she can and arrives only to discover that Martha has disappeared. In an avalanche of spectacular disasters, she encounters Dom (Abel), the affable,...
– Oscilloscope Laboratories has acquired U.S. rights to acclaimed filmmakers Dominique Abel and Fiona Gordon’s charming and romantic fourth feature film, “Lost in Paris.” The film will have its premiere this fall and have a theatrical release in 2017.
Filmed in their signature whimsical style, the feature “stars the filmmakers as a small-town Canadian librarian and a strangely seductive, oddly egotistical vagabond. When Fiona’s (Gordon) orderly life is disrupted by a letter of distress from her 93-year-old Aunt Martha (delightfully portrayed by Academy Award nominee Emmanuelle Riva) who is living in Paris, Fiona hops on the first plane she can and arrives only to discover that Martha has disappeared. In an avalanche of spectacular disasters, she encounters Dom (Abel), the affable,...
- 9/2/2016
- by Kate Erbland
- Indiewire
Bond/360 has nabbed U.S. rights to the Sundance-winning documentary Notes On Blindness, based on the Emmy-winning short from Peter Middleton and James Spinney. The film will be released later this year beginning with NYC's Film Forum on November 16 followed by a November 25 Los Angeles opening before it hits theaters nationwide. The docu explores "a world beyond sight" through the lens of theologian John Hull, who became blind after decades of steady deterioration and…...
- 9/1/2016
- Deadline
Based on academic John Hull’s diary about learning to accept blindness during the early 1980s, Notes on Blindness uses original audio recordings to attempt to visualise the sensation of losing sight. Hull, who kept a log of his emotional journey as his sight failed, eventually accepted his condition, describing himself as a “whole-body seer”. Notes on Blindness is screening at Sheffield Doc/Fest
Continue reading...
Continue reading...
- 6/13/2016
- by Guardian Staff
- The Guardian - Film News
Exclusive: Organisers behind the Cannes Marché’s third Next event set to run from May 12-18 have lined up an expanded future of cinema showcase that places heavy emphasis on the fast-rising world of virtual reality.
For the first time Next events will take place at the entrance of the Village International on the Pantiero side – the site previously occupied by Canal+ – and will feature installations, interactive films, screenings, conferences and workshops on subjects such as big data, theatres of the future, and VOD opportunities.
The Next schedule will include 15 innovative companies that will conduct business at the Next Pavilion. Creative Wallonia and the Canadian Film Center will have their own corner. The full Next programme will be announced shortly.
Vr Days programme
The centerpiece is the Vr Days programme, a rich roster featuring work from the world’s leading exponents that takes place over May 15 and 16 and stems from a clamour by content creators to focus...
For the first time Next events will take place at the entrance of the Village International on the Pantiero side – the site previously occupied by Canal+ – and will feature installations, interactive films, screenings, conferences and workshops on subjects such as big data, theatres of the future, and VOD opportunities.
The Next schedule will include 15 innovative companies that will conduct business at the Next Pavilion. Creative Wallonia and the Canadian Film Center will have their own corner. The full Next programme will be announced shortly.
Vr Days programme
The centerpiece is the Vr Days programme, a rich roster featuring work from the world’s leading exponents that takes place over May 15 and 16 and stems from a clamour by content creators to focus...
- 4/20/2016
- by jeremykay67@gmail.com (Jeremy Kay)
- ScreenDaily
The Swedish Film Institute has backed nineteen projects in its latest round of funding.
Swedish director Sanna Lenken, who won Berlin’s Crystal Bear in 2015 with My Skinny Sister, is now making a 30-minute short Night Child (Nattbarn), based on a graphic novel by Hanna Gustafsson.
The story is about 14-year-old girl Iggy “who lives a parallel online life to avoid the everyday tedium. A story about identity, sexuality, borderlands and friendship.”
The film is one of several new productions getting backing from the Swedish Film Institute. Others include Dome Karukoski’s anticipated new Tom Of Finland biopic [pictured] and Agnieszka Holland’s Polish drama Game Count.
Other projects backed, listed from highest investments, are:
Becoming Zlatan, wr/dirs Fredrik Gertten, Magnus Gertten; prods Margarete Jangård, Lennart Ström. Documentary about charismatic footballer Zlatan Ibrahimović. $246,000 (2m Sek)
Tom Of Finland, dir Dome Karukoski, wr Aleksi Bardy, prods Gunnar Carlsson, Emma Åkesdotter Ronge. Drama about the...
Swedish director Sanna Lenken, who won Berlin’s Crystal Bear in 2015 with My Skinny Sister, is now making a 30-minute short Night Child (Nattbarn), based on a graphic novel by Hanna Gustafsson.
The story is about 14-year-old girl Iggy “who lives a parallel online life to avoid the everyday tedium. A story about identity, sexuality, borderlands and friendship.”
The film is one of several new productions getting backing from the Swedish Film Institute. Others include Dome Karukoski’s anticipated new Tom Of Finland biopic [pictured] and Agnieszka Holland’s Polish drama Game Count.
Other projects backed, listed from highest investments, are:
Becoming Zlatan, wr/dirs Fredrik Gertten, Magnus Gertten; prods Margarete Jangård, Lennart Ström. Documentary about charismatic footballer Zlatan Ibrahimović. $246,000 (2m Sek)
Tom Of Finland, dir Dome Karukoski, wr Aleksi Bardy, prods Gunnar Carlsson, Emma Åkesdotter Ronge. Drama about the...
- 4/4/2016
- by wendy.mitchell@screendaily.com (Wendy Mitchell)
- ScreenDaily
Director Michael Moore will attend the festival for the first time since 1998.
Oscar-winning documentarian Michael Moore will attend this year’s Sheffield Doc/Fest (June 10-15) to open the festival with his latest polemic, Where To Invade Next.
The film, which will get its UK premiere at Doc/Fest’s 23rd edition on the same day it gets its UK release through Dogwoof, sees Moore play the role of invader as he tours the globe to learn how the Us can improve itself.
The director, returning to the festival for the first time since 1998, will take part in an on-stage interview following the screening.
This year’s Doc/Fest will also feature an in conversation event with actress and activist Joanna Lumley, who will recall her career in film and television at the city’s famous Crucible Theatre.
Known for her role as Patsy in comedy series Absolutely Fabulous, Lumley is also a seasoned documentary presenter, having...
Oscar-winning documentarian Michael Moore will attend this year’s Sheffield Doc/Fest (June 10-15) to open the festival with his latest polemic, Where To Invade Next.
The film, which will get its UK premiere at Doc/Fest’s 23rd edition on the same day it gets its UK release through Dogwoof, sees Moore play the role of invader as he tours the globe to learn how the Us can improve itself.
The director, returning to the festival for the first time since 1998, will take part in an on-stage interview following the screening.
This year’s Doc/Fest will also feature an in conversation event with actress and activist Joanna Lumley, who will recall her career in film and television at the city’s famous Crucible Theatre.
Known for her role as Patsy in comedy series Absolutely Fabulous, Lumley is also a seasoned documentary presenter, having...
- 3/11/2016
- ScreenDaily
James Spinney and Peter Middleton's Notes on Blindness isn't just an incredibly homage to blind theologian John Hull (who sadly died last year), the documentary is also a very profound demonstration of incredible work he did in making a bridge between sighted and blind culture possible. Having faced potential blindness for much of his life, the UK-based Australian university tutor was driven into feverishly turning major cultural texts into audio versions when he finally lost his sight and he also began fastidiously documenting his very personal journey in coming to terms with blindness through years' worth of audio tapes. His remarkable reflections on this experience were then transcribed into the book Touching the Rock, and fans of that book should not be disappointed by the...
[Read the whole post on twitchfilm.com...]...
[Read the whole post on twitchfilm.com...]...
- 2/14/2016
- Screen Anarchy
An entry in the New Frontier program at Sundance 2016, Notes on Blindness began in 2013 as a four-minute short from writer/directors Pete Middleton and James Spinney. The film attempted to capture the sensory experience of blindness through the audio diary of John Hull, a writer and theologian who had lost his sight. The following year, Middleton and Spinney adapted Notes on Blindness into a longer New York Times Op-Doc. Now, they have adapted this story to a feature length. Below, Notes on Blindness Dp Gerry Floyd speaks to how he and the directors sought to offer a “sensory insight” into blindness. Filmmaker: How and […]...
- 1/30/2016
- by Soheil Rezayazdi
- Filmmaker Magazine - Blog
An entry in the New Frontier program at Sundance 2016, Notes on Blindness began in 2013 as a four-minute short from writer/directors Pete Middleton and James Spinney. The film attempted to capture the sensory experience of blindness through the audio diary of John Hull, a writer and theologian who had lost his sight. The following year, Middleton and Spinney adapted Notes on Blindness into a longer New York Times Op-Doc. Now, they have adapted this story to a feature length. Below, Notes on Blindness Dp Gerry Floyd speaks to how he and the directors sought to offer a “sensory insight” into blindness. Filmmaker: How and […]...
- 1/30/2016
- by Soheil Rezayazdi
- Filmmaker Magazine-Director Interviews
Notes on Blindness is the kind of documentary that aims to be formally distinct — something I wish was standard for the art. The film does more than simply tell an interesting true story which the filmmakers stumbled upon. It uses that story as a jumping-off point to explore actual ideas — in this case, dealing with the loss of a sense, and how the experience of lacking this sense can be expressed cinematically.
When English theologian John Hull began losing his sight in middle age, he started narrating his life via tape recorder. Writers-directors Peter Middleton and James Spinney have edited these diaries, as well as interviews with Hull and his wife Marilyn, into an autobiography of sorts. (They initially created a short film, now been expanded into this feature.) In a manner similar to that of Clio Barnard’s masterpiece The Arbor, the audio is illustrated via extensive reenactment, with actors lip-synching the original dialogue.
When English theologian John Hull began losing his sight in middle age, he started narrating his life via tape recorder. Writers-directors Peter Middleton and James Spinney have edited these diaries, as well as interviews with Hull and his wife Marilyn, into an autobiography of sorts. (They initially created a short film, now been expanded into this feature.) In a manner similar to that of Clio Barnard’s masterpiece The Arbor, the audio is illustrated via extensive reenactment, with actors lip-synching the original dialogue.
- 1/25/2016
- by Daniel Schindel
- The Film Stage
“I knew that if I didn’t understand blindness, it would destroy me.” Notes On Blindness follows the journey of writer and theologian John Hull, who began an audio diary after losing his sight in 1983 to help him make sense of the loss and upheaval it caused in his life. Following the Emmy-winning short film of the same name, Notes On Blindness takes a creative approach to the documentary form. Actors lip-synch to the voices of the family, embedding Hull's original audio…...
- 1/23/2016
- Deadline
My second trip to the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah promises to be much colder, though no less exciting than last year’s unseasonably-warm introduction. You could barely hear yourself think over the constant roar of snow cannons trying to preserve the anemic ski slopes. This year finds a return to freezing temperatures and the emergence of female directors. Over 40 feature films are helmed by women.
My personal approach to this year’s festival will be to focus on diversity. Rather than plunging into one particular Section, I will sample generously from each, with no regard to the obscurity of the title. Last year’s Next Section, for example, produce three of my favorite films of 2015, including H., James White, and Tangerine. With that in mind, here are my 10 most anticipated films from Sundance 2016.
The Lure
Directed by Agnieszka Smoczynska
Section: World Dramatic Competition
What to make of a film that promises mermaids,...
My personal approach to this year’s festival will be to focus on diversity. Rather than plunging into one particular Section, I will sample generously from each, with no regard to the obscurity of the title. Last year’s Next Section, for example, produce three of my favorite films of 2015, including H., James White, and Tangerine. With that in mind, here are my 10 most anticipated films from Sundance 2016.
The Lure
Directed by Agnieszka Smoczynska
Section: World Dramatic Competition
What to make of a film that promises mermaids,...
- 1/14/2016
- by J.R. Kinnard
- SoundOnSight
Sundance top brass celebrate the tenth anniversary of the New Frontier programme with an exhibition of new work that includes Vr projects involving Björk and Ridley Scott’s global hit The Martian.Scroll Down For Full List
The dynamic roster encompasses features, a live performance, documentary and narrative mobile virtual reality experiences and a look inside the innovations at some of world’s leading media research labs.
Tenth anniversary exhibitions will also be presented with MoMA in New York City in April, and the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis as part of Northern Spark in June.
The New Frontiers line-up will take place in Park City’s Claim Jumper, The Gateway, a large-scale installation on Swede Alley by Chris Milk and a performance by Gingger Shankar at Festival Base Camp Presented by Canada Goose.
Beyond the dedicated physical exhibition spaces, audiences can experience more than 20 virtual reality pieces on mobile Vr headsets. This year’s...
The dynamic roster encompasses features, a live performance, documentary and narrative mobile virtual reality experiences and a look inside the innovations at some of world’s leading media research labs.
Tenth anniversary exhibitions will also be presented with MoMA in New York City in April, and the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis as part of Northern Spark in June.
The New Frontiers line-up will take place in Park City’s Claim Jumper, The Gateway, a large-scale installation on Swede Alley by Chris Milk and a performance by Gingger Shankar at Festival Base Camp Presented by Canada Goose.
Beyond the dedicated physical exhibition spaces, audiences can experience more than 20 virtual reality pieces on mobile Vr headsets. This year’s...
- 12/3/2015
- by jeremykay67@gmail.com (Jeremy Kay)
- ScreenDaily
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