There are few subcultures more niche than that of “the color guard.” The vast majority of people may know them only as those performers working alongside high school marching bands during football games each fall. Young men and women taking to the field to perform routines heavily centered around the use of flags, rifles and sabers, these routines are more often than not overlooked by people waiting for the next play of whatever game they’re partaking in.
However, not in the eyes of iconic musician David Byrne.
In the summer of 2015, Byrne took to Brooklyn’s Barclays Center, along with a collection of some of today’s greatest artists and color guard teams to shine a light on the real beauty, importance and power of this artform. And filmmakers Bill and Turner Ross were there to capture it.
The film born from this event is called Contemporary Color and is a breathlessly beautiful,...
However, not in the eyes of iconic musician David Byrne.
In the summer of 2015, Byrne took to Brooklyn’s Barclays Center, along with a collection of some of today’s greatest artists and color guard teams to shine a light on the real beauty, importance and power of this artform. And filmmakers Bill and Turner Ross were there to capture it.
The film born from this event is called Contemporary Color and is a breathlessly beautiful,...
- 3/10/2017
- by Joshua Brunsting
- CriterionCast
David Byrne leaned back in his chair and stared up at the ceiling of his charmingly cluttered Soho office: “I like to keep trying new things — it keeps me on my toes.”
Um, yeah. In the last decade alone, the 64-year-old art-rock legend has authored two books, released a pair of collaborative albums (one with Brian Eno, the other with Annie Clark), written a musical about Joan of Arc, turned a building into an instrument, scored a Shia Labeouf movie, and teamed up with Fatboy Slim to create a disco opera about the life and times of Imelda Marcos, the former First Lady of the Philippines.
For Byrne, a restless iconoclast who founded Talking Heads with some Risd chums in 1975 and has been expanding his horizons ever since, such unbridled creativity is just par for the course. He’s completely at the mercy of his muse — no matter where it...
Um, yeah. In the last decade alone, the 64-year-old art-rock legend has authored two books, released a pair of collaborative albums (one with Brian Eno, the other with Annie Clark), written a musical about Joan of Arc, turned a building into an instrument, scored a Shia Labeouf movie, and teamed up with Fatboy Slim to create a disco opera about the life and times of Imelda Marcos, the former First Lady of the Philippines.
For Byrne, a restless iconoclast who founded Talking Heads with some Risd chums in 1975 and has been expanding his horizons ever since, such unbridled creativity is just par for the course. He’s completely at the mercy of his muse — no matter where it...
- 3/3/2017
- by David Ehrlich
- Indiewire
You'd normally be hard-pressed to find a link between color guards – those tween-to-teen troupes who do military-style dance routines involving waving flags and spinning rifles – hipster rock/Edm bands and micro-indie regional documentarians; a microscope used to be required to view the Venn diagram overlap. Enter David Byrne, an artist who's never found a bunch of disparate elements he couldn't turn into a creative goulash, and who became a fan of the Middle-America past time after a group asked to use his music for a routine. The former Talking Head...
- 3/1/2017
- Rollingstone.com
Cinema Eye has named 10 filmmakers and 20 films that have been voted as the top achievements in documentary filmmaking during the past 10 years. Founded in 2007 to “recognize and honor exemplary craft and innovation in nonfiction film,” Cinema Eye polled 110 members of the documentary community to determine the winning films and filmmakers just as the organization kicks off its tenth year.
Read More: Behind the Scenes of Cinema Eye’s Secret Field Trip for Nominees
Among the films chosen are Joshua Oppenheimer’s “The Act of Killing,” Laura Poitras’ Oscar-winning “Citizenfour” and Banksy’s “Exit Through the Gift Shop.” Poitras and Oppenheimer were both also named to the list of the top documentary filmmakers, joining Alex Gibney, Werner Herzog and Frederick Wiseman, who recently won an honorary Oscar and will be saluted at the annual Governors Awards on November 12.
“It’s fantastic that he is being recognized by the Academy for a...
Read More: Behind the Scenes of Cinema Eye’s Secret Field Trip for Nominees
Among the films chosen are Joshua Oppenheimer’s “The Act of Killing,” Laura Poitras’ Oscar-winning “Citizenfour” and Banksy’s “Exit Through the Gift Shop.” Poitras and Oppenheimer were both also named to the list of the top documentary filmmakers, joining Alex Gibney, Werner Herzog and Frederick Wiseman, who recently won an honorary Oscar and will be saluted at the annual Governors Awards on November 12.
“It’s fantastic that he is being recognized by the Academy for a...
- 9/21/2016
- by Graham Winfrey
- Indiewire
Team Experience is at the Tribeca Film Festival. Here's Jason on Contemporary Color.
I vaguely remember Color Guard being a thing we had at my high school -- I know it might shock and awe you that this particular film nerd writing at you today wasn't all that into sports back then (besides the occasional loitering around a wrestling match now and then, ahem) so I don't recall ever seeing them at work though, flinging their prop guns like ballistic missiles through the air. They seemed like a sub-set within a sub-set, not quite band and not quite the cheer-leading squad. Something in between, but also outside of.
Contemporary Color, which documents the recent shows in Brooklyn that Talking Heads' legend David Byrne organized in an effort to toss this sport under a great big spotlight, pairing ten different teams with ten different modern musician-composers (people like St Vincent...
I vaguely remember Color Guard being a thing we had at my high school -- I know it might shock and awe you that this particular film nerd writing at you today wasn't all that into sports back then (besides the occasional loitering around a wrestling match now and then, ahem) so I don't recall ever seeing them at work though, flinging their prop guns like ballistic missiles through the air. They seemed like a sub-set within a sub-set, not quite band and not quite the cheer-leading squad. Something in between, but also outside of.
Contemporary Color, which documents the recent shows in Brooklyn that Talking Heads' legend David Byrne organized in an effort to toss this sport under a great big spotlight, pairing ten different teams with ten different modern musician-composers (people like St Vincent...
- 4/17/2016
- by JA
- FilmExperience
This is turning out to be a very different year for SXSW, as though last year's tragedy marked a turning point where the city and the SXSW staff realized that things had gotten out of hand with too much going on at once with too little control. The result has been in my own observation that downtown seemed practically dead when I arrived Friday to pick up my badge. Strictly limited permitting for outside events and venues in addition to much of the interactive events being relocated away from the convention center have thinned the crowd to manageable levels, though we will see if that persists as the music portion of the fest kicks into gear.
Movies I've seen:
Western
This documentary by brothers Bill and Turner Ross (who premiered Tchoupitoulas at SXSW 2012) covers 13 months in the border city of Eagle Pass during Chad Foster's last term as mayor.
Movies I've seen:
Western
This documentary by brothers Bill and Turner Ross (who premiered Tchoupitoulas at SXSW 2012) covers 13 months in the border city of Eagle Pass during Chad Foster's last term as mayor.
- 3/17/2015
- by Mike Saulters
- Slackerwood
"Brothers Bill Ross and Turner Ross return to the quick-paced, collage style documentary storytelling we’ve seen previously in Tchoupitoulas and 45365" with Western, "a tale of two cities," writes Monica Castillo at Movie Mezzanine. "One, Eagle Pass, lies north of the Rio Grande, a small Texan town with a big Latino population that specializes in the cattle industry. Her sister city south of the border, Piedras Negras, is similarly reliant on the cow trade—and just as sweet and sleepy when the movie begins. The two cities celebrate their mutual bond annually on the bridge that connects them. That is until the recent spike in Mexican cartel violence shows up on their doorstep." We're collecting more reviews. » - David Hudson...
- 1/29/2015
- Fandor: Keyframe
"Brothers Bill Ross and Turner Ross return to the quick-paced, collage style documentary storytelling we’ve seen previously in Tchoupitoulas and 45365" with Western, "a tale of two cities," writes Monica Castillo at Movie Mezzanine. "One, Eagle Pass, lies north of the Rio Grande, a small Texan town with a big Latino population that specializes in the cattle industry. Her sister city south of the border, Piedras Negras, is similarly reliant on the cow trade—and just as sweet and sleepy when the movie begins. The two cities celebrate their mutual bond annually on the bridge that connects them. That is until the recent spike in Mexican cartel violence shows up on their doorstep." We're collecting more reviews. » - David Hudson...
- 1/29/2015
- Keyframe
“Ravishing cinema verite” is how the Sundance catalog describes the work of Bill and Turner Ross, whose elegiac American portraits crackle with a lovely lo-fi buzz. Following their New Orleans-set music travelogue Tchoupitoulas, the brothers immerse themselves here in Western within a world considerably tougher — two towns on either side of the Mexican border grappling with the sudden onslaught of cartel violence. Below, we ask them about incorporating that criminal storyline into their film and sticking with the same camera for three pictures. Western premieres today in the Documentary Competition of the Sundance Film Festival. Filmmaker: Your documentaries have […]...
- 1/25/2015
- by Scott Macaulay
- Filmmaker Magazine - Blog
“Ravishing cinema verite” is how the Sundance catalog describes the work of Bill and Turner Ross, whose elegiac American portraits crackle with a lovely lo-fi buzz. Following their New Orleans-set music travelogue Tchoupitoulas, the brothers immerse themselves here in Western within a world considerably tougher — two towns on either side of the Mexican border grappling with the sudden onslaught of cartel violence. Below, we ask them about incorporating that criminal storyline into their film and sticking with the same camera for three pictures. Western premieres today in the Documentary Competition of the Sundance Film Festival. Filmmaker: Your documentaries have […]...
- 1/25/2015
- by Scott Macaulay
- Filmmaker Magazine-Director Interviews
The unique cinematic perspective of Bill and Turner Ross specializes in lyrical and dreamy portraits that redefine what is conventionally understood as "documentary." Thus far, they’ve created two visually stimulating, aurally immersive feature-length docs in “45365” and the SXSW breakout “Tchoupitoulas,” the latter of which portrayed one night in the life of three boys soaking up the vibrant atmosphere of New Orleans. Their latest film, debuting at Sundance Film Festival this weekend, is “Western,” an exploration of life on the American frontier in the present day. “At the forefront, what are the archetypes and images that create this idea?” the Ross brothers said in a “Meet The Artists” Sundance clip which you can see below. “The archetypes of the cowboy and the lawman and the dusty frontier —if you can find John Wayne, what does he look like? What is he doing?” Here’s official Sundance synopsis: For generations, all that distinguished Eagle Pass,...
- 1/21/2015
- by Rodrigo Perez
- The Playlist
Turkey or no turkey, these next couple of days lucky filmmakers who’ve been selected to screen as part of the Sundance Film Festival will get the invitation notice straight from John Cooper and the Park City programming team, and thus, those that we’re betting have made the cut have also inched up the list a bit. One of those that seem an obvious choice to premiere at the fest is director Steve Hoover and producer Danny Yourd’s Crocodile Gennadiy. Following up their Grand Jury Prize winning Blood Brother with incredible turnaround time, our new most anticipated film tracks the delicate operations of Gennadiy Mokhnenko, a Ukrainian activist, orphanage manager and savior of countless children whose addict parents favor injected cold medicine and alcohol over them. Part heartwrenching domestic drama, part sleuth thriller, the film looks to use the Ukrainian uprising as a backdrop to highlight its protagonist...
- 11/27/2014
- by Jordan M. Smith
- IONCINEMA.com
It might still be too early to mention the brothers in the same breath as Frederick Wiseman, but the Ross brothers’ filmography to date in 2009′s 45365, 2010′s Tchoupitoulas and perhaps 2013′s River is awe-worthy and awe-inspiring in an observational mode type of manner. A non-secret to SXSW programmers, the brothers who’ve given us Americana portraits set in suburban, dryland and floating bodies of water get some sand in their face with Western. By the looks of it (see pic above), this is in the last stages of being readied with a recent trip to the Sundance Institute and Skywalker Sound Select Independent Filmmakers and Film Composers for September Music and Sound Design Lab for Documentary. It is currently among the finalists for the San Francisco Film Society’s Documentary Film Fund.
Gist: Eagle Pass, Texas and Piedras Negras, Mexico are border towns and the vision of the modern frontier.
Gist: Eagle Pass, Texas and Piedras Negras, Mexico are border towns and the vision of the modern frontier.
- 11/14/2014
- by Eric Lavallee
- IONCINEMA.com
Here's the latest Austin and Texas film news.
The Austin Film Society has teamed up with The Nature Conservancy to present a screening of Hanna Ranch, a documentary about a fourth-generation cattle ranch in Colorado, tonight at 7:30 pm at the Marchesa Hall. In more Afs news, the nonprofit recently announced the participants of this year's Artist Intensive, a workshop for emerging narrative feature writer-directors in Austin with projects in various stages of development or pre-production. Filmmaking husband/wife team Julia Halperin's and Jason Cortlund's La Barracuda (Jordan's interview), Stephen Belyeu's and Gregory Day's The Father, filmmaker-musicians Karen Skloss's and Jay Tonne Jr.'s The Honor Farm and local filmmaker Clay Liford's Slash (an expansion of his short of the same name; Debbie's interview) were selected by the programming committee of Afs's board of directors. Each writer-director team will be matched with mentors who will...
The Austin Film Society has teamed up with The Nature Conservancy to present a screening of Hanna Ranch, a documentary about a fourth-generation cattle ranch in Colorado, tonight at 7:30 pm at the Marchesa Hall. In more Afs news, the nonprofit recently announced the participants of this year's Artist Intensive, a workshop for emerging narrative feature writer-directors in Austin with projects in various stages of development or pre-production. Filmmaking husband/wife team Julia Halperin's and Jason Cortlund's La Barracuda (Jordan's interview), Stephen Belyeu's and Gregory Day's The Father, filmmaker-musicians Karen Skloss's and Jay Tonne Jr.'s The Honor Farm and local filmmaker Clay Liford's Slash (an expansion of his short of the same name; Debbie's interview) were selected by the programming committee of Afs's board of directors. Each writer-director team will be matched with mentors who will...
- 6/2/2014
- by Jordan Gass-Poore'
- Slackerwood
Clearly if Michael Tully receives an invite to Sundance this year, it won’t be for a return visit in the Park City at Midnight section. Moving from dramatic in 2006′s Cocaine Angel (Rotterdam, SXSW), to docu Silver Jew (2007 – SXSW), to the Sundance preemed atypical Southern gothic horror Septien (2011), the filmmaker (who runs one of our fave portals for American indie film worshipping – HammerToNail.com) managed to lasso Susan Sarandon, Lea Thompson, John Hannah, Amy Sedaris, Judah Friedlander and Sundance vet Robert Longstreet (makes his second Tully film appearance) along with a cast of pre-teens for another 180° switch from his previous material. In something that should do the summer set coming-of-ager film done right and remind me why I Love The 80s, Ping Pong Summer and received mentorship/coin helping hands from the U.S in Progress and Sffs/Krf Filmmaking Grant and completed filming in late 2012. This is ready for some tournament action.
- 11/20/2013
- by Eric Lavallee
- IONCINEMA.com
In more than a few of its slim 80 minutes, Tchoupitoulas feels like it accomplishes the impossible. Tchoupitoulas, before you keep asking, is pronounced “Chop-ih-too-lus,” and it’s the second movie from Bill and Turner Ross, collectively known as the Ross Brothers. It is ostensibly a documentary, but the movie lands in a hazy area between fiction and nonfiction. You won’t find any issues being discussed, or any world problems solved, only a bleary-eyed, overnight New Orleans adventure with three teenage brothers. From the very first shot, we’re inside the brain of the younger brother, privy to his internal dialogue, and...
- 5/14/2013
- Pastemagazine.com
Out on DVD today, via Oscilloscope Laboratories is Bill and Turner Ross's lauded award-winning lyrical documentary Tchoupitoulas - a story of the New Orleans night, as seen through the eyes of a child. Abstractly aural and visual, it is a sensory document of one night in the many lives of a thriving nocturnal populace. Three young boys act as our wide-eyed conduits to a parade of entertainers and revelers as they dance through the lamp lit streets and doorways of the Crescent City. From dusk to dawn, from Rampart to the river, we explore the lives and locales of one of the world's most unique cities. In moments surreal, and others patiently...
- 4/30/2013
- by Tambay A. Obenson
- ShadowAndAct
Nyu's Cinema Research Institute, which sponsors research projects for people studying the intersection of art and commerce in film, has announced its 2013 fellows. Michael Gottwald and Josh Penn, who have produced "Beasts of the Southern Wild" and the Ross Brothers' "Tchoupitoulas," are doing research and blogging about doing grassroots-inspired audience outreach for films. (See, for instance, Gottwald's blog post about online vs. offline organizing.) Filmmaker Micah Schaffer ("Death of Two Sons") will be producing a resource for filmmakers to find co-production partners and cross-border financing for independent film. Ryan Silbert (producer of "Holy Rollers," Oscar-winning short "God of Love") will be focusing on transmedia storytelling, working on the intersection of film, video games and technology. The Cinema Research Institute was launched by John Tintori, the Chair of the Graduate Film Program at Nyu as a way of fulfilling the university's motto, "a private...
- 4/1/2013
- by Bryce J. Renninger
- Indiewire
Sorry Oscars. But after the Indie Spirit Awards, the number two spot in terms of Award Season importance are the Cinema Eye Honors. Seems like it was only yesterday when Aj Schnack & Thom Powers teamed up for one basic, logical concept: an event that would reward yearly output of documentary film in a rightfully sound manner. With the wind in their sails, the 6th annual edition was held last night and deservingly so, adding to its double wins at the Idfa and Sundance, it is 5 Broken Cameras that took the top honors for Outstanding Achievement in Nonfiction Feature Filmmaking. Co-directed by Emad Burnat and Guy Davidi – political activism via you guessed it, five video cameras. The film was released via Kino Lorber.
The night’s only double winner, could be regarded as the silver medal doc film of the year: Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady’s Detropia grabbed the Outstanding...
The night’s only double winner, could be regarded as the silver medal doc film of the year: Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady’s Detropia grabbed the Outstanding...
- 1/10/2013
- by Eric Lavallee
- IONCINEMA.com
Title: Tchoupitoulas Directors: Bill Ross and Turner Ross A lyrical nonfiction offering that could be viewed as a sort of companion piece to “Beasts of the Southern Wild” by way of Frederick Wiseman, Bill and Turner Ross’ “Tchoupitoulas” charts the journey of three young African-American brothers who head out onto the streets of New Orleans to experience the Big Easy’s kaleidoscopic vibrancy. At once gorgeous and frustrating, alluring and tedious, the delicate movie is an undeniable example that, like physical beauty, the appeal of diffident, removed cinematic art is in the eye of the beholder. Unfolding over the course of one night, “Tchoupitoulas” centers on William, Bryan and Kentrell Zanders, a trio of brothers who we [ Read More ]
The post Tchoupitoulas Movie Review appeared first on Shockya.com.
The post Tchoupitoulas Movie Review appeared first on Shockya.com.
- 12/28/2012
- by bsimon
- ShockYa
After brothers Bill and Turner Ross screened their new film for the first time at SXSW earlier this year, they went to lunch with representatives of Oscilloscope Laboratories, the film distribution company started by the late Beastie Boy Adam Yauch.
"Things came together pretty quickly after that," recalls Bill Ross to Rolling Stone. "It seemed so right. It was a perfect fit for us."
Having grown up listening to the Beastie Boys, Ross had a "geek-out moment," he says, as soon as he realized he'd be partnering with Yauch's company.
"Things came together pretty quickly after that," recalls Bill Ross to Rolling Stone. "It seemed so right. It was a perfect fit for us."
Having grown up listening to the Beastie Boys, Ross had a "geek-out moment," he says, as soon as he realized he'd be partnering with Yauch's company.
- 12/26/2012
- Rollingstone.com
"The Imposter" and "Searching for Sugar Man" each received 5 nods from the Cinema Eye Honors for Nonfiction Filmmaking. 31 features and 5 shorts will vie for the best of the best in documentary filmmaking. Check out the full list of nominees below including the Audience Award and Heterodox Award.
Winners of the 6th Annual Cinema Eye Honors will be announced on January 9, 2013 as Cinema Eye returns for a third year to New York City.s Museum of the Moving Image in Astoria, Queens.
Outstanding Achievement in Nonfiction Feature Filmmaking
5 Broken Cameras
Directed by Emad Burnat and Guy Davidi
Produced by Christine Camdessus, Serge Gordey, Emad Burnat and Guy Davidi
Detropia
Directed by Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady
Produced by Heidi Ewing, Rachel Grady and Craig Atkinson
The Imposter
Directed by Bart Layton
Produced by Dimitri Doganis
Marina Abramović The Artist is Present
Directed by Matthew Akers
Produced by Jeff Dupre and Maro Chermayeff...
Winners of the 6th Annual Cinema Eye Honors will be announced on January 9, 2013 as Cinema Eye returns for a third year to New York City.s Museum of the Moving Image in Astoria, Queens.
Outstanding Achievement in Nonfiction Feature Filmmaking
5 Broken Cameras
Directed by Emad Burnat and Guy Davidi
Produced by Christine Camdessus, Serge Gordey, Emad Burnat and Guy Davidi
Detropia
Directed by Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady
Produced by Heidi Ewing, Rachel Grady and Craig Atkinson
The Imposter
Directed by Bart Layton
Produced by Dimitri Doganis
Marina Abramović The Artist is Present
Directed by Matthew Akers
Produced by Jeff Dupre and Maro Chermayeff...
- 12/11/2012
- by Manny
- Manny the Movie Guy
Named for the New Orleans street that traces the Mississippi River from the southern edge of the French Quarter through Uptown, Tchoupitoulas is a lyrical nighttime exploration of the city from the point of view of three brothers who embark on a secret, illicit adventure in the Big Easy. On the heels of Bryan, Kentrell and especially little William Zanders, filmmakers Bill and Turner Ross (who are brothers themselves) dip into the flow of Crescent City nightlife—the revelers, the hustlers, the street preachers and especially the musicians—with a vérité camera, watching and listening, without motive or commentary. The result is...
- 12/6/2012
- Pastemagazine.com
December is all about spectacle and awards season seriousness, but if you need a reprieve from Hollywood's expensive grab for box office and awards, Oscilloscope Laboratories has something daringly off the beaten path and refreshingly original. Bill and Turner Ross' "Tchoupitoulas" takes the simple approach of following three boys in New Orleans over the course of an evening, and uses it to paint a impressionistic document both of the city and these kids as life swirls and tumbles around them. We caught the film at SXSW in the spring, and it really captured our attention, and we declared that it's "a documentary experiment that pushes the boundaries of storytelling and form to transform cinema into sensation." And as you'll see in this exclusive clip below, the final result is something of a waking dream. "Tchoupitoulas" opens in limited release on December 7th. And in case you missed it, here's our interview with directors.
- 12/5/2012
- by Kevin Jagernauth
- The Playlist
Joshua Oppenheimer and Christine Cynn's "The Act of Killing" topped the winners of the Copenhagen International Documentary Film Festival (Cph:dox) this past weekend, taking the festival's Dox:award prize. Other winners at the ceremony -- held at the Bremen Theater in downtown Copenhagen -- included Bill & Turner Ross's "Tchoupitoulas," Lucien Castaing-Taylor & Véréna Paravel's "Leviathan" and Jonas Poher Rasmussen's "Searching For Bill." Full list of winners below with jury statements. Dox:award: The Act of Killing, Joshua Oppenheimer "The Jury would like to award a film for its ability to show the construction of fear in a society and for its courageous re-enactment of the madness of the past, still echoing in the present." Special mention to Tchoupitoulas, Bill & Turner Ross "The Jury wants to give a special mention for its freedom and chaotic...
- 11/12/2012
- by Peter Knegt
- Indiewire
The Act of Killing, Joshua Oppenheimer, Christine Cynn and Anonymous’s jaw-dropping tale of war crimes, guilt and moviemaking, took the top prize at Cph:dox here in Copenhagen Friday night. The film, pictured above, boasts Werner Herzog and Errol Morris as executive producers and follows a group of former death squad leaders as they make Hollywood-style movies based on their murders of communists, ethnic Chinese and intellectuals following Indonesia’s military coup in 1965. Director Edwin (Postcards from the Zoo) presented the award and read the jury’s statement: “The Jury would like to award a film for its ability to show the construction of fear in a society and for its courageous re-enactment of the madness of the past, still echoing in the present.” As an Indonesian, Edwin added a personal testament to the film’s powerful confrontation of the country’s history. Accepting the award, Oppenheimer thanked the country’s community of survivors,...
- 11/11/2012
- by Scott Macaulay
- Filmmaker Magazine - Blog
AFI Fest 2012 presented by Audi, a program of the American Film Institute, today announced the events and screenings in its Presentations and Conversations programs, an additional screening and some of the guests who are expected to attend this year.s festival. AFI Fest, which annually presents the best of world cinema in the movie capital of the world, will take place November 1 through 8 at the historic Grauman.s Chinese Theatre, the Chinese 6 Theatres, the Egyptian Theatre and the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel.
Stay with us here at Wamg as we bring you the latest from the AFI Fest screenings, panels and after-parties right here in Hollywood!
Presentations:
This variety of special screening events offers audiences a unique festival experience.
Sunset Boulevard: Dir Billy Wilder
With restoration services by Technicolor, be among the first to experience one of Hollywood.s most beloved films as it was originally intended. A fitting release...
Stay with us here at Wamg as we bring you the latest from the AFI Fest screenings, panels and after-parties right here in Hollywood!
Presentations:
This variety of special screening events offers audiences a unique festival experience.
Sunset Boulevard: Dir Billy Wilder
With restoration services by Technicolor, be among the first to experience one of Hollywood.s most beloved films as it was originally intended. A fitting release...
- 10/31/2012
- by Melissa Thompson
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
Where does documentary end, and reality and dreams begin? That is the question many will be asking after experiencing "Tchoupitoulas," the latest documentary from Bill and Turner Ross, the makers of the small town portrait "45365." After drawing rave reviews at SXSW where it premiered earlier this year and winning awards at the Dallas, Ashland and Hot Docs film festivals, Oscilloscope Laboratories is bringing the picture to theaters, and the first trailer will you a glimpse of the special film they have put together. "Tchoupitoulas" follows three boys in New Orleans, who venture through the city all in one night, in what becomes less a movie about and more an impressionistic document of a particular feeling or moment in the lives of these kids. In our thumbs up review from SXSW, we called it "an experimental, dreamy melange of the sights and sounds of New Orleans," and unlike your average documentary.
- 10/18/2012
- by Kevin Jagernauth
- The Playlist
The AFI Film Fest (11.01-11.08) have announced the line-ups for our favorite sections at the fest in the Young American selections and New Auteurs section and they’ve managed to stack up on titles that are amongst the year’s best and which in the case of two films were mysteriously passed over by the likes of Telluride, Tiff and Nyff. Michel Franco’s After Lucia (see pic above) and Antonio Campos’ Simon Killer will be making the Los Angeles premieres accompanied by the best title to come out of the Main Comp at this year’s Cannes edition in Sergei Loznitsa’s In the Fog. This trio will be joined by a trio of gems that recently premiered at Tiff in: Maja Miloš’ Clip, Gabriela Pichler’s Eat Sleep Die and Tobias Lindholm’s A Hijacking. In the Young American Selections we find some filmmakers (Sean Baker and Amy...
- 10/3/2012
- by Eric Lavallee
- IONCINEMA.com
2012 appears to be the year for younger, i.e. under 10 years old, underground fests to blow it wide open and go for broke. This time it’s the 4th annual Oakland Underground Film Festival that is expanding its horizons into a blowout four-day, much more densely packed affair, running on Sept. 27-30 at several different locations.
Expanding on the types of films they screen, this year Oakuff is jammed pack with a wide variety of documentaries, thrillers, a bevy of short films and a special tribute to blaxploitation films hosted by BadAzz MoFo’s David Walker.
The fest opens on the 27th with skateboarding filmmaker Stacy Peralta’s latest, Bones Brigade: An Autobiography, which documents his own involvement with California board culture along with peers like Tony Hawk and Rodney Mullen. Following that will be Ya’Ke Smith’s complex drama about the effects of child molestation.
Other documentaries in...
Expanding on the types of films they screen, this year Oakuff is jammed pack with a wide variety of documentaries, thrillers, a bevy of short films and a special tribute to blaxploitation films hosted by BadAzz MoFo’s David Walker.
The fest opens on the 27th with skateboarding filmmaker Stacy Peralta’s latest, Bones Brigade: An Autobiography, which documents his own involvement with California board culture along with peers like Tony Hawk and Rodney Mullen. Following that will be Ya’Ke Smith’s complex drama about the effects of child molestation.
Other documentaries in...
- 9/25/2012
- by Mike Everleth
- Underground Film Journal
It didn't do much for me when I saw it the SXSW Film Festival in March this year; Vanessa saw it as well and reviewed it, although her reaction to it wasn't all that different from mine (you can read her review Here). Now some of the rest of you will get your opportunity to see it judge for yourselves, as Oscilloscope Laboratories has acquired North American rights to Bill and Turner Ross's HotDocs award-winning documentary Tchoupitoulas. Oscilloscope plans to continue to screen the film at festivals, and will eventually release it in theaters (limited) later this year, followed by a digital release. For those of you in New York, it'll next screen at...
- 6/5/2012
- by Tambay
- ShadowAndAct
Oscilloscope Laboratories said Tuesday that it has acquired North American rights to "Tchoupitoulas." The documentary by Bill and Turner Ross captures New Orleans' rich nightlife. "Tchoupitoulas," pronounced chop-ih-tou-less, follows three adolescent brothers' nocturnal journey through the Big Easy, where they discover its distinctive music, dance hall and party scene. Also read: Kickstarter: The Indie Filmmaker's New Best Friend It premiered at the South by South Film Festival this past March, and has screened at The Dallas International Film Festival and The Ashland Independent Film Festival. The Ross Brothers, best known for the 2009 documentary "45365," raised roughly...
- 6/5/2012
- by Brent Lang
- The Wrap
Oscilloscope Laboratories has announced that it has acquired North American rights to Bill and Turner Ross's documentary "Tchoupitoulas," which premiered at SXSW earlier this year. The directors' follow-up to the acclaimed "45365," Indiewire called the film "visually masterful" in our SXSW review. The deal was finalized at the recently completed Cannes Film Festival. David Laub and Dan Berger of Oscilloscope negotiated the deal with George Rush on behalf of the filmmakers. Full press release below. New York, New York (June 4, 2012)-- Oscilloscope Laboratories announced today that it has acquired North American rights to Bill and Turner Ross’s acclaimed documentary Tchoupitoulas (pronounced Chop-ih-tou-less). The film premiered to rave reviews at the South by South Film Festival this past March. It has continued its successful run at festivals throughout the spring, winning awards at HotDocs, The Dallas...
- 6/5/2012
- by Peter Knegt
- Indiewire
Maryland Film Festival (Mff) is an annual four-day event that takes place in downtown Baltimore during the first weekend of May, presenting top-notch film and video work from all over the world. Each year the festival screens approximately 50 feature films and 75 short films of all varieties -- narrative, documentary, animation, experimental, and hybrid -- to tens of thousands of audience members. This year your loyal Smells Like Screen Spirit scribes bring you a preview of some of the fantastic films that are in store for you at Mff 2012. Attenberg is certainly not as fantastically absurd as Yorgos Lanthimos’ Dogtooth, which Tsangari produced, but the two Greek films do share a certain cinematic kinship in farcically discussing the effects of overly restrictive parenting, specifically related to the social and sexual repression of the offspring. One might say that Attenberg is like the mellow chaser used to calm the crazy rush after...
- 5/2/2012
- by Don Simpson
- SmellsLikeScreenSpirit
The 2012 Ashland Independent Film Festival has announced the winners of its Juried and Audience competitions. In the Audience competitions winners included: Rory Kennedy's "Ethel" took Best Documentary; Jonathan Lisecki's "Gayby" for Best Feature; Leslie Iwerks' "Pipe Dreams" for Best Documentary Short Film; and Drew Christie's "Song of the Spindle" took home the prize for Best Narrative Short Film. In the Juried competition winners were: Musa Syeed's "Valley of the Saints" took Best Narrative Feature; Turner Ross and Bill Ross won Best Feature Length Documentary for "Tchoupitoulas"; Best Cinematography went to Nicholas Ozeki's "Mamitas"; "Gayby" won again for Best Acting Ensemble; Kangmin Kim's "38-39° C" won Best Animated Short; Best Short Doc. went to Sam Green's "The Universal Language"; and Levi Abrino's "Little Horses"...
- 4/19/2012
- by Aaron Bogert
- Indiewire
Bill and Turner Ross’ new documentary Tchoupitoulas premiered in Emerging Visions this year at SXSW. The film was eagerly anticipated by fans of their debut feature, 45365, the Documentary Jury Prize winner a few years ago. Three young brothers in Louisiana take a ferry into New Orleans, observe and engage in everything from transvestite clubs to street musicians Mardi Gras floats to an abandoned ship yard on the outskirts of town. Pretty soon the youngest brother, William, a sensitive kid who plays the recorder at school, starts to get tired. “I’m just a child,” he insists, to the jeers of his brothers, who want to stay up all night. All three of them are kids — witness them gaping, wide-eyed, at a cook tossing pizza dough in a shop window — but it’s William whose perspective the film relies on to turn encounters with rambling drunks and glitter-covered hippie street musicians into evocative little miracles.
- 3/16/2012
- by Alicia Van Couvering
- Filmmaker Magazine - Blog
Courtesy of the filmmakers Bill and Turner Ross
Bill and Turner Ross are the directors of “Tchoupitoulas,” which premiered at the South by Southwest film festival in Austin, Tex. this past weekend.
“Tchoupitoulas” (pronounced “chop-ih-tool-us”) is an artifact of the most recent chapter of an adventure that began at ages 2 and 0, respectively. We’ve been following shiny things and getting in trouble ever since.
We make our films to get the ideas out of our system and, once they are,...
Bill and Turner Ross are the directors of “Tchoupitoulas,” which premiered at the South by Southwest film festival in Austin, Tex. this past weekend.
“Tchoupitoulas” (pronounced “chop-ih-tool-us”) is an artifact of the most recent chapter of an adventure that began at ages 2 and 0, respectively. We’ve been following shiny things and getting in trouble ever since.
We make our films to get the ideas out of our system and, once they are,...
- 3/12/2012
- by Bill and Turner Ross
- Speakeasy/Wall Street Journal
Photo by immlass
Year in, year out, the true lone star of SXSW is the city of Austin itself, and its flagship weekly, the Chronicle, has just opened its biggest-ever microsite dedicated to the three-pronged festival (Interactive, Film, Music). SXSW Film opens tomorrow and runs through March 17, perfectly timed for sightings of the first bluebonnets springing up alongside I-35. I'll be posting notes and impressions from the first week of the festival, but for now, here's a quick skim of the previews.
In the Chronicle, Marc Savlov talks with Drew Goddard and Joss Whedon about their Opening Night headliner, The Cabin in the Woods, previews Patrick Forbes's Wikileaks: Secrets and Lies and Brian Knappenberger's We Are Legion: The Rise of the Hacktivists and talks with Gareth Evans about The Raid: Redemption.
Leah Churner meets Danielle McCarthy, producer of Big Star: Nothing Can Hurt Me, "a new documentary about...
Year in, year out, the true lone star of SXSW is the city of Austin itself, and its flagship weekly, the Chronicle, has just opened its biggest-ever microsite dedicated to the three-pronged festival (Interactive, Film, Music). SXSW Film opens tomorrow and runs through March 17, perfectly timed for sightings of the first bluebonnets springing up alongside I-35. I'll be posting notes and impressions from the first week of the festival, but for now, here's a quick skim of the previews.
In the Chronicle, Marc Savlov talks with Drew Goddard and Joss Whedon about their Opening Night headliner, The Cabin in the Woods, previews Patrick Forbes's Wikileaks: Secrets and Lies and Brian Knappenberger's We Are Legion: The Rise of the Hacktivists and talks with Gareth Evans about The Raid: Redemption.
Leah Churner meets Danielle McCarthy, producer of Big Star: Nothing Can Hurt Me, "a new documentary about...
- 3/9/2012
- MUBI
SXSW starts tomorrow, hotels and airfares were sold out long ago, and Austin’s data networks are already trembling. I’ll be there, and here are 20 films and other things that I’m looking forward to catching.
1. Tchoupitoulas. Bill and Turner Ross won Best Documentary at SXSW in 2009 with their doc, 45365. Their new film, Tchoupitoulas (pictured), promises to be a similarly beguiling exploration of time and place. It is about, in the words of the filmmakers, “three kids, New Orleans at night, and Music,” and it’s produced by the founding members of Court 13, whose Beasts of the Southern Wild was Sundance’s most exciting discovery this year.
2. The Sheik and I. Note to politically sensitive Middle Eastern art fairs: you don’t commission a cinematic provocateur like Caveh Zahedi to make a film about “art as a subversive act” if you can’t handle the consequences. One did, and...
1. Tchoupitoulas. Bill and Turner Ross won Best Documentary at SXSW in 2009 with their doc, 45365. Their new film, Tchoupitoulas (pictured), promises to be a similarly beguiling exploration of time and place. It is about, in the words of the filmmakers, “three kids, New Orleans at night, and Music,” and it’s produced by the founding members of Court 13, whose Beasts of the Southern Wild was Sundance’s most exciting discovery this year.
2. The Sheik and I. Note to politically sensitive Middle Eastern art fairs: you don’t commission a cinematic provocateur like Caveh Zahedi to make a film about “art as a subversive act” if you can’t handle the consequences. One did, and...
- 3/8/2012
- by Scott Macaulay
- Filmmaker Magazine - Blog
While Sundance still gets the headlines, the last few years have seen the film strand of South By Southwest, the Austin, Texas cultural conference, become just as vital to the movie world as Robert Redford's baby. The past few festivals alone witnessed some of the best movies of their respective years debut, from low-budget indies like "The Puffy Chair," "Beeswax," "Tiny Furniture" and "Cold Weather" to more mainstream fare like "I Love You Man," "Adventureland" and "Bridesmaids," to international genre hits like "Kill List," "Attack The Block" and "Monsters."
It's certainly one of the highlights of our cinematic calendar, and there's no reason to think that the 2012 installment, which kicks off on Friday with the world premiere of Joss Whedon and Drew Goddard's eagerly anticipated horror-comedy "The Cabin In The Woods," will disappoint. From looking through the program, we could be here all day talking about the films that are piquing our interest,...
It's certainly one of the highlights of our cinematic calendar, and there's no reason to think that the 2012 installment, which kicks off on Friday with the world premiere of Joss Whedon and Drew Goddard's eagerly anticipated horror-comedy "The Cabin In The Woods," will disappoint. From looking through the program, we could be here all day talking about the films that are piquing our interest,...
- 3/6/2012
- by Oliver Lyttelton
- The Playlist
Sound On Sight will once again be covering the SXSW Film Festival this year, making it our second time attending. 130 feature films will screen at the Austin, Texas fest taking place March 9-17, including 65 World Premieres, 17 North American Premieres and 10 U.S. Premieres. As previously announced, Drew Goddard and Joss Whedon’s The Cabin in the Woods will have the honours of opening the festival, and now they have released the full list of films – and it’s looking pretty amazing. Enjoy!
Narrative Feature Competition
This year’s 8 films were selected from 1,112 submissions. Each film is a World Premiere. Films screening in Narrative Feature Competition are:
Booster
Director/Screenwriter: Matt Ruskin
When Simon’s brother is arrested for armed robbery, he is asked to commit a string of similar crimes in an attempt to get his brother acquitted.
Cast: Nico Stone, Adam DuPaul, Seymour Cassel, Kristin Dougherty, Brian McGrail (World Premiere)
Eden
Director: Megan Griffiths,...
Narrative Feature Competition
This year’s 8 films were selected from 1,112 submissions. Each film is a World Premiere. Films screening in Narrative Feature Competition are:
Booster
Director/Screenwriter: Matt Ruskin
When Simon’s brother is arrested for armed robbery, he is asked to commit a string of similar crimes in an attempt to get his brother acquitted.
Cast: Nico Stone, Adam DuPaul, Seymour Cassel, Kristin Dougherty, Brian McGrail (World Premiere)
Eden
Director: Megan Griffiths,...
- 2/3/2012
- by Ricky
- SoundOnSight
Iggy Pop and Debbie Harry, shot by Bob Gruen in 1977
Rock 'N' Roll Exposed: The Photography of Bob Gruen
screens as part of 24 Beats per Second
SXSW Film has just announced its features lineup for the 2012 edition, running March 9 through 17. We already knew that the Opening Night Film would be Drew Goddard's The Cabin in the Woods. For its Closing Night Film, the festival will host the world premiere of of Emmett Malloy’s documentary Big Easy Express (more below). The lineup, with descriptions from the festival:
Narrative Feature Competition
Booster
Director/Screenwriter: Matt Ruskin. When Simon’s brother is arrested for armed robbery, he is asked to commit a string of similar crimes in an attempt to get his brother acquitted. Cast: Nico Stone, Adam DuPaul, Seymour Cassel, Kristin Dougherty, Brian McGrail. (World Premiere)
Eden
Director: Megan Griffiths, Screenwriters: Richard B. Phillips, Megan Griffiths, Story by: Richard B. Phillips & Chong Kim.
Rock 'N' Roll Exposed: The Photography of Bob Gruen
screens as part of 24 Beats per Second
SXSW Film has just announced its features lineup for the 2012 edition, running March 9 through 17. We already knew that the Opening Night Film would be Drew Goddard's The Cabin in the Woods. For its Closing Night Film, the festival will host the world premiere of of Emmett Malloy’s documentary Big Easy Express (more below). The lineup, with descriptions from the festival:
Narrative Feature Competition
Booster
Director/Screenwriter: Matt Ruskin. When Simon’s brother is arrested for armed robbery, he is asked to commit a string of similar crimes in an attempt to get his brother acquitted. Cast: Nico Stone, Adam DuPaul, Seymour Cassel, Kristin Dougherty, Brian McGrail. (World Premiere)
Eden
Director: Megan Griffiths, Screenwriters: Richard B. Phillips, Megan Griffiths, Story by: Richard B. Phillips & Chong Kim.
- 2/1/2012
- MUBI
With Sundance 2012 Film Festival over, the next big one on the horizon is South by Southwest, which we’ll be heavily covering. The biggest chunk of the line-up has been announced today, which has some great premieres including 21 Jump Street, Tiff and Sundance hit The Raid, Will Ferrell‘s Casa de mi Padre, the documentary Girl Model (which we liked at Tiff), as well as the next from Broken Lizard, The Babymakers. There are many other promising titles included and you can see them all below. Check back for our coverage for the fest, kicking off March 9th.
Narrative Feature Competition
This year’s 8 films were selected from 1,112 submissions. Each film is a World Premiere. Films screening in Narrative Feature Competition are:
Booster
Director/Screenwriter: Matt Ruskin
When Simon’s brother is arrested for armed robbery, he is asked to commit a string of similar crimes in an attempt to get his brother acquitted.
Narrative Feature Competition
This year’s 8 films were selected from 1,112 submissions. Each film is a World Premiere. Films screening in Narrative Feature Competition are:
Booster
Director/Screenwriter: Matt Ruskin
When Simon’s brother is arrested for armed robbery, he is asked to commit a string of similar crimes in an attempt to get his brother acquitted.
- 2/1/2012
- by jpraup@gmail.com (thefilmstage.com)
- The Film Stage
Attendees of South by Southwest 2012 are in for a treat. 130 feature films will screen at the Austin, Texas festival taking place March 9-17. Among them are 65 World Premieres, 17 North American Premieres and 10 U.S. Premieres. The organization already announced [1] Drew Goddard and Joss Whedon's The Cabin in the Woods would open the festival (the movie is phenomenal [2]) and today the majority of the remaining line up has been revealed. One of the highlights is the unbelievably smart and hilarious 21 Jump Street, directed by Phil Lord & Christopher Miller. Both of those are World Premieres. Other highlights include The Hunter, Killer Joe, The Babymakers, frankie goes boom, God Bless America, The Imposter, The Raid, Bernie and Casa de mi Padre just to name a few. After the jump, read descriptions of all the films that have been announced so far. Before I copy and paste the rest of the list, a few minor notes.
- 2/1/2012
- by Germain Lussier
- Slash Film
#88. Tchoupitoulas Director/Producers: Ross BrothersDistributor: Rights Available The Gist: Three young brothers take a secret sunset journey across a river to a pleasure island that’s always been forbidden to them. As such, the narrative conceit of Tchoupitoulas is as timeless as a fairy tale. But through the eyes of our juvenile protagonists, we experience an impressionistic immersion into this beguiling kaleidoscope of dancers, musicians, hustlers, drag queens, and revelers that parade through the lamp-lit streets between Rampart and the river...(more) List Worthy Reasons...: I'll re-iterate what I mentioned before, Bill & Turner Ross' magical docu 45365 brought much deserved acclaim to the pair. Hopefully this will see a progression of their docu style. Release Date/Status?: The SXSW folks are certainly hoping that they'll get to showcase the pic, so we're hopeful for a 2012 film fest premiere.
- 1/4/2012
- IONCINEMA.com
#67. Tchoupitoulas - Bill & Turner Ross Bill & Turner Ross' magical documentary debut 45365 premiered at the SXSW Film Festival in 2009 and for the better part of the year gained in traction and brought much deserved acclaim to the pair. I've read that another project The Muscle’ Rouse has been completed and is looking towards 2012 film fests dates, but my thinking is that Tchoupitoulas, a Cinereach Grant recipient might be a perfect candidate for New Frontier section inclusion. Gist: Three young brothers take a secret sunset journey across a river to a pleasure island that’s always been forbidden to them. As such, the narrative conceit of Tchoupitoulas is as timeless as a fairy tale. But through the eyes of our juvenile protagonists, we experience an impressionistic immersion into this beguiling kaleidoscope of dancers, musicians, hustlers, drag queens, and revelers that parade through the lamp-lit streets between Rampart and the river. While...
- 11/13/2011
- IONCINEMA.com
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