"Every novice filmmaker aspires to have their first feature praised by their peers. If they're extremely fortunate, their earliest work will be embraced by critics and well-attended by audiences. Less often, their first feature will even be lauded with awards in their home country and abroad." remarks Jonathan Marlow of Florian Henckle von Donnersmarck whose remarkable new drama The Lives of Others has won several German Lola's and has been nominated by the Academy. Marlow had a chance to talk with Donnersmarck here in San Francisco.

And now the film, which won an Oscar for Best Foreign Film, is out on DVD.

Continue Reading Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck: Among The Lives of Others

"It likely goes without saying that Bridge to Terabithia is not the sort of movie you'd generally find discussed on this site. Clearly, no self-respecting cineaste would squander their time on a movie supposedly made for families, right? Why, then, are we running an interview with the co-screenwriter/co-producer of this film? Because David Paterson is (to borrow a memorable piece of dialogue from Freaks) 'one of us'." Jonathan Marlow recently spoke with David Paterson about the film adaptation of his mother's novel, Bridge to Terabithia.

Terabithia is now out on DVD.

Continue Reading David Paterson: The Journey to Terabithia

Interviewed by Michael Guillen

Rory Kennedy's probing HBO documentary Ghosts of Abu Ghraib now debuts on DVD today. As David Courier wrote, introducing the film when it premiered at Sundance in January, Kennedy "explores how, given the right circumstances, typical boys and girls next door can commit atrocious acts of violence...."

Michael Guillen spoke with Rory Kennedy about the unique and unsettling experience of shooting at the Abu Ghraib prison facility in Iraq.

Continue Reading Rory Kennedy: Disturbing the Ghosts of Abu Ghraib

Interviewed By Craig Phillips

In the not too distant past, Mike Nelson was host of the long-running cult TV series Mystery Science Theater 3000, which had run for years on cable.s Comedy Central before moving over to the Sci-Fi channel (both channels, oddly, embraced the show for its cultdom while simultaneously screwing it over). When MST3K finally disappeared, those of us who had been fans from nearly the beginning were in a state of disbelief. The wisecrackers on the Satellite of Love gave us our fix for cheesy genre movies, making the horrible not only tolerable, but also damned entertaining.

Mike Nelson, Bill Corbett and Kevin Murphy, have brought Rifftrax back to the Bay Area and will be performing May 27th & 28th. You can find event times and ticket info here.

Continue Reading Riffing with Mike Nelson

Interview By David D'Arcy

"If you're at a loss for what to make of the official US rhetoric on our momentum toward victory in Iraq, see the documentaries of Michael Tucker and Petra Epperlein. They made Gunner Palace, one of the best docs on the war in Iraq from the point of view of US soldiers two years ago..." Tucker and Epperlein's new doc; The Prisoner, Or: How I Planned to Kill Tony Blair opened at last years Toronto International film festival and will be screening this Saturday at SXSW. David D'Arcy spoke with Michael Tucker about the films, and how the stories came together...

Continue Reading Michael Tucker: Returning to the Palace

The Guatemalan Handshake

This award-winning debut is an exceptional exploration of unusual human behavior. The film opens with the mysterious disappearance of Donald Turnupseed (Will Oldham) but this odd occurrence merely serves as a catalyst for a number of delightful digressions and reflections (including an appearance from Billy Nayer Show's Cory McAbee).

(view the trailer after the jump)

Continue Reading GreenCine Exclusive Screening!

Interviewed By Susan Gerhard
November 17, 2006

"The book Fast Food Nation - a richly reported and thickly described literary investigation into the bowels of your everyday burger - was initially an article in Rolling Stone before it became a bestseller, spawned a children's book, instigated a movement, and morphed into a movie by Richard Linklater. If it didn't feel so wrong, you could almost say that it has, by now, become franchised..." Eric Schlosser tells Susan Gerhard how he worked with Richard Linklater to turn his bestselling exposéem>Fast Food Nation into what Film Comment's Kent Jones calls an "unassuming film, one of the most politically astute to come out of this country in quite some time."

Continue Reading Eric Schlosser: Our Fast Food Nation's Whistle-Blower

By Sean Axmaker

"Halfway through Written on the Wind (1956), after oil baron Robert Keith has been bluntly confronted by the tawdry affairs of his alcoholic daughter Dorothy Malone, the dialogue drops out and the driving rumba takes over the soundtrack. Malone kicks up a storm sashaying in her girdle, perversely proud of the discretion that has wounded her upright dad..." Sean Axmaker explores the brilliant film career of Douglas Sirk whose pictures though often misunderstood, never fail to entertain and exist as a benchmark in cinematic history. The American Cinematheque's retrospective of Sirk's films opens March 1st, 2007 at the Egyptian Theatre in Hollywood.

Continue Reading The Incendiary Cinema of Douglas Sirk

By Jeffrey M. Anderson

During a recent conversation with Mark and Michael Polish, both 36, about their new movie The Astronaut Farmer, several questions came up about insiders and outsiders. For example, the Polish brothers made their debut with the quirky indie film Twin Falls Idaho (1999), in which the identical twins appeared as Siamese twins. It received some good notices and took in nearly double its initial cost, but it didn't exactly catapult the brothers into the mainstream.

Continue Reading The Polish Brothers: Inside the Outsider Aesthetic

interviewed by Jonathan Marlow, 21-February-2007

"Arguably the most unconventional documentary to air on television this year, Black Sun uses a series of remarkable audio interviews as a foundation for distinct ways of seeing the world around us. The film has played numerous festivals to much acclaim since its 2005 debut at the Toronto International Film Festival. Viewers tuning in to the program (Cinemax, 28-February, 7:00pm ET/PT ) relatively unawares will be rewarded with a thought-provoking and innovative account of overcoming adversity."

Continue Reading Gary Tarn & Hugues de Montalembert: The Assassinated Light