“If A Tree Falls” is a documentary that I found myself deeply respecting, so when I got the opportunity to interview the director, Marshall Curry, I couldn’t refuse. The film itself is one which, as has been said many times of it, asks more questions than it answers. As such, I found that I had many questions to ask one of the main creators of the film.

Tom Ellis: So, this is your second Oscar nomination?

Marshall Curry: Right.

TE: How do you feel being nominated for an Oscar?

MC: It’s great. The main thing is how it attracts attention to the movies. You work so hard on these things, and it’s really hard to get anybody to watch documentaries, so adding something like an Oscar nomination attracts a much bigger audience than you would get otherwise. And it’s fun to get dressed up and rub elbows with George Clooney. Read More…

Earlier this month the film Terri was released on DVD.  The film was this year’s Centerpiece at the San Francisco International Film Festival.  Filmbalaya’s Tom Ellis had the chance to catch up with both the Director, Azazel Jacobs and one of the film’s star, Creed Bratton during the festival.  Here’s how it all went down.

After much mumbling about magnetism and the novelty of me having an older tape recorder, we began:

Tom Ellis: Alright! Well, I’m glad to have you guys here…

Creed Bratton: Did you see the movie last night?

Tom Ellis: I did!

CB: I think I saw you there, right?

TE: Possibly, I was in the back, but greatly enjoyed it. I’ll give you compliments when this [pointing to the tape recorder] is off.

CB: We want them now.

TE: Um.. oh.. I.. it was good…

CB: Alright. Alright.

TE: So, Aza. You’re a relatively new up-and-coming director…

Azazel Jacobs: It’s been a long time that I’ve been an up-and-comer; well, I’ve been hearing it for a long time. Read More…

Tom Ellis: So, this was your first film?

Kristin Canty: I keep saying it… yes, this is my first film ever, and it’s my only film ever. I did have experience – I made little films for nonprofits, to show what they did. And that’s kind of how I expected this to be, a film for a nonprofit, or to help the farming organizations, to show what they do and show what problems the small farmers are having getting their product to market. The different issues with all kinds of small farmers – that’s how it started.

TE: With one particular focus, one particular farm?

KC: No, it started out very broad, with the difficulty all farmers are having – commercial farmers, raw dairy farmers, pasteurized, small dairy farmers who sent their milk out to the larger companies. Pesticide farmers, organic farmers – it just started out with all the issues that small farmers were having. That was too broad.

So it ended up focusing on the raids, because that is what originally stemmed my anger, my shock, about what was happening to small farmers. So it was pretty much focusing on seven extreme examples of the federal government going in and shutting down small farms with armed agents. And then also it discusses regulations that don’t really make sense, that really impede the small farmer from getting to market. Read More…

Vigilante Vigilante plays at the Roxie Theater from Friday, Aug 12th to the 18th

A new breed of crime-fighter now stalks the urban landscape: the anti-graffiti vigilante.  These dedicated blight warriors stop at nothing to rid their neighborhoods and cities of street art, stickers, tags, and posters.  Yet several of these vigilantes have become the very menace they set out to eliminate.  In their relentless attempt to stamp out graffiti, they’ve turned to illegally and destructively painting other people’s property.  Vigilante Vigilante is the story of two filmmakers (Max Good and Nathan Wollman) who set out to expose these mysterious characters and discover a battle of expression that stretches from the streets to academia.

I recently caught up with Max Good and Nathan Wollman to discuss their film and the controversial subject of graffiti.  Here’s how it all went down: Read More…

I introduced myself to him and immediately found myself at ease. I pulled out my old, taped-up tape recorder which seems to always be a point of conversation and excused it. Then I turned it on, he began:

John McDonagh: [Referring to the tape recorder] I like it. I hate all those people on computers.  In “The Guard”, you see… He’s a technophobe, Boyle [Brendan Gleeson’s character]. I hate in film when they cut to a guy on the computer – it’s crap, and it’s such an easy plot device.  It’s rubbish.

Tom Ellis: Yeah, cell phones too… Read More…

Michael Rapaport’s Documentary on A Tribe called Quest opens in San Francisco at the Sundance Kabuki Theatre and the Metreon Theatre on Friday, July 15th.

Filmbalaya:  There has been a lot of controversy surrounding this movie, mainly with Q-Tip not being happy in how he was portrayed in the film.  Could you speak on that and clear the air?

Michael Rapaport:  Yeah, I think the way Q-tip comes off in the film is great.  He comes off passionate, he comes off smart, he comes off like a musical genius.  I think I would be doing a disservice to A Tribe Called Quest, I think I would be doing a disservice to anybody who saw the film, and I’d be doing a huge disservice to myself if I try to portray anybody, anyone, no matter who it is, as perfect or unflawed.  I’m certainly not perfect, and I’m certainly not unflawed and we wouldn’t be sitting her doing a proper press junket with a proper movie poster if the movie was just about how great the music is.  That would be a half-hour DVD extra.  We wouldn’t be sitting here if there wasn’t any sort of emotional attachment other than the music.  It was unpredicted and obviously I couldn’t plot that out and plan that out.  I know that I adore A Tribe Called Quest.  I respect them, I respect their place in history musically, and I wouldn’t want anyone to take low-blows at me.  I think the film is balanced.

More of the interview plus trailer after the jump Read More…

“It’s not that the truth is subjective or that the truth is unknowable, it’s that we don’t want to know it! Fuck the truth!” – Errol Morris

Errol Morris‘ (The Thin Blue Line, Standard Operating Procedure) latest documentary, Tabloid, about a former Miss Wyoming who is charged with abducting and imprisoning a young Mormon Missionary, is set to hit San Francisco Landmark Theatres on Friday, July 15th.

I caught up with Errol Morris at this year’s SFIFF to discuss his latest film, music, Werner Herzog, and the nature of truths.  Click the jump to read the interview and see the film’s trailer. Read More…

After successful screenings of the action/adventure/comedy Trollhunter during this year’s SFIFF Late Night series André Øvredal‘s Norwegian film about a professional troll hunter and a group of documentarians that follow him is being released.  The film opens theatrically in the USA starting June 10th, and makes its way to San Francisco on June 17th at the Lumiere Theatre, and at The Shattuck Theatre in Berkeley on the 17th as well.

I met André early in the morning in the Four Seasons hotel.  He was playing some sort of musical tables, hopping from one interviewer to the next, greeting each.  With a grim look on my face I began my interview.  Check out our interview with the director after the jump. Read More…