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film essay

Fear of the Female Planet, or Why I Love The Love Witch

Allison Anders counts the ways in which she's head over heels about Anna Biller's sumptuous supernatural melodrama.

January 11, 2017

Doors Opening: Making Reality with David Bowie

On the first anniversary of Bowie's death, Steve Lippman opens up his 2003 diaries to recall an indelible creative collaboration with the singer.

January 10, 2017

Why My Favorite Movies are the Ones Everyone Else Walks Out Of

Matthew Wilder explains why his favorite cinematic genre — difficult movies — are both so gratifying and so hugely misunderstood.

January 9, 2017

How to Empower Yourself and Make Your Movie Your Way

Blair Witch Project director Daniel Myrick, currently crowdfunding his next movie, on harnessing technology to win your creative freedom.

January 4, 2017

Moving the Cultural Dial When Your “Issue” Has Been Hijacked

Eric Juhola, director of Growing Up Coy, on the need to focus on the human story behind the headlines in social issue documentaries.

January 3, 2017

Zach Staggers (the So So Glos) Talks This Previously Unheard Clip of David Bowie Imitating Bruce Springsteen, Iggy Pop, Neil Young and More

This piece of history, courtesy of producer Mark Saunders, was trapped on an old iPod — until now. Bowie spoofs Tom Waits, Lou Reed and other icons.

December 30, 2016

How The Neon Demon’s “Failure” Reveals a Major Problem in Indie Film

Alex Ross Perry on Nicolas Winding Refn's masterpiece, and what it bombing at the box office says about the state of independent film.

December 30, 2016

How I Wrote Arrival (and What I Learned Doing It)

Screenwriter Eric Heisserer shares notes and extracts from early drafts as he breaks down how he adapted Ted Chiang's "Story of Your Life."

December 27, 2016

How I Wrote Lion, or Breaking the Rules By Finding the Poetry in Screenwriting

Screenwriter Luke Davies on how his past as a novelist and poet informed the way he approached telling the heartwarming true story of Saroo Brierley.

December 13, 2016

What Andrzej Żuławski Taught Me About Filmmaking

Nicolas Boukhrief, director of Made in France, shares the advice given to him by the late auteur when he worked with him in the '80s.

December 12, 2016

The Thing I Love About Documentary Filmmaking (That Took Me 25 Years to Discover)

Lou Pepe, the co-director of Lost in La Mancha, on staring, compassion fatigue and his new documentary, The Bad Kids.

December 9, 2016

Why Now We Must Make Work That Truly Matters

The election and his new film, Burn Country, prompt Ian Olds to grapple with how important art is now, and what is its place in the world.

December 8, 2016