25 New Faces Of Independent Film
As it's been doing for the last decade, Filmmaker Magazine just unveiled its annual list of the "25 New Faces of Independent Film" - essentially a group of filmmakers to watch for currently, and in coming years, based on recent work they've completed. As stated by Scott Macauley, editor-in-chief of Filmmaker Mag, "The people on Filmmaker's '25 New Faces' list are not only innovators we believe will be impacting tomorrow's film scene, but they're also artists engaged in a vital re-think of what it means to be independent today."Of special note is none other than Monsieur Barry Jenkins, whose first feature, the well-received, positively reviewed Medicine For Melancholy, was recently picked up for distribution by IFC Films. Here's some of what the magazine had to say about him:
- Director Barry Jenkins may have been raised in Miami‘s rough-hewn Liberty City neighborhood, earned his film degree at the Florida State Film School and paid his dues in Hollywood as a development associate at Oprah Winfrey‘s Harpo Films, but his marvelous feature debut Medicine for Melancholy decisively captures San Francisco‘s particular blend of hope, beauty and unease through a strikingly universal, timeless aesthetic.
“I wrote the film with the intent of making it ‘makeable‘ by myself and a few friends, with very little time, money and equipment,” writes Jenkins. “The aesthetic is a direct result of the film‘s modest means; the action and recourse arise from the interplay of the characters because that was essentially the breadth of our control at these two characters and what they say to one another against the backdrop of a specific place, San Francisco.”
Combing the romantic, the ethereal and the political (all under a fabulous soundtrack that combines indie rock, classical music and even Claire Denis‘s Vendredi soir), M4M recently picked up a distribution deal with IFC after an impressive festival circuit run nabbing the Audience Award at the San Francisco International Film Festival and screening at SXSW, Sarasota, Philadelphia, Boston and L.A. Expect more to come. “There are scripts in my goody bag that are more suited for the studio system, and because of the success of this film there may actually be an opportunity to pursue that avenue,” concludes Jenkins. “It‘s a great feeling.”
Read the rest and see the entire list here, which also includes Dee Rees, (also an African American filmmaker) whose critically-acclaimed short film titled, Pariah, about a closeted gay teen's stuggles with her identity as a lesbian and her denying parents, will be expanded into a full-length feature this fall: FILMMAKER MAG 25 FACES TO WATCH
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