Life is busy – vaccines are getting rolled out, royals are getting in trouble, cuts are getting Snyder’d. It can be tough to stay up-to-date on the latest film industry news, profiles, analysis, and advice. That’s why we’ve curated some essential reads you may have missed over the past month. So take some time to catch up with this month’s good reads.
This Month’s Good Reads (March 2021)
In Search of The Last Great Video Store: A Directory (via Kate Hagen for The Black List Blog)
A well-researched follow-up to a previous good read highlighting the country’s video rental holdouts.
Promising Young Women (via Joy Press for Vanity Fair)
The groundbreaking female filmmakers of the 1970s.
The Amazon Prime Video Direct Purge: A Filmmaker’s View (via Robert Steven Williams for Documentary Magazine)
The loss of a major distribution option.
The 10 Most Innovative Film and TV Companies of 2021 (via Fast Company)
The streamers, distributors, and producers making it work.
Director Cheryl Dunye Shares Her Film School Syllabus (via Brooke Marine for W Magazine)
The filmmaking education of the Watermelon Woman writer/director.
Ghost World at 20: ‘In an Era of Teen Comedies and American Pie, This Was an Antidote’ (via Rick Burin for The Independent)
Two decades of Enid and Rebecca.
Through the Eyes of a Child: The Films of Independent Pioneer Morris Engel (via Carson Lund for Slant Magazine)
Discover a maverick of early indie filmmaking.
‘Two Boys Snogging Was Revolutionary’: The Greatest Gay Moments in Cinema (via Catherine Shoard and Ugla Jónsdóttir for The Guardian)
Gus Van Sant, John Cameron Mitchell, Claire Oakley, and other filmmakers and actors on the LGBTQ film moments that shaped them.
Accessibility: A Vital Step in Making a Film Fully Inclusive (via Julia Manis for ProductionHUB)
Adding transcriptions, captions, and audio descriptions to your film.
The 32 Greatest Character Actors Working Today (via Vulture)
The “that guy”s (and gals) get some love!
Sundance Loses a Leader: Institute CEO Keri Putnam Will Step Down in August (via Anne Thompson and Eric Kohn for Indiewire)
Another high-profile exit at Sundance.
In case you were ignoring us (aka blatant self-promotion)
SXSW 2021 Recap
Award-winners and favorite films from the virtual SXSW.
A video worth watching
A roundtable of Asian-American actors on representation and the rise of racist attacks against the AAPI community (via Entertainment Weekly)
How ’bout you? Read anything good this month?
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If you’re an independent filmmaker or know of an independent film-related topic we should write about, email blogadmin@sagindie.org for consideration.