Photography is about conveying a vision. It’s a point of view with meaning that will be translated differently by each observer. So what makes a good photographer? We all take pictures, now more than ever with cameras in our phones and tablets and share them on social media, not only for friends and family but for the world to see. In a time when many of us might see ourselves as amateur photographers, it’s the artist that takes it to another level, whether professionally or passionately, that breaks down everyday life into art. Our Guest Blogger today is one of these artists that has taken photography to the next level and is making a career out of it. We’re excited to have photographer Homer Parkes contribute his thoughts on his still photography and the moving image in film.

Homer Parkes was born and raised in New York City and has been taking photographs since the age of 14. His interest and curiosity lies in the story behind the everyday. The truth isn’t really relevant but the imagined story of someone or something is key to his photography, letting subtle mystery intrigue the viewer in the same way it originally caught his eye. Most often the image doesn’t lead the viewer in any way towards the story he may have imagined, but always attempts to direct their attention to something they would likely overlook.

Q: Favorite Miramax film?
A: From Dusk Till Dawn

Q: Favorite Photographer?
A: Currently, really into Iwan Baan’s work. Bernd and Hilla Becher also high on my list.

Q: Favorite Cinematographer?
A: Roger Deakins

Q: How do you find your inspiration?
A: I look around, at everything, all the time, according to my mother I’ve done so since I was a baby.

Q: Most challenging part of your career?
A: Right now – getting started.

Q: What type of work/photography do you see yourself doing in 5 years?
A: Unclear so far, but my interests lie in geometric and often minimal man-made forms and their natural environments.

My photography is always related to a story. That story, unlike in film, exists only in my mind and is rarely told, but is the key to finding the image I want to capture. A subway station filled with people, a boat captain, a delivery man having a cigarette, all have a story and whether or not I know the truth, the stories I imagine are almost a short film based purely on a moment, an interaction, something that catches my eye in an instant.

photo by Homer Parkes

I am infinitely curious about the lives of strangers and hope to convey that curiosity through my photography. Although in film that story is being told through narrative, the cinematography can begin to tell that story far before the first word is spoken. I also focus on architecture and manmade structures in their natural environments and the way they work with their surroundings. I am interested in the aging process, passing time and the impact of nature on something that was designed to withstand such forces. In capturing these images I often work with geometric forms and negative space, framing buildings against the sky, for example, allows for strong visual statements while guiding the mind along the paths I began on.

photo by Homer Parkes

The work of [cinematographer] Roger Deakins is a wonderful example of visual storytelling and setting a mood that gives the mind a head start on the story. In most of Deakins’ films there are beautiful, long, nearly still shots, a slowly evolving scene using subtle lighting to let your mind move with the action of the story. You truly live the scenes as they happen when it’s captured with such a natural and relaxed feeling.

Even in the most gripping scenes from No Country for Old Men you feel as though you are personally involved and that comes, not only from the Coen Brothers amazing storytelling, but also from the intimate way Deakins captures the scene and the way he allows you to build the story in your head as it is told. I attempt to capture the same relaxed and natural emotions in my photography, rarely staging or even waiting for an image to appear and capturing the everyday on the fly, as it occurs.

View more of Homer Parkes work on his website and take another look at Roger Deakins cinematography in this clip from No Country for Old Men.

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Martin Scorsese is at the Cannes Film Festival to raise money for his next film, Silence. It’s based on Shusaku Endo’s 1966 book of the same name. Scorsese said it’s a passion project he’s been working on since he first read the book in 1989. The script is written by his Gangs of New York screenwriter, Jay Cocks and he plans to shoot it in 2014. According to the press release, “Silence deals with two Jesuit priests who face violence and persecution when they leave New York to head for Japan in order to spread Christianity.” It is set in the 17th century and will star Andrew Garfield.

It goes back to growing up in New York, living in an area that was pretty tough, and also the church at the same time. It’s similar to Mean Streets, in a way. It deals with spiritual matters in a concrete, physical world; a world where invariably the worst of human nature is revealed…[It's a] suspenseful film, with elements of a thriller…it combines that with themes that were overt in Kundun and Bringing Out The Dead.

Scorsese is also busy developing Gangs of New York as a TV series, another period piece. GONY was also adapted from a book of the same name written by Herbert Asbury. Scorsese had always envisioned this story to be an American epic and will now get to see it more fully realized.

This time and era of America’s history and heritage is rich with characters and stories that we could not fully explore in a two hour film. A television series allows us the time and creative freedom to bring this colorful world to life. I am excited to partner with Miramax in telling these stories.

The busy filmmaker has several other projects in the works including, The Wolf of Wall Street out later this year, starring his recent go-to actor Gangs and Aviator star, Leonardo DiCaprio. Oscar buzz is already in the air for this one. Did Scorsese finally direct a Leo Oscar-winning performance?

Check out more Gangs clips on our gallery page and let us know your favorite Scorsese/actor pairing in the poll.

via Total Film

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Actress turned Oscar nominated writer/director, Sarah Polley has a new film out called Stories We Tell. It’s a documentary about the secrets kept by her own family over the secretive life of her mother and the realization at age 27 her biological father was not in fact the man who had raised her as his own. The National Film Board of Canada described it as, “the elusive nature of truth and memory, but at its core is a deeply personal film about how our narratives shape and define us as individuals and families, all interconnecting to paint a profound, funny and poignant picture of the larger human story.”

Canadian born Polley started out as an actor at the age of 4, largely due to having parents in the industry. She won two Gemini awards (Canadian equivalent of the Emmy) by her teens. Soon, a wider audience started noticing her after working with director Atom Egoyan on Exotica and The Sweet Hereafter. She continued to pursue roles that were less commercial and more independent, appearing in David Cronenberg’s ExistenZ. Watch her in a clip from ExistenZ. She appears at the end of the scene.

In recent years, Polley transitioned from in front of the camera to behind it, directing several critically acclaimed films including, Away from Her, nominated for two Oscars and Take This Waltz starring Seth Rogen and Michelle Williams.

The New York Times interviewed Polley to discuss her new film, her versatile career and which medium she prefers.

If I could choose to do just one thing, it would be to write, both screenplays for other people to direct, and also fiction. I love the directing aspect of it. I find it hugely challenging and hugely rewarding, but it’s so unbelievably stressful. There are times where I think I’d just make a better writer. And acting is something that, you know, I love doing, but just because I’m making my own films very rarely have time to do a lot of.

Stories We Tell is Polley’s first documentary. It premiered at last year’s Venice Film Festival and has already won a Genie Award and a Toronto Film Critics Association Awards for Best Documentary. It took her five years to make it and there’s already Oscar buzz surrounding the pic. Polley talks about her inspiration to make this very personal film.

The real impetus was watching how many stories were arising out of the same story. The story was making its way back to me third- and fourth-hand as something totally different than what I had experienced. So I became really fascinated by the fact that we’re all telling stories that we believe to be true, that have resonance for us, and that can be so different from the stories that other people have of the same set of events.

A documentary film can change the way you view the world. They’re based on facts and cover the raw material of life. Journalist/Author Erik Barnouw stated in his book “Documentary: A History of the Non-Fiction Film”, that, “the documentarist has a passion for what he finds in images and sounds – which always seem to him more meaningful than anything he can invent. It is in selecting and arranging his findings that he expresses himself. At the same time, if the film is to be documentary and not propaganda, this creative arrangement must result in work that adheres not only to standards of good storytelling, but also good journalism.”

Over the past decade, the popularity of documentaries has made the medium more commercial than ever before. Michael Moore’s doc, Fahrenheight 9/11 has taken in $120M at the box office and won the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival. In the top 100 grossing docs of all time are several films from the Miramax library including, Madonna: Truth or Dare, Paris is Burning, Unzipped, Rhyme & Reason, and Microcosmos. Watch a clip from the Sundance award winning Paris is Burning. This scene talks about the dangers of being a transsexual in New York City in the 1980′s and the tragic consequences that sometimes came of it.

Documentary filmmaking can be such a powerful medium. There are so many hidden gems to discover that may change the way you view your own world. It’s exciting to watch a talent like Polley explore the medium and deliver a film that critics are calling “a revelation”, “extraordinary” and as A.O. Scott described, “one of the boldest and most exciting films I’ve seen in the last six months, and the kind of experience that has the power to alter your perception of the world.”

As more Hollywood blockbusters open this weekend, find some time to soak in a documentary and potentially change your perception of the world. Check out our documentaries listed above and watch scenes from them and many more of our films, in our Miramax Clips Gallery.

Stories We Tell is now playing in select theaters.

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1989 sex, lies, and videotape
Steven Soderbergh wins the Palme d’Or for his first film, sex, Lies, and videotape. It also won Best Actor for James Spader and the international critics’ prize. At just 26 years old, Soderbergh is the youngest director to win.

1993 The Piano
Jane Campion wins the Palme d’Or for The Piano and Holly Hunter wins Best Actress. To date, Campion is the only woman and New Zealander to win. Her first short film, Peel won the Short Film Palme d’Or at the 1986 Cannes Film Festival. This year, she is head of the Cinéfondation and Short Film Jury and will be presented with the Carrosse d’Or from the Society of Film Directors. The Piano earned Campion a best director nomination at the Oscars and she won the Academy Award for best original screenplay.

1994 Pulp Fiction
Quentin Tarantino’s eagerly awaited follow-up to Reservoir Dogs went down in history as a Cannes classic. Tarantino won the Palme d’Or for Pulp Fiction and created a media frenzy.

1998 Life is Beautiful
Though Roberto Benigni did not take home the Palme d’Or for Life is Beautiful, he did win the Grand Prize of the Jury and received the wildest applause of the evening. He stole the awards show, kissing Scorsese’s shoes and hugging each member of the jury. The film won Best Foreign Film at the Oscars and Benigni won Best Actor.

2009 No Country for Old Men
Joel and Ethan Coen’s No Country for Old Men was nominated for the 2007 Palme d’Or. Not too much was known about the film going into its screening but after, the press raved about it. NCFOM went on to win the Oscar for Best Picture.

Keep following us to hear more about this year’s festivities and winners and read more of our film festival content here.

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In 1994, Quentin Tarantino won the Palme d’Or at Cannes. It was one of the most talked about films at the festival and according to an article in the LA Times, [Pulp winning] “surprised many in the Palais du Festival audience, including one woman who was so upset she began screaming at the writer-director as he tried to begin his speech.” Tarantino continued his speech after the interruption. Watch the drama here.

I never expect to win anything when a jury has to decide because I don’t make the kinds of movies that bring people together. I make the kinds of movies that split people apart.

Clint Eastwood was on the Cannes jury that year and talked about deciding which film would take home the top prize, calling Pulp “refreshing.”

New York Times critic Janet Maslin wrote about the phenomenon of Pulp at Cannes before it later opened the New York Film Festival.

Ever since Quentin Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction created a sensation at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, where it won top honors, it has been swathed in the wildest hyperbole. In fact, it has sparked an excitement bound to look suspect from afar. It must be hard to believe that Mr. Tarantino, a mostly self-taught, mostly untested talent who spent his formative creative years working in a video store, has come up with a work of such depth, wit and blazing originality that it places him in the front ranks of American film makers.

19 years later, Tarantino continues to make hit after hit and is considered one of the best filmmakers in the world. He returned to Cannes in 2007 with Death Proof and in 2009 with Inglourious Basterds and in 2004 he was the President of the Cannes jury.

For a filmmaker and film lover there’s no greater honor than to be on the jury of the Cannes Film Festival. To be President is both a magnificent honor and a magnificent responsibility. And also the crowning achievement of a lifetime spent in cinematic obsession: a Magnificent Obsession.

The 66th Cannes International Film Festival opens today and Nicole Kidman, Christoph Waltz and Steven Spielberg are a few of the jurors who will be deciding this year’s Palme d’Or. Keep checking back for more news on the Cannes fest, old and new and follow the films In Competition this year.

BEHIND THE CANDELABRA directed by Steven Soderberg
BORGMAN directed by Alex Van Warmerdam
GRIGRIS directed by Mahamat-Saleh Haroun
HELI directed by Amat Escalante
INSIDE LLEWYN DAVIS directed by Ethan & Joel Coen
JEUNE & JOLIE (YOUNG & BEAUTIFUL) directed by François Ozon
JIMMY P. (PSYCHOTHERAPY OF A PLAINS INDIAN) directed by Arnaud Desplechin
LA GRANDE BELLEZZA (THE GREAT BEAUTY) directed by Paolo Sorrentino
LA VÉNUS À LA FOURRURE (VENUS IN FUR) directed by Roman Polanski
LA VIE D’ADÈLE – CHAPITRE 1 & 2 (BLUE IS THE WARMEST COLOUR) directed by Abdellatif Kechiche
LE PASSÉ (THE PAST) directed by Asghar FARHADI
MICHAEL KOHLHAAS directed by Arnaud Des Pallieres
NEBRASKA directed by Alexander Payne
ONLY GOD FORGIVES directed by Nicolas Winding Refn
ONLY LOVERS LEFT ALIVE directed by Jim Jarmusch
SOSHITE CHICHI NI NARU (Like Father, Like Son) directed by Kore-Eda Hirokazu
THE IMMIGRANT directed by James Gray
TIAN ZHU DING (A TOUCH OF SIN) directed by Jia Zhangke
UN CHÂTEAU EN ITALIE (A CASTLE IN ITALY) directed by Valeria Bruni Tedeschi
WARA NO TATE (Shield of Straw) directed by Takashi Miike

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Audrey Tautou
Audrey Tautou is this year’s host of the opening and closing ceremonies at Cannes. Best known and much loved for the film Amélie, Tautou also stars in the new film Mood Indigo by director Michel Gondry, opening in France later this month.

Stephen Frears
Frears is an English film director and is the only filmmaker representing the UK at Cannes this year with his ‘special screening’ documentary, Muhammad Ali’s Greatest Fight, which examines Ali’s battle with the U.S. government over his refusal to fight in the Vietnam War. Frears is a two-time Oscar nominee for directing The Queen and The Grifters. He also directed Dirty Pretty Things, staring Audrey Tautou.

James Gray
Gray’s 20 year career returns to the place where it began. His second feature film, The Yards, was selected for official competition at the 2000 Cannes International Film Festival. This writer/director has not one but two films in this year’s fest. The Immigrant stars Marion Cotillard, Joaquin Phoenix and Jeremy Renner and Blood Ties also stars Cotillard, Clive Owen, Mila Kunis and Zoe Saldana.

Baz Luhrmann
Luhrmann’s The Great Gatsby just opened to huge audiences in the U.S. and will also open Cannes tomorrow night. He’s no stranger to the fest, as his first feature film Strictly Ballroom, screened there 21 years ago.

The Coen Brothers
Oscar winners in Competition this year include the Coen Brothers with their 1960s folk music drama Inside Llewyn Davis, starring Justin Timberlake and Carey Mulligan. Coen’s were last in Competition at Cannes in 2007 with No Country for Old Men.

Steven Soderbergh
Steven Soderberg shot to fame after winning the Palme d’Or in 1989 with his first feature film, Sex, Lies, and Videotape. He’s back this year with one of the most highly anticipated films in Competition, Behind the Candelabra, starring Matt Damon and Michael Douglas as Liberace.

Valeria Bruni-Tedeschi
Valeria is the only woman director competing for the Palme d’Or with her feature, Un Chateau en Italie. As of 2012, Jane Campion remains the only woman to have won the Palme d’Or for her feature The Piano.

Find the complete line-up for this year’s festival on their website and join us here all week for more updates, trivia and clips.

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The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
Julian Schnabel, 2007
The true story of Elle editor Jean-Dominique Bauby (Mathieu Amalric) who suffered a stroke in 1995 that rendered him mute and almost completely paralyzed in this adaptation of Bauby’s autobiography, which he dictated by blinking his left eye. In this scene, while Jean-Do gives his father (Max von Sydow) a shave, the two discus women in their past, present, and books.

Flirting with Disaster
David O. Russell, 1996
In a quest to find his biological parents, Mel Coplin (Ben Stiller), joined by his wife (Patricia Arquette) and a sexy adoption counselor (Tea Leoni), embarks on a cross country search for his roots. As he careens from one outrageous situation to another, Mel finds himself tempted by the seductive counselor, even as his wife starts a flirtation of her own. By the time they meet up with his free-spirited birth parents, the whole situation is spinning hysterically out of control. In this scene, while visiting his mother, Mel finds a baby name he likes…and a few things he likes about Tina too.

Gone Baby Gone
Ben Affleck, 2007
When 4 year old Amanda McCready disappears from her home and the police make little headway in solving the case, the girl’s aunt, Beatrice McCready hires two private detectives, Patrick Kenzie and Angie Gennaro. The detectives freely admit that they have little experience with this type of case, but the family wants them for two reasons – they’re not cops and they know the tough neighborhood in which they all live. As the case progresses, Kenzie and Gennaro face drug dealers, gangs and pedophiles. When they are about to solve the case, they are faced with a moral dilemma that tears them apart. Amy Ryan earned an Oscar nomination for her portrayal of Amanda’s troubled single mother, Helene McCready. In this scene, the police discover that Helene’s drug problem is far more costly than just a little addiction.

The Grifters
Stephen Frears, 1990
When small-time cheat Roy Dillon (John Cusack) winds up in the hospital following an unsuccessful scam, it sets up a confrontation between his estranged mother Lilly (Anjelica Huston) and sexy girlfriend Myra. Both Lilly and Myra are ruthless con-artists playing the game in a league far above Roy…and always looking for their next victim. The question soon becomes who’s conning who as Roy finds himself caught in a complicated web of passion and mistrust. In this scene, while eating alone at a diner, Lilly receives some unwelcome company.

In the Bedroom
Todd Fields, 2001
The Fowlers are a typical family in Maine. Matt (Tom Wilkinson) is the town doctor and loves to fish, his wife, Ruth (Sissy Spackek), is the school’s choir leader, and their son, Frank (Nick Stahl), is home from his first year of college. Frank has fallen in love with Natalie (Marisa Tomei), a mother who isn’t quite divorced yet from her husband, Richard Strout, whose family runs the local cannery. It makes Richard’s blood run cold to see his wife running around with another man. When the affair takes a sudden and tragic turn, the Fowlers are forced to confront the harsh reality of their situation and the inescapable consequences of their actions. In this scene, a cookout to celebrate Duncan’s birthday turns tense when an unexpected visitor drops in.

Kill Bill: Vol. 1
Quentin Tarantino, 2003
Four years after Beatrix’s (Uma Thurman) apparent death, Vernita (Vivica Fox) receives a visit from her, which triggers an immediate fight between the two. After wrecking the living room while having a bloody, hand-to-hand combat, Vernita’s daughter comes home, dropped off by her school bus, forcing the two to pause the intense fight. In this scene, The Bride pays Vernita an expected visit.

The Others
Alejandro Amenábar, 2001
Grace Stewart (Nicole Kidman) appears to be a devoted protector, shielding her two light-sensitive children in an isolated mansion in Jersey just after the second world war. But is she ill or simply manipulative? The film is full of clues – Daddy went off to the war and never returned; the servants keep leaving; the house is haunted by ghosts. Grace herself tells the children stories about the undead trapped in eternal limbo. Kidman is stunning as the ultra-religious blonde perfectionist stifling her offspring with her maternal care. In this scene, Grace hears crying and runs to her children’s aid, only to discover, the tears aren’t coming from them.

The Piano
Jane Campion, 1993
Set in 1851, a mute Scottish woman (Holly Hunter) arrives in colonial New Zealand for an arranged marriage, with her precocious young daughter Flora (Anna Paquin) and beloved piano in tow. Her practical new husband refuses to transport the piano to their home and makes a deal with his neighbor, George Baines to take the piano off his hands. Attracted to Ada, Baines agrees to return the piano in exchange for a series of piano lessons that become a series of increasingly charged sexual encounters. As pent-up emotions of rage and desire swirl around all three characters, the savage wilderness begins to consume the tiny European enclave. In this scene, Ada and Flora, arrive at their new home rather unceremoniously.

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Baz Luhrmann’s The Great Gatsby opens in theaters everywhere today and if you’ve watched the epic trailer, you know that it has his signature style stamped all over this classic and much loved story by F. Scott Fitzgerald. Critics are divided on it – a common critique is that it’s style over substance. Whatever your take is on his work – you know it will be loud and vibrant. Over the years, the Luhrmann look has definitely expanded and exploded on screen but the first signs of this unique and visual director’s talent, were very original yet subdued, in his first feature film Strictly Ballroom.

Luhrmann likes to re-imagine the world his characters live in and give the audience a heightened experience of storytelling. He talked to Games First about what devices he uses to engage the audience, specifically related to his Red Curtain Trilogy films.

In the case of Strictly Ballroom we use dance, in Romeo + Juliet it’s iambic pentameter, and in Moulin Rouge it’s breaking out in song in a musical form. So, to a certain degree they are all kind of living in a musical vernacular. Strictly Ballroom was the first step in a ten-year journey to crack the modern musical code…In no way is it a new language. It’s an old language that we used to revere taken and we sort of reinvented it.

Strictly Ballroom was created while Luhrmann was at Drama school. He made it in response to feeling artistically oppressed during the time of the cold war.

There was seemingly nothing we could do about the state of the world. It seems an odd thing, but when I did the play and we went to Czechoslovakia all those oppressed countries in the Eastern Bloc awarded it first prize. They were very emotional about the metaphorical message. It was interesting that when I went about to make the film and I wrote a naturalistic screenplay, the metaphorical message, or the second meaning was lost. That’s why I reached back to my love of the musicals of the thirties and forties to create a sort of cinematic language that could contain both the clarity of the story and this second level of meaning as well.

To see where the Luhrmann look began, it’s worth watching Ballroom, now on Blu-ray and make sure to take a look at the DVD extra: From Stage to Screen, which documents the progress as he is adapting the film from its stage beginnings.

If you are interested to know more about how his look has evolved for Gatsby, check out his online production journal that followed the four-year process of the making of the film. You can explore the fashion, the set, and read his production notes.

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IF you are not watching this with children, prefer a movie over a TV show, do not want your night to be action-packed, do not want to watch a documentary or anything with monsters, murderers and madness, are not in the mood for an all out comedy, nor do you care for adventure or criminal intent, but you are ready for some romance and prefer to watch Matt Damon over Tom Cruise…well, here’s the film for you:

IF you want to watch a film and not with your kids or somoene else’s kids, do not want any documentary or action-packed flick with monsters, murders or madness but would like to laugh in addition to experience some level of drama, you are not adverse to black and white and like lewd humor – watch this:

IF there’s no children around, prefer a movie over a TV show, do not want your night to be action-packed, do not want to watch a documentary or anything with monsters, murderers and madness but would like to laugh while watching some drama, in color only, nothing with Paul Newman…ever and it has to be gritty – ya gotta watch:

IF you want to watch a movie with some laughs and adventure and drama but no documentaries or anything with monsters, murderers or madness but would like some criminal intent with some diatribes completely unrelated to the main plot and there are absolutely no kiddies viewing this with you – watch:

source: Silver Oak Casino

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