Before he was a filmmaker, Peter Bogdanovich was a critic and historian par excellence. Coming of age as the first wave of Hollywood filmmakers were being put out to pasture, Bogdanovich sat at the feet of the men who made … Continue reading THE GREAT BUSTER: A CELEBRATION
Every Labor Day weekend since 1974, filmmakers, critics, historians, students, moviegoers, and a handful of outdoorsmen and women converge on the quaint mountain town of Telluride, Colorado, to celebrate the past and present of their beloved art form. They come … Continue reading Simply Potent: Dispatched from the 2016 Telluride Film Festival
To hold a meteorite is to place an object older than the history of humanity in your hand. It’s also to touch a truly foreign object. Where it came from and how long it took to get here, we cannot … Continue reading FIREBALL: VISITORS FROM DARKER WORLDS
As the coronavirus pandemic approaches its projected peak, the need to stay indoors takes on a renewed urgency. But, for a good many, self-isolation is less than a luxury. Escape is needed, and there are fewer art forms that offer … Continue reading LO AND BEHOLD: REVERIES OF THE CONNECTED WORLD
In my films landscapes are never just picturesque or scenic backdrops as they often are in Hollywood films. In Aguirre the jungle is never some lush, beautiful environment it might be in a television commercial. Sometimes when you see the … Continue reading Born On This Day — September 5, 1942
Steve James’ latest documentary, Life Itself, is a heartfelt look at one of the world’s most public and famous movie critics, Roger Ebert. A movie about a man who loved movies so much he practically lived inside them. James, whose … Continue reading LIFE ITSELF
You should bear in mind that almost all my documentaries are feature films in disguise. Because I stylize, I invent, there’s a lot of fantasy in it—not for creating a fraud, but exactly the contrary, to create a deeper form … Continue reading Born On This Day — September 5
If everything was planned, it would be dreadful. If everything was unplanned, it would be equally dreadful. Cinema exists because there are elements of both in everything. There are elements of both in documentary. There are elements of both in … Continue reading In Their Words — Tuesday, February 5, 2013
Your film is like your children. You might want a child with certain qualities, but you are never going to get the exact specification right. The film has a privilege to live its own life and develop its own character. … Continue reading In Their Words — Friday, December 7, 2012
Michael J. Cinema 
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