Volume 1 - Dialogues with Independent Filmmakers  - Mario Falsetto

Volume 2 - Beyond the Frame: Dialogues with World Filmmakers - Liza Béar

The massive investments made in Hollywood today mandate tight studio controls on mainstream cinema. As a result, one must often look to alternative outlets in order to see a movie intended primarily as art—or even as a sincere effort at entertainment—instead of as a simple source of revenue. Foreign and independent movies thus often play the role of bellwether for the Hollywood studios that are unable to experiment themselves: behind the look of the studio smash Sin City, for instance, was the rigorous pulp style of Road to Perdition; before the sadism and cynicism of many current thrillers and horror movies there was the work of Neil Labute; and where would Hollywood's plots be without the harsh, fragmented narratives of Guillermo Arriaga and Alejandro Inarritu? By looking at these films, and at the people who created them,we can obtain a clearer sense of what movies really are at heart, and what they may still want to become.

Elaborate measures are thus taken everywhere and at all points to maintain a grip on the public's imagination, but the more adept Hollywood becomes at giving the public what it wants, the less any given studio is able to say anything new or truly innovative. Inside of the United States, this means looking to independent films; outside of the United States, it means filtering through an enormous mass of movies and moviemakers.

In Volume 1 of this revealing set, Mario Falsetto presents extended interviews with nine of the most prominent independent film directors working in America today; while in Volume 2, Liza Béar gives prominent international filmmakers the opportunity to address essential issues surrounding creativity and production in a number of different geographical setting and contexts.

About the Author

Mario Falsetto has taught film studies at Concordia University in Montreal for over twenty years. He has published three major books in the past decade, including: the comprehensive analysis Stanley Kubrick: A Narrative and Stylistic Analysis (2001), the anthology Perspectives on Stanley Kubrick (Praeger 2nd edition, 1996), and Personal Visions: Conversations with Contemporary Film Directors (2000).

Liza Béar is a New York-based writer, filmmaker and activist. In the seventies she co-founded and edited the legendary conceptual art magazine Avalanche. She has taught at the films schools of Columbia and New York University, and her film interviews have appeared in Newsday, the New York Daily News, Ms., Elle, Salon.com, the Boston Globe, and other large-circulation metro dailies. She is a contributing editor at Bomb.

Review 

"This is an extremely valuable book of interviews. Mario Falsetto's enthusiasm for his subject is always apparent. What he brings to these probing conversations is his thorough research on the films, his modestly phrased but pointed questions, and his generosity to the filmmakers."—Bart Testa, University of Toronto

"There is no other book quite like it. Mario Falsetto is a masterful interviewer who consistently elicits thoughtful responses pitched at precisely the right level."—William Rothman, Professor of Motion Picture and Video-Film, University of Miami, Author of Hitchcock: The Murderous Gaze

"It's pretty difficult to be in a conversation with Liza Bear and not be open and honest. She sets the tone! She has been in the trenches and fully understands the practical, moral, and aesthetic challenges involved in making a film. The range of filmmakers included here is remarkable, and Bear demonstrates great skill in engaging all of them in captivating dialogues. Her acute perceptions of each director's work, along with her deeply empathetic appreciation of the filmmaker's task in general, infuse all of the interviews with a truly inquisitive spirit that is rare in interviews today. This volume will greatly enhance any film enthusiast's appreciation and understanding of the world of filmmakers."—Julia Keydel, Associate Professor of Film and Television, Tisch School of the Arts, NYU