Read More: Tribeca Film Festival Review: Why Marshall Curry's 'Point and Shoot' Is Due For a Hollywood Remake "Point and Shoot" producer and "star" Matthew VanDyke is heading out again, this time to fight Isis. According to The New York Times, VanDyke is one of a growing number of Americans, many of whom are veterans, who have volunteered in recent months for join the fight against Isis, even as the U.S. has, so far, refrained from sending in ground troops. VanDyke spent this past winter with four American veterans secretly training a militia of Assyrian Christians to resist and fight the Islamic State's advancements. "More than anything, they don't like Isis and want to help," said VanDyke of the American vets who've taken up this task. "A lot of guys did important stuff overseas and came home and got stuck in menial jobs, which can be really hard,...
- 3/12/2015
- by Casey Cipriani
- Indiewire
A wannabe American action hero takes up arms in Libya in a sporadically arresting documentary
Largely comprising the edited video diaries of Matthew VanDyke, a wannabe adventurer from Baltimore who wound up joining the rebels in Libya’s anti-Gaddafi uprising, Marshall Curry’s sporadically engaging documentary provides a bizarre companion piece to American Sniper: an account of an Ocd American misfit whose desire to take up arms in a foreign land seems more driven by his self-proclaimed “crash course in manhood” than geopolitical conviction. There’s a touch of the Timothy Treadwells about VanDyke, who oozes a narcissistic desire to star in the action-adventure movie of his own life. Despite spending nearly six months in a Tripoli jail and engaging in active combat, he still seems to be play-acting, a quality of which he is weirdly aware.
Continue reading...
Largely comprising the edited video diaries of Matthew VanDyke, a wannabe adventurer from Baltimore who wound up joining the rebels in Libya’s anti-Gaddafi uprising, Marshall Curry’s sporadically engaging documentary provides a bizarre companion piece to American Sniper: an account of an Ocd American misfit whose desire to take up arms in a foreign land seems more driven by his self-proclaimed “crash course in manhood” than geopolitical conviction. There’s a touch of the Timothy Treadwells about VanDyke, who oozes a narcissistic desire to star in the action-adventure movie of his own life. Despite spending nearly six months in a Tripoli jail and engaging in active combat, he still seems to be play-acting, a quality of which he is weirdly aware.
Continue reading...
- 1/18/2015
- by Mark Kermode, Observer film critic
- The Guardian - Film News
Just in time for Halloween, Daniel Radcliffe gets some special powers and couple of appendages growing from his temples in Radius’ Horns, which will be this week’s biggest rollout among specialty newcomers. The title received a warm welcome at a Cinema Society event attended by its stars this week in New York. This week’s newbies are dominated by nonfiction fare, though with some exceptions. Kino Lorber is opening French/Swiss maestro Jean-Luc Godard’s Goodbye To Language following a successful festival run. It has been critically acclaimed, and the company is expecting it to be a box office winner too. The 2014 Best Documentary winners from South by Southwest and Tribeca are going head-to-head in their theatrical debuts. Radius’ The Great Invisible (SXSW) opened in limited release Wednesday in an exclusively theatrical rollout, and The Orchard is bowing Point And Shoot (Tribeca) in a single NYC run. Submarine Deluxe...
- 10/31/2014
- by Brian Brooks
- Deadline
Can profundity be accidental? Marshall Curry's documentary Point and Shoot is a study in naifdom that seems to think it's about something else: masculinity, honor, war. But it's mostly about the way Americans of means see the wider world as a self-help proving ground, an exotic backdrop against which to stage movie-star adventures. The difference here? The Mitty-style American actualizing himself is also filming himself -- and, hey, look, now he is the movie star he daydreamed of becoming. He's even the de facto narrator, ensuring that nothing -- not even an Arab Spring revolution -- distracts us from his hero's journey.
Matthew VanDyke, Point and Shoot's hero/subject, can't forget the mediated, imitative nature of his adventures even when he has dedic...
Matthew VanDyke, Point and Shoot's hero/subject, can't forget the mediated, imitative nature of his adventures even when he has dedic...
- 10/29/2014
- Village Voice
The 8th annual Sydney Underground Film Festival is a power-packed event featuring outrageous cult films, provocative documentaries and wild short films that will run September 4-7 at its usual haunt, The Factory Theater.
Opening Night: The fest opens with Housebound, a New Zealand horror comedy by Gerard Johnstone about a woman in trouble with the law who comes to believe that her family home is haunted. The film will be preceded by a performance by Renny Kodgers and a free pizza party; and followed by an after party.
Closing Night: The fest will close with the controversial German teen sex comedy Wetlands directed by David Wendt. The film will then be followed by a late-night after party.
Highlights: Usama Alshaibi‘s must see documentary American Arab — an intimate, socially relevatory and essential film — screens at 4 p.m. on Sept. 6. Read the Underground Film Journal review of American Arab.
Jorge Torres-Torres...
Opening Night: The fest opens with Housebound, a New Zealand horror comedy by Gerard Johnstone about a woman in trouble with the law who comes to believe that her family home is haunted. The film will be preceded by a performance by Renny Kodgers and a free pizza party; and followed by an after party.
Closing Night: The fest will close with the controversial German teen sex comedy Wetlands directed by David Wendt. The film will then be followed by a late-night after party.
Highlights: Usama Alshaibi‘s must see documentary American Arab — an intimate, socially relevatory and essential film — screens at 4 p.m. on Sept. 6. Read the Underground Film Journal review of American Arab.
Jorge Torres-Torres...
- 8/7/2014
- by Mike Everleth
- Underground Film Journal
IFC Films has picked up North American rights to Shawn Christensen’s drama ahead of its international premiere in Venice. Separately, The Orchard has picked up Marshall Curry’s Tribeca-winning doc Point And Shoot.
Christensen wrote Before I Disappear and stars alongside Fatima Ptacek, Emmy Rossum, Paul Wesley, Richard Schiff and Ron Perlman.
Damon Russell, Lucan Toh, Christensen, Wesley and Terry Leonard produced and the executive producers are Christopher Eoyang, Nick Harbinson, Oliver Roskill and Emily Leo.
IFC plans a November roll-out for the story of a down-at-heel man whose sister asks him to babysit his 11-year-old niece for the night. The film won the SXSW narrative feature audience award.
“Curfew [Christensen’s short film on which the feature is based] was only a glimpse at Shawn’s incredible talent, and we cannot wait to bring his fully realised vision to audiences nationwide,” said Sundance Selects/IFC Films president Jonathan Sehring. “Before I Disappear marks an amazing feature directorial debut.”
“Working with Shawn...
Christensen wrote Before I Disappear and stars alongside Fatima Ptacek, Emmy Rossum, Paul Wesley, Richard Schiff and Ron Perlman.
Damon Russell, Lucan Toh, Christensen, Wesley and Terry Leonard produced and the executive producers are Christopher Eoyang, Nick Harbinson, Oliver Roskill and Emily Leo.
IFC plans a November roll-out for the story of a down-at-heel man whose sister asks him to babysit his 11-year-old niece for the night. The film won the SXSW narrative feature audience award.
“Curfew [Christensen’s short film on which the feature is based] was only a glimpse at Shawn’s incredible talent, and we cannot wait to bring his fully realised vision to audiences nationwide,” said Sundance Selects/IFC Films president Jonathan Sehring. “Before I Disappear marks an amazing feature directorial debut.”
“Working with Shawn...
- 8/5/2014
- by jeremykay67@gmail.com (Jeremy Kay)
- ScreenDaily
The thin line separating heroism from narcissism runs like a taut tripwire through Point and Shoot, Marshall Curry's riveting study of self-styled adventurer and rebel freedom fighter Matthew VanDyke. A sheltered Baltimore guy with few friends, VanDyke set himself "a crash course in manhood" that culminated with him joining the 2011 Libyan Revolution to overthrow Muammar Gaddafi. As he demonstrated in his Oscar-nominated eco-terrorism doc, If a Tree Falls: A Story of the Earth Liberation Front, Curry has a knack for crafting a gripping non-fiction thriller while keeping an incredibly tight focus on his obsessive subject.
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- 6/26/2014
- by David Rooney
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Motorcycle Diaries: Curry Sees VanDyke Grow From Boy To Rebel
As kids, nearly everyone falls in love with the idea of throwing caution to the wind and buckling down for endless adventures into the great unknown. As we grow up most of us accept the comforts of familiarity and the rhythms and reliability of our network of loving friends and family, inevitably packing up our dreams of adventure along with our stuffed animals and action figures. Apparently, this thought never occurred for Matthew VanDyke, who grew up watching Alby Mangels’s cavalier travelogue World Safari films, transfixed by the idea of traversing the Earth’s wildest corners with camera in hand.
After graduating from Georgetown University with a Master’s in Security Studies in the Middle East, VanDyke felt compelled to follow in his idol’s footsteps, bought a camera and motorcycle and took off across the the Arab world...
As kids, nearly everyone falls in love with the idea of throwing caution to the wind and buckling down for endless adventures into the great unknown. As we grow up most of us accept the comforts of familiarity and the rhythms and reliability of our network of loving friends and family, inevitably packing up our dreams of adventure along with our stuffed animals and action figures. Apparently, this thought never occurred for Matthew VanDyke, who grew up watching Alby Mangels’s cavalier travelogue World Safari films, transfixed by the idea of traversing the Earth’s wildest corners with camera in hand.
After graduating from Georgetown University with a Master’s in Security Studies in the Middle East, VanDyke felt compelled to follow in his idol’s footsteps, bought a camera and motorcycle and took off across the the Arab world...
- 6/20/2014
- by Jordan M. Smith
- IONCINEMA.com
This year's winner of Best Documentary at the Tribeca Film Festival was Point and Shoot, a fascinating story about Matthew VanDyke, an American adventure junkie whose travels across the Middle East eventually led to his joining the Libyan revolution. Camera in one hand, a gun in the other, VanDyke found himself in an odd position – a chronicler as well as a participant. (And for one very disturbing half-year, he was also a Libyan prisoner of war, confined to a dank, solitary cell.) After returning from Libya, VanDyke decided to travel to Syria and join the resistance there. To put together a film in his absence, he recruited Marshall Curry, one of America’s foremost documentarians. (Curry has been nominated for the Best Documentary Feature Oscar twice – for the 2006 film Street Fight, which chronicled the contentious 2002 Newark mayor’s race, featuring a then-unknown named Cory Booker; and for 2011’s...
- 4/25/2014
- by Bilge Ebiri
- Vulture
The ghost of Ernest Hemingway hovers over Marshall Curry‘s new documentary, a profile of amateur filmmaker and revolutionary Matthew VanDyke. Or, rather, the novelist’s name is perhaps the best way to isolate and identify what is going on beneath this formally simple but thematically intricate film. Point and Shoot is a 21st century incarnation of some very old ideas, fervently held conceptions of what it is to be a man and an American on the world stage. The word “profile” isn’t particularly sufficient as a description, either. This is not simply a document, it is an entire life. In 2006, VanDyke left Baltimore. He took his motorcycle, his video camera and his Obsessive Compulsive Disorder on a trip to Morocco and did not come back for three years. It was to be a “crash course in manhood.” He crisscrossed North Africa, went across into the Near East and eventually rode all the way to Afghanistan...
- 4/23/2014
- by Nonfics.com
- FilmSchoolRejects.com
Indiewire contributor John Anderson sat down at the Apple store in SoHo with Oscar-nominated director Marshall Curry and Matthew VanDyke to discuss their documentary "Point and Shoot," about VanDyke's experiences at war in Libya. Their conversation is part of the "Meet the Filmmaker" series for the 2014 Tribeca Film Festival. Read More: Tribeca Film Festival Review: Why Marshall Curry's 'Point and Shoot' Is Due For a Hollywood Remake "Point and Shoot" follows VanDyke, a Baltimore resident who finds the adventure -- and more -- he is looking for by joining the Libyan Rebel Army against Muammar Gaddafi. In the talk, Anderson brings up a scene in the film where a bunch of fighters have more cell-phones than actual guns. "That's the nature of modern war now, at least where citizen-soldiers are involved," VanDyke said. "Guys wanna show off what they're doing so they all film themselves." He goes on to...
- 4/23/2014
- by Eric Eidelstein
- Indiewire
A shy, sheltered, Ocd-afflicted only child, Baltimore native Matthew VanDyke was not the likeliest member of the 2011 Libyan rebel militia, but Point and Shoot, the new documentary from Academy Award-nominee Marshall Curry, chalks VanDyke’s trajectory up to sheer sense of adventure. Determined to give himself “a crash course in manhood,” VanDyke leaves Baltimore behind with a camera in hand, winding his way through Africa atop a motorcycle. Along the way, he meets Nuri, his iconoclast counterpoint who will draw him into the revolution. Filmmaker spoke to Curry about relating someone else’s footage, and the documentarian’s dilemma of capturing the moment truthfully and artfully. Point […]...
- 4/23/2014
- by Sarah Salovaara
- Filmmaker Magazine - Blog
A shy, sheltered, Ocd-afflicted only child, Baltimore native Matthew VanDyke was not the likeliest member of the 2011 Libyan rebel militia, but Point and Shoot, the new documentary from Academy Award-nominee Marshall Curry, chalks VanDyke’s trajectory up to sheer sense of adventure. Determined to give himself “a crash course in manhood,” VanDyke leaves Baltimore behind with a camera in hand, winding his way through Africa atop a motorcycle. Along the way, he meets Nuri, his iconoclast counterpoint who will draw him into the revolution. Filmmaker spoke to Curry about relating someone else’s footage, and the documentarian’s dilemma of capturing the moment truthfully and artfully. Point […]...
- 4/23/2014
- by Sarah Salovaara
- Filmmaker Magazine-Director Interviews
Documentary artist Marshall Curry has been producing documentaries both feature-length and for TV since 2005. His latest project "Point and Shoot" tells the story of Matthew VanDyke, a young Baltimore native, who went to Libya to join the rebels who were taking up arms against Gaddafi. While there, he was captured and spent six months in solitary confinement before escaping and returning to the front lines. Tell us about yourself: I’m the director of the documentary "Point and Shoot." I’ve made three other features—"Street Fight," "Racing Dreams," and "If a Tree Falls: a Story of the Earth Liberation Front." And I had a great time Exec Producing and doing some editing on a doc about the band The National, called "Mistaken For Strangers." I love to watch documentaries, and most of the time, I love making them. I have two kids and have vowed that after this project...
- 4/17/2014
- by Indiewire
- Indiewire
By the looks of it, the Tribeca Film Festival might finally be growing out of their awkward teenage phase and moving into a new era where the nab more than just Sundance and SXSW festival rejects. Artistic Director Frederic Boyer has managed to nab some noteworthy American indie projects such as Lou Howe’s Gabriel (see pic above), Keith Miller’s Five Star, Adam Rapp’s Loitering with Intent, and Tristan Patterson’s Electric Slide.
On the docu front, we’ve got the latest from the likes of notable documentarians Marshall Curry and Jessica Yu. Think Ewan McGregor’s Long Way Round meets child solider movie for Curry’s awesomely titled Point and Shoot — where the Libyan rebel army take hold of Curry’s subject. Yu moves from water shortage in Last Call at the Oasis (read our review) to the biggest pandemic of all; Misconception looks at the consequences...
On the docu front, we’ve got the latest from the likes of notable documentarians Marshall Curry and Jessica Yu. Think Ewan McGregor’s Long Way Round meets child solider movie for Curry’s awesomely titled Point and Shoot — where the Libyan rebel army take hold of Curry’s subject. Yu moves from water shortage in Last Call at the Oasis (read our review) to the biggest pandemic of all; Misconception looks at the consequences...
- 3/4/2014
- by Eric Lavallee
- IONCINEMA.com
The 13th Tribeca Film Festival has announced half its slate for next month’s New York celebration, which runs April 16-27. Culled from more than 6,000 submissions, Tribeca 2014 includes 55 world premieres, 37 first-time filmmakers, and 22 female directors. “Variously inspired by individual interests and experience and driven by an intense sensibility of style, the array of new filmmaking voices in this year’s competition is especially impressive and I think memorable,” said Frederic Boyer, Tribeca’s artistic director. “The range of American subcultures and international genres represented here are both eclectic and wide reaching.”
On April 17, Gabriel will open the World Narrative competition,...
On April 17, Gabriel will open the World Narrative competition,...
- 3/4/2014
- by Jeff Labrecque
- EW - Inside Movies
The 2013 St. Louis International Film Festival concluded Sunday night with a party at the Contemporary Art Museum in St. Louis. Sliff announced the audience-choice and juried-competition awards.
Now in its 22nd year, the Whitaker St. Louis International Film Festival is one of the largest international film festivals in the Midwest. This year’s festival was held Nov. 14-24, 2013.
2013 Sliff Film Awards
Best of Fest Audience Choice Awards
Best Documentary Feature: “Harlem Street Singer” directed by Simeon Hutner
Best International Narrative Feature: “Philomena” directed by Stephen Frears
Best Narrative Feature: “One Chance” directed by David Frankel
New Filmmakers Forum Award
“This Is Where We Live” directed by Marc Menchaca and Josh Barrett ($500 cash prize)
St. Louis Film Critics Association Joe Pollack Awards Best Documentary Feature: “Blood Brother” directed by Steve Hoover Special Jury Mention, Documentary Feature: “The Pleasures of Being Out of Step” directed by David Lewis
Best Narrative Feature: “Key...
Now in its 22nd year, the Whitaker St. Louis International Film Festival is one of the largest international film festivals in the Midwest. This year’s festival was held Nov. 14-24, 2013.
2013 Sliff Film Awards
Best of Fest Audience Choice Awards
Best Documentary Feature: “Harlem Street Singer” directed by Simeon Hutner
Best International Narrative Feature: “Philomena” directed by Stephen Frears
Best Narrative Feature: “One Chance” directed by David Frankel
New Filmmakers Forum Award
“This Is Where We Live” directed by Marc Menchaca and Josh Barrett ($500 cash prize)
St. Louis Film Critics Association Joe Pollack Awards Best Documentary Feature: “Blood Brother” directed by Steve Hoover Special Jury Mention, Documentary Feature: “The Pleasures of Being Out of Step” directed by David Lewis
Best Narrative Feature: “Key...
- 11/25/2013
- by Movie Geeks
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
Other winners at the cinematography festival in Poland included Alfonso Cuaron’s Gravity.Scroll down for full list of winners
Competition winners at Camerimage, the International Film Festival of the Art of Cinematography, were revealed today as the 21st edition came to a close with a gala awards celebration at the Opera Nova in Bydgoszcz, Poland.
The winner of the top prize - the Golden Frog - went to Polish drama Ida, directed by Paweł Pawlikowski, the latest in a string of top awards for the film.
Ida cinematographers Lukasz Zal and Ryszard Lenczewski accepted the award.
The film stars newcomer Agata Trzebuchowska opposite Polish star Agata Kulesza in the story of a young novitiate nun in 1960s Poland who is on the verge of taking her vows when she discovers a dark family secret dating back to the years of the Nazi occupation.
It marks the first Polish-language film for Warsaw-born British filmmaker Pawlikowski, best known for...
Competition winners at Camerimage, the International Film Festival of the Art of Cinematography, were revealed today as the 21st edition came to a close with a gala awards celebration at the Opera Nova in Bydgoszcz, Poland.
The winner of the top prize - the Golden Frog - went to Polish drama Ida, directed by Paweł Pawlikowski, the latest in a string of top awards for the film.
Ida cinematographers Lukasz Zal and Ryszard Lenczewski accepted the award.
The film stars newcomer Agata Trzebuchowska opposite Polish star Agata Kulesza in the story of a young novitiate nun in 1960s Poland who is on the verge of taking her vows when she discovers a dark family secret dating back to the years of the Nazi occupation.
It marks the first Polish-language film for Warsaw-born British filmmaker Pawlikowski, best known for...
- 11/23/2013
- by michael.rosser@screendaily.com (Michael Rosser)
- ScreenDaily
Kids. Such as Sex, Lies, and Videotape or Reservoir Dogs before it, and such as Winter’s Bone, Blue Valentine and Fruitvale Station after it, Larry Clark & Harmony Korine’s seminal film is forever connected in “spirit” to the lieu where it received its secret midnight premiere screening in 1995. The Sundance Film Festival might be known as the birthplace of U.S indie filmmaking innovation, avant-gardism, a larger definition of the low budgeted film response to Hollywood in not only narrative but in the non-fiction form, but it is a festival made strong by its renewal and familiarity. That close acquaintanceness exists in Kids‘ starlets Rosario Dawson and Chloë Sevigny filmography/career path trajectory and connection to Park City (both have several indie films slated for ’14 – of which I’ve included in our predictions list) and it is that “familiarity” that is visibly noticeable in how I map out my annual predictions list.
- 11/18/2013
- by Eric Lavallee
- IONCINEMA.com
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