Zachary Levy brought his film "Strongman" to the 2009 Slamdance Film Festival, where it ended up taking home the award for Best Documentary. From there, it had screenings at high profile fests like Hot Docs and SXSW, but never got a traditional distribution deal -- so Levy took it upon himself to get the film screened all over the country, at festivals and special one-off events. "Strongman" tells the story of Stanless Steel, one of the only men in history who can bend a penny with his hands. Shot cinema verite-style, the film follows Stan as he juggles his strongman show, his love, his spirituality, and the family around him. Four years later, "Strongman" is available via DVD and VOD through a distribution deal with The Orchard. After years without a conventional release, Levy's digital release put him on the Sports and Documentary Top 10 charts on iTunes. Indiewire caught up with...
- 11/7/2013
- by Bryce J. Renninger
- Indiewire
Why not fold documentaries into my list of the "Best Films of 2011?" After all, a movie is a movie, right? Yes, and some years I've thrown them all into the same mixture. But all of these year-end Best lists serve one useful purpose: They tell you about good movies you may not have seen or heard about. The more films on my list that aren't on yours, the better job I've done.
That's particularly true were you to depend on the "short list" released by the Academy's Documentary Branch of 15 films they deem eligible for nomination. The branch has been through turmoil in the past and its procedures were "reformed" at one point. But this year it has made a particularly scandalous sin of
omission. It doesn't include "The Interrupters" (currently scoring 99% on the Tomatometer), which has received better reviews and been on more critic's Best lists than any other.
That's particularly true were you to depend on the "short list" released by the Academy's Documentary Branch of 15 films they deem eligible for nomination. The branch has been through turmoil in the past and its procedures were "reformed" at one point. But this year it has made a particularly scandalous sin of
omission. It doesn't include "The Interrupters" (currently scoring 99% on the Tomatometer), which has received better reviews and been on more critic's Best lists than any other.
- 12/25/2011
- by Roger Ebert
- blogs.suntimes.com/ebert
Chicago – Self-distributing an intimate, character-driven documentary may seem as daunting a task as bending a penny with your fingers. And yet, first-time feature director Zachary Levy is up to challenge (the former of the two, of course). His 2009 documentary, “Strongman” played to great acclaim at festivals, and is set to kick off a return engagement at the Facets Cinémathèque starting May 11.
Levy’s camera followed the self-touted “strongest man in the world,” Stanley “Stanless Steel” Pleskun for a decade, observing the formidable physical specimen as he struggled with everyday issues—both personal and professional. Hollywood Chicago spoke with Levy about his approach to cinema verité filmmaking, his love of Albert and David Maysles’ 1968 classic “Salesman,” and his advice for filmmakers looking to distribute their own work.
HollywoodChicago.com: How did your experience in cinematography prepare you for your work as a documentarian?
Zachary Levy: Well, in some ways it...
Levy’s camera followed the self-touted “strongest man in the world,” Stanley “Stanless Steel” Pleskun for a decade, observing the formidable physical specimen as he struggled with everyday issues—both personal and professional. Hollywood Chicago spoke with Levy about his approach to cinema verité filmmaking, his love of Albert and David Maysles’ 1968 classic “Salesman,” and his advice for filmmakers looking to distribute their own work.
HollywoodChicago.com: How did your experience in cinematography prepare you for your work as a documentarian?
Zachary Levy: Well, in some ways it...
- 5/10/2011
- by adam@hollywoodchicago.com (Adam Fendelman)
- HollywoodChicago.com
If you're in the New York City area in the next few days, do yourself a favor and get over to the IFC Center and see the documentary Strongman from New York filmmaker Zachary Levy. The film is playing there through this Tuesday night, and it's sure to entertain! If you're not in NYC, the film is also playing in Chicago at Facets Cinematheque this week and will make its way soon to The Charles Theater in Baltimore, The Pickford in Bellingham, Real Art Ways in Hartford, and several other places.
Strongman follows Stanley “Stanless Steel” Pleskun, who is the strongest man in the world when it comes to bending steel and metal. The doc captures the aging strongman over several years' time in his normal life making a living wage at a scrap-metal yard in New Jersey, as well as the life he lives pursuing his passion as a heavy lifter and bender,...
Strongman follows Stanley “Stanless Steel” Pleskun, who is the strongest man in the world when it comes to bending steel and metal. The doc captures the aging strongman over several years' time in his normal life making a living wage at a scrap-metal yard in New Jersey, as well as the life he lives pursuing his passion as a heavy lifter and bender,...
- 1/30/2011
- by Empress Eve
- Geeks of Doom
Thanks to Kevin Smith’s decision to self-distribute his new film, Red State, filmmakers are taking a fresh look at the pros and cons of bypassing the studios altogether. But while Smith, with his 1.7 million Twitter followers, may find it easy to bring his vision to screens—and put butts in the seats—most would-be director-distributors face a considerably daunting task. Consider the case of Zachary Levy, who spent 10 years making his Slamdance-winning documentary Strongman, and then devoted the past two years to distributing it. Thanks to his hard work, the film—an alternately hilarious and heart-breaking account of the travails faced by veteran iron-bar-bender Stanley “Stanless Steel” Pleskun, whose career is hampered by his refusal to fake stunts, among other things—begins a five-night engagement at Manhattan’s IFC Center, on 6th Avenue, tonight. (For tickets, click here.) Over the summer, Zach brought Stanless Steel to our offices to teach Vf.
- 1/26/2011
- Vanity Fair
You may have noticed that I've been posting in our Web Exclusives a number of first-person pieces by filmmakers discussing their distribution saga. We have already had producer Jake Abraham on distributing his film, Lovely by Surprise, and then writer/director Rob Perez on making the transition from studio distribution to Diy distribution with his nobody. The latest in our informal series is from Zachary Levy, director of the documentary Strongman. His piece, "Making our Diy Moment Matter," is a refreshingly thoughtful take on what the trend towards alternative distribution should mean for our filmmaking. Check it out, and look for more of these first-person pieces in the coming weeks.
- 10/28/2009
- by Scott Macaulay
- Filmmaker Magazine - Blog
Zachary Levy's Strongman, comes to SXSW after recently having won the Grand Jury Award at the Slamdance Film Festival, but an earlier project, through which Levy partially funded the film got a bit more press. In between shooting and editing his documentary, which he calls "a real-life version of La Strada," Levy and some friends invented Bush Cards, decks of novelty playing cards, each emblazoned with an image of a different member of the George W. Bush adminis ...
- 3/5/2009
- by Karina Longworth
- Spout
SXSW is one of my favorite festivals of the year as it showcases some of the best and most innovative real independent films, and with this host of world premiers, it's also playing alot of Sundance material as well as genre fare from all over the world, many of which we've covered heavily in these pages.
From the Sundance lineup, we have films like Moon, The Immaculate Conception of Little Dizzle, You Won't Miss Me, Grace, and Humpday, among others.
For the world genre material we've covered, there's Lake Mungo, The Square, Zift, and Awaydays.
I think you get the point that lots of great looking film will be playing. I'll leave a bit of the exploration to you..
Lineup after the break.
Narrative Features Competition
Artois the Goat
Director: Kyle Bogart. Writer: Cliff and Kyle Bogart
Lab technician Virgil Gurdies embarks on an epic quest to craft the greatest...
From the Sundance lineup, we have films like Moon, The Immaculate Conception of Little Dizzle, You Won't Miss Me, Grace, and Humpday, among others.
For the world genre material we've covered, there's Lake Mungo, The Square, Zift, and Awaydays.
I think you get the point that lots of great looking film will be playing. I'll leave a bit of the exploration to you..
Lineup after the break.
Narrative Features Competition
Artois the Goat
Director: Kyle Bogart. Writer: Cliff and Kyle Bogart
Lab technician Virgil Gurdies embarks on an epic quest to craft the greatest...
- 2/2/2009
- QuietEarth.us
South By Southwest Film Festival has announced the complete line-up of films for the 2009 festival which takes place March 13th to 21st in Austin, Texas. The line-up includes previously announced comedies Observe and Report and opening night film I Love You, Man. Chuck star Zachary Levy’s directorial debut Strongman, the 10th Anniversary of Office Space celebration, Paul Solet’s horror film Grace, The Immaculate Conception of Little Dizzle, Sin Nombre, the product design documentary Objectified, the low-budget Space Sci-fi film Moon, the mumblecore Zack and Miri - Humpday, Goodbye Solo, Greg Mottola’s Adventureland, and Sundance documentaries: We Live in Public, The Yes Men Fix The World, When You’re Strange. I haven’t heard of many of the more indie/tech/music selections, but the known films are mostly the good movies that played at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival (which means I’ll be able to catch up...
- 2/2/2009
- by Peter Sciretta
- Slash Film
Mo Perkins' "A Quiet Little Marriage" copped the grand jury award for best narrative feature at the 15th annual Slamdance Film Festival, which concluded Friday in Park City, Utah.
The indie-minded fest, which runs separate from but concurrently with Sundance gave its grand jury award for best documentary feature to Zachary Levy's "Strongman."
Gregory Viens' "Punching the Clown" earned both the audience award for best narrative feature and the IndieRoad Award.
Beth Toni Kruvant's "Heart of Stone" picked up the audience's documentary feature award. Audiences also voted Eva Flodstrom's "The Tides" best anarchy film, while Aaron Marshall and Erik Mauck's "Zombie Girl" and Frank Feldman's "Vapid Lovelies" tied for the Spirit of Slamdance Award.
Writers Awards went to Neil McGowan's "Numbered" for best screenplay and Mark Seidel's "Crybaby" for best short screenplay.
Richard Lopez was the recipient of the Kodak Vision Award for...
The indie-minded fest, which runs separate from but concurrently with Sundance gave its grand jury award for best documentary feature to Zachary Levy's "Strongman."
Gregory Viens' "Punching the Clown" earned both the audience award for best narrative feature and the IndieRoad Award.
Beth Toni Kruvant's "Heart of Stone" picked up the audience's documentary feature award. Audiences also voted Eva Flodstrom's "The Tides" best anarchy film, while Aaron Marshall and Erik Mauck's "Zombie Girl" and Frank Feldman's "Vapid Lovelies" tied for the Spirit of Slamdance Award.
Writers Awards went to Neil McGowan's "Numbered" for best screenplay and Mark Seidel's "Crybaby" for best short screenplay.
Richard Lopez was the recipient of the Kodak Vision Award for...
- 1/23/2009
- by By Gregg Kilday
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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