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We meet again. Thanks again for tuning in to the latest episode of Indie Beat!

This one is particularly special as our guest is long time friend and collaborator Paul Taylor.

Paul and I met during our tenure at Long Island University. We made a number of films together with him acting as the cinematographer (“Bridges,” “The Winds That Scatter,” “Mohammad So-And-So,” “Incorrectional”) but for the podcast I mainly focused on Paul’s directorial work.

Continue reading Indie Beat With ‘Driftwood’ Director Paul Taylor [Podcast] at The Playlist.

“A young woman waits out the night in a twilight state, where dreams, memories, revisited and reenacted events intermingle. She tries her best to parse truth from embellishment, reflecting on her relationship with the man sleeping soundly beside her,” reads the synopsis for Wake Me When I Leave, an intriguing new independent psychological horror feature from Tyler Rubenfeld.

We’re pleased to present the first trailer for the film, which is available to stream for free for the next few weeks on Fandependent. Shot by rising cinematographer Paul Taylor and produced by friend of the site Christopher Bell, it looks like a compelling trip into a subconscious state. Check out the exclusive trailer below, backed by Tomemitsu‘s Easy, and the great poster, for the film starring Michael Fentin (star of Slamdance winner Driftwood), Adam Barrie, Greg Steinbruner, Zahra Zubaidi, and Jenna D’Angelo.

Jill and Todd, a young couple,...

Brian Golden Davis's The Million Dollar Duck has won the Audience Award and the Jury Award for Documentary Feature at Slamdance. Other winners include Alex Simmons's Honey Buddies, Paul Taylor's Driftwood, Mea de Jong's If Mama Ain't Happy, Nobody's Happy, Dusty Mancinelli's Winter Hymns, Aurèle Ferrier's Infrastructures, Dominic Rodriguez's Fursonas, Marcus Armitage's My Dad, Alice Waddington's Disco Inferno and more. We've got the full list, plus reviews and trailers as we wrap coverage of the 22nd edition. » - David Hudson...

Brian Golden Davis's The Million Dollar Duck has won the Audience Award and the Jury Award for Documentary Feature at Slamdance. Other winners include Alex Simmons's Honey Buddies, Paul Taylor's Driftwood, Mea de Jong's If Mama Ain't Happy, Nobody's Happy, Dusty Mancinelli's Winter Hymns, Aurèle Ferrier's Infrastructures, Dominic Rodriguez's Fursonas, Marcus Armitage's My Dad, Alice Waddington's Disco Inferno and more. We've got the full list, plus reviews and trailers as we wrap coverage of the 22nd edition. » - David Hudson...

Tonight saw the 22nd Annual Slamdance Film Festival come to a close with filmmakers packing every inch of the Treasure Mountain Inn's ballroom for the awards ceremony. Top winners include my personal favorite from the festival, Driftwood, which won the Grand Jury Prize for Narrative feature. A bold and unique vision from director Paul Taylor, Driftwood proves yet again that Slamdance is home to fresh and exciting cinematic voices year in and year out (other recent Grand Jury winner include Twitch Favorite The Dirties and Tired Moonlight). Special Jury mention for Narrative was given to Hunky Dory, while Grand Jury for Documentary went to The Million-Dollar Duck (which also nabbed the Doc Audience Award). You can find the full list of award winners below, and...

[Read the whole post on twitchfilm.com...]...

The 22nd Slamdance Film Festival named “The Million Dollar Duck” the winner of both the Jury Award and Audience Award for Documentary Feature on Thursday. “Honey Buddies,” by director Alex Simmons, won the Audience Award for Narrative Feature. Paul Taylor’s “Driftwood” and “Hunky Dory” also got a Jury Award for Narrative Feature and Jury Honorable Mention for Acting, respectively. Also Read: Slamdance Unveils Special Screenings, Beyond, Shorts Programs (Exclusive) “Congratulations to all of the filmmakers this year. Outside of winning a Sparky, as a collective they showed us the power of real independent film and how much it enriches our lives,...

Brian Golden Davis' The Million Dollar Duck, a documentary about the federal duck stamp contest, won both the audience and jury awards for best documentary feature at the Slamdance Film Festival, which announced its winners tonight at an awards ceremony at the Treasure Mountain Inn in Park City, Utah. The film, which focuses on the only juried art competition run by the U.S. government, was acquired by Lionsgate, which plans a limited theatrical release, and Discovery Communications' Animal Planet. The audience award for best narrative feature went to Alex Simmons' Honey Buddies, while Paul Taylor's Driftwood claimed the jury

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In the week that saw Brian Golden Davis’ documentary secure a distribution deal with Discovery Communications’ Animal Planet and Lionsgate, the film also left Park City with two top awards.

The Million Dollar Duck won the narrative jury and audience awards for best documentary feature on Thursday night.

Paul Taylor’s Driftwood claimed the juried narrative feature awards while Honey Buddies by Alex Simmons took the audience award.

“Congratulations to all of the filmmakers this year. Outside of winning a Sparky, as a collective they showed us the power of real independent film and how much it enriches our lives,” said Slamdance president and co-founder Peter Baxter.

Audience Awards

Narrative Feature

Honey Buddies, dir Alex Simmons

Documentary

The Million Dollar Duck, dir Brian Golden Davis

Jury Awards

Narrative Feature

Driftwood, dir Paul Taylor

Honourable Mention for Acting

Tomas Pais and Edouard Holdener in Hunky Dory, dir Michael Curtis Johnson

Documentary

The Million Dollar Duck, dir [link=nm...

The narrative arc of Paul Taylor’s “Driftwood” is rather simple: a girl washes up on a beach, is taken into the care of an older man who then conditions her to be his wife — to cook, to clean, and to satisfy him, at times against her will — and eventually she revolts. So the natural assumption would be that the bulk film is what exists in the cracks, the thematic explorations humming beneath the surface, and this is exactly what “Driftwood” wants us to think. But while there are attempts to mine some truly interesting and important ideas, the film never succeeds in saying anything substantial, landing more in the spectrum of cursory. The film opens on a bleak stretch of blurred coast. A young woman (Joslyn Jensen) stumbles into frame. Then, suddenly, she is riding, asleep, in the back of a jeep. A middled-aged man (Paul C. Kelly) has taken her home.

"The Slamdance Film Festival has unveiled 20 titles for its narrative and documentary feature film competition programs for its 22nd edition during Jan. 22-28," announces Variety's Dave McNary. "Notable titles include Leonardo Guerra Seragnoli’s drama Last Summer, starring Rinko Kikuchi, Yorick van Wageningen and Lucy Griffiths; Derek Kimball’s drama Neptune, set on an island off the coast of Maine and centered on an orphan girl raised by the church; Paul Taylor’s dialogue-free Driftwood, starring Joslyn Jensen, Paul C. Kelly and Michael Fentin; and Andrea Marini’s Art of the Prank, starring Joey Skaggs, Robert Forster and Peter Maloney." » - David Hudson...

"The Slamdance Film Festival has unveiled 20 titles for its narrative and documentary feature film competition programs for its 22nd edition during Jan. 22-28," announces Variety's Dave McNary. "Notable titles include Leonardo Guerra Seragnoli’s drama Last Summer, starring Rinko Kikuchi, Yorick van Wageningen and Lucy Griffiths; Derek Kimball’s drama Neptune, set on an island off the coast of Maine and centered on an orphan girl raised by the church; Paul Taylor’s dialogue-free Driftwood, starring Joslyn Jensen, Paul C. Kelly and Michael Fentin; and Andrea Marini’s Art of the Prank, starring Joey Skaggs, Robert Forster and Peter Maloney." » - David Hudson...

Festival top brass announced on Monday the 12 Narrative and eight Documentary Feature Film Competition films in 22nd edition, set to run in Park City from January 22-28, 2016.

The 20-strong line-up includes 12 world premieres, three North American premieres and one Us premiere.

All competition films are feature directorial debuts with budgets of less than $1m and without Us distribution.

Jury awards are presented to feature films in both categories and all films are eligible for audience awards as well as the Spirit Of Slamdance Award, judged by the filmmakers themselves.

“The standard of Diy filmmaking around the world is the highest we’ve seen, and the diversity of storytelling is the most we’ve experienced,” sad Slamdance co-founder and president Peter Baxter.

“With a record breaking number of submissions to select from, the narrative and documentary feature line-up has never been so competitive or as exciting to programme.”

All synopses provided by the festival.

Narrative Features...

Festival top brass announced on Monday the 12 Narrative and eight Documentary Feature Film Competition films in 22nd edition, set to run in Park City from January 22-28, 2016.

The 20-strong line-up includes 12 world premieres, three North American premieres and one Us premiere.

All competition films are feature directorial debuts with budgets of less than $1m and without Us distribution.

Jury awards are presented to feature films in both categories and all films are eligible for audience awards as well as the Spirit Of Slamdance Award, judged by the filmmakers themselves.

“The standard of Diy filmmaking around the world is the highest we’ve seen, and the diversity of storytelling is the most we’ve experienced,” sad Slamdance co-founder and president Peter Baxter.

“With a record breaking number of submissions to select from, the narrative and documentary feature line-up has never been so competitive or as exciting to programme.”

Al synopses provided by the festival.

Narrative Features...

Here's your daily dose of an indie project in progress -- at the end of the week, you'll have the chance to vote for your favorite. In the meantime: Is this a project you’d want to see? Tell us in the comments. Driftwood Tweetable Logline: A chamber piece revolving around two characters whose relationship is driven by manipulation and fear. Elevator Pitch: A young woman (Joslyn Jensen) washes ashore and is taken in by a lonely, grieving old man (Paul C. Kelly). As the days advance, we learn more about the strange world they live in, which looks like ours, but is occupied with people who operate on a completely different kind of plane. Characters don't interact the way we do; they barely speak (in fact, they don't speak at all!), they merely suggest what they desire through gesture and physical contact. Production Team: The film was written, directed and shot by Paul Taylor.

The power of sound, whether a boom or a whisper, can infect us, haunt us for days.The absence of words, of speech, the strange milieu of the body, of authority, physical, purely primal, can be terrifying.Enter director/Dp Paul Taylor's Driftwood, an abstract chamber drama with Joslyn Jensen who starred in what I consider to be one of the most underrated American indies ever, the supremely ethereal Without.Driftwood is a dialog-free feature that has been shot, been edited, and is now seeking support for post audio, certainly the biggest hurdle for a film that is driven by sound, but not spoken word. They're seeking 15k to work with the talented folks at Silver Sound Studios in Manhattan. You can check out the moody pitch video below,...

[Read the whole post on twitchfilm.com...]...