(August 1, 2022 – New York, NY) – The Gotham Film & Media Institute announced today the slate for its Project Market, which will be held during Gotham Week September 17-23, 2022, in person at the Brooklyn Navy Yard. Concurrent virtual programming and events are also planned. The selection includes 142 fiction and nonfiction features, series, and audio projects, all in development and production stages. The Project Market, which turns 44 this year, has supported independent artists working in visual storytelling for decades and, in recent years, has extended its support towards series in all formats including audio storytelling.

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Presenting five fiction feature films ranging from early and late stages of post-production, this section features emerging filmmakers based in the  coming to the Project Market while in the process of finishing their feature films.

Crumb Catcher directed by Chris Skotchdopole; written by Chris Skotchdopole, Rigo Garay and Larry Fessenden; and produced by Chris Skotchdopole, Larry Fessenden, Brian Devine, Chadd Harbold, James Skotchdopole, and Bonnie Timmermann. A newlywed couple is held captive by a maniacally-optimistic inventor, desperate to finance his American dream with a half-baked blackmail plot.

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Maybe you fear the next generation of filmmakers will be lost to TikTok — that the lure of making instant-gratification posts online will distract today’s young directors from making feature films, imperiling the future of cinema. But that isn’t true at all of the four young filmmakers — all 18 to 22 — we spoke with recently about the future of filmmaking. Zelda Adams, Avalon Fast, Jack Fessenden and Ethan Eng have made some of the most thrilling and audacious films we’ve seen in recent years. We talked with them about how they started making movies so young, and why they’re committed to keep making them. Fast’s debut, Honeycomb, is screening tonight at the Fantasia Film Festival in Montreal.

MOVIEMAKER: One immediate thing that I find fascinating about all of you is you make such assured movies and movies so specific to your own vision. Yet there’s this stereotype that younger people only want to make YouTube videos or TikTok videos. Why movies?

ZELDA ADAMS: I’ve tried to venture into making vlogs, or TikToks. But I always really try to make them super artistic and cool and spunky. And then they never get any love. And I’m like, ‘I put 15 hours of work into this 10-second clip, and I got, like, 10 Likes. What?’ So that’s something I really love about movies. The audience is going out to see something beautiful and artistic and creative.

AVALON FAST: I’ve thought about that myself, and thought that maybe I should start doing that kind of thing, just to build some hype around whatever I have going. But I grew up with movies. When I started watching movies it was VHS… I grew up with DVDs and going to the video store and picking up a movie, until I was like 16 years old. That was how I got entertainment. So yeah, it feels like it’s still a part of my generation to be making movies, and TikTok and shorter online videos seem like something I don’t really even understand that well, yet.

JACK FESSENDEN: TikTok and online video stuff is not an escape the way that movies are. They just remind you more and more of your own peer group and maybe the ways in which you don’t fit in. And so engaging with that stuff doesn’t give you the same kind of transcendent feeling that watching movies has since we were kids.

ETHAN ENG: I mean, I’ve seen some transcendent TikToks. Like epic street fights that have blown me away more than any Bruce Lee movie. But I do agree. I do think our generation still has a reverence for the big screen. Like you said, Zelda, there’s a lot of consideration and thought and effort put into it. It’s something that we all still want to participate in.

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MOVIEMAKER: I find movies kind of meditative. You’re shutting out the entire world for two hours. Is that part of the appeal of filmmaking for you? And do you think that’s going anywhere?

JACK FESSENDEN: I honestly had never thought about it that way. But that’s exactly why I always just think of it as an escape: This story is going to wrap you up, especially if you’re rewatching the movies that you love or something. I think that’s why a long attention-span format, in today’s standards, still can survive.

ZELDA ADAMS: I watch a lot of horror movies and horror TV shows, and something that I think is really neat is that I get to explore some of my worst fears in a safe place — you know, home invasion, and sharks. I don’t actually have to experience that, I can just watch it in a movie and it feels so good. And it’s thrilling.

ETHAN ENG: Personally, for me, and a lot of people I know, we don’t really experience movies in the theater anymore. Most of our experiences with films are sitting alone in a dark room, whether it’s your laptop, or even on a cell phone, and just having that one-on-one with the movie. And, you know, you’re right, it is very meditative. It’s an hour or two of your time to kind of listen to somebody else. And sometimes during those moments, you kind of hear the things that you needed to hear, and it helps you. So yeah, I do think that’s kind of the experience now, it’s quieter. I think it’s more gentle.

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Now playing at the THE WIRE 40 X THE OUTER CHURCH, Brighton, United Kingdom; WENDIGO, DARLING, THE ROOST, I CAN SEE YOU, SATAN HATES YOU, TRIGGER MAN, LIKE ME, THE LAST WINTER.

Saturday July 23rd, 3PM to midnight.

Uncanny audiovisual cult The Outer Church rematerializes in the town of its birth for a special event as part of The Wire Magazine’s 40th anniversary celebrations.

Assorted mischief across two floors including live performances from SARAH ANGLISS (performing music from her score for Romola Garai’s acclaimed directorial debut Amulet) + MICROCORPS + OPAL X + KEMPER NORTON + NAD SPIRO plus weird cinema from Larry Fessenden’s legendary production house GLASS EYE PIX, including rarely seen early work from TI WEST (The House Of The Devil, The Innkeepers).

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Long-time GEP collaborator Kelly Reichardt to receive the Leopard Of Honor at the Locarno Film Festival, an award that has gone to the likes of Ken Loach, Agnès Varda, Werner Herzog and Jean-Luc Godard.

Jason Blum, Laurie Anderson and Costa-Gavras have also been selected for Locarno awards this year. 

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From Buzzfeed: “Filmmaker Jenn Wexler injects a welcome punk rock spirit and visual style for this creepy and occasionally contemplative backwoods slasher about a bloodthirsty park ranger hunting down tripping teenage punks on the lam.”

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 Portrait of the artist as a young man.