Jim Hemphill
Jim Hemphill is an award-winning filmmaker and film historian who writes about filmmaking craft for IndieWire. His films have screened at the Sundance Film Festival, American Cinematheque, and other festivals and venues, and his writing on cinema has appeared in American Cinematographer, Film Comment, Variety, Filmmaker Magazine, and elsewhere. He is the author of the book “The Art and Craft of TV Directing: Interviews With Episodic Television Directors,” and he has contributed scholarly audio commentaries to dozens of Blu-rays released by the British Film Institute, Kino Lorber, and other labels.
Latest by Jim Hemphill
Filmmaker Interview
Ayer tells IndieWire's Filmmaker Toolkit podcast about the challenges of telling an adventure story about a man and his dog, where the project's stripped-down nature makes every decision exponentially more important.
Filmmaker Interview
The "Rhythm Is a Dancer" writer/director talks about how she turned her frustrations over getting her movie seen into a marketing tool, and how she harnessed social media to make millions aware of her film.
For two years after Travolta's breakout success in "Saturday Night Fever," Italian "discoploitation" knockoffs proliferated. Severin's new Blu-ray collection "Disco Italiana" collects three of the best.
Retrospective
Half of the director's 12 features were financed and distributed by major studios, and some — like "Minnie and Moskowitz," screening next week at the New Beverly — are as uncompromising as his scrappiest indies.
New on Physical Media
In 1988, "Patti Rocks" stood alongside Jim Jarmusch's "Stranger Than Paradise" and Spike Lee's "She's Gotta Have It" as an indie sensation, but has been largely unavailable for decades. A new Blu-ray from Fun City Editions brings it back to glorious life.
Filmmaker interview
On the occasion of a new 4K UHD release, the director of "Mona Lisa" and "The Crying Game" looks back on one of his boldest projects: a sensual, provocative vampire film he made with Tom Cruise, Brad Pitt, and a young Kirsten Dunst.
The author of "Jungle Red: The Making of MGM's 'The Women'" tells IndieWire why she wanted to explore the making of the 1939 classic and how women both famous (Joan Crawford, Norma Shearer) and forgotten (screenwriter Jane Murfin) contributed to its greatness.
Interview
The director of "If I Tell You" says years of training on shows as varied as "American Horror Story," "Matlock," and "NCIS: Hawai'i" helped her develop a clear, precise visual language for her powerful debut feature.
Exclusive
Exclusive: Marq Evans and Tamir Ardon's deep dive into the infamous Patterson-Gimlin film was an audience favorite at SXSW this year; on National Bigfoot Day, it will finally be unleashed in North American theaters.
Beyond Fest
The latest incarnation of the film festival is bigger than ever, with 10 world premieres and retrospective screenings dedicated to fan favorites by David Lynch, Ken Russell, and others.
Interview
The producer of movies as varied as "Ed Wood," "Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants," and "Catwoman" tells IndieWire about what motivates her choices, and how she keeps a grounded perspective on the work regardless of the critics and the box office.
The maverick director of indie landmarks like "King of New York" and "The Bad Lieutenant" had a bad time in the studio system, but the movie that resulted — the 1993 horror film "Body Snatchers" — is a miracle of both personal expression and studio scale.
