Reports Archives - Hammer to Nail https://www.hammertonail.com/category/reports/ What to Watch Tue, 16 Sep 2025 18:41:14 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.9.4 https://www.hammertonail.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/cropped-logo02-1-32x32.png Reports Archives - Hammer to Nail https://www.hammertonail.com/category/reports/ 32 32 The Best and Worst of TIFF 2025 https://www.hammertonail.com/reports/tiff-2025/ Tue, 16 Sep 2025 18:40:46 +0000 https://www.hammertonail.com/?p=54058

What is up Hammer to Nail readers. It’s me, Rendy Jones, back for another TIFF critic’s notebook. Unlike my previous years, this being my sixth, this one was rather packed and busier than ever. Partly because of the terrible ticketing […]

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]]> A Conversation with Flora Lau (LUZ) https://www.hammertonail.com/interviews/flora-lau/ Mon, 10 Feb 2025 18:50:39 +0000 https://www.hammertonail.com/?p=52557

Premiering in the World Dramatic Competition at Sundance 2025, Luz is an ambitious exploration of reality, connection and redemption from director Flora Lau (Bends). Set across Chongqing, Hong Kong and Paris, the film follows Wei (Xiao Dong Guo), a reformed […]

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]]> A Conversation with Tony Benna (ANDRÉ IS AN IDIOT) https://www.hammertonail.com/interviews/tony-benna/ Thu, 06 Feb 2025 19:26:08 +0000 https://www.hammertonail.com/?p=52530

In André Is An Idiot, which premiered in the U.S. Documentary Competition at Sundance 2025 (where it won the Audience Award: U.S. Documentary), first-time feature director Tony Benna crafts an unexpectedly profound portrait of his friend André Ricciardi, a maverick advertising […]

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]]> That’s a Wrap on the 2023 Vashon Island Film Festival! https://www.hammertonail.com/film-festivals/2023-viff-wrap/ Wed, 16 Aug 2023 21:10:14 +0000 https://www.hammertonail.com/?p=40214

One of the best things about attending a small regional “getaway” fest like the Vashon Island Film Festival is getting to experience a community different from your own. Smaller fests tend to have a “homey” feel, the locals are welcoming, […]

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]]> GABBY GIFFORDS WON’T BACK DOWN https://www.hammertonail.com/reviews/gabby-giffords-doc/ Mon, 21 Mar 2022 23:54:21 +0000 https://www.hammertonail.com/?p=36663

(The 2022 SXSW Film Festival ran March 11-20 in glorious Austin, Texas. Check out Chris Reed’s movie review of Gabby Giffords Won’t Back Down. Join the conversation with HtN on our Letterboxd Page.) Guess what? People may, indeed, kill people, but guns […]

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]]> A Better Documentary Industry Conversation Leads Day 3 of Tiff Conference https://www.hammertonail.com/features/tiff-industry-conference-3/ Sat, 12 Sep 2020 21:48:37 +0000 https://www.hammertonail.com/?p=33328

With TIFF Documentary Programmer Thom Powers at the helm of the conversation with Sonya Childress of Firelight Media and Jesse Wente of Indigenous Screen Office and producer of an Inconvenient Indian, the trio explored beyond the conversations on authenticity and […]

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]]> Greetings from the Montana International Film Festival! https://www.hammertonail.com/on-the-festival-circuit/2019-mint-film-fest/ Sat, 21 Sep 2019 18:45:09 +0000 https://www.hammertonail.com/?p=31466 Montana International Film Festival (MINT) opened its second ever festival Thursday with a very Montana themed evening – a celebration under the Big Sky and stars outside of the historic Babcock Theatre in downtown Billings. The evening kicked off with […]

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]]> 2018 MEMPHIS FILM PRIZE REPORT https://www.hammertonail.com/shorts-contest/2018-memphis-film-prize-report/ Mon, 13 Aug 2018 19:11:51 +0000 http://www.hammertonail.com/?p=29988 Earlier this month, I fled muggy Brooklyn for even muggier Memphis to serve as a judge for the Memphis Film Prize, an annual short-film competition. The Memphis Film Prize is an offshoot of the Louisiana Film Prize, which was started […]

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]]> 2017 IFP Screen Forward Conference Filmmaker Magazine Talks https://www.hammertonail.com/shorts-contest/2017-ifp-filmmaker-magazine-talks/ Wed, 04 Oct 2017 20:18:22 +0000 http://www.hammertonail.com/?p=28558 To kick off the 2017 IFP Screen Forward Conference, and in tandem with their 25th anniversary, Filmmaker Magazine programmed a dense day of panels and conversations with filmmakers. The first panel, featuring veteran and new filmmakers from their 25 New Faces […]

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]]> Nick Toti Visits the 14th Factory https://www.hammertonail.com/editorial/14th-factory/ Tue, 20 Jun 2017 20:10:31 +0000 http://www.hammertonail.com/?p=28243 The first thing is, it’s in the middle of nowhere. It takes me less than 20 minutes to drive from my apartment in Koreatown to the converted warehouse that houses The 14th Factory, but it’s in a part of Los […]

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