ShortEnd Magazine

Above all filmmaker Frank V. Ross concerns himself with the here and now. Although he avoids making any grand statements about his work or dissecting his films into themes and narrative through lines, Ross plays with the modern landscape in such a way...
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Transcript excerpts of a discussion called "The State of Independent Film" run at the Atlanta Film Festival. Panelists include independent producer Alison Dickey, South by Southwest Producer Matt Dentler, film writer Chris Holland, who is also the Manager of Festival Operations for B-Side Entertainment, an indie film distributor, editor and filmmaker Tom Roche and moderator Executive Director of the Atlanta-based IMAGE Gabe Wardell.

Screenwriter Tom Scott Nowlin, the smug and lovely bastard, answers every question SM Editor Noralil Ryan Fores has about film.

Frank V. Ross' Hohokam studies moods and moments with an acute vision about miscommunication and communion, leaving the audience, atypically of a character study, on an end note of hope.

With Great World of Sound, filmmaker Craig Zobel has hit upon a chord equal parts humorous, poignant and bittersweet, along the way crafting an utterly astonishing, innovative and moving film.

Joe Swanberg’s Hannah Takes the Stairs falls short entirely of its great expectation. Rather, it serves primarily as a study of narrative ambiguity.

Delicately detailed and completed with evident passion, Sean Meredith’s Dante’s Inferno sketches our sins in smart tidbits of culture and plays as a film worth seeing if only as a reminder of where we don’t want to go and ...
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Filmmakers Ashley Sabin and David Redmon kept their eye strictly focused on the personal throughout their feature documentary Kamp Katrina, and this choice primarily explains the relevance and resonance it imparts to its audiences.

Filmmaker Heidi Van Lier has the singular talent of crafting meaningful films with interesting voice-over. A narrative technique that for other filmmakers falls flat, rendering a one-dimensionality to characters, serves Van Lier in her sophomore feature Monday as a perfect fit for character and story development.

The Williamsburg hipster arts scene has been asking for a parody, and in Jeremy Saulnier’s Murder Party, the “scene” got exactly what was coming to it, namely shameless mockery via gallons of fake blood.

“When writing (Hohokam) the ‘friend from out of town’ was a girl, and it was going nowhere. Struggling with it, I was about to get somewhere until I went out to a bar with Tony and saw this guy, who looked gay–I know that sounds ridiculous, but he was wearing capris and had a man-bag. Anyway it hit me that Lori’s friend should be a gay man. That would be a more interesting and relevant relationship to touch on. Then add in this marine dude (Anson) who has never met anyone gay and doesn’t know...
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