Celebrating 16 Years of Film.Biz.Fans.

NELSON CARVAJAL

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    VIDEO ESSAY: Wong Kar-Wai: Superimposed Symphony

    Wong Kar-Wai, whose long-awaited The Grandmaster opens in August, is not about plot. Wong Kar-wai is about motion and emotion. As my friend Nelson Carvajal's new video suggests, he's about the moment within the moment, the eternal in the now. Beautiful neighbors pass in a stairwe...

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    Between Fair Use and Infringement: The Perils of the Video Essay Form

    During the last couple of years, as I developed my voice as an independent digital filmmaker, a majority of the content in my filmography grew under the direction of appropriation art, and in particular, the video essay form.

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    VIDEO ESSAY: Pacino: Full Roar

    I could not stop laughing as I watched Nelson Carvajal's "Al Pacino: Full Roar"—not just because it's the most entertaining collection of over-the-top moments since Harry Hanrahan's "Nicolas Cage Losing His Shit," but because Pacino is and always has been a theatrical actor, delightfully so.

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    VIDEO ESSAY: Peter Andrews: The Soderbergh Vision

    “My policy is to have my name on a movie only once,” says Steven Soderbergh, so quoted by video essayist Nelson Carvajal. “Having your name once increases the impact of that credit because I think every time you put your name up there, you’re actually diluting it.”

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    VIDEO ESSAY: Beautiful Nightmares: David Lynch's Collective Dream

    David Lynch could be a wonderful stage director. Crazy to say, perhaps, but perhaps not.

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    VIDEO ESSAY: Gangster Culture in the Movies

    "He used to be a big shot." That's how a gangster's girlfriend describes him as she cradles his corpse at the end of "The Roaring Twenties." But the line could be plugged into any gangster film that ends with a tough-talking, two-fisted, hot-tempered alpha male cooling his heels in prison, frying in...

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    VIDEO ESSAY: ON THE Q.T., CHAPTER 4: KILL BILL: The Female Archetype vs. The Goddess

    Withhold information, then release it. Set up expectations, then subvert them. Tease, then gratify. This is how you construct an epic. This is how Quentin Tarantino, block by block, builds up "Kill Bill."

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    In Remembrance of Harris Savides: 1957-2012

    Cinematographer Harris Savides, who died yesterday at 54, was a poet of light. He shot some of the stylistically striking movies of the last two decades.

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    The Mystery of Werner Herzog: Two Video Essays and One Text Essay

    One of the most revealing statements in the book "Herzog on Herzog" appears early on, when Werner Herzog tells interviewer Paul Cronin that from the time he was a young child he has suffered a particular "communication defect": he has no sense of irony.

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    VIDEO ESSAY: Ninja Turtles: Generation Y in a Half Shell

    “Ugh. Where do they come up with this stuff?” groans a frustrated Raphael, the brooding, red-bandana-wearing member of the Ninja Turtles, whilst walking out of a New York movie theater that’s playing the 1980s creature feature "Critters."

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