RETRO KIMMER'S BLOG: directors

5.13.2014

SEARCHING FOR SUGARMAN DIRECTOR FOUND DEAD AT 36

The Academy Award-winning filmmaker of "Searching For Sugar Man," Malik Bendjelloul, was found dead from apparent suicide today in Stockholm, according to police reports. Bendjelloul, 36, won the Academy for Best Documentary last year for the film, about his search for the musician Sixto Diaz Rodriguez.

Police spokeswoman Pia Glenvik said the Swedish filmmaker died in Stockholm late Tuesday, but didn't specify the cause of death except to say there was no crime suspected, according to the Associated Press

Bendjelloul grew up in central and southern Sweden and acted in Swedish TV-series "Ebba and Didrik" as a child during the 1990s. He studied journalism and media-production at the Linnaeus University of Kalmar in southern Sweden and later worked as a reporter for Swedish public broadcaster SVT.

He resigned from that job to travel the world and he got the idea for "Searching for Sugar Man" during one of his trips.

11.17.2013

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO DIRECTOR: MARTIN SCORSESE!

Born November 17, 1942, in Flushing, New York, Martin Scorsese is known for his gritty, meticulous filmmaking style and is widely considered one of the most important directors of all time.

In 1967, Marty Scorsese made his first feature-length film, the black and white I Call First, which was later retitled Who's That Knocking at My Door with his fellow students actor Harvey Keitel and editor Thelma Schoonmaker, both of whom were to become long-term collaborators. This film was intended to be the first of Scorsese's semi-autobiographical 'J.R. Trilogy', which also would have included his later film, Mean Streets.

Robert Deniro and Marty

From there he became friends with the influential "movie brats" of the 1970s: Francis Ford Coppola, Brian De Palma, George Lucas, and Steven Spielberg. It was Brian De Palma who introduced Scorsese to Robert De Niro.

During this period he worked as the assistant director and one of the editors on the documentary Woodstock (1970) and met actor-director John Cassavetes, who would also go on to become a close friend and mentor. Scorsese is also credited as one of the cameramen who photographed the infamous late-1969 Altamont rock festival for the Rolling Stones film Gimme Shelter (1970).