Split Screen
Split Screen was a television series that originally aired from 1997 to 2001 on IFC. The series focused on independent filmmaking in America and was hosted by John Pierson. Split Screen featured segments from many notable filmmakers, actors, and actresses including: Kevin Smith, Spike Lee, Matt Damon, Edward Norton, Buck Henry, Wes Anderson, Steve Buscemi, John Waters, John Turturro, Christopher Walken, Richard Linklater, Errol Morris, Miranda July, and William H. Macy.
Episodes
Donal Lardner Ward and John Pierson visit the Meridian Theatre in Fiji, the most remote movie theater in the world, with a few movies in tow; in 1923, a set from a desert-bound Cecil B. DeMille shoot was intentionally buried and presumed lost forever—until now.
Hanging out with Richard Linklater and Tommy Pallotta while making the uniquely animated feature WAKING LIFE; The Alloy Orchestra at the Maui Film Festival; “Multiplex 1—The Projectionist”: Welcome to the Museum Place Cinemas, where movies are $1 at all times.
“Multiplex II—The Manager”: welcome back to the Museum Place Cinemas; woodworking with William H. Macy in New York City; “Bikers R People 2”: Amy Elliott turns the camera on biker-chick documentarian Barbara Bustillos-Cogswell; behind the curtain of a documentary about a migrant worker’s wedding, LA BODA.
“Video on Vinyl: Then and Now”: P. H. O’Brien and Doug Stone go from NYC to London in search of the legacy of the mysterious inventor John Logie Baird; “Focus Group From Hell”: movie market research as conducted by the hilarious team of Keythe Farley and Brian Flemming.
In this installment of Projections, John Pierson speaks with director Wes Anderson about his early filmmaking experiences making BOTTLE ROCKET, RUSHMORE and THE ROYAL
Woody, Leone, Bertolucci, Schlesinger, Lester and 007. David Picker enabled them all, and many more, as production head in United Artists’ golden era. In this installment of PROJECTIONS a series of interviews about filmmaking in New York, John speaks one on one with his top choice for All Star auteur executive.
Quintessential NY producer Christine Vachon has been on the cutting edge with her company Killer Films for over 25 years, supporting numerous breakout first timers and her mainstay Todd Haynes. This edition of Projections was shot not long after BOYS DON’T CRY won Hilary Swank an Oscar.
In this installment of Projections, a series of interviews about filmmaking in New York, John speaks one-on-one with Harmony Korine.
Celebrating Jonas Mekas, a true underground hero who tirelessly championed experimental filmmakers and their “essential cinema” for half a century. A man of many hats, he directed, wrote about and showcased avant garde films, eventually giving them a home at Anthology Film Archives, playing a key role in the 1960s.
Of all Projections interviews, Walter Bernstein’s tales are the stuff of a grand movie adventure. From WW2 hero/correspondent to Hollywood Blacklist in five years, both his script for THE FRONT and memoir INSIDE OUT illuminate that era, while FAIL SAFE captures the nail-biting fear of nuclear annihilation.
If these Projections interviews focus on New York filmmaking, why is David O. Russell sitting poolside in LA? After a quintessential indie debut, SPANKING THE MONKEY, and a bigger Miramax follow-up, FLIRTING WITH DISASTER, he’d just made a provocative third feature THREE KINGS for a Hollywood studio. Which way would he go?
In a two-year span early in his storied career, Buck Henry cocreated GET SMART and wrote THE GRADUATE, instantly showing the range of his genius. In the final PROJECTIONS, Buck’s observations on the independent model (TO DIE FOR) and cultural appropriation are prescient. Fashionistas should avert their eyes.
Origin story of odd-couple producers Ted Hope and James Schamus, who nurtured many key directors, especially Ang Lee, whose blockbuster CROUCHING TIGER, HIDDEN DRAGON opened the week this interview aired. Yet their company Good Machine made squat. Undaunted, Schamus went on to run Focus for a decade and Hope heads film at Amazon Studios.
