Projections 12 - Softcover

Film schools have nurtured successive generations of cinematic talent over the last three decades. But in the new digital era, do they still have a place? From Paris to Prague, London to Lodz, New York to Los Angeles, film schools sprung up around the globe in the 1960s and helped to revolutionise cinema. Now, recent graduates Fraser MacDonald and Oren Moverman explore the past, present, and future of film education in a series of wide-ranging dialogues with current teachers and celebrated alumni. MacDonald concentrates on the British and European scene and asks whether the recent 'renaissance' in British production owes a debt to the gifted recent graduates of the academies, while Moverman focuses on the famous schools of the American east coast. The volume also includes interviews with gifted new directors Pawel Pawlikowski ("Last Resort"), Francois Ozon ("Water Drops on Burning Rocks"), Bruno Dumont ("L'Humanite"), and Walter Salles ("Central Station"). Plus Peter Weller's diary of working with Michelangelo Antonioni, and a short story of backstage life from Ethan Hawke.

John Boorman was born in London in 1933. After working as a film reviewer for magazines and radio, he joined the BBC in 1955 as an assistant editor, and later directed a number of documentaries. His first feature was 'Catch Us If You Can' in 1965. His latest film, Country of My Skull, opens in 2003. He is a five-time Academy Award-nominee, and was twice awarded Best Director at the Cannes Film Festival for Leo the Last (1970) and The General (1998). He is the author of Money Into Light: The Emerald Forest - A Diary, as well as the being the co-founder and editor of Faber & Faber's long-running series Projections: Film-makers on Film-making.