The List of Filmmakers You Need to Search Out Continues with Part 7 (finally)

(Jean-Cosme Delaloye)

It's back!

After five years I'm continuing my list of FILMMAKERS YOU NEED TO SEACRH OUT.

The idea was formed in 2015 when I did a list of really off the board filmmakers whose Kool-Aid I had gladly drank (That can be found here).  After that I found I was keeping stray lists of filmmakers that I loved and who were not being talked about. Many of them were making films that should have been winning awards and shaking the pillars of heaven, but most people weren't noticing. 

Everyone was, and is, still talking about the same directors and the same films. But the truth is there are hundreds of great filmmakers out there, many better than most of the directors who are loudly lauded by the cinematic gatekeepers. The people on this ever growing list are people you need to search out

Before I reveal the next list of names I want to say that what follows is a list of filmmakers that made up what five years ago would have been the seventh and eighth editions of the list. I've combined them together because they have been waiting too long to take center stage.

I also want to say that I've asked Eden to work on a companion list of female filmmakers. That will run when she is done.

And if you want to get you to speed and see who was on the first six lists they can be found here: FILMMAKER LISTS

Now if you'll excuse me I'm going to go off and work on extending this list (Part 8 is in the works).

(This photo of Mathiey Amalric is by Liz Whittemore)

Eduardo Rivero and the team at Fotosintesis Media have made a film called A COSTUME FOR NICHOLAS and they have reset how you will look at how the disabled in cinema.

Christopher Doyle is best known as a cinematographer, but he has also directed films that are unlike anything else out there

Sean Meehan makes films that are nigh on perfect. His short films like LOST FACE and TOTAL PERFORMANCE feel more complete and more meaty than most feature films

Joyce Wong doesn't go for easy answers. Her films like BEXFORD PLAZA cut close the bone and leave us uneasy.

Mathieu Amalric is best known as an actor. The truth is he is an even better director who creates films that show the range of the actors he casts. He is also one hell of a documentary director, particularly his music docs (three reviews are here)

Jim Vendiola's film VIOLETS, PRETTY PICKLE and LIBRARY HOURS are short horror films that make you fear for the directors sanity (I mean that in a good way). One of the best genre directors working today he needs to get on the big stage so he can take his place as one of the great horror directors.

Don Hertzfeldt is cult animator who is one of few directors who is allowed to make his movies his way. His films like the WORLD OF TOMORROW series, ME or IT'S SUCH A BEAUTIFUL DAY rewire how you see the world

Daniela Thomas's VAZANTE  put her on my radar and it's been down hill ever since with each new film I see making me rethink about how I see everything.

Dean Colin Marcial's MANILA DEATH SQUAD is a punch in the face. While he's done some web series, his strenth is real and raw crime tale

Dan Perlman & Kevin Iso's FLATBUSH MISDEMEANORS is a series of shorts that show what magnificent things you can do when you have a handle on character and can use that to delight an audience

Liu Jian is an animator making films unlike any one else. His  HAVE A NCE DAY is a dystopian gut punch. His Follow up ART SCHOOL 1994 is a look at his time in art school and it isn't how anyone has portrayed art school in the movies.

Hsin-yao Huang's GREAT BUDDHA + got him noticed and since then he's made a bunch of films that don't fully play by the expected rules.

Jean-Christophe Dessaint's DAY OF THE CROWS is a masterpiece. It's one of the greatest animated films of the last twenty years. Its a film that one ups Studio Ghibli

Christina Kallas's THE RAINBOW EXPERIMENT put her on my map. She may not have made perfect film but she announced herself as a force to be reckoned with. Her follow up PARIS IS IN HARLEM revealed her to be truly great.

Niclas Giles' HOLD ME DOWN  is like being hit by a hammer right between your eyes.  While he hasn't done a lot of films he made HOLD which is one of the best films I've seen in decades.

Christopher Bickel has made a bunch of edgey films that aren't foeveryone. However his films like THETA GIRL reveal him to be a director with a singular vision.

Sure Issa López went on to do True Detective, but she also did TIGERS ARE NOT AFRAID which is even better

Sam Kuhn may not have made a lot of films but his films like  MOBIUS show us his unique vision

David McCraken in films like BULLIT COUNTRY doesn't go where you expect. That may bother some people but if you want something unlike anything else its a delight.

Kim Noce is animator I discovered through Shawn Clarke. Her films like LOVE-IN-IDLENESS are singular visions 

Stephen Nomura Schible  may be tied largely to music docs but they are great music docs.