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.

Before the Filmmakers to Search Out list returns with Part Seven here is the original 2015 Kool Aid List Reposted

listening for films that are off the beaten path

Back in 2015 I made up the following list of filmmakers whose work made me drink the Kool Aid in regard to their work. They were people I would follow anywhere.  This list was made off the top of my head to fill a Sunday slot

This list eventually spawned the  growing list of FILMMAKERS YOU NEED TO SEARCH OUT in 2021. That list is very long and lists a large number of filmmakers whose work you need to be searching out over the same five or six people everyone on the Internet talks about. That list has six parts posted and should have the seventh up in a week or so since I'm finishing up the part I started but never finished. (The parts can be found here)

Because I want to remind the world that there are all these great people making films that no one talks about I'm posting my original original piece before  trudging on with the long list

(Do keep in mind this list is 10 years old and not updated with new titles)

 ---
THE UNSEEN FILMS KOOL AID LIST
Earlier this month (actually this was done in 2015)I reviewed Christian Svanes Kolding's END OF THE INTERNET and I mentioned that there were a couple of filmmakers whose work I love but whose names you’d never know and a couple of people asked me who these people were.

While I have a long list of filmmakers where I've only seen a single example of their work but who have impressed me none the less  (Jason Kartalian or the duo of Jordan Harris and Andrew Schrader for example) The group I’m talking about have taken the next step and made a couple of films that I think are as good if not better than their firsts. These are the guys I'm waiting to make the jump to super stardom. These are the guys whose work made my jaw drop and murmur under my breath that I was seeing the emergence of someone great-not just once but twice or three times or more. These guys make up the so called KOOL AID LIST because as far as their ability to turn out great films is concerned I'm all in and I've drunk the Kool Aid.

The list is unscientific and purely personal. While I have seen other directors who may have as much talent as these guys the guys on the Kool Aid List score in one key place- I can't shake their films. These are they guys who's work I keep thinking about. And these are they guys I want to name drop when I get involved in talking about the up and coming talent and the next big film directors. I love these guys and I love that there work has become part of my psyche.

The listing below is not in any order- they are all just great directors.

Christian Svanes Kolding as you know is a great filmmaker. I loved his THE EMERGENCY KIT and now his END OF THE INTERNET is even better. You can read my thoughts on EMERGENCY KIT in the review for END and you can put him on the list of people to watch

Jon Kasbe has made a whole bunch of films including MIPSO IN JAPAN and BEAUTIFUL WASTE (see them at his website) and I love every one of them.  Jon has an eye and a sense of place and beauty that is the sort of thing that in a few years is going to be the style everyone is copying. While the look of his films might be enough for some filmmakers its not for Jon who turns in compelling tales every time. (Here is the trailer for his next film and I can't wait)

Jerimiah Kipp is one of the greatest directors of horror films I’ve ever run across.He deserves to be in the pantheon of guys who will scare the crap out of you over and over again. He’s directed a bunch of films but simply on the basis of this two films THE DAYS GOD SLEPT and MINIONS (not the cartoon) he deserves to be making full length fright films because he knows how to disturb his audience deeply. This isn't to sell his other films short- they are damn scary films, but DAYS and MINIONS still haunt me and make me not even want to think about them.

Chun-Yi Hsieh is one of the greatest directors working anywhere in the world. He contacted me way back in 2011 and told me I needed to see his film THE BRAID and he was right it was one of the best films I saw that year, and it’s a film that has haunted me ever since. When he gave me the link to that film he accidently gave me links to a whole bunch of other films that he had made. It was clear back then that he had the right stuff. He’s now back in Taiwan making feature films and his APOLITICAL ROMANCE just kicked it to the curb as one of the great films of NYAFF 2014.

I debated including Alec Kubas Meyer in this group for two reasons. First he’s a friend which makes my recommendation suspect and secondly the films he’s made that put him on the list haven’t officially premiered yet. REEL, a Hollywood action film is finishing post-production and NOT TOO YOUNG has been submitted to several film festivals for next year. However based upon those films, plus his earlier film MIRANDA and his student films Alec is a filmmaker to watch. While I’ve talked at length about his ability to handle action in my piece on MIRANDA, it’s the handling of troubling difficult subject matters in NOT TOO YOUNG and two additional films he’s working on that forced him on to the list.

And so concludes my Kool Aid List. Take notes and watch for these guys to break out and do something wonderful real soon....

Filmmakers You Need To Search Out Part 6

 

Christina Walford and John Wildman

This is the sixth entry in my list of filmmakers you need to search out. (The previous entries can be found here). For those just coming upon the series it was put together in response to Film Twitter’s insistence that there is only a handful, or less, of filmmakers we should be watching. Everything else not of  their chosen few are not worth bothering with – despite the fact that the innovations in the art form are coming from the up coming filmmakers.

The list is neither definitive nor ranked. No one is better  than anyone else. Additionally there are a lot of people I know I will have missed when the list is finally finished (there are several more entries in the works)

And now this week’s entries

I love what Christopher DiNunzio is doing with the form of the drama. In films such as A LIFE NOT TO FOLLOW  he is taking what could be a run of the mill plot line and turning it into something special. I don’t think I’ve seen one of his films that hasn’t impressed me in one way or another. Also track down KINNARI and DELUSION

Devin Rice’s  BEING BLACK ENOUGH is one hell of a film. The semi-autobiographical story of a black man who grew up in a white neighborhood and what happens when moves in with his cousin in a black neighborhood is not your typical story. It’s a film that raises a lot of questions about race thatno one else is raising, forcing us to see things with different eyes.

Patrick Green is a hard working filmmaker who is turning out a great series of films. One of the few filmmakers who excels at both narrative and documentaries, he delights me with every new film.  Each time one of his films like FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION, BUNDINI or MOMMY’S LITTLE MONSTER drops I drop what I’m doing to see what sort of wonders he’s released on the world. His up coming SINCERELY, LOS ANGELES looks amazing, and as do his other upcoming projects.

I’ve known John Wildman for over a decade and I’m a better person for it. He began his cinema career as an actor and was once called by Leanna Quigley as one of the sexiest men alive, he then moved on to making horror films such as LADIES OF THE HOUSE and started rattling cages. (Interview here)

Shakespeare Sisters made THE SOUNDTRACK TO SIXTEEN and it’s a film that’s killer. It’s a film that made a crochety old fart like me scream at the screen feeling as if I was decades younger. It’s a film that made me delighted for what I was seeing but chomping at the bit to see what their next film is gonna be. These young ladies have their fingers on the pulse of what it means to be alive.

Ross Monroe‘s EUROPEAN VACATION is the simple retelling of a family trip many years ago that speaks volumes. What could he do with a feature?

Jeff Giordano’s  ROMANTIC CHORUS is too much of everything. An animated documentary, it a feast for the eyes and ears and brain and it leaves you exhausted by the need to try and take in everything its throwing at us. If other filmmakers would just throw this much stuff at us the movies would be so much more intelligent.

What can I say about Ted Geoghagen? Ted was someone I met through the New York Asian Film Festival. I just thought he was this great guy, And then sometime later I discovered that not only was he writing and producing films he was directing wonders like WE ARE STILL HERE and MOHAWK.  My question is when is Marvel going to come calling and let him do something BIG. (Interview here)

Julian Fort is one of the great filmmakers making crime films and turning them into something gloriously meatier. For example his film THE MIDNIGHTERS is nominally caper film but it speaks about fathers and sons and other things. I can’t wait to see what’s next/

Jon Huber, your truly, Ted Geoghagen

Filmmakers You Need to Search Out Part 5

Justin McConnell

Another Sunday and another part of my list of great filmmakers you need to trackdrown. If you missed any of the parts just go here and see who came before. And of course the list will continue so check back.... 

Justin McConnell is a great filmmaker  His CLAPBOARD JUNGLE (interview) is one of the best films on film you ill ever see. Its a collection on interviews with other filmmakers about the industry. His LIFECHANGER (interview) is an amazing horror film that transcends the genre to be something more and his short SOUL CONTACT which was made during the early days of covid is just a great deal of fun. There is nothing he can't do- and I willing to see every film he's made to make sure.

Tran Bao burst on the scene last year with PAPER TIGERS (Interview). Nominally a martial arts film it transcends the genre to be a touching family film. I can't wait to see what's next

Shaun Clarke is one of the great animators out there. He has a unique vision unlike anyone else. More to the point he takes big stories and makes laser focused versions. Hs  NECK AND NECK allowed m to understand Othello for the first time. His THE BEHOLDER is a wicked version of The Tell Tale Heart. I love everything he does.

I will be running an interview with Marq Evans very soon. Until that runs you need to know his bio of Wil Vinton, CLAYDREAM will move you to tears. His THE GLAMOUR AND THE SQUALOR is a magical look at the DJ who broke Nirvana and many others. Both films would seem to be your typical biography but the reality is they transcend the form.

Kenneth R Frank in films like FAMILY OBLIGATIONS takes small budgets and makes magic

Santho Goonewardene's short film PRAYERS OF A SAINT is the sort of film that makes you sit up and take notice and wonder where this great talent as coming from as it haunts you for days

Gabriel Bartalos is a special effects master who turned to directing/ The result is films like Saint Bernard which are one of kind films that need to be playing at midnight

Liam Gavin's A DARK SONG is an atypical horror film that has the smell of reality. It digs into your soul and stays with you. We need more like this.

Ralph Bismargi has created one of the funniest characters Herbie a well meaning life coach who misses the mark. He first appeared in HERBIE and continued in INSPIRATIONAL THERAPY . Rarely have any films so consistently doubled me over with laughter.

Elena Beuca's D-LOVE is based on a true story. The result is a lovely film. I'm hoping she has more true stories to tell

Filmmakers You Should Track Down Part 4

Lorcan Finnegan

After several weeks off because of festival coverage I'm finally continuing my list of filmmakers you need to track down. I'm going to just get to it.

Claire Carre' sEMBERS is a masterpiece. Its a film about loss of  memory and finding life. It is pure cinema magic made my a master.

Can Evrenol amazes me. His BASKIN is a truly f-ed up horror film that disturbed me for days. His GIRL WITH NO MOUTH  is a family film unlike anything you've seen. Is there anything he can't do?

I first heard of Jerimiah Kipp when he was doing interviews for Shock Magazine. I then discovered that he is one of the best horror film directors I've seen. His films THE DAY GOD SLEPT, BERENICE, THE MINIONS are stunning. But he's made way more and you need to see all of them (My interview with him is here) 

Steve Elkin's ECHOES OF THE INVISIBLE changed how both Nate and I saw the world. His earlier THE REACH OF RESONANCE will alter how you hear music.

Jeremy Workman has delighted me since I started Unseen Films. From MAGICAL UNIVERSE  to ONE TRACK MIND to THE WORLD BEFORE YOUR FEET have opened up the world for me.

Lorcan Finnegan is one of the best horror directors out there. His work has spoken of the clash of the natural world and the man made one. His FOXES was the gateway drug. He followed that with WITHOUT NAME  which disturbed me. His most recent VIVARIUM is a black comedy that will make you never want to go to a row house ever again. (my interview with him is here)

Michael Wong  ability to tell a story in a unique way intrigued me when I saw THE STORY OF 90 COINS.  He followed it up with THE TATTOOIST which is just beyond words. 

Jared Bratt made a hellish film about loneliness called STREAMER, It will mess you up.

Joji Koyama,and Tujiko Noriko made a film called KURO. It is a film that combines a visual story with an unrelated voice over tale to create a third story. Its one of the most amazing cinematic tricks I've ever seen.

Brian Harrison- HELL FOLLOWS is a film with style to burn. It blew my mind because I couldn't believe it was coming out of nowhere. Its one of the best short films of the last ten years. (My interview with Mr. Harrison here)

You probably haven't heard of Madison Campione because she's still in school. I first discovered her with REMEMBRANCE which she made in High School. She followed it with IN OUR HEADS which she finished before she went to college. What will she do once she's let loose?

Simon Fitzmaurice blew me  away when I saw his film MY NAME IS EMILY, Despite having ALS he decided to make a film and it is a glorious celebration of life. Sadly the disease killed him but he is celebrated in the great doc IT'S NOT DARK YET about his life and filmmaking. Oh the soul we lost....

Matthew Salton's RICHARD TWICE is a one of a kind music doc. You just have to see it. (My inteview with him can be found here)

Filmmakers You Need to Search Out Part 3

With three festivals going this week I've shortened this week's addition to the list of films you need to search out since I've been watching too many films.....

I discovered Alonso Ruizpalacios at Tribeca when I saw his film GUEROS and was floored by it. It was a ballsy act of filmmaking that resulted in my interview with the filmmaker because I had to see who had the mad idea to make the film.

I love Jason Kartalian's films. He is one of my favorite filmmakers. He makes me laugh and he makes me think. Most importantly he makes m fall in love with the movies all over again. His two films on Jeff Leroy are two of the best films on films you will ever see.

Anad Jodorowsky is the son of Alejandro. His short film THE VOICE THEIF is a masterpiece that heralds a new generation of cinema masters.

Alec Kubas-Meyer is a friend. He writes for Unseen Films. He also makes killer films. His REEL, MIRANDA and NOT TOO YOUNG reveal a filmmaker who needs to be turned loose on a feature film. I know he is doing reviews on You Tube but he needs to be making movies because we need to see what he has cooked up.

Jon Kasbe is one of the greatest cinematographers I've ever run across. He is also one of the greatest documentary filmmakers I have ever run across. His shorts such as MIPSO IN JAPAN, HEARTBEATS IN FIJI and BEAUTIFUL WASTE rock and his feature WHEN LAMBS BECOME LIONS will make you rethink how you view poaching. 

Bryan Reisberg's BIG SIGNIFICANT THINGS  was his first feature and it heralds the arrival of a director with a wonderful world view. I want to see more.

CRUMBS was Miguel Llansó's first film and it was a film that changed the way I see the world. His follow up JESUS SHOWS YOU THE WAY TO TH HIGHWAY was confirmation that he is the real deal and someone you MUST track down.

I discovered Sudhish Kamath when I covered the crazy film X: PAST IS PRESENT which had multiple writers and directors but still worked. His follow up SIDE A SIDE B is a mix tape romance. His films shake up forms and make us see what can be done is different than what we thought. Thy are also wonderful.

AND a word of warning I will be skipping a week or two of this list. The lists are done but with NYAFF, Fantasia, Bentonville and AAIFF all playing in the next two weeks there will be heavy drops of reviews and I don't want the filmmakers on this list to get lost.

Filmmakers You Need to Search Out Part 2

Patrick Meaney ices his hand while Neil Gaiman explains why

Welcome to part to of what is destined to be a long running list of filmmakers you need to search out. (Part 1 can be found here).

As those who read the first part know, the list comes from my getting pissed off at Film Twitter and most major writers ignoring all of the great filmmakers  from around the world who aren't cranking out the big films. In order to set the record straight I'm listing a whole bunch of filmmakers who are either making great films no one seems to have seen or they are making films that are pushing the bounds of what cinema is.

This part of the list a bunch of filmmakers I discovered as Unseen Films started to be a officially a member of the press.

There is no order here. No one is better than anyone else. Its just a randomly selected list of filmmakers ordered in the way I ran across them as I complied the list. The list is small so you don't have a ton of people to try and track down.

The list will continue into at least September - though it will probably go way beyond it.

Yoshihiro Nakamura

Chun-Yi Hsieh was the first filmmaker who ever reached out to me. He asked me to see his short BRAID in 2011 when I missed it at Tribeca.. It is a masterpiece. He has since gone on to make films in Asia and all of them are worth seeing. APOLITICAL ROMANCE

Patrick Meaney maybe best known for his documentaries about comic gods (Grant Morrison, Chris Claremont and Neil Gaiman, among others,) but he also has made a killer horror film (HOUSE OF DEMONS) and is now writing comics.

Irina Varina - Brooklyn based filmmaker has a glorious one of a kind look at the world. I fell under her spell with her feature US, FOREVER AGO and I have been delighted with everything that followed 

Qunshu Gao, the director of THE MESSAGE, OLD FISH, BEIJING BLUES and WIND BLAST is making the best films you haven't seen and which are difficult to see in the US outside of a festival. Don't be fooled or put off by the difficulty he is one of the truly great directors you need to be actively searching out.

Yoshihiro Nakamura is one of my most favorite directors in the world. His INERASABLE is one of the most terrifying films I've ever seen. Hs other films like POTECHI, SNOW  WHITE MURDER CASE, A FISH STORY, A BOY AND HIS SAMURAI and others. Thank god I did Unseen so I could not only discover him but meet him.

Hitoshi Matsumoto makes off kilter films. They always seem to be about one thing before they twist at the end into perfection in ways that will move you. R100, SCABBARD  SAMURAI, BIG MAN JAPAN, SYMBOL are magic films. (SCABBARD SAMURAI will rock your world and SYMBOL is a glorious shaggy dog tale)

Segundo de Chomon was a contemporary of Melies and he ripped off some of his films, like a TRIP TO THE MOON, but he also improved on many, and he also made a ton of other films that were wonderfully unique.

Benjamin Renner has made two of my favorite animated films of all time  Ernest and Celstine and THE BIG BAD FOX AND OTHER TALES.  Both films will make you laugh, make you feel warm and make you want to revist them over and over again.

Andy Viner makes funny funny films. Start with Dick Night and Kirsten Lives in Los Angeles and go off laughing from there. That may not sound like a huge rave- but once you see his films you'll know its enough.

Linda Hoaglund's THINGS LEFT BEHIND and WOUND AND THE GIFT have haunted me since I saw them. THINGS LEFT BEHIND maybe the greatest film on the Hiroshima bombing I've seen reducing the massive tragedy to a level we can all understand.

Filmmakers You Need to Search Out Part1: Notes from before I went Inde

SABU

On the 4th of July I tweeted that I was sick and tired of people prattling on about Tarantino, Scorsese, Lynch, Spielberg and all of the other big name directors that people are constantly going back to. I did this because if you listen to Film Twitter there are only  five or six directors worth speaking of and all the good films have been made until these filmmakers make their next film. Of course they are saying this at the same time as they are professing a deep love of cinema… the vast majority of which they are completely ignoring. 

In all seriousness these so called film fans, who claim to live and die cinema, seem not to be watching anything new. They are not wading into the trenches and watching anything from the up and coming filmmakers. Worse they are not attempting to find new voices that need to be amplified. They are not  out there  trying to find the next great director by watching the small films and going to the small fests. If you ask me ,they should  be, since its been my experience the best filmmakers are outside the studio system; or if they are in the system they are down in the food chain.

I’m sick and tired of Film Twitter and many of the big name writers droning on and on about filmmakers and films that have been talked up to death. Frankly most of the  “great filmmakers” are not in touch with the world today and their films show it. They live isolated lives and aren't making films that connect to life being lived.

In the tweet I suggested that people need to track down people like Marq Evans, Justin McConnell, Jason Karatilianm, Shaun Clarke and Bao Tran because they are making films that will open you mind and your idea of what film could be (even if it’s in the form of a well-worn genre). And having said it I instantly freaked out because there are more than just those guys who are doing great things. Those were just  the guys I had been talking to and about  right before the Tweet. I knew I needed to highlight all the other filmmakers,  especially the women since the last five years have been full of the most amazing films from women  (Madison Campion and Elena Beuca being just the tip of the iceberg). I needed to put all their names out there…..so I came up with the idea of putting a list together.

Foolishly I tweeted that I would run a list in August…and went off to make it.  I figured I could bang it out and put it up  one day and be done with it. I mean how hard could it be? Well it was hard enough that the list is going to appear over several weeks (months?) time and end eventually.

Let's face it there are a lot of great filmmakers out there that most people are not talking about.

You should know that it is a list of filmmakers with a few brief words about them and some of their films you should see see.  I know I should have given you links to the films but this has turned into a long list and for now the best I can do is point you to their work. Its so big that I have broken the list  into random bite sized pieces. I have done this so that you will  not get overwhelmed by a huge list. I want you to look at the names and try the films. Doing in bite size pieces will allow that

The list is going to run Sunday nights for the next couple of months, so its going to be a while before I get to everyone I want to highlight... and  I know the finished list maybe incomplete because there are simply too many filmmakers I have run across and I may not have written down every name.  I may miss someone  it will be accidently. I'm going to do my best not to have that happen, but then again the list won't be done until I say its done so hopefully I will get everyone I need to.

A quick note to the various filmmakers- there is no order to how anyone appears or in what part. The order is random, selected by my trips backward and forward through my notes and the posts at Unseen. They appear as I ran across a name, not because I like some one better.

And now the first part of the list.  I made the this part by going through the early days of Unseen Films, before I truly fell in love with inde films, before I started to make a lot of friends who shared films and filmmakers with me. As a result  it is a list made up of some better known filmmakers, because that's what I was watching. The part of the list that follow will be less mainstream (assuming you can call even these filmmakers mainstream.)

Jean-Francois Laguionie

Yes you all know Kiyoshi Kurosawa because of his art house hits but what you need to do is search out his early work for hire films, the Revenge films, the Suit Yourself or  Shoot Yourself series or even the completely off kilter recent films that were run by NYAFF or the Japan Society because no one else would touch them.  These are the films that show you a director who is bold and daring even when he is falling on his face.

Jiri Barta is a stop motion master who makes films unlike anything else If you can find his IN THE ATTIC OR WHO HAS A BIRTHDAY TODAY? in it's original dub (the English dub is beyond awful) you will have a film that will become a favorite forever.

Jean-François Laguionie is a French animator who is just a brilliant filmmaker. His GWEN AND THE BOOK OF SAND is a dystopian tone poem. While his LOUISE BY THE SHORE and THE PRINCE'S VOYAGE take seemingly typical plots and turn them in to pure magic.

Do I need to mention Johnnie To? Uneven, all over the place, he makes films that are just cinematic magic - often making something out of someone else's failed film.  His ELECTION films are the equal of the GODFATHER.  And just because its a smack in the face find THE LONGEST NIGHT- though all his films are worth trying.

Andy Milligan was a force in the off Broadway world when it was just starting up into he 50's and 60's before starting to make films in the 60's. Eventually he became known for churning out trash cinema his films were at best a mixed bag and destroyed minds but he was influential.

Sergei Bondarchuk made the best version of WAR AND PEACE. However he made other films like THEY FOUGHT FOR THE MOTHERLAND or DESTINY OF A MAN that need to be seen,

Sabu is one of the greatest director's you've never heard of. Why are you not searching out his genre spanning films? He is one of the greatest directors in the world and while he may not always hit, he is always interesting. All his films are worth seeing but try DRIVE which is a meditation on life.

Jim Mickle made MULBRRY STREET and then the masterpiece STAKE LAND Start there and be amazed.

 Isao Takahata found Studio Ghibli with Hayao Miyazaki. He was also the better director. Just see GRAVE OF FIREFLIES and tell me differently

Gualtiero Jacopetti and Franco Prosperis changed the world when they made MONDO CANE. However everyone overlooks the other films they made, specifically AFRICA ADDIO and GOODBYE UNCLE TOM which have multiple versions and like them or not are are in your face looks at the world and our thoughts. Their final film MONDO CANDIDO is an uneven take on the classic by Voltaire, which make you wonder what they would have done next.