Ass Studios has had to face a cold truth: Silly acronyms can sometimes turn around and bite you in the… You get the point. The no-budget indie production house, founded last year by Courtney Fathom Sell and Reverend Jen Miller, has been notified that Amazon.com will not stock its latest offering, “Ass Studios Presents 4 Short Films.” According to Sell, the mega-online retailer has twice declined to allow sales of the anthology on the site because of what it describes as “objectionable content.” New York City-based Ass Studios — or Art Star Scene Studios — prides itself on its ridiculous, no-budget filmmaking, which it models on the work of John Waters, Lloyd Kaufman and Russ Meyer, classic purveyors of cinematic endeavors often charitably described as “tasteless” (and all stocked by Amazon). But Sell claims to be mystified that Amazon would turn its nose up at what he describes as PG-13 material based on a.
- 7/12/2012
- by Jay A. Fernandez
- Indiewire
Synopsis:
“It Elf” Reverend Jen and filmmaker Courtney Fathom Sell are pleased to announce the formation of Ass Studios (“Art Star Scene Studios”) the most Lo-Fi, underfunded motion picture studio in the history of filmmaking! This “Dreamworks of the Lower East Side” (minus millions of dollars) promises satire, sleaze, pants-pissing laughs and more art stars than you can shake a dick at! Featuring some of the most amazingly beautiful and talented performers and artists… More...
“It Elf” Reverend Jen and filmmaker Courtney Fathom Sell are pleased to announce the formation of Ass Studios (“Art Star Scene Studios”) the most Lo-Fi, underfunded motion picture studio in the history of filmmaking! This “Dreamworks of the Lower East Side” (minus millions of dollars) promises satire, sleaze, pants-pissing laughs and more art stars than you can shake a dick at! Featuring some of the most amazingly beautiful and talented performers and artists… More...
- 5/27/2012
- by Josh Darling
- Horror News
San Antonio Film Festival
The deadline for the 18th annual San Antonio Film Festival is fast approaching, but there’s still a few more days to get your films in. The actual fest will run on Jun. 18-24.
The fest is always a great, eclectic mix of international indie film that also heavily screens and promotes local talent. There does usually seem to be an emphasis on films with a political or social justice bent, but that doesn’t mean Saff will shy away from tossing in a straight-up thriller or comedy to mix things up.
For example, last year’s films ranged from the music doc Everyday Sunshine: The Story of Fishbone by Chris Metzler and Lev Anderson to the police thriller Disrupt/Dismantle by Jack Lucarelli to the Indian surrogate mother business Made in India by Rebecca Haimowitz and Vaishali Sinha to the comedy Lord Byron by Zack Godshall.
The deadline for the 18th annual San Antonio Film Festival is fast approaching, but there’s still a few more days to get your films in. The actual fest will run on Jun. 18-24.
The fest is always a great, eclectic mix of international indie film that also heavily screens and promotes local talent. There does usually seem to be an emphasis on films with a political or social justice bent, but that doesn’t mean Saff will shy away from tossing in a straight-up thriller or comedy to mix things up.
For example, last year’s films ranged from the music doc Everyday Sunshine: The Story of Fishbone by Chris Metzler and Lev Anderson to the police thriller Disrupt/Dismantle by Jack Lucarelli to the Indian surrogate mother business Made in India by Rebecca Haimowitz and Vaishali Sinha to the comedy Lord Byron by Zack Godshall.
- 3/3/2012
- by Mike Everleth
- Underground Film Journal
This Week’s Absolute Must Look is a series of film stills from Storm de Hirsch’s documentary about Jonas Mekas making his documentary of the performance of The Brig in 1964. So that’s what a filmmaker shooting with a film camera looks like!Aryan Kaganof had an unpleasant experience at a European film festival. Maybe it’s just me, but I think his comment to Bela Tarr is funny.Jason Kupfer has a snazzy new filmmaker website, which I’ve been meaning to link to for awhile, so I guess it’s new-ish.Dominic Deacon’s nunsploitation feature Bad Habits got reviewed on the site Scaryminds and received a 3 out of 5 on the sex and violence scale.The site Bad at Sports interviews filmmaker Jesse McLean.J.J. Murphy reviews Azazel Jacob’s feature Terri, marking it along the filmmaker’s inching closer to the mainstream. Or is there something...
- 1/22/2012
- by Mike Everleth
- Underground Film Journal
Last month we published a piece by Courtney Fathom Sell, “Hi-8 High Life,” on the underground filmmaker’s no-holds-barred artistic credo and production philosophy. In advance of a screening event on September 11 at the Bowery Poetry Club, here is his tale of his Ass Studios and the New York underground film scene.
When we first formed Ass Studios, a no-budget independent film production company, we didn’t expect to gain much attention from mainstream America. Our catalogue of titles, such as Elf Workout!, an homage to cheesy ’80s workout videos which more of less could be viewed as soft-core porn, The Bitches of Bowery, a celebration of a leather wearing man-hating girl-gang terrorizing the streets of the Lower East Side, and most recently Satan’s BitcheS, an exploration into the dark side of Satan worship through the eyes of two Catholic schoolgirls kidnapped and served up for a ritual sacrifice...
When we first formed Ass Studios, a no-budget independent film production company, we didn’t expect to gain much attention from mainstream America. Our catalogue of titles, such as Elf Workout!, an homage to cheesy ’80s workout videos which more of less could be viewed as soft-core porn, The Bitches of Bowery, a celebration of a leather wearing man-hating girl-gang terrorizing the streets of the Lower East Side, and most recently Satan’s BitcheS, an exploration into the dark side of Satan worship through the eyes of two Catholic schoolgirls kidnapped and served up for a ritual sacrifice...
- 9/9/2011
- by Scott Macaulay
- Filmmaker Magazine - Blog
Courtney Fathom Sell is like a reincarnation of the young John Waters. Obsessed with making transgressive low-budget movies on Hi 8 and possessing little regard for societal norms (his company is Slumlord Productions), Sell embodies the Diy spirit taken to its sometime illogical extreme. And in it's in that spirit that indieWIRE presents Sell's Top 5 Slightly Illegal Tips For No-Budget Filmmakers. Actually, that adverb is something of a misnomer; ...
- 8/5/2011
- Indiewire
A while back filmmaker Courtney Fathom Sell (pictured, below right) sent me his and Billy Feldman’s short documentary film, The Hole, about a strange neighborhood on the Brooklyn/Queens border that’s actually below sea level. It’s a beautiful and fascinating exploration, detailing the people, infrastructure, and social economics of an urban space that is often on the verge of flooding. The film screens Sunday night at Rooftop Films at the Brooklyn Grange. After watching the film I invited Sell to send me a guest blog post on his own brand of independent filmmaking. (And for those who aren’t able to attend the screening, I’ve embedded the film below.) — Scott Macaulay
Living the High Life Through the Cracked Lens of a Hi-8
My name is Courtney Fathom Sell. I don’t expect any of you to know who I am simply because I reside at the...
Living the High Life Through the Cracked Lens of a Hi-8
My name is Courtney Fathom Sell. I don’t expect any of you to know who I am simply because I reside at the...
- 8/3/2011
- by Scott Macaulay
- Filmmaker Magazine - Blog
With the holiday season quickly approaching, it's time for the November rush... which means we're in for a seriously packed DVD release day! When you look at the major releases, the only real blockbuster here is J.J. Abrams' Star Trek, but there are a ton of interesting indie releases and a solid line-up of Blu-ray discs as well. A pair of underperforming comedies hit stores today (Bruno and The Goods) plus Jim Jarmusch's The Limits of Control, Chan-wook Park's vampire drama Thirst, and the Sundance hit Humpday, not to mention the Lil' Wayne documentary The Carter. On Blu-ray, we have new anniversary editions of Fight Club and Gone with the Wind, plus three Kevin Smith flicks, Galaxy Quest, and Leon: The Professional. What's on your shopping list this week? Star Trek [1] (DVD, Blu-ray [2]) Bruno [3] (DVD, Blu-ray [4]) The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard [5] Thirst [6] The Limits of Control [7] Humpday [8] Franklyn [9] (DVD,...
- 11/17/2009
- by Sean
- FilmJunk
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