documentaries about young music prodigy school

His English language debut, The Death & Life of John F Donovan suffered negative reviews and a troubled post-production but Dolan is young enough that he hasn’t had much trouble bouncing back with his next film, Matthias & Maxime, returning him to critical glory. At 20, the film-maker from Quebec used the money he’d earned as a child actor to write, direct, produce and star in the audacious and semi-autobiographical I Killed My Mother, which premiered at the 2009 Cannes film festival and won a number of awards and accolades in Canada (including being chosen as the nation’s entry for 2010’s best foreign language film Oscar, although it did not end up earning a nomination).ĭolan has remained a mainstay on the international festival circuit ever since, directing seven films over the course of the decade, including 2014’s Mommy, which shared that year’s Cannes jury prize with Jean-Luc Godard’s Goodbye to Language. If that seems like too long a time for someone to hold such a moniker, consider that he is only 30. Xavier Dolan has been regarded as the enfant terrible of indie film-making for the past decade. Photograph: Roadside Attractions/Courtesy/ Xavier Dolan with Anne Dorval on the set of Mommy. He joins a long and eclectic tradition of tenderfoot film-makers making good on their cinematic dreams – some of whom started even younger. Youmans’s story is inspirational, but hardly unprecedented. His gumption led to a chance meeting with character actor Wendell Pierce, who lent his talents as both actor and producer, as well as Beasts of the Southern Wild director Ben Zeitlin (himself a former fresh-faced indie darling), who served as a mentor for Youmans, helping him shape the film’s final cut.

Youmans expanded Burning Cane from a short film he’d started making at only 16 by emptying his meager savings account and borrowing from family and friends. Such is the case with Phillip Youmans, the 19-year-old NYU undergraduate whose feature debut, the Louisiana-set spiritual and familial drama Burning Cane, was recently released to widespread critical acclaim (it’s now available on Netflix). That’s why it’s even more impressive (and, often, kind of annoying) when an especially green director comes bursting on to the scene from out of nowhere.

Documentaries about young music prodigy school