Filmmaker: Why this movie? Why did you decide to do it? Belzberg: I read Samantha Power’s book A Problem From Hell when it came out and was just pulled towards the story of Raphael Lemkin in it. It didn’t feel like a choice — I had to tell his story. Filmmaker: How much of your crew was female? Was hiring women a consideration for you? Belzberg: Most of my crew on this film were women. It wasn’t intentional, but that is how it worked out. There are a few notable exceptions, but the vast majority of the people who worked on the […]
by Danielle Lurie on Jan 22, 2014Filmmaker: Why this movie? Why did you decide to do it? Veatch: I am drawn to stories or characters that I feel have been misrepresented and I like the task of creating a more challenging, complex, layered depiction of stories that causally circulate our media scape. Love Child is the story of an infant who died as a result of neglect due to “Internet Addiction” while her young parents were raising an online virtual child. Her name was Sarang, which means “love” in Korean. I heard the story on the Italian news media while staying in Rome. The ruling in the […]
by Danielle Lurie on Jan 22, 2014When I asked where the most film-related location for our photoshoot might be, director Kate Barker-Froyland suggested that we meet in Williamsburg. Her feature debut, Song One, starring Anne Hathaway, is a film about the love of music which weaves its story through Brooklyn and lower Manhattan, which are areas that Barker-Froyland herself frequents often. We met for breakfast at the Reynard Restaurant in the Wythe Hotel on an assaultingly cold winter’s morning. Still, Barker-Froyland was upbeat and ready to take to the city streets in just her sundress, wind chill notwithstanding, to get the right shot. While most filmmakers […]
by Danielle Lurie on Jan 21, 2014Filmmaker: Why this movie? Why did you decide to do it? Fastvold: I’ve always been compelled tell a story about the complex relationship between sisters (I’m one of five). It’s a unique and naturally beautiful bond; the strange way siblings so easily regress into childhood patterns and the intense love and jealousy between them… All that instinctual competitiveness and care. Filmmaker: How much of your crew was female? Was hiring women a consideration for you? Fastvold: In fact, the crew was female by majority but that was just by chance! Filmmaker: How did you go about raising funding for it? Fastvold: I had made a […]
by Danielle Lurie on Jan 21, 2014Filmmaker: Why this movie? Why did you decide to do it? Salomé: The movie picked me up. As I was working on Holy Motors, I started to collect bits and pieces, archives, anything that was part of Leos Carax’s universe. When I realized how much I had gathered, it became obvious that I couldn’t stop there. I dived right into his world… and without even noticing it, I started to make the film. It was exciting to unravel some of the mysteries surrounding him. Seeing all of his movies again was an extraordinary experience: they haven’t aged a bit. They may even be more […]
by Danielle Lurie on Jan 21, 2014“So, is this exciting to you, or, like, totally normal by now?” director Desiree Akhavan asked her executive producer, Katie Mustard, when we three met over coffee just two weeks after their film, Appropriate Behavior, was accepted into Sundance’s NEXT section. While this is Akhavan and her London-based producer Cecilia Frugiuelle’s first time at Sundance, Mustard has had nine films there – seven features and two shorts. Mustard had been drawn to come on board Akhavan’s film because the script was “just so good” and so “fresh.” Akhavan, who stars in the film as an Iranian-American bisexual struggling to find […]
by Danielle Lurie on Jan 21, 2014When I walked in to photograph Linda Moran at her office at Belladona Productions in Chelsea, she was on the phone making magic happen. Her film Cold in July, which she produced, was speedily getting picture locked for Sundance and her office, that she runs with fellow producer René Bastian, was abuzz with activity and inclusiveness: it has what I call the “Google Effect” – which is to say that the office is so cool and fun to work in, employees love coming to work. Linda promptly introduced me to the office mascots: her dogs Zombie and Coco who insisted on […]
by Danielle Lurie on Jan 21, 2014Filmmaker: Why this movie? Why did you decide to do it? Đukić: I wanted to stop asking myself “why” about things that were haunting me and instead start a journey of both finding answers and losing them on my way. I felt the urge to express my feelings about many ambiguous and tickling things. Filmmaker: How much of your crew was female? Was hiring women a consideration for you? Đukić: Less than 10. Hiring a main actress with attitude, sensibility and energy that I enjoyed was a consideration for me. Once that worked, we could unleash enough female energy to […]
by Danielle Lurie on Jan 21, 2014While the days moved just as quickly as earlier in the festival, and really it was only Day 3, Sunday felt slower, calmer. Maybe I felt more confident having two super successful screenings under our belt, maybe I was more in the rhythm of working on little sleep and running between events and interviews, but things seemed to be moving a tad slower. That does not necessarily mean energy was low, very much the opposite. The Memphis crew was buzzing around parties and screenings and thoroughly enjoying themselves. Willis Earl Beal, our lead, was even having a good time – and he […]
by Alexandra Byer on Jan 21, 2014“How elaborate is the camera?” The Foxy Merkins director Madeleine Olnek texted me as I was walking to photograph her with her female laden crew at Columbus Circle. “We would like to stage ourselves being hit by a cab,” she explained simply and obviously. As it happened, a few months prior to making The Foxy Merkins, a film about lesbian hookers, Olnek was in a taxi driven by a woman named Debbie. They got to talking and Debbie threw out the “If you ever need an [insert random gender, race, or career here]” phrase filmmakers always get. In Debbie’s case it […]
by Danielle Lurie on Jan 21, 2014