As you made your film during the increasingly chaotic backdrop of the last year, how did you as a filmmaker control, ignore, give in to or, conversely, perhaps creatively exploit the wild and unpredictable? What roles did chaos and order play in your films?

My wife became pregnant just before I left for the Sundance Directors Lab and I knew even then that I wanted the birth of our child to be part of the movie. On March 12, 2015 at the crack of dawn her water broke. That morning Jeremy Yaches and Christina King (my producers) dropped a camera off at my house and we raced to the hospital. My wife was in labor for 13 hours and I documented the whole process from beginning to end. The camera was small and unobtrusive, it allowed me to hold her and be close right up to the moment of Asher’s arrival – one of the most chaotic and stunning moments of my life. I watch it now at least once a week while editing, coloring and mixing the film and each time it transforms me. It is alive and true in the way I love films to be.

[PREMIERE SCREENING: Saturday, January 20 at 12:00pm — PC Library]

Sundance 2018 Responses