We asked Sundance directors five questions about their films
THE SURROGATE DIRECTOR BEN LEWIN

By Dan Schoenbrun

Strictly speaking figures, The Surrogate has been the big Sundance winner thus far. Scooped up by Fox Searchlight for a massive $6 million, the film is already reportedly being groomed for next year's Oscar race. The first narrative feature from filmmaker Ben Lewin since 1994′s Paperback Romance, The Surrogate tells the true story of journalist Mark O'Brien, a polio stricken man who, after living most of his life in an iron lung, decides to try to lose his virginity. Starring John Hawkes as O'Brien, The Surrogate received a standing ovation at it's premiere, and it's already being praised by critics as a light-hearted, accessible crowd-pleaser. Read the Interview

GOATS DIRECTOR CHRISTOPHER NEIL

By Dan Schoenbrun

Goats might be Chrisopher Neil's first feature as director, but he's worked for years as an acting coach and rehearsal adviser on projects as wide ranging as Adaptation, The Virgin Suicides, and Star Wars: Episode 3 - Revenge of the Sith. And it's clear that Neil has accrued quite a stellar reputation among actors, as evidenced by Goats' impressive ensemble (which includes David Duchovny, Vera Farmiga, and relative newcomer Graham Phillips.) Based on the quirky debut novel by Mark Jude Proirier (who also wrote the film's screenplay), Goats is an odd but bittersweet coming of age story.Read the Interview

SUNDANCE RESPONSES

We posed the question, "Why are you a filmmaker?"
SEARCHING FOR THE SUGAR MAN DIRECTOR MALIK BENDJELLOUL

I'm a filmmaker because it's one of very few activities I know of that can completely absorb me. Both when shooting and editing, it's a pure creative state of mind where I can forget everything else--sometimes even that I'm hungry--because I'm so absorbed. That's why I do this--it's a job that you can never grew tired of. Every day there are new creative challenges to overcome and new ideas to come up with in order to do that. You're constantly moving. I like that. Read More

THE PERCEPTION OF MOVING TARGETS DIRECTOR WESTON CURRIE

As a boy, as a little dreamer imagining what fantastic job he might one day have as a grown man, I always saw myself filling the roles of the hero/villain archetypes we see in the movies. A cowboy, a detective, an archeologist adventurer, a robber even, sometimes Robin Hood and other times James Cagney. Older, increasingly more in touch with reality, and with my dawning awareness of film as a created world imagined and rendered by artists and crews, I arrived at a new aspiration (still just as fanciful as those of the boy) that I might one day make it my career to live in all of the genres and worlds my heroes and villains inhabited.Read More

MY BROTHER THE DEVIL DIRECTOR SALLY EL HOSAINI

I believe that going to the cinema and watching a film, on the big screen, will always hold a special place in peoples hearts. Despite technological advances in terms of how films are consumed, the physical experience of the lights dimming as you are transported into another world will always be magical. This is why it will never die. My first memory of going to the cinema was when I was six years old. I grew up in Cairo, Egypt and every summer our local sports club would set up an outdoor screen. Read more