Authors — Daniel Eagan
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“Coexisting in the Same Universe”: Directors Justin Chon and Kogonada Discuss Dividing Directing Duties on the New Apple TV+ Series Pachinko
In Pachinko, a Korean family struggles for a place in a hostile world. Born into poverty on occupied land, Sunja (played at different ages by Minha Kim and Yuh-Jung Youn) emigrates from Busan to Osaka just before World War II. Trying to keep her family together, she faces relentless bigotry, as well as the pressure to succumb to a criminal gang led by Hansu (Lee Minho). Stretching over several decades, with scenes set in Korea, Japan, and the United States, Pachinko was a gigantic production sidelined for a time by COVID. Based on the bestselling novel by Min Jin Lee, […]
by Daniel Eagan on Mar 25, 2022 -
“All These Different Michelles Are the Stars of Their Different Stories” The Daniels on Their Michelle Yeoh-Starring Everything Everywhere All At Once
The multiverse threatens to swallow up Evelyn, a wife, mother, and laundromat owner in Everything Everywhere All At Once. Written and directed by The Daniels (Daniel Scheinert and Daniel Kwan), the film is a spectacular showcase for Michelle Yeoh, one of the great icons of Asian cinema. Like their earlier feature Swiss Army Man, EEAAO is by turns experimental and defiantly audacious. But it also taps into a commercial sensibility that finds a way to combine social media supercuts, Russo brothers spectacle, and old school Hong Kong filmmaking. In addition to Yeoh, the cast includes Jamie Lee Curtis, Stephanie Hsu, […]
by Daniel Eagan on Mar 24, 2022 -
“I Find that God is in the Mistakes, I’m Finding Moments Where the Actors Don’t Know the Camera’s on Them”: Hank Corwin on Editing Don’t Look Up
Not even an extinction level event can upset the ruling elite in Don’t Look Up, an apocalyptic sci-fi comedy drama from writer and director Adam McKay. Starring Jennifer Lawrence, Leonardo DiCaprio, and Meryl Streep, the movie examines how scientists, politicians, journalists, and the public at large react to news of a catastrophe about to strike. This is the third collaboration between McKay and editor Hank Corwin, ACE, after The Big Short and Vice. A BAFTA Award-winner, Corwin has worked with Oliver Stone, Terrence Malick, Robert Redford, and other directors. He spoke with Filmmaker on Zoom. Filmmaker: When did you start […]
by Daniel Eagan on Dec 22, 2021 -
“Life and Filmmaking are Both a Search for Cutaways”: Jon Alpert on Life of Crime 1984-2020
For 36 years documentarian Jon Alpert followed three friends—Rob Steffey, Freddie Rodriguez, and Deliris Vasquez—through a Newark underground of drugs and poverty. We see them getting into trouble with the law, undergoing prison and rehab and reintegrating into society. Alpert, a recipient of DOC NYC’s Lifetime Achievement Award, gained remarkable access to a closed-off world. Filming under a variety of conditions and on several formats, he gives a first-person account of our failed war on drugs. It is an unbearably sad look at lives falling apart. Alpert also captures moments of success, of uplift, of reconciliation and forgiveness. The film […]
by Daniel Eagan on Dec 21, 2021 -
“There Are So Many Parallels Between What Went On Then and Trying To Pass Biden’s Spending and Energy Bills Today”: Chris Hegedus on the Restoration of The Energy War, Part Two: Filibuster at DOC NYC
Originally released in 1978 as a three-part, five-hour series, The Energy War follows the passage of a key piece of President Jimmy Carter’s energy bill. Directed by D.A. Pennebaker, Chris Hegedus, and Pat Powell, the series provided an unprecedented look at the inner workings of government. One segment, Part 2: Filibuster, focuses on Part D of Statute 1469, which would end government regulation of natural gas prices. It passed by a vote of 52–48, thanks largely to votes from representatives of energy-producing states like Louisiana. Two Senators, Howard Metzenbaum and James Abourezk, announce a filibuster to overturn the results. Over the following […]
by Daniel Eagan on Nov 11, 2021 -
“We Were Inspired by Haskell the Activist, the Person, and Not the Hollywood Legend and Cinematographer”: Cinematographer and DOC NYC Honoree Joan Churchill and Sound Recordist Alan Barker on Their Wexler Doc, Shoot from the Heart
Oscar-winning cinematographer Haskell Wexler (Medium Cool, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf) is the subject of Shoot from the Heart, a new documentary short by Joan Churchill and Alan Barker. Shot over a ten-year period, it follows Wexler as he works on a music video, interacts with film students, and accompanies Jane Fonda to a festival screening of Coming Home. A highlight of Shoot from the Heart is a dinner Wexler shares with documentarian D.A. Pennebaker. The meal extends over hours, with additional footage supplied by Chris Hegedus. As the two reminisce about Sally Rand and […]
by Daniel Eagan on Nov 9, 2021 -
“You Can Do Anything with Film, Just Like You Can Do Anything with Writing”: At MoMA, the Experimental Cinema of Neelon Crawford
Working primarily with a hand-wound 16mm Bolex, Neelon Crawford made a series of experimental films from 1968 through 1980. Shot in the US, the United Kingdom, and South America, the films explored light and movement in a variety of landscapes. Crawford manipulated the image through film stocks, filters, frame rates, double- and triple-exposures, animation, editing, and printing, at times adding soundtracks to imagery that ranged from observational to abstract. Crawford’s films were featured in the Museum of Modern Art’s Cineprobe series in the 1970s and were distributed by Canyon Cinema, among others. After For the Spider Woman in 1980, he […]
by Daniel Eagan on Jun 23, 2021 -
“I Wanted to Have a World I Could Paint in Broad Strokes”: Director Alexandre Rockwell on Creating the Full-of-Life Family Drama, Sweet Thing
Three children are left on their own in Sweet Thing, an evocative coming-of-age drama written and directed by Alexandre Rockwell. Returning from his previous feature, Little Feet, are Rockwell’s children Lana (playing Billie) and Nico. Joining them is newcomer Jabari Watkins as the kids’ neighbor Malik; Will Patton as their alcoholic father Adam; and Karyn Parsons (Rockwell’s wife) as their largely absent mother Eve. Shot over one summer in New Bedford, Massachusetts, Sweet Thing travels through a bleak world of poverty and despair, depicted with surprising empathy by Rockwell and through the cinematography of Lasse Tolbøll. The writer/director’s script strings […]
by Daniel Eagan on Jun 18, 2021 -
500 Extras on a Hot Summer Day: DP Alice Brooks on In the Heights
On Broadway, In the Heights won four Tony Awards, including Best Musical, in 2008. With music and lyrics by Lin-Manuel Miranda, and book by Quiara Alegría Hudes, the story unfolds in Manhattan’s Washington Heights during a heatwave that results in a blackout. Shot largely on location in 2019, the screen version of In the Heights stars Anthony Ramos, Corey Hawkins, Leslie Grace, Melissa Barrera and Olga Merediz. Directed by Jon M. Chu, the adaptation features several large-scale production numbers with up to 600 extras. Each song brought a different set of problems for cinematographer Alice Brooks to solve. Brooks worked […]
by Daniel Eagan on Jun 10, 2021 -
“How Big Can We Get? What Crane is Available for This Day?” DP James Laxton on The Underground Railroad
Developed and directed by Barry Jenkins, and adapted from Colson Whitehead’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, The Underground Railroad takes viewers into the world of slavery in the Deep South prior to the Civil War. Like Whitehead’s novel, the series integrates fantasy and mythological elements with real-life events. The Underground Railroad focuses on Cora Randall (played by Thuso Mbedu), who escapes from a cotton plantation in Georgia and travels through the Carolinas, Tennessee and Indiana to avoid recapture. Other characters include escaped slave Caesar (Aaron Pierre), slave hunter Ridgeway (Joel Edgerton) and Homer (Chase Dillon), Ridgeway’s young African-American companion. Cinematographer James Laxton has […]
by Daniel Eagan on May 17, 2021
