Following her “The Women of Sundance” article in our print and online additions, Danielle Lurie continues her coverage of female filmmakers with a series of pieces highlighting women directors at SXSW. In this email interview, she talks with Jessica Miller, the editor and producer of Butterfly Girl, playing in Documentary Spotlight. Filmmaker: Why this movie? Why did you decide to do it? Miller: Cary [Bell], the director, and I have been working on little projects together over the years, but it was at SXSW 2012 where we were both inspired to really try something new. We decided that we wanted to make […]
by Danielle Lurie on Mar 10, 2014Following “The Women of Sundance” article in our print and online additions, Danielle Lurie continues her coverage of female filmmakers with a series of pieces highlighting women directors at SXSW. In this email interview, she talks with the director of the experimental documentary Empire, Eline Jongsma. Filmmaker: Why this movie? Why did you decide to do it? Jongsma: Empire is an immersive documentary project about the unintended consequences of colonialism. We shot it in ten countries over the course of four years and didn’t have a real home base for any of that time. We just traveled and worked. […]
by Danielle Lurie on Mar 10, 2014Following “The Women of Sundance” article in our print and online additions, Danielle Lurie continues her coverage of female filmmakers with a series of pieces highlighting women directors at SXSW. In this email interview, she talks with the director and producer of Seeds of Time, Sandy McLeod. The film screens Sunday morning in Documentary Spotlight. Filmmaker: Why this movie? Why did you decide to do it? McLeod: I thought that I was relatively well informed on the subject of food and agriculture, but as I delved into the material I quickly realized that agriculture was up against tremendous pressures in […]
by Danielle Lurie on Mar 10, 2014Following “The Women of Sundance” article in our print and online additions, Danielle Lurie continues her coverage of female filmmakers with a series of pieces highlighting women directors at SXSW. In this email interview, she talks with one half of the directing team behind the Narrative Spotlight film, We’ll Never Have Paris, Jocelyn Towne. Filmmaker: Why this movie? Why did you decide to do it? Towne: Well, it’s a personal story, one that my husband/co-director [Simon Helberg] wrote about our disastrous engagement years ago. When he asked me to direct it with him I was excited, but nervous. I […]
by Danielle Lurie on Mar 10, 2014Following “The Women of Sundance” article in our print and online additions, Danielle Lurie continues her coverage of female filmmakers with a series of pieces highlighting women directors at SXSW. In this email interview, she talks with the executive producer of the Midnighter selection, Home. Filmmaker: Why this movie? Why did you decide to do it? Resnick: I had long been interested in working on an intelligent genre film that pushed the boundaries and elevates the genre especially one with a fundamentally all female leading cast. I also had a relationship with the producer/financier and wanted to do […]
by Danielle Lurie on Mar 10, 2014Following “The Women of Sundance” article in our print and online additions, Danielle Lurie continues her coverage of female filmmakers with a series of pieces highlighting women directors at SXSW. In this email interview, she talks with Jennifer LaFleur, director of the web series, Wedlock, in the Digital Domain section. Filmmaker: Why this movie? Why did you decide to do it? LaFleur: I found myself as an actor spending far too much time waiting for someone else to give me an opportunity to perform. While at lunch with my manager from Principato Young Entertainment, we were trying to think of […]
by Danielle Lurie on Mar 10, 2014Mary Pat Bentel makes anything possible. Sure, sometimes she’ll give you, the director, an experienced smirk that says “Are you serious?” But then, just like that, before you can even blink, your dream actor has agreed to meet with you for coffee, she’s found a financier who wants only to give money to the subject matter of the film you happen to be directing, and that helicopter shot you timidly asked for gets scheduled for next week. While I know this first-hand because Mary Pat produced a documentary feature of mine years ago, I also know it from that good […]
by Danielle Lurie on Mar 9, 2014Following “The Women of Sundance” article in our print and online additions, Danielle Lurie continues her coverage of female filmmakers with a series of pieces highlighting women directors at SXSW. In this email interview, she talks with the director of the SXGlobal documentary, Ukraine is Not a Brothel, Kitty Green. Filmmaker: Why this movie? Why did you decide to do it? Green: Ukraine Is Not A Brothel is a feature documentary about the topless Ukrainian feminist movement FEMEN. The film follows these “titillating” activists as they wage a war against patriarchy in a corrupt and poverty-stricken Ukraine. I came […]
by Danielle Lurie on Mar 9, 2014Following “The Women of Sundance” article in our print and online additions, Danielle Lurie continues her coverage of female filmmakers with a series of pieces highlighting women directors at SXSW. In this email interview, she talks with the director of I Believe in Unicorns, Leah Meyerhoff. Leah Meyerhoff is the definition of “independent filmmaker.” For her debut feature, I Believe in Unicorns, Meyerhoff cast rising talents Natalia Dyer and Peter Vack, moved her production to her childhood home in San Francisco, and sprinkled fairy pixie dust (figuratively and literally) all over her film set. Shot on a combination of Super16mm […]
by Danielle Lurie on Mar 9, 2014Following “The Women of Sundance” article in our print and online additions, Danielle Lurie continues her coverage of female filmmakers with a series of pieces highlighting women directors at SXSW. In this email interview, she talks with the director of the Documentary Competition film, Vessel, Diana Whitten. Filmmaker: Why this movie? Why did you decide to do it? Whitten: At first I was compelled by the metaphor of a woman having to leave one realm of sovereignty to reclaim her own. I thought it was a rare and interesting example of the offshore being used not for crime […]
by Danielle Lurie on Mar 8, 2014