Authors — Filmmaker Staff
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“COVID Seemed to Reveal the Real Virus: Laura Merians Gonçalves on Interconnections
In April, as we began to put together the Summer, 2020 issue of Filmmaker, we asked directors, cinematographers, editors and other film workers to send us their thoughts on the quarantine and their own creative lives. The responses printed here were collected from April through mid-June — personal statements that speak variously to individual filmmaking practices, films halted mid-production, politics, art and life. Read all the responses here. — Editor So much going on now. COVID seemed to reveal the real virus. There’s been a worldwide awakening of the deep systemic problems in this country. Film has the ability to show […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Jul 8, 2020 -
“We Had Unknowingly Been Sheltered Inside the Circus”: Véronique N. Doumbé’s Documentary COVID Story
In April, as we began to put together the Summer, 2020 issue of Filmmaker, we asked directors, cinematographers, editors and other film workers to send us their thoughts on the quarantine and their own creative lives. The responses printed here were collected from April through mid-June — personal statements that speak variously to individual filmmaking practices, films halted mid-production, politics, art and life. Read all the responses here. — Editor My name is Véronique N. Doumbé, and my COVID story starts early this year. I have been wearing a mask inside airports for a while now, a habit I have developed […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Jul 8, 2020 -
“How Much Risk is Involved with Even the Most Softcore Shoot?”: Stoya on Filming During Lockdown
In April, as we began to put together the Summer, 2020 issue of Filmmaker, we asked directors, cinematographers, editors and other film workers to send us their thoughts on the quarantine and their own creative lives. The responses printed here were collected from April through mid-June — personal statements that speak variously to individual filmmaking practices, films halted mid-production, politics, art and life. Read all the responses here. — Editor I’m mainly a pornographer. Though COVID-19 is not a sexually transmittable infection, it can be sexually transmitted. So, I’m thinking a lot about risk. How much risk is involved with even […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Jul 8, 2020 -
“We Will Be Close Again Because Otherwise We Die”: Michel Reilhac Thinks about VR During Quarantine
In April, as we began to put together the Summer, 2020 issue of Filmmaker, we asked directors, cinematographers, editors and other film workers to send us their thoughts on the quarantine and their own creative lives. The responses printed here were collected from April through mid-June — personal statements that speak variously to individual filmmaking practices, films halted mid-production, politics, art and life. Read all the responses here. — Editor It has almost become a cliché to discuss how the pandemic is VR’s big chance and accelerator. Yes, of course, we are all overdosing Zoom zombies, and the online parties feel […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Jul 8, 2020 -
“What Does It Mean To Be ‘Essential'”?: Tinx Chan on a Storyteller’s Obligation
In April, as we began to put together the Summer, 2020 issue of Filmmaker, we asked directors, cinematographers, editors and other film workers to send us their thoughts on the quarantine and their own creative lives. The responses printed here were collected from April through mid-June — personal statements that speak variously to individual filmmaking practices, films halted mid-production, politics, art and life. Read all the responses here. — Editor One month into the New York lockdown, as anyone deemed “nonessential” was required to stay at home, I procrastinated another day away, as I had a long list of recommended films […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Jul 8, 2020 -
“I Keep Thinking about Who is the Most Vulnerable Right Now…”: Michelle Handelman on Isolation and Struggle
In April, as we began to put together the Summer, 2020 issue of Filmmaker, we asked directors, cinematographers, editors and other film workers to send us their thoughts on the quarantine and their own creative lives. The responses printed here were collected from April through mid-June — personal statements that speak variously to individual filmmaking practices, films halted mid-production, politics, art and life. Read all the responses here. — Editor There’s so much political and psychological upheaval going on right now that it’s hard to narrow it down to a single statement. Where to begin? I was working on a new […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Jul 8, 2020 -
“What Happens When Making Cinema Stops?”: Kamau Bilal Thinks About Creative Futures
In April, as we began to put together the Summer, 2020 issue of Filmmaker, we asked directors, cinematographers, editors and other film workers to send us their thoughts on the quarantine and their own creative lives. The responses printed here were collected from April through mid-June — personal statements that speak variously to individual filmmaking practices, films halted mid-production, politics, art and life. Read all the responses here. — Editor Based on where my people are, I feel like I’m, at best, one to two generations early in trying to be an indie filmmaker. I feel selfish. Wealth of money (and […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Jul 8, 2020 -
“This is More Than a Pause, a Waiting-Out Time”: David Barker on Humanity’s Challenges
In April, as we began to put together the Summer, 2020 issue of Filmmaker, we asked directors, cinematographers, editors and other film workers to send us their thoughts on the quarantine and their own creative lives. The responses printed here were collected from April through mid-June — personal statements that speak variously to individual filmmaking practices, films halted mid-production, politics, art and life. Read all the responses here. — Editor I’m in Santiago, Chile, where I came to be with family when the film I was working on went on hiatus. These questions to people in the arts seem to focus […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Jul 8, 2020 -
“Lately It Has Been Difficult To Turn Away from Screens”: Micaela Durand and Daniel Chew on Violence, Racism and Complicity
In April, as we began to put together the Summer, 2020 issue of Filmmaker, we asked directors, cinematographers, editors and other film workers to send us their thoughts on the quarantine and their own creative lives. The responses printed here were collected from April through mid-June — personal statements that speak variously to individual filmmaking practices, films halted mid-production, politics, art and life. Read all the responses here. — Editor Lately, it has been difficult to turn away from screens. Screens that show us the casual abuse of power. Screens that instill rage and dread. These screens are important in showing […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Jul 8, 2020 -
Let the Future Tell the Truth: Tesla Writer/Director Michael Almereyda and Kelly Reichardt in Conversation
In Michael Almereyda’s pre-Katrina New Orleans–shot Happy Here and Now, David Arquette’s termite control specialist is preparing to shoot a film about Nikola Tesla in his off-hours. In a delirious rant, Arquette’s character muses about the Serbian-American scientist’s quest to slow the speed of light—enough so that you could go out for a coffee and return in time to see a beam complete its journey from one end of your apartment to another. In the climax of Happy Here and Now, one of Tesla’s signature inventions, the Tesla coil, is responsible for Arquette’s film-within-a-film experiencing the worst kind of production […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Jul 7, 2020
