[PREMIERE SCREENING: Saturday, January 21, 8:30 pm –Library Center Theater] I’ve always been suspicious of movies and visual media and my interest in film developed out of that suspicion. In the world that I knew as a child, in an era preceding the Internet, many of us were reared in part, at least in terms of our social behavior, by television. Much of what we understood of the adult world we learned through osmosis, through the colors and exoticism of television, through the play of bodies and the exchange of words and gestures in that very artificial space. We were […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Jan 21, 2012[PREMIERE SCREENING: Saturday, January 21, 12:15 pm –Prospector Square Theatre, Park City] I didn’t have an option, when I was 7 years old I felt “the calling”, I knew since then what I wanted to do with my life: become a filmmaker. Since then, it has been pretty much like being passionately in love with somebody, why do we fall in love with some particular person and not the next? It doesn’t really have a rational explanation -at least not for me- you are just in love. During the years, I have tried to give it a sense, so here […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Jan 21, 2012[PREMIERE SCREENING: Saturday, January 21, 11:30 pm –Library Center Theatre, Park City] My movie is closely based on a true event, though I actually stumbled upon the story years after it was a news item. (Is “Ripped from old headlines!” a saying?) To delve too much into the events might dampen some of the film’s enjoyment, but in brief, it involves some people who are essentially talked into holding a person against her will, naked, in the stockroom of a fast food restaurant for hours. I can’t say when I first discovered this story that I had a “Eureka!” moment, […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Jan 21, 2012[PREMIERE SCREENING: Saturday, January 21 6:00 pm –Egyptian Theatre, Park City] The best thing in the world is singing. But for someone who can’t sing, like me, film is the perfect form of expression.
by Filmmaker Staff on Jan 21, 2012[PREMIERE SCREENING: Saturday, January 21 12:15 pm –Eccles Theatre, Park City] I have no rhythm. I was twelve years old. I was taking guitar lessons. In the middle of my fifth lesson my teacher just stopped, started putting away his guitar. I was like, “What are you doing? We still got 40 minutes.” He said, “Kid, you have no rhythm. Whatsoever. You can’t even clap to the beat. You will never be a musician. Ever.” So the truth is, if I had my druthers, I would be a rock star today – and the medium for my story would be […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Jan 21, 2012[PREMIERE SCREENING: Saturday, January 21 2:45 pm –Prospector Square Theatre, Park City] Growing up in Lebanon as a little girl, my childhood was synchronized between home and shelter. Living in a country adorned in politics, secular perturbations, and injustice, our lives evolved around continuous wars. Most of our days were spent in confinement behind sacks of sand. There were times when it was too dangerous to even leave our homes. We couldn’t go to school, we couldn’t go outside to play, and we couldn’t practice what normal childhood was. Early on, I started developing a unique relationship with the TV […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Jan 21, 2012[PREMIERE SCREENING: Saturday, January 21, Noon –Temple Theatre, Park City] Rachel Grady: I’m a documentary filmmaker because it’s basically like going to an amazing graduate school with each new project. And getting paid to do it. It gives you an excuse to learn, explore, hypothesize, get it wrong, change your mind, discover new ideas and then share your results with complete strangers. That’s extremely fun to me. Heidi Ewing: In our view, there is no other medium that is better suited for Detroit than the medium of documentary film. The slew of popular picture books about the city and its […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Jan 21, 2012[PREMIERE SCREENING: Saturday, January 21 5:30 pm –Prospector Square Theatre, Park City] The most truthful answer I can come up with as to why my story is told as a film (and not a novel or a play) is this: the most profound narrative experiences I have had have been in a dark movie theatre. One of the first films I can remember seeing was Jaws. I must have been about five. The experience was seared into my brain. It was horrifying, primal. Even now, as an adult, so many years later, every time I swim or surf in the […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Jan 21, 2012[PREMIERE SCREENING: Saturday, January 21, 5:30 pm –Library Center Theatre, Park City] I was lucky enough to fall into filmmaking. I tried other art forms like painting and performance, but there was something lacking. Then I helped my husband Brad make his first feature film. I found the experience inspiring and so I began to make my own films. With each film I have been learning, not just about filmmaking, but also about life and myself. I started to write For Ellen when I was filled with anxiety and doubts about being a decent parent, a loving partner, and a […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Jan 21, 2012[PREMIERE SCREENING: Saturday, January 21 6:00 pm –Temple Theatre, Park City] “Why am I a filmmaker?” I often ask myself the same question. I ask it because first and foremost I guess I am less an artist than simply a small-p-political person who is moved by human struggle anywhere around me and who, however naively or presumptuously, wants to do something about it. My new film, The House I Live In, examines the destructive impact of the War on Drugs on poor and minority Americans and what can be done to reform it. It is my most personal film to […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Jan 21, 2012