Authors — Jason Guerrasio

“JEAN-MICHEL BASQUIAT: THE RADIANT CHILD” | director, Tamra Davis

[PREMIERE SCREENING: Monday, Jan. 25, 3:00 pm — Temple Theatre, Park City] All the decisions that I thought were hard choices seem so obvious when I look back. While making my documentary I wrestled with the idea of putting myself in the film. I felt awkward studying this idea. I didn’t want the film to be about my personal journey but about the story of my subject, Jean-Michel Basquiat. Now when I watch and show the film I see that the personal texture I added has become one of its strongest narrative elements.
by Jason Guerrasio on Jan 25, 2010
“COUNTDOWN TO ZERO” | director, Lucy Walker

[PREMIERE SCREENING: Monday, Jan. 25, 11:45 am — Library Center Theatre, Park City] There’s one thing that I learned about nuclear weapons that would make it so easy for terrorists to entirely destroy a city that there was a decision to make: Is it a good thing to advertise security vulnerabilities? Am I alerting responsible citizens to civilization’s scariest fault lines in order to demand enlightened leadership to make the world a safer place, or am I giving terrorists their best ideas and causing the deaths of millions of people? It’s not hard to build a nuclear weapon. It’s not […]
by Jason Guerrasio on Jan 25, 2010
“THE IMPERIALISTS ARE STILL ALIVE!” | writer-director, Zeina Durra

[PREMIERE SCREENING: Monday, Jan. 25, 12:30 pm — Eccles Theatre, Park City] The hardest decision I had to make among a lot of crazy decisions was only days before we were meant to start shooting; a piece of financing fell through at the last minute and we only had enough money for the first three weeks of our 23-day shoot. It was also the end of January 2009, the heart of the financial crisis was breaking — a scary time to raise funds for a small indie film! I decided to go ahead since everything was planned, the team and […]
by Jason Guerrasio on Jan 25, 2010
“FIX ME” | director, Raed Andoni

[PREMIERE SCREENING: Monday, Jan. 25, 6:00 pm — Holiday Village Cinema IV, Park City] Fix ME… The hardest decisions during the making of this film were all connected to the recording of my personal therapy sessions. From the beginning I wanted those sessions to be honest and real. I wanted the doctor to do his job and to treat me during the sessions as if the camera does not exist. But on the other hand, as filmmaker I also wanted to be sure that I have enough interesting material coming out of the filming material of those sessions. I had […]
by Jason Guerrasio on Jan 25, 2010
“BILAL’S STAND” | writer-director, Sultan Sharrief

[PREMIERE SCREENING: Monday, Jan. 25, 9:00 pm — Yarrow Hotel Theatre, Park City] The hardest decision I had to make while shooting my film Bilal’s Stand was to do reshoots in a different format. The film was originally shot on 16mm film. I love the process of film from loading the camera to seeing dailies for the first time. I love the stubborn, sometimes unforgiving nature of the medium and the care required to get the beauty you want. I often joke and say that film and I have a “Ross and Rachel” type relationship. You know you have strong […]
by Jason Guerrasio on Jan 25, 2010
“SKATELAND” | co-writer-director, Anthony Burns

[PREMIERE SCREENING: Monday, Jan. 25, 5:15 pm — Racquet Club, Park City] Making a movie is never easy. In fact much of the entire process is just continuous problem solving. With the right amount of preparation however, many unforeseen issues or setbacks can be avoided. In our case, Skateland was written and completely shot out in eight months. We went from a blank page in April to a wrap party at some colorful bar in Shreveport, La., by December with about a hundred new friends and co-workers. My point is we stacked the odds against us. The shot list was […]
by Jason Guerrasio on Jan 25, 2010
“SON OF BABYLON” | writer-director, Mohamed Al Daradji

[PREMIERE SCREENING: Monday, Jan. 25, 6:00 pm — Egyptian Theatre, Park City] The hardest decision I made on my film was with the casting. My style of working and telling the story often means working with non-professional actors. The main character of the film is a mother who goes across Iraq with her grandson, searching for her son who has been missing for 12 years. My aim was to search for people who had this experience; I searched for six months in villages and cities in Iraq. Eventually I came to a small village of about 300 homes, and each […]
by Jason Guerrasio on Jan 25, 2010
SOLUTION-BASED: NEW BREED AT PARK CITY PART 2

Here’s the second of the New Breed videos discussing the current and future states of distribution. From the makers: Filmmakers Zak Forsman and Kevin K. Shah of Sabi Pictures arrive at Park City with an intent to define the questions most relevant to independent distribution options. Insights from Brian Newman, Dan Mirvish, Jon Reiss and Ira Deutchman open a path toward discovering some real solutions. NEW BREED PARK CITY – Discovering the Questions from Sabi Pictures on Vimeo.
by Jason Guerrasio on Jan 25, 2010
A FILMMAKER SUMMIT PRE-SHOW IN PARK CITY

Here is the first of the New Breed video reports realized this year in collaboration with Filmmaker and The Workbook Project. This one’s an open discussion between Lance Weiler, Peter Baxter, Saskia Wilson-Brown, Brian Newman and Paul Rachman just prior to Slamdance and the Open Video Alliance’s Filmmaker Summit in Park City, which starts in just a little more than an hour. If you’re not in town you can stream the summit here. NEW BREED PARK CITY – AN OPEN DISCUSSION from Sabi Pictures on Vimeo.
by Jason Guerrasio on Jan 25, 2010
BURIED NABBED BY LIONSGATE

Thought by most to be an obvious choice, Lionsgate has acquired the much buzzed about Sundance Midnight film Buried, according to Variety. Directed by Rodrigo Cortes and written by Chris Sparling, the film stars Ryan Reynolds as a U.S. contract driver in Iraq who after a sudden attack on his convoy awakens to find himself buried alive inside a coffin with nothing more than a lighter, a cell phone, and little memory of how he ended up there. The trade reports the deal was between $3 to $4 million. Other titles in buyer’s sights include Josh Radnor‘s happythankyoumoreplease, Debra Granik‘s […]
by Jason Guerrasio on Jan 24, 2010

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