Authors — Sarah Salovaara
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Kick Out the Jams
Ten years ago, without a sliver of experience, the Lebanese-born, Detroit-based Rola Nashef conceived what would become the short precursor to her acclaimed 2012 independent feature Detroit Unleaded. She had the idea to relate the quotidian trials of an Arab-American man working behind bulletproof glass at an inner-city filling station and had to figure out how to do it. “The short script,” she claims, “was the first time I’d written anything in my life.” After making the short, she spent a year with it on the festival circuit and another distributing it to universities for educational purposes, bucking the notion […]
by Sarah Salovaara on Apr 28, 2015 -
“We’re A Lost Generation That’s Still Alive”: NYWIFT and IRIS Directors on The Writers Lab
Meryl Streep was making waves as usual when it was announced during the Tribeca Film Festival that she had come aboard to fund a new initiative from New York Women in Film and Television and the IRIS collective. Called The Writers Lab, the inaugural retreat will take place in upstate New York in September at the Wiawaka Center for Women, and pair eight women screenwriters over the age of 40 with established mentors including Gina Prince-Bythewood, Kirsten Smith, and Mary Jane Skalski. Filmmaker spoke with Terry Lawler, Executive Director of NYWIFT, and IRIS co-founders, Kyle Ann Stokes, Elizabeth Kaiden and Nitza Wilon, to […]
by Sarah Salovaara on Apr 27, 2015 -
Guess Who’s Watching: Tribeca’s New Online Work
Tribeca’s N.O.W sidebar is noteworthy for two reasons: first, in that it aims to put forth the idea of the independent filmmaker as a brand, rather than the purveyor of a specific project, and secondly, because it suggests that the most successful online content is made for a clearly defined audience, or at least contains eye-catching enough packaging that can propel through the glut. “My Life in Sourdough” and “Eat Your Feelings”, for instance, call on the rather deep bullpen of internet foodies by situating a recipe at the center of each episode. The latter is boy meets girl plus 6 AM homemade pasta, and readymade for the […]
by Sarah Salovaara on Apr 23, 2015 -
Watch: David Lowery’s Pioneer
Technically speaking, not much happens in Pioneer, David Lowery’s 2011 short about a man who tells his son a bedtime story. The action is confined to one room as it cuts between the two actors, but the yarn spun by Will Oldham’s character, and the subtle inflections in the pair’s performance along with a textured sound design, make the film as charged as any meticulously choreographed exchange. Listen closely, and you can even discern some early seeds of Ain’t Them Bodies Saints in the mix.
by Sarah Salovaara on Apr 22, 2015 -
Tribeca 2015: MA and Uncertain
Everyone, even The New York Times, is up in arms about the quality disparity in documentary to narrative programming at the Tribeca Film Festival, and it’s with reluctance that I add my voice to the heap. It figures then that the festival’s strongest narrative selection thus far was a work-in-progress screened in far flung Long Island City with negligible publicity fanfare. The “progress” modifier appeared to be fulfilled by a truncated end credit sequence, which director Celia Rowlson-Hall accounted for by reading off a list of names in a squat from the stage to prevent her arms from shaking. When the lights went down in the WV dome […]
by Sarah Salovaara on Apr 21, 2015 -
Animate Objects: The 24th Aspen Shortsfest
With its “bodegas” serving $35 seafood entrees and cobble stone streets lined with Prada, Burberry, and every other Madison Avenue ready boutique a yuppie mom could think up, Aspen may seem like an odd location for the country’s preeminent shorts festival. The grungiest thing about the stunningly well-preserved 19th century Wheeler Opera House — the festival’s screening and conversation locus — are the $4 yellow bullet tall boys tucked behind the bar amid top shelf malts. But despite the slightly stuffy portents, audiences seemed game for whatever co-directors Laura Thielen and George Eldred threw their way: dry comedies, 40-minute docs, atmospheric animations, and gutting dramas […]
by Sarah Salovaara on Apr 20, 2015 -
Five Questions with Men Go To Battle Director/Co-Writer Zachary Treitz and Co-Writer Kate Lyn Sheil
Hats off to director Zachary Treitz and co-writer Kate Lyn Sheil for sidestepping the more introspective, resource heavy trends of much contemporary independent filmmaking, and swinging for the fences with their Civil War period piece, Men Go To Battle. Set in 1861 Kentucky, the brothers Francis and Henry Mellon (Tim Morton and David Maloney) are desperate to scare up some funds for their overgrown farm before winter arrives, but the pair’s constant quarreling is a hindrance to much progress. Eventually fed up with Francis’ heavy drinking and general flippancy, Henry takes off to join a far more populated battle amidst the Confederate army. […]
by Sarah Salovaara on Apr 17, 2015 -
Trailer Watch: Andrew Bujalski’s Results
Still one of my Sundance highlights, Andrew Bujalski’s Results is nearing theaters on May 29. An off-kilter, comedic take on the love triangle, Results concerns two trainers (Cobie Smulders and Guy Pearce) and their wealthy new client (Kevin Corrigan). You can check out my take from Sundance here, and Vadim Rizov will have an interview with Bujalski in the Spring issue.
by Sarah Salovaara on Apr 15, 2015 -
Watch: Exclusive Clip from Garrett Bradley’s Below Dreams
As Tribeca gears up for this year’s edition, one of last year’s Viewpoints selections, Garrett Bradley’s Below Dreams, opens in New York and Los Angeles. In the exclusive clip above, Bradley follows one of the characters of her atmospheric tryptic, Jamaine, as he hitches a ride home from a friend. Bradley had the following to say about the conception of Jamaine: In following Jamaine’s story I had hoped to replace the public imagination around African American men with gold teeth, seen on street corners and stoops or in transit with a real presence that could be heard and not just seen. The role that […]
by Sarah Salovaara on Apr 14, 2015 -
Five Questions with Bloomin Mud Shuffle Director Frank V. Ross
For my money, Frank V. Ross is one of the most inventive, witty and honest low-budget filmmakers that major festival land has neglected to embrace. With the exception of the SXSW-premiering Audrey the Trainwreck, Ross’s films have toured the regional circuit like best kept secrets, with their structurally complex, yet casually rendered studies of modern relationships serving as any program’s unmitigated highpoint. His latest, Bloomin Mud Shuffle, which premieres tonight at the Wisconsin Film Festival, concerns Lonnie (James Ransone), a vaguely alcoholic house painter, and the object of his unsteady affection, Monica (Alexia Rasmussen). Such a distilled synopsis scarcely does justice to Ross’s execution, with its […]
by Sarah Salovaara on Apr 10, 2015
