Authors — Sarah Salovaara
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Five Questions with Swim Little Fish Swim Directors Ruben Amar and Lola Bessis
In Ruben Amar and Lola Bessis’s Swim Little Fish Swim, Lilas (Bessis) defiantly flees her coddled Parisian life for a nomadic walkabout in New York. An aspiring visual artist, desperate to strike out from the shadow cast by her famous mother (Anne Cosigny), Lilas falls in with Leeward (Dustin Guy Defa), his wife (Brooke Bloom), and their daughter (Olivia Costello). Quick to align herself with Leeward and his band of musicians, Lilas’ presence as an added distraction for her hapless husband unnerves Bloom’s breadwinning nurse. Amar and Bessis spoke to Filmmaker about the method to their collaboration in advance of […]
by Sarah Salovaara on Mar 10, 2013 -
Five Questions with Elena Director Petra Costa
In the astounding and lyrical Elena, Petra Costa charts the journey of her charismatic, troubled older sister from their youth in Brazil to their year abroad in New York, where Elena is consumed by her pursuit of an acting career. Juggling found footage, voiceovers, interviews, and visual metaphors with effortless aplomb, Elena maintains the utmost intimacy despite the far-reaching chronology and geography of its subject. Elena is a love letter to her lost soul of a sister, and Costa’s gaze is as honest in its examination as its reverence. In fitting fashion, Costa recorded her responses to Filmmaker’s questions, with […]
by Sarah Salovaara on Mar 9, 2013 -
Five Questions with Future Weather Director Jenny Deller
Jenny Deller’s Future Weather takes an unusual look at Middle America, forgoing the clichés of its demography for ecology. Introverted Laudurée (Perla Haney-Jardine) is abandoned by her mother (Marin Ireland), who flees their trailer for Hollywood, with gelatinous aspirations for a career as a make-up artist. Fiercely independent, Laudurée carries out her daily life as though nothing happened, her days consumed by experiments and the threat of global warming. Yearning to be taken under the wing of her science teacher (Lili Taylor), Laudurée is nevertheless snatched up by her alcoholic grandmother (Amy Madigan), who plans to move to Florida to […]
by Sarah Salovaara on Feb 21, 2013 -
Five Questions with Bully Director Lee Hirsch
Far more insidious than strep or the flu, Lee Hirsch’s Bully investigates a different sort of contagion infiltrating classrooms across the country. Centering on the South and Midwest — Georgia, Iowa, Texas, Mississippi, and Oklahoma — Hirsch and his crew peer into the lives of families and children that are dismantled and uprooted by relentless acts of bullying. While most surrender to the cyclical ostracizing, downplaying the shame before their parents and superiors, others seek solace in suicidal measures. Following its premiere at the 2011 Tribeca Film Festival, Bully shocked and educated audiences with its frank portrayal of the ramifications […]
by Sarah Salovaara on Feb 12, 2013 -
Co-Director Audrey Ewell on 99% – The Occupy Wall Street Collaborative Film (+ Exclusive Clip)
Downtown Manhattan, September 17, 2011—the first 1,000 protestors of the Occupy movement descend upon Wall Street and its neighboring Zucotti Park, pounding the cobblestones in the face of corporate neglect. Driven by the ever-expanding gulf within the socio-economic bracket, this modern day iteration of class warfare soon sparked a worldwide phenomenon. As fervent opinions batted about and media biases multiplied, documentary filmmakers Audrey Ewell and Aaron Aites sought to craft a holistic, honest portrait of the movement. Their resulting film, 99% – The Occupy Wall Street Collaborative Film, utilizes footage from filmmakers—novice and professional alike—from across the nation, in order […]
by Sarah Salovaara on Jan 20, 2013 -
Five Questions with 28 Hotel Rooms Director Matt Ross
Matt Ross’s directorial debut is an inventive look at an affair between a married account (Marin Ireland) and a novelist (Chris Messina) that unfurls within the walls of 28 hotel rooms across the country. Dictated by checkout times and the call of the “real world,” their truncated encounters are marked by a growing sense of urgency, as their physical connection turns emotional. Ireland and Messina shoulder the challenge of being the sole recipients of Doug Emmett’s lens with magnetic grace, crafting their characters’ dimensions in varying increments of restraint and ebullition. 28 Hotel Rooms, currently streaming on iTunes and VOD, […]
by Sarah Salovaara on Nov 8, 2012 -
Five Questions with Excuse Me for Living Director Ric Klass
Ric Klass was a teacher. A student. A financier. A consultant. An entrepreneur. A writer. Not necessarily in that order. Now, he’s a director, who, for his second feature, returned to the annals and decided to adapt his novel Excuse Me For Living for the screen. With an ensemble featuring the likes of Christopher Lloyd and Jerry Stiller, the black comedy follows a trust-funded, pill-popping megalomaniac as he wades through treatment, his psychologist, his dysfunctional parents, his paramours, and the group therapy sessions he’s been snookered into managing. Klass speaks about his career transitions, craft, and Excuse Me For […]
by Sarah Salovaara on Oct 11, 2012 -
A Trans-Generational Triple Feature at NYFF 50
It was not until the very close of Michael Haneke’s laurel-laden Amour that I came to a pleasantly odd realization. Without any foresight, I had managed to stumble upon the perfect trans-generational triple feature—perhaps not just at the New York Film Festival, but in the grander scheme as well. At first blush, the Tokyo-set Like Someone in Love, New York-based Frances Ha, and the claustrophobic Parisian quarters of Amour have as much in common as, well, an Eastern social order, a misguided American woman, and a shackled octogenarian couple could. But a closer look reveals a glaringly common thread. […]
by Sarah Salovaara on Oct 11, 2012 -
Trailer Watch: Cloud Atlas
Four years after their disappointing big-screen take on the anime series Speed Racer, the Wachowski siblings return this fall—alongside Run Lola Run filmmaker Tom Tykwer—with their adaptation of Cloud Atlas. The film, based upon David Mitchell’s 2004 novel of the same name, has been dubbed by the media as Germany’s first attempt at a studio blockbuster, and it certainly has the look for it. Starring America’s favorite would-be uncle Tom Hanks, Halle Berry, Jim Broadbent, Jim Sturgess, Hugo Weaving and Doona Bae (among many others), Cloud Atlas examines the course of lives across decades and dimensions, through various incarnations, which […]
by Sarah Salovaara on Sep 6, 2012
