Director Interviews
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Swept Off Her Feet: Sean Baker on Anora
“Tonight, this could be the greatest night of our lives/let’s make a new start/The future is ours to find.” The lyrics of Take That’s 2008 hit “Greatest Day” burst from the soundtrack at the start of Sean Baker’s exhilarating, Palme d’Or–winning eighth feature, Anora. Drew Daniels’ camera tracks across a row of strippers and customers at a Manhattan club before cutting to handheld shots in which one dancer, Anora, or Ani (Mikey Madison), moves from guy to guy, hustling time in the VIP room. (“You don’t have cash? Let’s go to the ATM!”) For the guys, their stacks of twenties […]
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Off Screen Spaces: Azazel Jacobs on His Three Daughters
Azazel Jacobs’s films treat the tragicomedy of human existence with tenderness and a heartbreakingly honest sense of the absurd. In his first released feature, The GoodTimesKid (2005), the anti-hero (played by Jacobs) is trapped in a repetitive nightmare of mistaken identity punctuated by Marx Brothers slapstick and 1930s movie dance routines. Jacobs made it with colleagues and friends he met when he was getting his MFA from the AFI Conservatory, some of whom became a permanent part of his team, including his wife Diaz, an actor and filmmaker in her own right. Momma’s Man (2008) memorialized the trauma of moving […]
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“Raising Funds for a Film ‘About Abortion’ Is Never Easy” | Tracy Droz Tragos, PLAN C
Opening today in 20 markets across the United States is Tracy Droz Tragos’s Plan C, a documentary about social scientist Francine Coeytaux and her team’s work on expanding access to abortion pills online. With Atlanta, Chicago, Houston, Minneapolis-St. Paul opening today, and New York’s IFC Center run beginning October 13, we are reposting the director’s answer to our annual Sundance Question about the various challenges she faced while making the film. — Editor Every production faces unexpected obstructions that require creative solutions and conceptual rethinking. What was an unforeseen obstacle, crisis, or simply unpredictable event you had to respond to, […]
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“There’s a Beauty to the Dark Feminine”: Nida Manzoor on Polite Society
The unbreakable bond of sisterhood threatens to be thwarted by a eugenic evil conspiracy in Polite Society, writer-director Nida Manzoor’s feature debut. The British filmmaker, who was raised in a Pakistani Muslim household, has encased vital aspects of her own life in each project she’s embarked on so far. Her Peacock/Channel 4 show We Are Lady Parts, which follows a punk band comprised entirely of Muslim women, incorporates her natural musical prowess through writing the show’s music with her siblings Shez and Sanya. Now with Polite Society, Manzoor reflects on another immutable aspect of her life: the chaos and camaraderie […]
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“Participants Were Spread Over 10 Countries” | Laura McGann, The Deepest Breath
Every production faces unexpected obstructions that require creative solutions and conceptual rethinking. What was an unforeseen obstacle, crisis, or simply unpredictable event you had to respond to, and how did this event impact or cause you to rethink your film? Starting out, I was acutely aware that freediving was a really intriguing world that I knew nothing about; I had a lot to learn before I could start to understand the powerful story of our central subjects, Stephen and Alessia. We spent hundreds of hours having conversations with over 50 people on Zoom to learn more. It became clear that […]
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“I Saw the Benefits of Technology” | Amanda Kim, Nam June Paik: Moon Is the Oldest TV
Every production faces unexpected obstructions that require creative solutions and conceptual rethinking. What was an unforeseen obstacle, crisis, or simply unpredictable event you had to respond to, and how did this event impact or cause you to rethink your film? I’m sure many productions experienced this unforeseen obstacle, but no one expected a pandemic in early 2020. And at the height of it when the world was shutting down, our production was scheduled to begin. I wasn’t sure when and how we were going to continue production. But during the quiet of the first couple of months in lockdown and […]
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“It Wasn’t Clear That They Would Even Qualify for the State Competition” | Alejandra Vasquez and Sam Osborn, Going Varsity in Mariachi
Every production faces unexpected obstructions that require creative solutions and conceptual rethinking. What was an unforeseen obstacle, crisis, or simply unpredictable event you had to respond to, and how did this event impact or cause you to rethink your film? The varsity mariachi team that we had chosen to focus on had historically been one of the best in the state. We’d filmed with the team two years earlier and had immense respect for the coach and his program. And although he’d warned us that the team was heading into a “rebuilding year,” we weren’t prepared for the impact that […]
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“A Herd of Wild Elephants Was About 50 Meters Away” | Richie Mehta, Poacher
Every production faces unexpected obstructions that require creative solutions and conceptual rethinking. What was an unforeseen obstacle, crisis, or simply unpredictable event you had to respond to, and how did this event impact or cause you to rethink your film? Since we were making a series about wildlife crime, and those trying to protect wildlife, much of it was shot in a jungle in South India. And since those areas are lush with flora and fauna, it became important not to disrupt that environment whilst there, nor (and this goes without saying) get injured or die in the process from […]
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“I Couldn’t Watch the Footage Right Away” | Marija Kavtaradze, Slow
Every production faces unexpected obstructions that require creative solutions and conceptual rethinking. What was an unforeseen obstacle, crisis, or simply unpredictable event you had to respond to, and how did this event impact or cause you to rethink your film? Since it was the first time when I shot anything on film, I was aware that there might be things that can go unexpected. However the whole process was very smooth, we were really well prepared—I felt comfortable with actors because we had a lot of rehearsals before. But maybe the challenge for me was that I couldn’t watch the […]
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“It All Mirrored Willie’s World” | Thom Zimny and Oren Moverman, Willie Nelson & Family
Every production faces unexpected obstructions that require creative solutions and conceptual rethinking. What was an unforeseen obstacle, crisis, or simply unpredictable event you had to respond to, and how did this event impact or cause you to rethink your film? The obvious unforeseen obstacle, crisis, and unpredictable event we had to respond to in making Willie Nelson & Family was the pandemic. But the impact on the process was surprising. As most people know (if they don’t, they will after seeing the five-part documentary film), Willie Nelson lives on the road. He always has to be on the bus, on […]
