Director Interviews
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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 […]
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“It Cost Us Nearly a Quarter of Our Budget To Be Shut Down for Two Weeks” | Jacqueline Castel, My Animal
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? My Animal was not an easy shoot—we shot nights in the dead of winter in an isolated community in Northern Ontario. While there were a lot of challenges, the biggest and most obvious crisis we faced as a team was a COVID shutdown that resulted in a two week suspension of the shoot. This was what I had feared the […]
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“Marjaneh Moghimi, the Lead Producer of the Film, Unfortunately Passed Away” | Babak Jalali, Fremont
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 way Fremont went into production was influenced by a very sad event. Marjaneh Moghimi, the lead producer of the film, unfortunately passed away a couple of weeks into pre-production, which was also about two weeks before we started shooting. This was a film we had worked on together for a few years. Once we knew about her condition, the […]
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“A Rare Series of Earthquakes Shook the Island” | Glorimar Marrero Sánchez, La Pecera
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? Unpredictable events and obstacles were constant factors during the development of La Pecera (The Fishbowl). In 2017, Puerto Rico was embattled by a category 4 hurricane that caused catastrophic damage across the island and impacted the priorities of many people involved in our production. Then in 2020, a rare series of earthquakes shook the island. These two events led to […]
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“On the Last Day We Needed That Driving Scene”: Sing J. Lee on The Accidental Getaway Driver
Having amassed an impressive CV of high profile music videos and commercials with A-list talent, director Sing. J Lee makes his feature debut with The Accidental Getaway Driver, a narrative based on true events. Not the only film at Sundance this year based on an article from a major publication, Lee’s film takes as its inspiration a 2017 GQ article that recounted the night an elderly Vietnamese-American cab driver picked up three customers who, unbeknownst to him, were recent escapees of the Orange County Men’s Central Jail. As the evening quickly devolved into danger and chaos, the driver was held hostage, […]
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“On Any Road of Vieques, There’s Beauty Around”: Glorimar Marrero Sánchez on La Pecera
From the 1940s until 2003, the U.S. Navy used Vieques as a bombing range and military-training site, deploying heavy metals and toxic chemicals, such as napalm and depleted uranium, that left the island contaminated. Today, Vieques has some of the highest cancer rates in the Caribbean, though the U.S. government continues to deny that its activities are responsible. In writing La Pecera, Glorimar Marrero Sánchez sought to reflect the symptoms of colonialism both literally and symbolically, through the character of a woman whose body has been colonized by cancer—a disease, the film asserts, connected to the Navy’s pollution of Vieques. […]
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“We Opened up the Film Again and Re-imagined the Entire Scene” | Lin Alluna, Twice Colonized
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? We had a moving scene in the film where Aaju had a conversation with some friends who were concerned for her well-being, but it was a very private conversation. After the film was approved and locked, Aaju had second thoughts about the scene, so we opened up the film again and re-imagined the entire scene. Working with editor Mark Bukdahl, […]
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“The Storm, the Fog, the Humidity” | Christopher Murray, Sorcery
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 think our obstruction was the unpredictable weather of Chiloe Island at the very south of Chile. The storm, the fog, the humidity. But really, more than an obstruction, I think it was just an intense force to relate to while shooting. In a way, the weather also directed us and the film, as a kind of atmospheric spell. It […]
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“It Took an Additional 14 Months of Editing” | Joe Peeler, Bad Press
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? In the fall of 2021, we were about a year into our edit and preparing to submit Bad Press to the 2022 Sundance Film Festival. We had been filming the battle for free press in the Muscogee Nation for two-and-a-half years at that point, and we felt that the story had all but wrapped up. Suddenly, about two weeks before […]
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“Two Lenses and a Monitor Did Not Survive” | Anna Hints, Smoke Sauna Sisterhood
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 must say that the Smoke Sauna Sisterhood journey has been a total roller-coster or as we call in Estonian “American hills.” So I am more than delighted that in the end of the journey we end up with the world premiere at Sundance in the middle of real American mountains. The first big obstacle was that my first producer […]
