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? There were many unforeseen obstacles in the making of Going To Mars, too many to recount. However, the most pressing and disturbing obstacle we encountered was the need for more available and affordable editors. We responded with a very effective strategy that may change our work in the future. We collaborated with multiple editors (in Canada and the USA) who possess […]
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? Getting into Sundance was tremendously exciting, but we had to have all hands on deck to finish the film in time for the festival. We wrapped principal photography in New Jersey in September, and once we got accepted into Sundance, learned we had to turn in our print on January 13th. With so many holidays falling in that time period, our […]
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? Well, the pandemic! We were supposed to shoot this film in New York in July 2019. The pandemic made this impossible. I tried to set up the film in Australia for a while, but that didn’t work out. Finally, I had to start from scratch and find the financing in Europe—and shoot New York in Europe! We brought a New […]
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? Given the material was personal and digging into my childhood trauma, every day was an emotional and psychological challenge. Much more than I could have anticipated. It is one thing to be a writer-director-producer on your first feature with an ensemble cast and a large crew, but it is another to do it whilst being triggered from the very material […]
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 biggest obstacle was whether to trust the voices that told me, David, to go to Salemi, Sicily, and rent a movie. Ashley suggested to listen to them and said, “Go for it! See what happens.” Initially, I didn’t intend to film or record my efforts to find Kim’s Video in Salemi and rent a movie. But the voices continued […]
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? Mother Nature always likes to dip in and remind a filmmaking team that while they might be staging and capturing life, they cannot be fully in control of everything. When weather imposes itself, either in the moment or in a forecast, it’s not often been available to me to push production. Instead, I’ve had to embrace the unforeseen and innovate […]
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? Toward the end of our shoot, I was given the green light to conduct a 20 minute interview with astronaut Kayla Barron—one of our main subjects—while she was on the space station. I don’t think I’ve ever been this nervous about an interview (also, it kinda felt like I was going to space). Following up on an interview I did […]
The primordial fear of being watched, stalked and caught by an unknown entity lurking in the dark is the basis of Skinamarink, the microbudget feature debut from writer-director-editor Kyle Edward Ball. The incredibly loose narrative follows young siblings Kevin (Lucas Paul) and Kaylee (Dali Rose Tetreault) as they patter around their family’s strikingly ordinary middle-class house in the dead of night circa 1995. Their parents are nowhere to be found, all of the doors have mysteriously vanished and the lights eventually stop working. While this phenomena is enough to chill any child, their well-being is most threatened by a supernatural […]
The unexpected (and largely unspoken) challenges of parenthood are rawly probed in Holding Moses, a moving documentary short directed by Rivkah Beth Medow and Jen Rainin. The film follows Randi Rader (Medow is in an open marriage; Rader is her long-term partner), a queer, non-binary dancer and Broadway performer who undergoes a personal reckoning when her son Moses is born with a rare genetic disorder of the 22nd chromosome. Via pre-recorded monologue, Rader shares the difficult journey of digging herself out of a deep depression and learning to love her son unconditionally. The candidness of her emotional trajectory may at […]
What could be more heartless than selling abandoned babies? Hirokazu Kore-eda’s Broker asks just that, and against all odds, finds a way to understand how people could behave that way. It’s the Japanese writer-director’s first feature shot in South Korea, having most recently worked in France for his previous film La Vérité. Broker stars Song Kang-ho as Sang-hyeon, a tailor in debt to the mob, and Gang Dong-won as his younger business partner Dong-soo, an orphan. Using Dong-soo’s professional connection to a local church, the two begin covertly snatching babies from the building’s baby box, which people use to anonymously […]