Festivals & Events
Festivals & Events
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“Our Intent Was Never to Make Viewers Laugh”: Directors Jonathan Milott and Cary Murnion | Bushwick
During its development, production or eventual distribution, what specific challenge of communication did, or will your film, face? How did you deal with it, or how are you planning to deal with it? One challenge of communication we originally faced was when we started pitching the idea over seven years ago. We presented the idea of Texas seceding from the U.S. and starting a civil war. At the time it sounded like a ridiculous satire and some people thought we wanted to make a comedy. Our intent was never to make viewers laugh though. The seeds of political animosity have […]
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“As Crazy and Unpredictable as Real Life”: Director Matt Spicer | Ingrid Goes West
During its development, production or eventual distribution, what specific challenge of communication did, or will your film, face? How did you deal with it, or how are you planning to deal with it? I think the biggest challenge of communicating nowadays is figuring out how to make your voice heard amidst all the noise. There is so much out there vying for people’s attention, and it’s easy to get lost in the shuffle. This applies to indie filmmakers as well. We don’t have massive marketing budgets to buy ad space or air time, and oftentimes we’re lucky to even find […]
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“Directing in Stereo”: Directors Alicia Scherson and Cristian Jimenez | Family Life
During its development, production or eventual distribution, what specific challenge of communication did, or will your film, face? How did you deal with it, or how are you planning to deal with it? Since we were two directors on set, which is unusual, we had to deal with the challenge of communicating with the crew and actors as one single voice. We created a method. There were days when one of us had the director’s cap and the second director had to refrain from talking to the cast or crew directly and had to go through the first director. A bit like […]
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Slamdance Notes: If Fitzcarraldo Made a Violin
Slamdance remains the little festival that could, a throwback to analog film festivals of the early 1980s, with their cinema-obsessed audiences and packed makeshift screening rooms. A halcyon age of innocence, before the onslaught of marketing, branding, corporate sponsorship, publicists, producer reps, agents, and social media. At Slamdance there’s still no red carpet and no one checks your bags or makes you open your coat for inspection before entering every screening. Nonetheless every year Slamdance, with its tiny slate, upstages Sundance with one or two films that soar. This year’s not-to-be-missed Slamdance film is Stefan Avalos’s Strad Style. Strad Style has […]
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“The Deep Angst and Disenfranchisement that Many People Feel”: Director Kyoko Miyake | Tokyo Idols
During its development, production or eventual distribution, what specific challenge of communication did, or will your film, face? How did you deal with it, or how are you planning to deal with it? Tokyo Idols explores a cultural phenomenon driven by an obsession with young female sexuality, and the growing disconnect between men and women in hyper-modern societies. The idol singers are predominantly teenage girls, and their fans are mostly middle aged men. At the beginning, I was reluctant to talk to the fans as I struggled to empathize with them. For me, they were “on the other side” not only […]
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“We Really Wanted to Do His Story Justice”: Director Matt Ruskin | Crown Heights
During its development, production or eventual distribution, what specific challenge of communication did, or will your film, face? How did you deal with it, or how are you planning to deal with it? I think the challenge with this film was how do you watch Colin Warner do 20 years in prison? How do you convey who this person is when he’s stripped of everything, and then how do you communicate the inner life he cultivated while in prison? I really respond to visual storytelling, so rather than plastering the film with voiceover we used a lot of imagery, whether it […]
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“The Story of Ferguson through the Eyes of the People Who Lived it”: Director Sabaah Folayan | Whose Streets
During its development, production or eventual distribution, what specific challenge of communication did, or will your film, face? How did you deal with it, or how are you planning to deal with it? By the time we wrapped our last shooting day, we had collected over 300 hours of footage. Lungs shouted for justice and moments later filled with tear gas. A father baked cookies during a moment of peace. A police chief and a mayor cited lack of data. Our creative team quickly realized we had several possible movies on our hands, but our goal was singular; we wanted […]
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“Communication Is Where a Film Lives and Dies”: Director Zoe Lister-Jones | Band Aid
During its development, production or eventual distribution, what specific challenge of communication did, or will your film, face? How did you deal with it, or how are you planning to deal with it? Communication is where a film lives and dies. It is essential for efficacy, for performance, and ultimately for translating a director’s vision to the screen. To me communication is less about the art of talking than it is about the art of listening. I hired an all-female crew on Band Aid, which was deliberate on many fronts, one of which was rooted in this very issue. At […]
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Sundance Dispatch 4: Marjorie Prime, The Force, 78/52
One of my least favorite ways to describe a movie is as a “meditation on” love/time/memory/death/etc. (It’s always some heavy abstract thing, never, say, “a meditation on Doritos.”) I guess Michael Almereyda is on the same page, per his introduction to this morning’s screening of Marjorie Prime. “It’s been described as a meditation,” he cracked. “I hope it’s not. It’s a movie.” Specifically, it’s a heavily modified adaptation of Jordan Harrison’s play, customized to fit the ever-adventurous Almereyda’s tastes and frames of reference. The premise is both simple and tricky: in the future, your deceased loved ones can be brought back […]
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“Profound Communication Only Happens When There Is Persistence”: Director Pamela Yates | 500 YEARS
During its development, production or eventual distribution, what specific challenge of communication did, or will your film, face? How did you deal with it, or how are you planning to deal with it? I often ask myself, how does each of us weave our own responsibilities into the pattern of history? How can I tell stories about human rights and the quest for justice yet engage people who are uninterested or apathetic? And the answer has always brought me back to this idea of the persistence of vision. Just as in cinema, believing that we will create a new art, […]
