Festivals & Events
Festivals & Events
-
20 Honest Observations from the Sundance Film Festival
Twenty — It’s the first Friday of the Sundance Film Festival and I’m sitting in the lobby of the Park City Marriott. I’m making small talk with some friends about the festival and the election and the films we’re excited to see. There’s a TV mounted on the wall behind me live broadcasting Trump’s inaugural address. Someone makes a joke about how he’s doing everything he can to avoid looking up at the screen. I do the same, pivoting my body and adjusting my eyeline so as to avoid catching a glimpse of our new President’s grinning face. By being here, […]
-
“Anthologies Are All about Communication”: Director Roxanne Benjamin | XX
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? Anthologies are all about communication – you’re dealing with multiple productions in multiple states (if not countries) with quadruple the number of creatives and producers using different camera equipment, different lenses, with different visions, different styles. To that end, in my experience the biggest challenge for these types of productions usually lies in tying all of those disparate elements together into one cohesive whole that benefits and […]
-
I don’t feel at home in this world anymore, Dina Top the 2017 Sundance Film Festival Awards
In a ceremony last night hosted by Jessica Williams — and one marked by presenters, winners and festival reps denouncing, in ways subtle and direct, the Trump administration’s immigration ban — the winners of the 2017 Sundance Film Festival were announced. First-time feature director Macon Blair’s character-based crime thriller I don’t feel at home in this world anymore won the Dramatic Grand Jury Prize, while Dan Sickles and Antonio Santini’s comedy-tinged doc about a romance between a couple living on the autism spectrum, Dina, won the Documentary Grand Jury Prize. On the World Cinema side, Tarik Saleh’s The Nile Hilton […]
-
“A Survival Thriller Set in the Remote Bush”: Director Damien Power | Killing Ground
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? As a director, there are many ways to communicate your vision for the film to cast and crew. In the lead-up to shooting my first feature, Killing Ground, I used them all: screening and talking about films that resonated, mood boards, sketches, diagrams, notes, long conversations – whatever helped whoever I was talking to best understand the film we were making. During the shoot I discovered it […]
-
Watch the Sundance Awards Live
Jessica Williams, star of the Sundance film The Incredible Jessica James, is hosting tonight’s award ceremony, which you can watch live here at Filmmaker. Check back after the show for the complete list of awards.
-
“We Reduce Entire Groups to Monoliths”: Screenwriter Damon Davis | 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? Perceptions and stereotypes about a certain demographic of people become barriers to character development. Meaning, after centuries of storytelling, people’s race, gender, age, orientation, whatever it might be, influences how we expect them to function in the story, and influences the depths to which we can relate to them on a human level. A major obstacle to telling unique stories is that people can’t see the uniqueness […]
-
“Elegant, Meaningful and Fun”: Director Kriv Stenders | Red Dog: True Blue
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 Red Dog: True Blue is a sequel, our main challenge in communication was telling our story in a fresh and unique way that wouldn’t disappoint audiences who loved the original, but that also spoke to and was relevant to new audiences. The solution came by way of the wonderful screenplay by Dan Taplitz and the clever concept on which it was based. Basically, by making the […]
-
Justin Chon’s Gook, and Why New, Diverse Voices are Still the Most Exciting Part of Sundance
“Investors said, ‘But what if one white cop stops by?’” “No man. That’s ridiculous,” said Chon. “Get a white famous friend as a day player?” ”It was intentional,” said Chon on his decision to have an entirely diverse cast. There’s always a film (or two) at Sundance that re-instills your faith in the festival as a whole. For me, that usually means the discovery of an electric new voice. This year in particular there were a lot of returning faces — Alex Ross Perry (Golden Exits), David Lowery (A Ghost Story), Ry Russo-Young (Before I Fall), Eliza Hittman (Beach Rats) […]
-
“To Self-Destruct as We Cannibalize All Resources”: Director Miguel Arteta | Beatriz at Dinner
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? Our film Beatriz At Dinner is about the two opposing world views that have increasingly been colliding and unable to communicate. Our future is in jeopardy and finding out a way for us to truly negotiate the outcome of our convictions seems more important than ever. To me it comes down to an argument about what nature intended by allowing one of the species to become so […]
-
“An Incredible Learning Experience”: Director Michael Larnell | Roxanne Roxanne
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? My first feature film, Cronies, had a small budget and production team. For Roxanne Roxanne, we had a bigger budget, and this allowed for a larger production team. This meant there were more moving pieces, which presented a slew of challenges on all levels. The fact that the film is a 1980s period film in the busy land of NYC complicated these challenges even more. There were […]
