Festivals & Events
Festivals & Events
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“Feedback Helped Shape a More Comprehensive Narrative”: Editor Stephania Dulowski on Tendaberry
When her boyfriend travels to Ukraine in order to care for his sick father, 23-year-old Daokta (Kota Johan) finds herself roaming around New York City, finding both community and adversity in Tendaberry, the feature debut from writer-director Haley Elizabeth Anderson. Tendaberry is also editor Stephania Dulowski’s first feature-length project. Below, she describes how she approached cutting Anderson’s film, which premieres during the 2024 Sundance Film Festival in the NEXT program. See all responses to our annual Sundance editor questionnaire here. Filmmaker: How and why did you wind up being the editor of your film? What were the factors and attributes […]
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“I Was Keen to Challenge Myself with Film Language That I Hadn’t Tried”: Editor Arttu Salmi on Sebastian
Seven years after the premiere of A Moment in the Reeds, Finnish-British director Mikko Mäkelä has followed up with the Sundance World Dramatic Competition Sebastian. For his second film, Mikko Mäkelä plunges the viewer into the life of a novelist who, first as research for his own novel and then for the thrills the double life grants him, enters the world of sex work. Editor Arttu Salmi, whose previous work includes the TIFF 2023 premiere The End We Start From and both the New Man and Degeneration installments of Dau, discusses the unique circumstances of editing Sebastian on two Avids and how he found the film in the […]
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“I Prepared Myself by Digesting a Lot of Close-Ups and Portraits”: DP Iikka Salminen on Sebastian
In Sebastian, Finnish-British writer-director Mikko Mäkelä’s follow-up to 2017’s A Moment in the Reeds, 25-year-old Max enters the world of sex work as research for his debut novel. These experiences alter Max’s sense of self as Max moves from hesitant to exhilarated as he throws himself deeper into his “double life.” Cinematographer Iikka Salminen, who also worked with Mäkelä on A Moment in the Reeds, discusses how he complemented the observational nature of the film by shooting it like a “moving portrait.” See all responses to our annual Sundance cinematographer interviews here. Filmmaker: How and why did you wind up being the […]
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“The Feeling of Dealing with Death in a Place That is So Full of Life” | Laura Chinn, Suncoast
Films are made of and from places: the locations they are filmed in, the settings they are meant to evoke, the geographies where they are imagined and worked on. What place tells its own story about your film, whether a particularly challenging location that required production ingenuity or a map reference that inspired you personally, politically or creatively? Suncoast is set in the gulf coast of Florida, a state known for beaches, spring break and sunburns; the place you go when you want to let loose and have a good time. It might not be the first location you think […]
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“The Easiest Thing to Get People to Do on Film is the Sexual Stuff”: Scott Cummings on His Sundance Doc Realm of Satan
A decade after Buffalo Juggalos, which explored the Faygo-spattered milieu of the Juggalo subculture in his native Buffalo, N.Y., Scott Cummings returns with a full-length immersion into another misunderstood community, the Church of Satan. Realm of Satan, which premieres Jan. 21 in the NEXT section of the Sundance Film Festival, is a deeply collaborative endeavor that adapts the philosophy and practices of the church into a rigorous yet playful visual approach that also takes liberties with observational form through inspired use of VFX. Cummings, who began work on the film in 2016 and persisted through the pandemic, spoke with Filmmaker […]
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Sundance 2024: Between the Temples, Seeking Mavis Beacon
It’s rare to see a comedy immediately get going in its first shot as Between the Temples does—no credits, throat-clearing establishing shots or slow unveiling of protagonists, instead a slow zoom out introducing cantor Ben (Jason Schwartzman) being cornered at the dinner table by his moms Meira (Caroline Aaron) and Judith (Dolly De Leon). The two mothers lovingly hector him (this movie operates at dizzying levels of Jewishness), saying it’s time to seek out a doctor for his problem: following the death of his alcoholic novelist wife, Ben is a cantor who can’t sing. This gives Temples a surprisingly normal […]
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“Retain the Depth and the Breadth of This Community”: Editor Nathan Punwar on Sugarcane
Tackling a timely but under-discussed contemporary issue in both the United States and Canada, journalists Julian Brave NoiseCat and Emily Kassie investigate a string of abuses and missing persons cases at an indigenous residential school in Sugarcane. The film, naturally, spends a great deal of time with indigenous peoples, and the filmmakers sought to maintain evidence of the deep culture and community of their subjects. Below, editor Nathan Punwar explains how they reconciled that goal with the need to keep the film moving. See all responses to our annual Sundance editor questionnaire here. Filmmaker: How and why did you wind up […]
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“It Was a Lot of Experimentation Along the Way”: Editor Jennifer Vecchiarello on My Old Ass
While tripping on mushrooms during the summer before her first semester of college, Elliott (Maisy Stella) encounters a future version of herself (Aubrey Plaza) in My Old Ass, the sophomore feature from writer, director and EP Megan Park. What ensues is a process of self-discovery that eschews scientific conventions of time and space. Jennifer Vecchiarello delves into her experience cutting Park’s film, where her duties included “teasing out the relationships” between characters and utilizing temp ADR and voiceover during the edit. See all responses to our annual Sundance editor questionnaire here. Filmmaker: In terms of advancing your film from its […]
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“Finding the Perfect Cottage to Film In” | Megan Park, My Old Ass
Films are made of and from places: the locations they are filmed in, the settings they are meant to evoke, the geographies where they are imagined and worked on. What place tells its own story about your film, whether a particularly challenging location that required production ingenuity or a map reference that inspired you personally, politically or creatively? When I was writing the movie, I remember saying, “I want Elliott’s home to feel like the type of cottage where you are always hearing a screen door slam in the background.” That was such a familiar and memorable sound from my […]
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“To Get Soaked Into the Story and Not Be Aware of the Camera”: DPs Tom Bergmann and Konrad Waldmann on Eternal You
The advent of AI now offers the bereaved an opportunity to connect with deceased loved ones via avatars, a creation that captured the interest of filmmakers Hans Block and Moritz Riesewieck. Their documentary Eternally You investigates the benefits and dangers of digital immortality. Cinematographers Tom Bergmann and Konrad Waldmann reveal how they collaborated on this project, which required equal parts empathy and adhering to a specific artistic vision. See all responses to our annual Sundance cinematographer interviews here. Filmmaker: How and why did you wind up being the cinematographer of your film? Bergmann: Georg Tschurtschenthaler, producer extraordinaire, reached out to me […]
