Festivals & Events
Festivals & Events
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“Simple, Effortless and Full of Hope”: Director Lone Scherfig | Their Finest
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? The script for Their Finest was unusually dense and complex, but the film itself should seem simple, effortless and full of hope. We wanted to pack it with detail, but in so subtle a way that the many layers felt light, shifting between humorous and much more emotional scenes. There’s a wide range of great technical challenges built into the story: a gorgeous Technicolor film within the […]
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“A Story about the Very Challenge of Communication”: Director Christine Turner | Hold On
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? In Hold On, a short film about a young man who is left to care for his grandmother, I tell a story about the very challenge of communication. Living under the same roof, but separated by more than 50 years, the two characters are worlds apart. On the one hand there is Troy, a multi-tasking teenager, who speaks the language of Twitter, Tinder, Instagram. On the other […]
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Sundance Dispatch 1: Trump, Person to Person
For a few weeks now I’ve been preemptively writing bad ledes for Sundance write-ups/reviews in my head. Such as: “In the age of Trump, do independent films matter? Yes — now perhaps more than ever.” “Can independent film lead the resistance? It can, and it must.” “The spectacle of the Sundance Film Festival sits strangely against the much more lavish pageantry of the Trump inauguration, let me frame every single write-up through this lens.” “Can documentaries make an impact in the post-truth era?” And so on and so on, quite satisfactorily, with the illusion of topicality thinly sustained. If you […]
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“I Knew it Would Cause Problems”: Director Justin Chon | Gook
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? The biggest challenge of communication my film Gook will have is the actual title. It was a problem when we were trying to get financing for the film, when we were trying to cast the film and will be a problem when we take the film out into the world because of judgment without understanding. It will be our job to communicate and open up dialogue on how […]
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“Every Work of Art Is Political”: Director Cory Finley | Thoroughbred
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 spent a lot of time thinking, at every stage of making the film, about how it works as social critique. That’s not the story’s primary mode: it’s a psychological thriller, and it’s a study of two characters and their evolving relationship. But a playwriting professor once told me that every work of art is political, whether its creator wants it to be or not. I’m aiming […]
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“Film Is Such a Universal Language”: Director Tarik Saleh | The Nile Hilton Incident
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? The Nile Hilton Incident was shot in Casablanca as a stand in for Cairo, in both Arabic and Dinka languages. We had a French DP, a German focus puller and a Swedish first AD, so one might think that language would be the biggest challenge. However, film is such a universal language and it worked out fine. I think the biggest communication challenge always is making sure […]
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“We’re All to Blame if We Don’t Do Anything”: Director Michelle Latimer | RISE
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? While I was at Standing Rock I had the privilege to stay in the Oceti Sakowin camp and be part of a community aligned to stop the Dakota Access pipeline. And through it all there seemed to be an overarching narrative that the media hooked into. It usurped everything else. Wherever you turned you would hear about the violence and the chaos of state-led oppression against “protestors.” […]
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“Bad Taste Done with Good Taste”: Director Teemu Niukkanen | Fucking Bunnies
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? The development of Fucking Bunnies took almost two years. In every step of the way we needed to assure the funders (Finnish Film Foundation and Finnish Broadcasting Company YLE) again and again that we’re doing something really worth doing and seeing. The theme of xenophobia had been there right from the start, but in the beginning the script had more emphasis on the sexual stuff – which […]
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“Might There Be a Desire to Cross Party Lines?”: Director Laura Dunn | Look and See: A Portrait of Wendell Berry
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? For the past several years, while I worked to raise money for this film, it seemed like most folks in the documentary film world, the gatekeepers as they are, were not particularly interested in a sympathetic, even loving portrait of white male tobacco farmers from the rural south. I found a few lone advocates, and for those people, I am very grateful as they encouraged me more […]
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Is Sundance Worth It for Film Crew Members? Veteran Festival Goers Offer their Advice
Over the next ten days, the Sundance Film Festival will screen 113 feature films, and tens of thousands of people descend on the small town of Park City, Utah. Included in those crowds are the crewmembers from all over the world that made those 113 movies possible. While directors with projects premiering at Sundance are flown out to Utah by distributors or financiers, many crewmembers who worked tirelessly and often for very little money wind up paying their own way to the festival in order to support their own films. It’s an expensive trip, and they may wind up without […]
