Festivals & Events
Festivals & Events
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“A Transition That Happens When the Kid Becomes the Adult in the Relationship”: DP Greta Zozula on Fairyland
Based on Alysia Abbott’s 2013 memoir of the same name, Andrew Durham’s feature debut Fairyland chronicles Alysia’s (Emilia Jones) coming of age after the death of her mother. More specifically, Fairyland explores the complicated relationship between Alysia and her father Steve (Scoot McNairy), who relocates with her to San Francisco in the ’70s and begins to openly date men and adopt a distinctly bohemian lifestyle. DP Greta Zozula tells Filmmaker about the various aesthetic choices made to capture this touching true story. See all responses to our annual Sundance cinematographer interviews here. Filmmaker: How and why did you wind up being […]
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Sundance 2023: Eileen, You Hurt My Feelings, Landscape with Invisible Hand
At this point, it’s a running joke that any indie film worth its salt will have an extended scene featuring a woman pissing. Not just a woman sitting on the toilet, underwear around her ankles—the trickle of her stream must be fully perceptible to the viewer’s ear, subversive in its unvarnished or gritty exploration of the female experience (even with my sparser-than-usual Sundance viewing schedule this year, I’ve still clocked one extended instance of this). If a filmmaker is really being edgy, a blood-soaked tampon may appear on screen, or perhaps sparse droplets of menses slowly descending down a thigh. […]
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“I Knew It Would Be an Amazing Journey To Go On”: DP Annemarie Lean-Vercoe on Is There Anybody Out There?
Filmmaker Ella Glendining has always wanted to meet someone who shares the same rare disability that she was born with. The problem is, she’s not sure such an individual even exists. This quest is the basis of Is There Anybody Out There? her intimate documentary that incorporates personal video diaries alongside interviews with people she meets with bodies similar to her own. UK-based DP Annemarie Lean-Vercoe shares the female cinematography collective that connected her with the director, how the shoot adapted to COVID complications and the documentary touchstones her and Glendining used as references. See all responses to our annual […]
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“Our Process Revolved Around Letting the Kids Be Kids”: DP Molly Manning Walker on Scrapper
Ever since her mother’s death, 12-year-old Georgie (Lola Campbell) has been living all on her own in director Charlotte Regan’s film Scrapper. She scrapes by with the help of her friend Ali (Alin Uzun) and their bike-stealing hustle, staving off social workers by pretending to live with a non-existent uncle. Just when she thinks she’s got it all figured out, a man named Jason (Harris Dickenson) appears, who claims to be her father. Though she barely recognizes him due to his prolonged absence from her life, she nonetheless falls under his care—but not without a fair amount of pushback. Cinematographer […]
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“Do Everything You Can and Then Trust What Happens” | Alice Englert, Bad Behavior
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? I spent close to three years alone with my story, researching, imagining it, and writing it and I loved that. I treasured that it was a secret that was mostly just interesting to me. It’s freeing but I longed for companionship too. It’s a strange thing when something that feels so inside you, so private becomes something that belongs to […]
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“One of Our Biggest Obstacles Was Time” | Andrew Durham, Fairyland
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? I think one of our biggest obstacles was time. We had a very tight budget and could only afford 23 shooting days (21 in the SF Bay Area, two in France). When I found out how few hours our child actor—Nessa Dougherty, who plays young Alysia—could work each day, I had to completely rethink how to shoot the movie. With […]
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“Rules Are Perhaps the Most Useful Ally in Creativity”: Editor Meredith Perry on PLAN C
During a period of horrifying restrictions on women’s reproductive rights, Francine Coeytaux’s grassroots organization Plan C is actively fighting back by aiding individuals across the country gain access to vital abortion medication. Documentary filmmaker Tracy Droz Tragos follows the plight of Coeytaux and her allies in the aptly titled PLAN C, which premiered at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival. Editor Meredith Perry tells Filmmaker about how her experience working on PLAN C ultimately solidified her understanding of reproductive justice as a whole, and much more. See all responses to our annual Sundance editor interviews here. Filmmaker: How and why did you […]
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“Funnier Is Almost Always Better in My Book”: Editor Robert Nassau on Shortcomings
Ben (Justin H. Min) is a movie theater manager and struggling filmmaker whose life is thrown into tumult when his best friend Alice (Sherry Cola) relocates to New York City for an internship. Adapted from Adrian Tomine’s graphic novel of the same name, actor Randall Park makes his directorial debut with Shortcomings, a film about the complexity of Asian-American identity. Editor Robert Nassau talks about his love of Tomine’s original graphic novel, the religious childhood experience of watching Close Encounters of the Third Kind and how each project he works on teaches him something new. See all responses to our […]
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Sundance 2023: 5 Seasons of Revolution, My Animal, Selected Shorts, The Tuba Thieves and Milisuthando
Before it started, one question about this year’s Sundance concerned attendance: what happens when a more-expensive-to-attend-than-most festival, held in a cold place during winter’s peak at a high altitude, offers the option to stream the bulk of its titles online days later? Brand presence on Main Street appeared to be down (one out of five awnings rather than every single one), and P&I attendance seemed to be as well—but, for many there, the answer was jamming out endless viewings on their tablet or laptop between venturing out for select IRL screenings. Whatever those combined, not-yet-disclosed industry-plus-public streaming numbers were, they […]
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“Rendering American Urban Landscapes as a Character”: DP Derek Howard on PLAN C
When a marked increase in abortion restrictions and bans began unfolding across the country, Francine Coeytaux knew she had to step up and do something. As a result, she formed the grassroots organization Plan C, which lends its name to Tracy Droz Tragos’s documentary about Coeytaux’s fight for everyone’s right to abortion medication and broader reproductive health services. Cinematographer Derek Howard tells Filmmaker all about his experience shooting PLAN C. See all responses to our annual Sundance cinematographer interviews here. Filmmaker: How and why did you wind up being the cinematographer of your film? What were the factors and attributes that […]
