Francia Márquez is the current Vice President of Colombia, and Juan Mejía Botero was fortunate to have documented the campaign exclusively and from the beginning. That footage, alongside archival footage of a younger Márquez, makes up the Sundance 2024 documentary Igualada. Ahead of the film’s premiere, cinematographer Gómez Karen Gómez (Sous le silence et la terre) talked about what it was like documenting a campaign that was constantly in motion. See all responses to our annual Sundance cinematographer interviews here. Filmmaker: How and why did you end up being the director of photography for your film? What were the factors and attributes […]
On a trip to the Catskills, 17-year-old Sam’s father is so preoccupied looking out for his oldest friend that she begins to feel suffocated. Such is the premise of Good One, the debut feature by the Los-Angeles based India Donaldson. Also debuting on Good One is cinematographer Wilson Cameron (Glass Note). Below, Cameron discusses the film’s natural development toward longer takes, the fun and difficulty of shooting in the woods and the various films that served as reference. See all responses to our annual Sundance cinematographer interviews here. Filmmaker: How and why did you wind up being the cinematographer of your […]
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 […]
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 […]
While attending a boarding school nestled in the Himalayan mountains, Mira (Preeti Panigrahi) finds herself confronted with newfound desires that she desperately wants to explore, a notion that horrifies her mother (Kani Kusruti), whose dedication to old-fashioned standards are likely a result of her own stunted coming-of-age. Cinematographer Jih-E Peng, who previously collaborated with first-time feature filmmaker Shuchi Talati on her short film A Period Piece, discusses his approach to tackling this project, which included browsing the New York Public Library’s Picture Collection. See all responses to our annual Sundance cinematographer interviews here. Filmmaker: How and why did you wind […]
Based on the real-life whistleblower who leaked an intelligence report exposing Russian interference in the 2016 election, director Susanna Fogel’s Winner depicts the events leading up to Texas native Reality Winner’s eventual arrest and sentencing. Cinematographer Steve Yedlin describes his approach to shooting Fogel’s film, which included not getting caught up with references and “not being a slave to superstition” when it came to choosing a camera. 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 led to your […]
Sugarcane, co-directed by journalists Julian Brave NoiseCat and Emily Kassie, is an investigation into the abuse and missing persons cases at an indigenous residential school and the associated tumult on the nearby Reserve. It is the debut film by NoiseCat, a former policy with personal ties to the community, and the second, after A Girl Named C, for Kassie. Christopher LaMarca served as cinematographer, his second such credit, after Ry Russo-Young’s Nuclear Family. Below, he discusses some of the challenges peculiar to shooting verité films. See all responses to our annual Sundance cinematographer interviews here. Filmmaker: How and why did you […]
In My Old Ass, an incoming college freshman encounters an older version of herself during a mushroom trip, spurring a journey of self-discovery. The film is director Megan Park’s follow-up the 2021 SXSW premiere The Fallout and stars Maisy Stella (Nashville) alongside Aubrey Plaza (Emily the Criminal). Kristen Correll (The Fallout, Parachute) served as director of photography. Below, she talks about going with the flow during shooting, the film’s nostalgic tone, and the ’90s favorites that provided influence. 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 […]
A heady, elegantly-constructed ghost story, Steven Soderbergh’s Presence has a bunch of half-buried threads, a couple of perfectly-timed scares, and a horrific close-up of an act of violence that mesmerizes the camera—just as horror films mesmerize their audience. The camera is the star here, and not merely because its sustained, floating movements, its sudden turns and retreats, its anxious hovering display the virtuosity of the operator who is also the film’s director, but because it is the titular character, the unseen presence whose half-life is disturbed and then engaged by a family of four that moves into a suburban house […]
Director Silje Evensmo Jacobsen also served as the primary cinematographer on her documentary A New Kind of Wilderness, premiering at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival in the World Documentary Competition. The film follows the Payne family, who’ve been happily residing in a remote Norwegian forest until a death in the family forces them to move back into populated society. Below, Evensmo Jacobsen describes her approach to shooting A New Kind of Wilderness, which she did alongside directing in order to foster a more genuine intimacy with the film’s subjects. See all responses to our annual Sundance cinematographer interviews here. Filmmaker: How […]