Directors
Interviews - Directors
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Kurt Kuenne on Shooting his First Television Episode, From Shadowing to Editing
I first became aware of Kurt Kuenne’s work when I saw his 2011 feature Shuffle on the festival circuit; that film, an audacious psychological thriller about a man who finds himself waking up each morning at a different stage of his life, was an extraordinary fiction debut for a director who, I later discovered, had also made one of the most powerful documentaries of recent years. Dear Zachary (2008) begins as Kuenne’s tribute to a murdered friend and develops into an excruciating portrait of a legal system gone horribly wrong; it’s touching, enraging, devastating, and inspiring in equal measures. Last year’s […]
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Gabe Klinger on Shooting Porto on Multiple Film Gauges, Approaching Sex Scenes and Manoel de Oliveira’s Influence
After taking home the Best Documentary prize from the Venice Film Festival for Double Play: James Benning and Richard Linklater, critic-turned-director Gabe Klinger’s first scripted feature is the fractured, woozy love story, Porto. Set in the titular Portuguese city, it dramatizes in non-linear fashion the shared experiences of a rail-thin American nomad, Jake (Anton Yelchin, in a hypnotic parting performance), and a charming local woman, Mati (Lucie Lucas, making her feature starring debut). Porto debuted at the San Sebastián International Film Festival in late September and followed with showings at the Zurich Film Festival, where I was able to catch up with him […]
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Making Blue Jay in Black and White
It’s been a momentous year for cinematographer Alex Lehmann, who successfully made the transition to director/DP with his first two features. His documentary feature Asperger’s Are Us, about the first comedy troupe consisting of openly autistic people, premiered earlier this year at SXSW, where it was bought by Netflix. Blue Jay, Lehmann’s narrative feature debut, recently premiered at TIFF and will hit select theaters on October 7 before heading to digital on October 11 and Netflix later this year. Mark Duplass and Jay Duplass executive produced both films. Starring Mark Duplass (based on his screenplay) and Sarah Paulson as two former high school sweethearts who reconnect […]
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“I Want the Audience to Look According to Their Own Free Will”: Pema Tseden on Tharlo
Pema Tseden’s new film, Tharlo, is a bit of a departure for the director. While his past films have focused on specific social units — a Tibetan buddhist monk community in The Silent Holy Stones, a film crew in The Search, a family in Old Dog — Tharlo is a film that centers around an individual, the titular sheep herder with a ponytail. On a trip into town to get a new ID, Tharlo (Shide Nyima), who lives a solitary life in the mountains, is introduced to urban life by Yangtso (Yangshik Tso), an attractive short-haired girl who works at […]
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What 12 Real Female Filmmakers Wear to Set
Do women filmmakers need to wear certain clothes on set to be taken seriously? Is a female filmmaker’s wardrobe the real secret to success? When Refinery 29 recently posted a story, “How to Dress for the Job You Want” including “film director,” they inadvertently irked a number of actual female directors and producers with their career outfit suggestions. “You’ll likely be on your feet for long days on set, but still don’t want to look sloppy, so opt for a thick ‘grandma’-style heel that can last you the whole day through, along with some soft trousers and a stylish take on the […]
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Human Highway: Writer/Director Andrea Arnold Talks American Honey
Watching the world go by out a car window, a road trip feels like going nowhere and somewhere at the same time. The overpasses and parking lots, they all look enough alike, and then thousands of miles later, by the time you get somewhere new, you’ve changed, a metamorphosis propelled by asphalt and gasoline. The road is a symbol in America, as much as an everyday experience. Last month, Frank Ocean released his album Blonde accompanied with a zine about cars. “We live in cars in some cities, commuting across space either for our livelihood, or devouring fossil fuels for […]
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Five Questions for Miss Stevens Writer/Director Julia Hart
We’ve seen our fair share of films about teacher-student relationships, but they tend to fall into either the titillating or inspirational categories. Miss Stevens is neither. It’s a quiet drama which is powerful in its subtlety. The plot itself is understated, but the execution is surprisingly compelling. The set-up involves Rachel Stevens (Lily Rabe), a lonely high school teacher who reluctantly chaperones three teens – including the troubled and charismatic Billy (Timothee Chalamet) – to a drama competition. In her directorial debut, Julia Hart, who co-wrote the film with her husband Jordan Horowitz, exhibits an aptitude for working with actors. Rabe won the Best Actress […]
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Five Questions for Closet Monster Writer/Director Stephen Dunn
A surreal and entirely original coming-of-age tale, Closet Monster tells the story of Oscar, a gay, cinephilic high school senior who has been grappling with the implications of his parents’ divorce — and a witnessed act of gay bashing — by, among other things, conversing with his “spirit animal”: Buffy, a pet hamster voiced by Isabella Rossellini. The feature debut of Canadian writer/director Stephen Dunn, the film has drawn comparisons to the work of countrymen David Cronenberg and Xavier Dolan, but it pulses to its own unexpectedly sincere wavelength. Below, we asked Dunn about that Cronenberg connection, star Connor Jessup […]
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To the Moon Via Stanley Kubrick: Matt Johnson on Operation Avalanche
Nothing on screen is ever fully truth. Even in the most honest and seemingly unbiased documentaries, manipulation and subjectivity reign. That caveat is accepted when there is explicit knowledge that one’s watching creative content, but blatant deceit is a much dangerous affair. In Operation Avalanche, director Matt Johnson travels in time to 1967 to ingeniously recreate and humorously speculate about some of the most divisive footage in American history, moving images that surely change the landscape of what humanity was capable of. For some, however, the moon landing is an orchestrated sham built on the artifice of moviemaking. Johnson’s sophomore […]
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TIFF 2016: Five Questions for Prevenge Director/Actor Alice Lowe
Joining Ms. 45‘s blind, black-frocked avenger and Kill Bill‘s sword-wielding, catsuited femme fatale in the pantheon of female killer films is the seven-and-a-half months pregnant Ruth in Alice Lowe’s microbudget pitch-black thriller comedy, Prevenge, receiving its North American premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival. Ruth is just six weeks from delivering her first child, but she’s still grieving the death of her husband several months earlier. And she’s receiving messages from her fetus, who seems to be speaking to her… and urging her to kill. Giving Prevenge an extratextual yet inside-the-frame kick is the fact that its first-time feature […]
