Directors
Interviews - Directors
-
Dave Grohl on Directing Sound City
Dave Grohl has a history of fruitfully redefining himself. After Nirvana self-destructed, he went from being the former drummer for one the most momentous rock bands of the 20th century to being the frontman for one of the biggest acts of the 21st, Foo Fighters. So it shouldn’t seem too surprising to find him making a successful broad jump from musician to documentarian, especially with a project is as close to his heart as Sound City. Opening its doors in 1969, L.A.’s Sound City Studios was low on frills and gloss, but boasted an almost magical live-room ambience and a […]
-
Five Questions with Kill Your Darlings Director John Krokidas
After premiering his short film at the Sundance Film Festival in 2002, director John Krokidas vowed to be back two years later with his first feature film. Krokidas found that it took a bit longer than anticipated to get his film to Park City, but eleven long years later, Kill Your Darlings premieres in competition today at Sundance. The Beat generation has been a popular subject of films lately, but rather than adapt a Kerouac book or Ginsberg poem, Krokidas follows the nascent writers during their days at Columbia University and one particular event that shaped their future work and careers. In 1944, […]
-
Five Questions with Emanuel and the Truth About Fishes Director Francesca Gregorini
Emanuel and the Truth About Fishes is Francesca Gregorini’s second feature film, but her first solo directorial undertaking. Influenced strongly by surrealism and her own personal struggles with loss, Gregorini’s film, which she also wrote, follows a teenage girl, Emanuel (Kaya Scodelario, Wuthering Heights), who struggles to comprehend her mother’s death. When a woman eerily similar to her deceased mom moves in next door, Emanuel finds ways to interact with her and develop a new relationship, learning they have more in common than anticipated. Emanuel and the Truth About Fishes explores how both children and adults cope with death and […]
-
Second-Time Director: Kyle Patrick Alvarez and C.O.G.
Industry veterans and fresh faces alike are descending onto Park City this week, and for filmmakers with premieres it’s a heady mixture of excitement and anxiety. Writer/director Kyle Patrick Alvarez is among this crowd, ready for not only his film’s first screening, but his personal festival debut. It’s a significant career-high for the second-time director, but Alvarez is approaching the week with the well-worn wisdom his first feature brought. Alvarez wasted little time in launching his industry career. Immediately after graduating from University of Miami’s film program, Alvarez moved straight to Los Angeles and landed a job as Warren Beatty’s […]
-
Paul Mazursky Loves Talking To Women
I don’t really know how to describe my conversation with Paul Mazursky. The phone connection was weird, his wife Betsy was trying to control the dog in the background, I was working with this new recording device on my phone and he could hear only every other world I was saying. I was late to watch my kid play soccer so I was rushing and he was so patient but I could tell he was busy too. But halfway through the call I realized I might be in a Paul Mazursky film where everything happens at once, energy is flying […]
-
Tom O’Brien, Fairhaven
Three thirtysomething buddies reunite for a funeral in a sleepy Massachusetts fishing hamlet in Tom O’Brien’s finely tuned Fairhaven. They beat about the shores of this southeastern Massachusetts town in the dead of brutal winter, one which ace DP Peter Simonite photographs in such a way as to chill the bones of attentive audience members–even ones who don’t find themselves, or this movie, which debuts today both theatrically and on VOD, in a typically over air-conditioned modern movie house. Close knit and working class, the milieu of O’Brien’s movie is at once confining and comforting for its three leads. Jon […]
-
Five Questions with Let My People Go! Director Mikael Buch
“On a set I feel like the strongest person in the world,” says Mikael Buch, quickly adding, “In real life, things are far more complicated!” Buch’s new film, Let My People Go!, is his first full-length feature. But in directing and co-writing this frisky combination of sexual farce, romantic comedy, and family drama revolving around a young, gay, Jewish Frenchman named Ruben (Nicolas Maury) and his international misadventures, Buch had some stalwart support, including co-writer Christophe Honoré and actor Carmen Maura (of Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown fame). “All these people gave me the confidence I needed,” says […]
-
Pulse: Shooting with the Canon C100, Part II
In Part Two of this interview with Patrick Moreau of StillMotion, Moreau discusses the settings used while filming the short film Pulse with the Canon C100, as well as the lenses and audio hardware they used. He also discusses intercutting footage from the Canon C100 with other cameras. See also: Pulse: Shooting with the Canon C100 Part One Filmmaker: For this project you were recording to AVCHD? Moreau: Yes. We used AVCHD in this situation because we wanted it to be as natural as possible, which is possible with this small footprint. We did an AT&T campaign for the Olympics […]
-
Three Questions for Jonathan Demme
Academy Award-winning director Jonathan Demme has made Hollywood spectacles (The Silence of the Lambs, The Manchurian Candidate), eccentric indies (Rachel Getting Married, Something Wild), timeless rock docs (Stop Making Sense, Neil Young Journeys) and other unclassifiable delights. At the 12th annual Festival International du Film de Marrakech, Demme’s filmmaking legacy was honored with both a formal tribute, and an invite to give a “masterclass” to an enraptured Moroccan audience. Filmmaker sat down with Demme to discuss his iconoclastic career. Filmmaker: For decades, you’ve been slinking between narratives and documentaries. What interests you more? Demme: I’ve always followed my enthusiasm. If […]
-
Five Questions with Joshua Tree, 1951: A Portrait of James Dean Writer/Director Matthew Mishory
What began as a short film, Joshua Tree 1951: A Portrait of James Dean, became a feature film almost by the insistence of social media. Director/writer Matthew Mishory says the initial shoot for the film took place in Joshua Tree, California, over a few days in 2010. When he returned to Los Angeles, he edited a trailer and posted it online, not thinking much of what would happen. Almost immediately the trailer went viral and expectation was that it was going to be a feature film. “Our production team got together and decided, well, we really ought to be making […]
