The seaside village of Iyi is the setting for C.J. “Fiery” Obasi’s mythical Mami Wata, which chronicles the fraught relationship between an all-powerful African water deity and the villagers who are currently embroiled in a period of unrest. The widely respected Mama Efe (Rita Edochie) acts as the intermediary between the titular water goddess Mami Wata and the villagers, but the death of a young boy further provokes the villagers toward an act of violence that no entity can control. Editor Nathan Delannoy discusses the process of cutting the gorgeous black and white film, including how he followed his gut […]
Actress Veerle Baetens’s feature debut When It Melts, adapted from Lize Spit’s novel The Melting, follows Eva (Charlotte De Bruyne) as she returns to her hometown for a funeral with an ice block packed in the back of her car. While she waits out this frigid winter (and as the ice block slowly shrinks), she recalls a scorching summer during her adolescence that forever altered the course of her life. Editor Thomas Pooters shares his experience cutting Baetens’s film, a process that entailed many Post-it notes and enlightening conversations about gender. See all responses to our annual Sundance editor interviews […]
When the 2015 Free Press Act is repealed, Angel Ellis and her colleagues at Mvskoke Media in Okmulgee, Oklahoma begin a long battle to offer transparent journalism for Muscogee Nation readers. Bad Press, directed by Rebecca Landsberry-Baker and Joe Peeler, chronicles this quest for government accountability and the right to report honest news. Editor Jean Rheem discusses cutting the project, including how “incredibly difficult and humbling” documentary editing often is. See all responses to our annual Sundance editor interviews here. Filmmaker: How and why did you wind up being the editor of your film? What were the factors and attributes that […]
Jax (Lily Gladstone) has been taking care of her niece Roki (Isabel Deroy-Olson) ever since her sister’s recent disappearance in Fancy Dance, the feature debut from Indigenous filmmaker Erica Tremblay. When two weeks pass without word from her, CPS shows up at Jax’s door and insists that she’s not a fit guardian for the young girl. As a last resort, she jets off with Roki to attend a powwow she’s long been anticipating—with the lingering hope that her mother might just show up there, as well. Editor Robert Grigsby Wilson talks about cutting the film, touching upon his previous collaboration […]
In Sundance NEXT selection King Coal, Elaine McMillion Sheldon employs a hybrid approach, blending contemporary imagery with archival material and poetic voiceover to explore the impact that coal — the substance and the industry — has had on Central Appalachia. Below, editor Iva Radivojevic, herself a filmmaker, discusses her collaboration with Sheldon on the picture. Filmmaker: How and why did you wind up being the editor of your film? What were the factors and attributes that led to your being hired for this job? Radivojevic: Elaine and I had known each other for about a decade prior to making this […]
Collateral meets The Desperate Hours against the backdrop of issues of Vietnamese immigration and assimilation in this Orange County-set thriller that marks the feature directorial debut of music video director Sing J. Lee. Below, editor Yang Hua Hu discusses his work in cutting this Sundance 2023 premiering thriller, in which an elderly Vietnamese cab driver is taken hostage by three recently escaped prisoners. See all responses to our annual Sundance editor interviews here. Filmmaker: How and why did you wind up being the editor of your film? What were the factors and attributes that led to your being hired for this job? […]
Below, editors Inbal Lessner and Kim Roberts discuss their work on Nancy Schwartzman’s Sundance-premiering Netflix documentary, Victim/Suspect, her follow-up to the doc Roll Red Roll. The film deals with alleged victims rape and sexual assault who find themselves on the other end of legal charges when they are accused of making false accusations. See all responses to our annual Sundance editor interviews here. Filmmaker: How and why did you wind up being the editor of your film? What were the factors and attributes that led to your being hired for this job? Lessner: Nancy Schwartzman and I crossed paths briefly when […]
In Smoke Sauna Sisterhood, the hazy and intimate doc from Estonian director Anna Hints, a group of women bear body and soul for the camera as they engage in lengthy shvitzes and discuss their most personal thoughts and memories while worshiping the divine feminine connection they all share. Editors Tushar Prakash and Hendrik Mägar discuss how they each approached cutting the film, with Mägar coming on during post-production to do the final edit. See all responses to our annual Sundance editor interviews here. Filmmaker: How and why did you wind up being the editor of your film? What were the factors […]
An aspiring chaplain must complete her yearlong residency at NYC’s Mount Sinai Hospital during a particularly dark period for public health in A Still Small Voice, the latest from doc filmmaker Luke Lorentzen. Between 2020 and 2021, Mati conducts visits as part of the hospital’s spiritual care department, navigating the grief, trauma and uncertainly that weighs heavily on these patients—and herself. Lorentzen, who acted as director, cinematographer and editor, discusses his experience cutting the film, which he describes as his “favorite part of the filmmaking process.” See all responses to our annual Sundance editor interviews here. Filmmaker: How and why did […]
Feña (Lío Mehiel) is a 20-something trans guy living in Brooklyn in Mutt, the feature debut from writer-director Vuk Lungulov-Klotz. His life is instantly thrown into tumult when a series of people reenter his life unexpectedly, leading to the opening of old wounds. Editor Adam Dicterow talks about the process of cutting Mutt, also offering insight on how lucky he felt to work on the film in the first place. See all responses to our annual Sundance editor interviews here. Filmmaker: How and why did you wind up being the editor of your film? What were the factors and attributes that […]