Interviews
Interviews
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“We Sat Down and Considered Pushing Production to Spring of 2020”: Erin Vassilopoulos on Superior
Duplicity in all its forms lurks just below the surface in Erin Vassilopoulos’s debut feature, Superior, which had its world premiere at the 2021 Sundance Film Festival last weekend. Expanded from a short she made in film school, Vassilopoulos’s feature concerns two fraternal twin sisters (Alessandra and Ani Mesa) unexpectedly reuniting after six years apart. The film opens in October of 1987, with Marian (Alessandra), a touring musician on the run from a secretive past, returning to her hometown to spend a few days with her sister, Vivian (Ani). The two sisters haven’t spoken in six years, spending the interim leading […]
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“Wildfires Are a Complicated Tornado of Danger”: DP Bennett Cerf on Users
Natalia Almada’s Users is an inquisition on technology and its inextricable nature from modern life. Juxtaposed against Californian wildfires and oceans on the rise, the film questions what progress means when we sacrifice so much in the process. DP Bennett Cerf discusses the morbid thrill of capturing disasters on film. Filmmaker: How and why did you wind up being the cinematographer of your film? What were the factors and attributes that led to your being hired for this job? Cerf: Natalia has always shot her own projects except for her narrative feature, which Lorenzo Hagerman shot. I was peripherally involved in […]
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“The Whole Story Through the Protagonist’s Eyes”: Enis Saraçi on Hive
Blerta Basholli’s Hive explores macro gender dynamics in her home country of Kosovo. Among a league of women awaiting news of their husbands, fathers and sons’ fates in the Kosovo War, Fahrije practices self-reliance and encourages other women to seek independence despite the violent patriarchal expectations of their community. Editor Enis Saraçi tells us why the film is shot primarily through Fahrije’s perspective. 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? Saraçi: Yll and Valon, producers of Hive, were both […]
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“The Film Is Quite Literally Magic and Realism”: Editor Cyndi Trissel on Marvelous and the Black Hole
Kate Tsang’s debut film Marvelous and the Black Hole follows thirteen-year-old Sammy Ko (Miya Cech), who struggles with delinquency shortly after the death of her mother. After meeting Margot (Rhea Perlman), a magician dead set on taking Sammy as her assistant, Sammy reluctantly begins a friendship with her and learns to heal through the expressive art of sleight of hand. Editor Cyndi Trissel tells us how they captured actual magic in the film’s final cut. 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 […]
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“It’s a Conflict of Ideas”: DP Michał Łuka on Prime Time
Jakub Piątek’s feature debut Prime Time is a thriller set in the deadly world of broadcast television. In 1999, a youth named Sebastian (Bartosz Bielenia) hijacks a TV studio, taking two hostages along the way. His reasons for doing this slowly unravel, including to himself. DP Michał Łuka tells us how they captured the youthful rebelliousness of the ’90s in shooting. Filmmaker: How and why did you wind up being the cinematographer of your film? What were the factors and attributes that led to your being hired for this job? Łuka: I think every time it’s a whole spectrum of both […]
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“My World Outside the Cutting Room Is Richer”: Editor Géraud Brisson on CODA
Siân Heder’s CODA is the tender story of Ruby (Emilia Jones), the sole hearing member of her deaf family. After joining her high school choir, she finds herself torn between pursuing her passion for singing and helping her family with their fishing business. Editor Géraud Brisson tells us why his team decided to leave some scenes in that may feel “awkward” for hearing audiences. 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? Brisson: I met Siân Heder, the director of […]
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“We Like the Poetic, Dreamy Quality”: DP Edu Grau on Passing
Rebecca Hall’s Passing is an adaptation of the Harlem Renaissance era novel by Nella Larsen of the same name. Starring Tessa Thompson and Ruth Negga as two mixed race women who “pass” for white in the 1920s, the film explores their acquaintanceship as one “pretends” to be white while the other lives life as a black woman. DP Edu Grau shares why they opted to film the Passing with a more vintage style. Filmmaker: How and why did you wind up being the cinematographer of your film? What were the factors and attributes that led to your being hired for this job? Grau: […]
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“This Film Needed to Embody a Feminist Perspective”: Editor Kevin Klauber on Rita Moreno: Just a Girl Who Decided Go For It
Rita Moreno stands as one of the few entertainers to attain EGOT status. Mariem Pérez Riera intimate documentary on the West Side Story star the racism Moreno faced as a Puerto Rican immigrant with aplomb, featuring interviews other iconic entertainers such as Gloria Estefan, Whoopi Goldberg and Eva Longoria. Editor Kevin Klauber shares the importance of recontextualizing Moreno’s story through a feminist lens. 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? Klauber: I was contacted by Brent Miller after being recommended […]
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“The Lighting Started from a Real Place of Honesty”: DP Mia Cioffi Henry on Superior
Having lensed several notable works that have been released in the last couple of years (Jeremy Hersh’s The Surrogate, Ja’Tovia Gary’s The Giverny Document, and the shorts In Sudden Darkness and Dominant Species, among others), New York-based DP Mia Cioffi Henry arrives at Sundance with Erin Vassilopolous’s stylish psychodrama, Superior, based on the director’s 2015 short, which Henry also shot. Below, Henry discusses her own journey back to this material following the short, how references find their way into finished works, and being open to the truth of practical locations. Filmmaker: How and why did you wind up being the […]
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“This Room had Even Scared Off Another DP”: DP Ryan Jackson-Healy on Mass
Fran Kranz’s Mass is the rare film that explores the aftermath of a tragedy rather than the tragedy itself. Some years after the events of a school shooting, the parents of a victim (Jason Isaacs and Martha Plimpton) plan to meet the parents of the perpetrator (Reed Birney and Ann Dowd). DP Ryan Jackson-Healy speaks to not being scared of shooting primarily in a white room, switching lenses tied to emotional cues and creating a subtextual lighting arc. Filmmaker: How and why did you wind up being the cinematographer of your film? What were the factors and attributes that led to your […]
