Interviews
Interviews
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“We Had a Remarkable Number of Catastrophes to Navigate”: DP Rita Baghdadi on Sirens
The subject of Sirens, Rita Baghdadi’s third documentary feature, is the all-woman Lebanese thrash band Slave to Sirens, who are captured here against the unrest that has shaken Lebanon in recent years as well as in performances, including one at the Glastonbury Festival. Baghdadi recalls the difficulty of capturing sufficient footage at the festival and how she turned a film about a band into a film about being in your twenties. 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? […]
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“It Was So Physically Demanding That It Almost Killed the Three of Us”: DP Aaron Moorhead on Something in the Dirt
Something in the Dirt is the fifth film that Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead have directed together, but this one is paradoxically the most ambitious and the most intimate. Shot during the COVID pandemic, it by necessity made almost entirely by Benson and Moorhead, as well as their producer, David Lawson, and a production designer, Ariel Vida. Below, Moorhead discusses how they incorporated the isolation mandated by COVID into the film and disguised the conditions of the shoot with a bit of movie magic. Filmmaker: How and why did you wind up being the cinematographer of your film? What were […]
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“We Wanted to Make Sure There Was Intention With Every Shift”: Editor Stacy Moon on Honk for Jesus. Save Your Soul
Honk for Jesus. Save Your Soul, Adamma Ebo’s feature-length adaptation of their short film of the same name about a couple attempting to rebuild the congregation of their once-thriving megachurch after a scandal. Partially shot in the faux-documentary style of the film’s own documentarians, the film required the hand of a diligent editor to make every shift between the film’s different styles meaningful; editor Stacy Moon discusses how she made these shifts purposeful and more below. Filmmaker: How and why did you wind up being the editor of your film? What were the factors and attributes that led to your […]
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“My Goal for This Film Was to Combine Two Completely Distinct Styles in a Way that Seamlessly Tells the Story”: DP Alan Gwizdowski on Honk For Jesus. Save Your Soul
In Honk For Jesus. Save Your Soul combines faux-documentary and straightforward cinematic narrative styles to tell the story of a couple attempting to rebuild the congregation at their once-thriving megachurch in the aftermath of a scandal. Cinematographer Alan Gwizdowski discusses how he combined the two styles in a way that was intuitive for the audience while emphasizing the ambiguities of the narrative and the film’s critique of documentary filmmaking. 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? Gwizdowski: Another cinematographer, Adam Bricker, […]
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“We Wanted to Craft a Film That Wasn’t So Tightly Hewn to a Narrative Arc”: Editor Aaron Wickenden on 2nd Chance
2nd Chance, like Ramin Bahrani’s previous films, tells the story of a precarious person attempting to attain greater wealth and security. For his first documentary, Bahrani has investigated the story of Richard Davis, a bankrupt pizzeria owner who invented the modern bulletproof vest, only to embroiled in countless subsequent controversies. Editor Aaron Wickenden explains how the films of Werner Herzog influenced 2nd Chance and recalls the times he nearly ran over Roger Ebert and Michael Shannon. Filmmaker: How and why did you wind up being the editor of your film? What were the factors and attributes that led to your […]
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“The Oppressive Voyeurism You’re Constantly Surrounded By As a Woman”: Writer/Director Chloe Okuno and Co-Writer Zack Ford on Watcher
The eerie, nagging feeling of being watched is elevated to a hauntingly tangible reality in Watcher, the feature directorial debut of Chloe Okuno. Co-written by Okuno (recently acclaimed for helming the “Storm Drain” segment in the horror anthology V/H/S/94) and seasoned screenwriter Zack Ford (who in 2021 ran for mayor of Skaneateles, NY before ultimately relocating to L.A.), the film follows Julia (Maika Monroe) and Francis (Karl Glusman), a young American couple who relocate to Bucharest for Francis’s work. Shortly after settling into their minimalist new digs, Julia begins to notice an unsettling presence in her most intimate spaces. As […]
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“It’s a Lot Easier to Make a Genuine Connection With Someone Without a Whole Bunch of Gear in Between You and Them”: DPs Zac Manuel & Justin Zweifach on Descendant
Just north of Mobile, Alabama is the historic community of Africatown founded by 32 West Africans who were transported to the US on the Clotilda, the last known slave ship to enter the country. Margaret Brown’s Descendant tells the story of the descendants who still reside in Africatown, as well as of the persistent power imbalance between the descendants of the slaves and the descendants of the Meaher family that chartered the expedition, who today own much of the industrialized land and factories around Africatown. Cinematographers Justin Zweifach and Zac Manuel discuss what they learned making the film and how they […]
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“I Don’t Want to Make Seamless Films”: Sierra Pettengill on Riotsville, USA
Where Sierra Pettengill’s previous all-archival film, The Reagan Show (co-directed with Pacho Velez), asked the question “How did we get here?” by re-examining the ’80s, her new feature Riotsville, USA goes back further, to the oft-examined period from roughly 1967 to 1968. As she explains in a press kit interview conducted by programmer Nellie Killian (also credited as a researcher on the film), the project originated when, while reading Rick Perlstein’s Nixonland, Pettengill grew curious about what, exactly, might have happened at the titular sites. “I Googled [“Riotsville”] and I didn’t find much of anything—and for me, as an archival researcher, that’s just the […]
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“This Film is Here to Illuminate and Mediate Objectification for You”: Editor Cecily Rhett on Brainwashed: Sex-Camera-Power
Brainwashed: Sex-Camera-Power is Nina Menkes’ adaptation of her own talk connecting the objectification of women in cinema to employment discrimination and sexual assault. Unlike the talk, however, the film is organized thematically rather than chronologically, and it makes use of film clips and interviews with women who have worked in the industry to makes its connection. Cecily Rhett, the film’s editor, explains how she structured the film and how it vindicated her feelings about the insidious effects of sexism within the film industry. Filmmaker: How and why did you wind up being the editor of your film? What were the factors and […]
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“I Wanted the Cinematography to Take a Backseat to the Story and Main Character”: DP Adam Stone on 2nd Chance
2nd Chance continues director Ramin Bahrani’s concern with people on the margins of society pursuing the American Dream. The documentary examines the case of Richard Davis, a bankrupt pizzeria owner who invented the bulletproof vest, only to find his reputation sullied after a defective product led to the death of a police officer. Below, cinematographer Adam Stone explains how the intrigue of the subject led him to take a hands-off approach that emphasized character and narrative rather than style. Filmmaker: How and why did you wind up being the cinematographer of your film? What were the factors and attributes that led […]
