Interviews
Interviews
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“I Wanted to Restrict Lighting That Didn’t Feel Naturally Motivated”: DP Barton Cortright on The Cathedral
With The Cathedral, an unseen narrator relates the life of Jesse Damrosh, beginning with the dissolution of his parents’ marriage and highlighting other hallmarks of middle-class American existence. D’Ambrose lingers not on the big life events, however, but the more quotidian and quieter moments and objects that leave indelible marks on one’s memory. Cinematographer Barton Cortright explains why natural light was the correct approach for the film, and how he amplified the natural look to avoid a shallow depth of field. Filmmaker: How and why did you wind up being the cinematographer of your film? What were the factors and attributes […]
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“The Challenges We Had Were All Related to Nature”: DP Barbara Alvarez on Utama
In Alejandro Loayza Grisi’s Utama, an ailing man tries to persuade his elderly Quechuan grandparents weathering a drought on the Bolivian Altiplano to move away from their lifelong home and join him in the city. Shot on location, the film portrays the daily routines and relaxed pace of life as well as the climate threat residents of the Bolivian highlands face. Below, cinematographer Barbara Alvarez recounts how the climate created difficulties in production and how she captured the tension between the harshness and the beauty of the location. Filmmaker: How and why did you wind up being the cinematographer of […]
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“The Silences, the Looks, Are What Mark the Emotional Rhythm”: Editor Fernando Epstein on Utama
Utama, the feature debut by Alejandro Loayza Grisi, concerns an elderly Quechua couple urged by their grandson to move to the city while their native land is ravaged by drought. The pace of life and the experience of time are major themes in the film, and editor Fernando Epstein discusses how this necessitated creative ways of depicting routine and delaying the introduction of a major character. 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? Epstein: I am Uruguayan, and […]
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“We Were Finding Ways to Make Daylight Beautiful and Intimate”: Editor Bryan Mason on Good Luck to You, Leo Grande
Sophie Hyde’s Good Luck to You, Leo Grande takes place largely in a hotel room, where a retired schoolteacher determined to finally have good sex meets with a sex worker several times over the course of six weeks. Cinematographer Bryan Mason discusses how he varied the film’s style as the two get to know each other and the difficulties associated with shooting a film about sex that takes place largely during the daytime. 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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“Everyone Has a Unique Perspective on the World”: DP Shana Hagan on Brainwashed: Sex-Camera-Power
Based on her own cinematic talk, Nina Menkes’ Brainwashed: Sex-Camera-Power uses interviews, footage of her talk, and clips from over 175 films to help illustrate how sexual assault and employment discrimination are inscribed in the visual language of cinema. Below, cinematographer Shana Hagan discusses the challenges in adequately capturing the talk on camera, the importance of color grading, and the joys of working with so many women on set. 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? Hagan: I was introduced […]
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“What’s Exciting About Spending a Lot of Time With Footage Is Always the Patterns That Begin to Emerge”: Editors Geoffrey Richman and Michael Bloch on Descendant
The 2019 discovery of the Clotilda, the last known slave ship to enter the United States, was the impetus for Descendant, but the film is as much about the contemporary residents of Africatown, the community just north of Mobile, Alabama founded by the slaves aboard the Clotilda. The film’s editors explain why they did not want to introduce the discovery of the ship too early, how Zora Neale Thurston helped shape the film, and how seemingly disparate elements gradually formed connections. Filmmaker: How and why did you wind up being the editor of your film? What were the factors and attributes […]
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“In Every Situation We Were There as Persons—Persons That Happened to Have Cameras With Us”: DPs Love Martinsen & Maria Loohufvud on Calendar Girls
Calendar Girls takes its name from its subject, a Florida dance troupe consisting of women over 60 who perform at animal rescue center benefits, church fundraisers and local parades with unbounded and contagious enthusiasm. Below, Love Martinsen and Maria Loohufvud discuss how their intent in capturing the troupe informed their approach and how they managed to make the film on a shoestring budget. 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? Loohufvid & Martinsen: This film is all about DIY. […]
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“Comedy Helps People Understand in a Less Aggressive Way”: Editor Lam T. Nguyen on Emergency
In Emergency, a dark comedy by Carey Williams, a pair of Black college students finds a white woman unconscious on their living room floor. Wary of calling the police because of the optics of the situation, they instead recruit the help of a Latino friend to help resolve the situation, unmasking the absurd racial dynamics of contemporary America in the process. Below, editor Lam T. Nguyen discusses finding comedy in the gravely serious and the difference even a few frames can make in helping a punchline land. Filmmaker: How and why did you wind up being the editor of your film? What […]
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“I Never Say ‘No, We Cannot Do It’ to My Director”: DP Sviatoslav Bulakovskyi on Klondike
In July 2014, during the Donbas War, Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 was shot down over the Donetsk region of Ukraine, a pair of expectant parents living in the disputed Donetsk region of Ukraine by pro-Russian rebels. This is the backdrop for Maryna Er Gorbach’s Klondike, which follows a pair of expectant parents to find their hopes of raising a child in relative piece dashed by the differing loyalties of her brother and his friends. Cinematographer Sviatoslav Bulakovskyi explained how he scouted locations during a COVID lockdown and how his experience taught him to always prepare for the unexpected. Filmmaker: How and […]
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“We Were Always Searching for the Beauty of Coexistence, Even in the Most Polluted of Places”: DP Ben Bernhard on All That Breathes
With All That Breathes, Shaunak San sought to position humans as a part of the natural world, akin to rather than separate from the birds overhead. The documentary follows a pair of brothers who care for the black kites that fall out of the Delhi skies due to pollution and features cinematography by Ben Bernhard, who has worked extensively with Victor Kossakovsky (Gunda). Below, Bernhard reveals the challenges of tethering images of the natural world to urban living and how he composed shots that place nature and mankind on a level playing field. Filmmaker: How and why did you wind […]
