Interviews
Interviews
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“I Think a Lot about the Crossover Between Painting and Editing”: Editor Hannah Buck on Chef Flynn
Flynn McGarry began hosting his own supper club when he was 11 years old. Now 19, the teen chef has fascinated readers of the New York Times Magazine, Time and food blogs the world over. McGarry is the subject of Chef Flynn, the second feature doc from director Cameron Yates (The Canal Street Madam). Yates hired Hannah Buck to edit Chef Flynn alongside consulting editors Amy Foote and Shannon Kennedy. Below, Buck discusses how she sought to move the film away from talking heads and voiceover narration and toward “a more vérité approach.” Filmmaker: How and why did you wind up […]
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“Jane Usually Knew Exactly Where I Was”: DP Sam Painter on Jane Fonda in Five Acts
The past four months have seen the premieres of two documentaries shot by Sam Painter and directed by Susan Lacy. The creator of American Masters and the winner of 14 Emmy Awards, Lacy released Spielberg on HBO last October. This month she arrives at Sundance to debut Jane Fonda in Five Acts, her doc on the legendary actor, activist and feminist. Below, Painter discusses how he sought to photograph this “amazingly colorful, political, philanthropic and influential life.” Filmmaker: How and why did you wind up being the cinematographer of your film? What were the factors and attributes that led to your […]
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In the Light of History: Rachel Morrison on Shooting Mudbound
With Rachel Morrison the first woman cinematographer nominated for a Best Cinematography Academy Award, we’re running today online from our current print issue David Leitner’s interview with her about shooting her nominated film, Dee Rees’s Mudbound. When Dee Rees’s Mudbound premiered at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival, the director was returning to the fest six years after her feature debut, Pariah, launched there. The same year also marked DP Rachel Morrison’s first feature to be included in the festival, Zal Batmanglij’s Sound of My Voice, and she returned the following year with Ryan Coogler’s Fruitvale Station; Mudbound is her eighth […]
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“Being in that Space Was a Very Powerful Experience”: DP Clair Popkin on MLK Doc King in the Wilderness
Since the 1990s, Peter Kunhardt has produced and directed documentary works on Lincoln, JFK, Nixon, Ted Kennedy, James Foley and Gloria Steinem among many others. His latest film attempts to offer a new perspective on the life of Martin Luther King, Jr. King of the Wilderness was shot by DP Clair Popkin, who previously worked with Kunhardt on his HBO docs Becoming Warren Buffett and Living with Lincoln. Below, Popkin shares his experiences from the production and recalls in particular the challenges of filming in the Lorraine Motel room outside which King was assassinated. Filmmaker: How and why did you wind up being […]
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“The Courage to Just Give a Damn”: Editor Patrick Ryan Gass on HIV/AIDS Documentary Quiet Heroes
In 1981, Dr. Kristen Ries and her partner Maggie Snyder were the only medical professionals in Utah to treat people with HIV/AIDS. Jenny Mackenzie’s new documentary, Quiet Heroes, tells their story. Mackenzie previously directed similar healthcare-focused docs on childhood diabetes (Sugar Babies) and the opioid epidemic (Dying in Vein). Below, Gass spoke with Filmmaker ahead of the film’s Sundance premiere about being a self-taught editor and why this story needed to be told. 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? Gass: I […]
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“A Political Thriller with Everything You Want to See in a Movie”: DP Bjorn Charpentier on Beirut
Director Brad Anderson returns to Sundance for a sixth time with Beirut, a political thriller from screenwriter Tony Gilroy (Michael Clayton, The Bourne Identity). The film stars John Hamm as a U.S. diplomat who returns to Beirut after his wife was murdered there 10 years prior. Belgium-born DP Bjorn Charpentier shot the film with the work of David Fincher and Roger Deakins in mind. Below, he gets technical with his approach to lighting and lenses on the film. Bleecker Street Media will release Beirut theatrically on April 13. Filmmaker: How and why did you wind up being the cinematographer of your film? What were the […]
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DPs Axel Schneppat and Max Preiss on Filming the “Digital Scavengers” of The Cleaners
One of 12 films to compete in the World Cinema Documentary Competition at Sundance this year, The Cleaners tells the story of so-called “digital scavengers.” These are individuals outsourced by Silicon Valley companies to delete supposedly inappropriate content from the internet. The Cleaners takes place in a nocturnal Manila designed to evoke Blade Runner and Gotham City. The film’s cinematographers – Axel Schneppat and Max Preiss – spoke with Filmmaker before the film’s five showings at Sundance. Below they discuss the cinematic challenge of shedding “light on an industry virtually kept in the dark.” Filmmaker: How and why did you wind up […]
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David Gutnik on Editing the Psychological Thriller NANCY Starring Andrea Riseborough
Writer/director Christina Cho and editor David Gutnik met during their time at Columbia University’s MFA Film Program. Gutnik edited Cho’s thesis film, I Am John Wayne, which won the Grand Jury Prize for best short film at Slamdance in 2012. Their new film together, NANCY, is one of three films at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival to star Andrea Riseborough. Below, Gutnik discusses the genre elements of this psychological thriller and how he sought to ensure that “every edit is connected to the central nervous system of the character, and by extension the soul of the film.” Filmmaker: How and why did you […]
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“I Wanted My Cinematography to Embrace the Ugly and Mundane”: DP Drew Daniels on Arizona
Prolific cinematographer Drew Daniels has shot more than 40 shorts and features since 2009. His recent credits include the films of Trey Edward Shults (Krisha and It Comes at Night) and the SXSW-winning short Thunder Road. Daniels was tapped by first-time feature director Jonathan Watson to shoot Arizona, a darkly comic thriller featuring Danny McBride, Rosemarie DeWitt and Seth Rogen. Below, Daniels discusses the film’s visual influences, his love of natural light and capturing the “dusty, burnt out quality of the suburban Southwest.” Arizona screens in the Midnight lineup at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival. Filmmaker: How and why did you wind […]
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Editor Tom Maroney on the International Science and Engineering Fair Documentary Science Fair
Tom Maroney has worked as an editor on more than a dozen documentary TV series for the Discovery Channel, PBS, National Geographic, MTV and other channels. In 2017 he edited Nobody Speak: Trials of The Free Press, which premiered at Sundance and was released by Netflix. He returns to Sundance this year for Science Fair, a documentary in the Kids program of the festival. Maroney speaks with Filmmaker below about the film’s character-driven approach and how he and directors Cristina Costantini and Darren Foster sought to structure a film around a competitive science fair when “it was clear from the beginning that […]
