In 2007 a group of four comics and creators joined to form Good Neighbor, a sketch comedy team that would go on to breach the ranks of Saturday Night Live. The group is known mostly for Kyle Mooney, a weirdo comic voice whose left-of-center SNL skits often get cut for time. Mooney stars in Good Neighbor’s feature film debut, Brigsby Bear, directed by fellow group member Dave McCary. The film tells the story of a secluded young man with an unhealthy obsession with a TV show literally no one has ever seen. Below, DP Christian Sprenger speaks to the film’s tricky tone, which eschews […]
Among the world’s most well-known surfers, Laird Hamilton has surfed professionally since he was 17 years old. Now in his 50s, he’s the subject of a documentary from Academy Award-nominated director Rory Kennedy. Take Every Wave offers a profile of Hamilton as a surfing innovator, celebrity and family man. Below, DP Alice Gu discusses the challenges of shooting this fast-moving, larger-than-life figure. Gu, one of two DPs on the project, goes into detail on the cameras and lenses required for the project. Take Every Wave will screen four times during the 2017 Sundance Film Festival. Filmmaker: How and why did you wind […]
Director Maggie Betts and DP Kat Westergaard became creative partners on The Carrier, a 2010 documentary that premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival. The two worked together again on a 2014 short (Engram) and again on Novitiate, which debuted at Sundance last week. The film marks Betts’ fiction feature debut and stars Margaret Qualley and Melissa Leo. Westergaard spoke with Filmmaker ahead of the festival about the film’s painterly aesthetic, lighting challenges and “ghostly intimacy.” Novitiate will screen in competition six times during the 2017 Sundance Film Festival Filmmaker: How and why did you wind up being the cinematographer of your film? What were the factors and attributes that led […]
The worlds of Alex Ross Perry tend to thrive on confrontation. In 2014, the writer/director arrived at Sundance with Listen Up Philip, an acerbic comedy that showcased his knack for characters at once repellent and compelling. He followed that film with Queen of Earth, a feverish two-hander that pitted Elisabeth Moss and Katherine Waterston in a cage match of sniping and passive-aggression. For his fifth feature, Perry gave himself a challenge: To write a film with no outward hostility. That film is Golden Exits. Perry calls it his “mellow drama.” An NYC-set ensemble starring Emily Browning, Mary-Louise Parker and Jason Schwartzman, Golden Exits premieres this week in competition […]
Sean Price Williams has become an indomitable force in American independent cinema. Filming regularly on Super 16mm, Williams has served as DP on the films of Alex Ross Perry (Queen of Earth, Listen Up Philip), Robert Greene (Kate Plays Christine), Albert Maysles (Iris) and the Safdie brothers (Heaven Knows What). Williams sought to shoot something unlike any of his previous work for his latest feature, Marjorie Prime. With a cast that includes Jon Hamm, Geena Davis and Tim Robbins, Marjorie Prime is the latest film from writer/director Michael Almereyda. The film will have its world premiere at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival. Filmmaker: How and why […]
Colin Warner spent 20 years behind bars for a crime he did not commit. In 1980, police arrested Warner for the killing of a 16-year-old boy in the Brooklyn neighborhood of Crown Heights. His imprisonment, based solely on a mistaken eye witness, robbed him of his freedom from the years of Jimmy Carter all the way to George W. Bush. Warner’s story is the subject of Crown Heights, the second feature film from writer/director Matt Ruskin. The film stars Lakeith Stanfield (Short Term 12) as Warner and Nnamdi Asomugha (Hello, My Name Is Doris) as Carl King, Warner’s best friend who devotes years of his life […]
First-time director Rahul Jain made a strong impression in 2016 with Machines, his documentary portrait of a massive sweatshop in Sachin, India. The film premiered at the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA) and made its U.S. debut this week at Sundance. Praised for its visceral, experiential depiction of manual labor, the film provides a rare glimpse into the textile mills where many of our products originate. Jain hired the Paris-based Yael Bitton as one of multiple editors to give shape to his harrowing footage. Bitton spoke with Filmmaker before the film’s five Sundance screenings about Machines‘ unconventional narrative structure and […]
Shaul Schwarz and Christina Clusiau are the cofounders of Reel Peak Media, a production company that prides itself on documentary work of both “journalistic integrity and cinematic quality.” Both filmmakers began as photojournalists before making the move to documentary cinema. On Trophy, Schwarz and Clusiau served as DPs with Schwarz acting as director. Their film explores the worlds of big game hunting, breeding, and wildlife conservation. Below, the two discuss these issues ahead of Trophy‘s premiere at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival. Filmmaker: How and why did you wind up being the cinematographer of your film? Schwarz and Clusiau: Since we are directors who started as photojournalists, […]
Katie Flaxman has edited 35 shorts, TV series, fiction films and documentaries in the past 12 years. Her most recent feature, Killing Ground, made its U.S. premiere at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this week. A violent thriller from director Damien Power, the film tells the story of a nightmarish camping trip in the Australian woods. Below, Flaxman discusses the film’s non-linear structure, her techniques for “storyboarding” a film in the editing suite and the importance of POV in thrillers. Filmmaker: How and why did you wind up being the editor of your film? What were the factors and attributes that […]
Nadia Hallgren’s career in documentary film began as a camera operator on Fahrenheit 9/11, still the highest grossing doc in America. In the 13 years since she has served as a camera operator on such films as Searching for Sugarman and as a DP on Citizen Koch and last year’s Trapped. Her latest feature as DP, Motherland, is a vérité portrait inside a maternity ward in the Philippines. The film, directed by Ramona Diaz, will premiere at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival. Below, Hallgren talks about the emotional bond she formed with the women in the film, shooting in the summer heat of the […]