Interviews
Interviews
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“In the Edit Room I Found My Voice”: Editor Helen Kearns on Inventing Tomorrow
Los Angeles-based editor Helen Kearns has cuts seven documentary projects since 2013. She recently served as the editor on Netflix’s The Keepers, the tennis doc Serena and The Music of Strangers, a feature on Yo-Yo Ma’s the Silk Road Ensemble. Her most recent project as editor is Inventing Tomorrow, a doc on the students competing at the world’s largest high school science competition. The film, from director Laura Nix (The Yes Men Are Revolting), screened in competition at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival. Kearns shares her thoughts below on what drew her to the project. Filmmaker: How and why did you wind up […]
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“Initially it Seemed Impossible”: DP Greta Zozula on Never Goin’ Back
Actor and filmmaker Augustine Frizzell made her debut as a feature director at Sundance this year with Never Goin’ Back, the shaggy-dog story of two teenage friends played by Maia Mitchell and Camila Morrone. Frizzell has appeared as an actor in the films of David Lowery (her husband) in addition to Krisha and a number of shorts. She tapped DP Greta Zozula to shoot the script, which she also wrote. Filmmaker spoke with Zozula ahead of the film’s premiere in the Midnight lineup about the perils of shifting daylight, the influence of Paul Thomas Anderson and the film’s strategic use of handheld camerawork. Filmmaker: […]
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“I Kind of Resist Definition… That’s the Realm I Work In: Boots Riley on Writing and Directing the Out-There Sundance Hit, Sorry to Bother You
Before his directorial debut with Sorry to Bother You at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, Boots Riley was known for his role in the hip hop group The Coup. But Riley had been a film student before he found fame through music, and 25 years later he’s circled back to that original ambition with a wild film about capitalism, race and his hometown of Oakland. The film, one of the most talked about at the festival (and which was bought by Megan Ellison’s Annapurna Pictures), stars Lakeith Stanfield, Tessa Thompson and Armie Hammer in, not the future, but an alternate […]
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“Like a Long Mosaic Music Video that I Didn’t Want to End”: Editor Jason Gourson on Blaze
The first fiction feature film from actor Ethan Hawke since 2006’s The Hottest State, Blaze tells the story of the relatively unsung country musician Blaze Foley. The film’s star, Benjamin Dickey, won the Special Jury Award for Achievement in Acting at the Sundance Film Festival last week. Hawke hired editor Jason Gourson (The Magicians, Glee) to cut his impressionistic biopic. Below, Gourson speaks with Filmmaker about collaborating with Hawke and growing up as the son of a film editor. Filmmaker: How and why did you wind up being the editor of your film? What were the factors and attributes that […]
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“That Sweet Spot of Story and Science”: Editors Dan Swietlik and Stephanie Mechura on The Game Changers
Louie Psihoyos, the Oscar-winning director of The Cove, returns to the Sundance Film Festival with The Game Changers, his new documentary on the health and environmental impacts of plant-based diets. Psihoyos premiered his previous doc, Racing Extinction, at the festival in 2015. To edit Game Changers, Psihoyos hired seasoned doc editor Dan Swietlik (An Inconvenient Truth, Sick0) to cut the film. He soon brought on a second editor, Stephanie Mechura (The Price of Sex), to help finish the job. Below, Swietlik and Mechura share their experiences on cutting The Game Changers. Filmmaker: How and why did you wind up being […]
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“Any Good Script Deserves its Own Visual Identity”: DP Steven Capitano Calitri on A Kid Like Jake
In the past two years, Silas Howard has directed episodes of the TV series Transparent, This Is Us and The Fosters. He premiered his new feature, A Kid Like Jake, at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival. The film is an adaptation of a 2013 play by Daniel Pearle and stars Claire Danes, Jim Parsons and Octavia Spencer. Howard hired Steven Capitano Calitri – the DP on 30 episodes of Broad City – to shoot the film in New York. Below, Calitri speaks with Filmmaker about his experiences making the film. Filmmaker: How and why did you wind up being the […]
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“‘Slow Burn’ Was a Phrase We Used Often”: Editor Abbi Jutkowitz Lizzie
Abbi Jutkowitz has worked as an assistant editor on a number of films since 2004, including Super Size Me, The Darjeeling Limited and X-Men: First Class. In 2016 she edited As You Are, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, and she returned to the festival this year with the in-competition drama Lizzie. The film tells the story of Lizzie Borden, the Massachusetts woman who was tried and acquitted of killing her parents in 1892, and stars Chloë Sevigny as Borden and Kristen Stewart as her live-in maid and confidante. Jutkowitz spoke with Filmmaker before the film’s premiere about how she got her […]
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“A Way to Present Multiple Truths”: Editor Joe Klotz on Monster
Joe Klotz has edited numerous films to premiere at the Sundance Film Festival: Junebug (2005), Choke (2008), Precious (2009) and The Yellow Birds among others. At this year’s festival he edited Monster, an adaptation of the 1999 young adult novel from Walter Dean Myers. The film, directed by Anthony Mandler, tells the story of an African-American teenager on trial for acting as a lookout during a lethal corner store robbery. Klotz shared his thoughts on editing the film prior to its five screenings at Sundance this week. Filmmaker: How and why did you wind up being the editor of your film? What […]
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“The Entry Point to a Story Is So Delicate”: Editor Maya Maffioli on Beast
Maya Maffioli and Michael Pearce were classmates at the National Film and Television School in England. They now join forces as editor and writer/director, respectively, of Beast, a romantic psychological thriller that debuted at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2017. Maffioli has edited more than two dozen short and feature-length projects since 2007. Below, she discusses balancing the film’s many tones, the striking lead performance from Jessie Buckley (Taboo) and why “a good love story on screen is always unbeatable.” Filmmaker: How and why did you wind up being the editor of your film? What were the factors and attributes that […]
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“What Would it Be Like to Start over from Scratch?”: Editor Toby Shimin on This Is Home
Tobi Shimin has edited more than two dozen documentary projects going back to 1988. In 2015 she cut the Sundance doc How To Dance In Ohio from director Alexandra Shiva, who returned to Sundance this year for This Is Home. The film, which won the audience award in the international documentary lineup, tells the story of four Syrian families as they move to the United States as refugees. Below, Shiva discusses the task of shaving 300 hours of dailies down to a 90 minute feature. Filmmaker: How and why did you wind up being the editor of your film? What were the factors […]
