Interviews
Interviews
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Puppets and Pantyhose: DP Joe Passarelli on Anomalisa
Watching Anomalisa – the painfully human stop-motion animation film from co-directors Duke Johnson and Charlie Kaufman – the same thought flitted through my head as when I viewed The Revenant: “This is incredible, but it was probably a nightmare to work on.” Though free from the threat of hypothermia, the production of Anomalisa offered equally maddening difficulties. A tale of a depressed customer service guru (voiced by David Thewlis) and his fateful one-night stay in a Cincinnati hotel, Anomalisa took the greater part of two years to complete. Collecting mere seconds of usable footage per day, the film’s crew pieced […]
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DP Mackenzie Mathis on Slamdance World Premiere Chemical Cut
A cinematographer on nearly a dozen shorts since 2008, Mackenzie Mathis makes his debut as a feature film DP with Chemical Cut. The film, written and directed by America’s Next Top Model contestant Marjorie Conrad, held its world premiere at Slamdance 2016. In this interview, Mathis discusses his influences and technique as a DP. 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? Mathis: I was introduced to Marjorie Conrad through our producer Barret Hacia, for whom I’d shot a short film some years back. Marjorie […]
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“Like Illustrations from a Children’s Book”: DP Kuba Kijowski on Sundance Entry The Lure
Jakub “Kuba” Kijowski has served as cinematographer on two feature-length films: 2013’s Floating Skyscrapers and The Lure, aWorld Cinema Dramatic Competition selection at Sundance 2016. Kijowski has also acted as a camera operator on a number of short films, including the Oscar-nominated In Darkness. Below, he discusses the fairy tale and musical-like aesthetic he sought to achieve for Agnieszka Smoczynska’s The Lure. 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? Kijowski: I actually didn’t know the director, Agnieszka Smoczynska very well. We […]
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“Rough and Spontaneous”: DP Eric Yue on the Wyatt Cenac-Starring Jacqueline (Argentine)
Jacqueline (Argentine) marks the debut feature film from both director Bernardo Britto and DP Eric Yue. Starring former Daily Show correspondent Wyatt Cenac, the film unfolds as an playful blend of mockumentary and political thriller. Below, Filmmaker speaks with Yue about what he calls the film’s “documentary/stylized” aesthetic. The film premiered in the NEXT program at the 2016 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 to your being hired for this job? Yue: I was approached by Bernardo and the producers who are friends of mine from college. […]
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Video Artist Kalup Linzy on His Sundance Installation Queen Rose Family (da Stories)
Video and performance artist Kalup Linzy returns to Sundance in 2016 with Queen Rose Family (da Stories), an installation within the New Frontier program of the festival. The exhibit features prominent musicians such as Michael Stipe and Tunde Adebimpe of TV on the Radio and was was shot, directed, edited and scored by Linzy himself. Hailing from New York, Linzy has had pieces at The Met, The MoMA and The Whitney, among other museums. In this interview for Queen Rose Family (da Stories), Linzy talks shop about how he captured the distinctly campy aesthetic of his latest installation. Filmmaker: How and why did you wind up being […]
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Director/DP Andrea Marini on Prank Maestro Joey Skaggs and the Slamdance Doc Art of the Prank
Art of the Prank documents the latest elaborate hoax from Joey Skaggs, an infamous culture-jammer who’s been pranking the media since the 1960s. The film marks the feature debut of writer, director and co-cinematographer Andrea Marini. Art of the Prank blends new footage of a prank-in-progress – his latest target: film festivals – with decades of archival material. In the interview below, Marini speaks about the style and structure of the film. Art of the Prank was selected to screen as part of the 2016 Slamdance Film Festival. Filmmaker: How and why did you wind up being the cinematographer of your film? What were the factors and attributes that […]
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What a Documentary DP Does: Kirsten Johnson on Cameraperson
Documentary DP Kirsten Johnson is probably best known for her work with Laura Poitras (The Oath, Citizenfour), but she’s been shooting for years. Out of her experience comes Cameraperson, an essay film assembled from mostly unused footage shot for many projects. Each segment is labeled by place rather than the project it came from. In eschewing voiceover, the chain of argumentation can be a little heavy-handed for my taste — i.e., cutting from someone talking about death to someone giving birth in a hospital — but the overall effect is constantly surprising and stimulating. The film begins by reminding us that even the […]
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DPs Gregg de Domenico and André Döbert on the Howard Brookner Doc, Uncle Howard
Gregg de Domenico has more than 10 years of industry experience as a cinematographer, camera operator and second AC. At Sundance 2016, de Domenico served as co-cinematographer for Uncle Howard, a documentary on filmmaker Howard Brookner and the search for his archival remains of his debut documentary, Burroughs. de Domenico lensed the film with first-time DP André Döbert. In this interview, de Domenico and Döbert discuss the film’s blend of archival and new footage along with other visual challenges. 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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5 Questions for Dark Night Director Tim Sutton
After essaying lost teenagers in his poetic debut picture, Pavilion, and a creatively-blocked soul singer in his compelling follow-up, Memphis, New York-based independent filmmaker Tim Sutton ventures into considerably darker terrain with Dark Night, which premiered yesterday at Sundance in its NEXT section. Loosely based on the Aurora theater shootings of 2012, in which a gunman killed 12 and wounded 70 moviegoers attending a screening of Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight Rises, Dark Night depicts the moments around such an event, using suspense and foreshadowing to meditate on American violence and spectatorship. Below, Sutton answers five questions about his intention […]
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Five Questions with The Birth of a Nation Director Nate Parker
For his debut as a feature film writer and director, Nate Parker has told the story of a personal hero: Nat Turner. The Birth of a Nation is also the first major fiction film about Turner, the leader of an infamous 1831 slave rebellion. Parker himself stars as Turner, having appeared in more than 20 films to date, including Red Hook Summer, The Great Debaters and Ain’t Them Bodies Saints. Below, Parker speaks with Filmmaker about his film’s eye-catching title, Turner’s legacy and what he hopes modern audiences take away from this story. The Birth of a Nation premieres in the U.S Dramatic Competition at […]
