Interviews
Interviews
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Interview with Imperial Dreams Producer Katherine Fairfax Wright
Filmmaker: Why this movie? Why did you decide to do it? Fairfax Wright: I guess the most apparent reason behind me producing Imperial Dreams was that the director Malik Vitthal is one of my closest friends and I was eager to help bring his vision through to fruition. When we first met a few years back at LAFF, he mentioned that he was working on a script set in the Imperial Courts housing project in Watts. It piqued my interest because it’s the same housing project that I had spent quite a bit of time at during elementary school. My […]
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Interview with E-TEAM D.P. Rachel Beth Anderson
Filmmaker: Why this movie? Why did you decide to do it? Anderson: For me shooting for this film was a fast YES after learning about the E-Team concept, and knowing I would be working in Syria with Human Rights Watch. I had recently witnessed HRW in action while filming during the Egyptian and Libyan uprisings and respected the quality of their work. It had been difficult to watch the devastating situation in Syria unfold from affair, but with this film I knew I would be in safest hands possible smuggling across the border with an HRW team. Filmmaker: How much of your […]
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Creating Memphis and Ping Pong Summer: An Interview with Production Designer Bart Mangrum
This is not production designer Bart Mangrum’s first movie at the Sundance Film Festival. He designed Septien (2011, directed by Michael Tully) and I Used To Be Darker (2013, directed by Matt Porterfield), and was both an on-set dresser and extra in Stoker (2012, directed by Chan-wook Park). But this is the first time Mangrum has been at Sundance as the production designer of two feature films screening in the same category. Mangrum was born and raised in Nashville, Tennessee, and still lives there. His father ignited his enthusiasm for art by teaching him how to draw during church around […]
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Interview with Fed Up Director Stephanie Soechtig
Filmmaker: Why this movie? Why did you decide to do it? Soechtig: The original idea for the film was actually Katie’s (Couric). She liked the way my last film (Tapped) took the issue of bottled water and tied it to so many bigger issues (chemicals in plastic, plastic pollution, the global water crisis) and she thought the childhood obesity epidemic could use the same approach. I was a bit apprehensive at first — haven’t we heard all there is to know about childhood obesity? But as I dug in to the story I discovered we have really only scratched the surface. […]
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Five Questions with Kumiko, The Treasure Hunter Directors David & Nathan Zellner
David and Nathan Zellner are longtime stalwarts of the Sundance Film Festival, and the American microbudget film scene in general, carving out a niche for themselves over the last decade-plus as purveyors of a uniquely strange brand of Americana. Their feature work (including 2012’s haunting Kid-Thing) and their idiosyncratic and unforgettable shorts (Sasquatch Birth Journal 2, don’t worry, lives up to its title) have long found the Zellners fascinated with contemporary American folklore and fairy tales, and their newest film, Kumiko, The Treasure Hunter, is no exception. Based on the true story of a Japanese woman who traveled from Tokyo […]
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Interview with Hellion Director Kat Candler
Filmmaker: Why this movie? Why did you decide to do it? Candler: Hellion started as a short film that played Sundance in 2012. The original story for the short came from a story my Uncle Frank would tell at family gatherings. When Frank was little, he and my two other Uncles set fire to my grandfather’s jeep. What happened when my grandfather came home to discover the destruction was the nugget of a story I fictionalized into Hellion. When we wrapped the short over the summer of 2011, I wanted to continue to live with these characters … a single blue-collar […]
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Women of Sundance: Obvious Child
Gillian Robespierre, Elisabeth Holm and Jenny Slate are highly skilled comedians who are prone to self-deprecation and the bawdiest of humor that will make even the most sexually liberated feel prude. When I went to Robespierre’s apartment to take their photo, however, it was not a time for gag humor with kitschy props (condoms were, for example, off limits). Their film, Obvious Child, written and directed by Robespierre, produced by Holm and starring Slate, is both bold in its humor and also its intent: to make a comedy that talks about real issues that women face – something usually saved for […]
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Interview with A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night Director Ana Lily Amirpour
Filmmaker: Why this movie? Why did you decide to do it? Amirpour: Because I’m lonely, romantic, and love to dance. Filmmaker: How much of your crew was female? Was hiring women a consideration for you? Amirpour: Just our costume and makeup departments. The rest were a glorious and talented group of boys. Filmmaker: How did you go about raising funding for it? (I ask this because most female filmmakers says that being female makes it harder to raise funds, so thought your story could be inspiring — I know this topic can be touchy feely, so answer it in the way that […]
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Interview with My Prairie Home Director Chelsea McMullan
Filmmaker: Why this movie? Why did you decide to do it? McMullan: Rae Spoon and I have been friends and collaborators for some time. The more they (Spoon prefers the use of the gender-neutral, third-person pronoun) told me about their life and their story, the more interested I was. I just found it fascinating, and I wanted to know more. That started triggering all these questions of my own, about Rae’s specific experience but also broader questions about the context of the world we’re all living in. It was becoming this big knotted ball of curiosity, and I think another […]
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Five Questions with Land Ho! Directors Aaron Katz and Martha Stephens
Co-directed features aren’t too common in the independent film world, and even less so from already established auteurs. But Land Ho! finds two of the American independent scene’s most promising young directors – Aaron Katz (Cold Weather) and Martha Stephens (Pilgrim Song) – joining forces. A buddy, road trip comedy about a pair of aging ex-brother-in-laws (Paul Eenhoorn of This is Martin Bonner, and Earl Lynn Nelson) on holiday in Iceland, the film is already being hyped as one of the most promising discoveries of this year’s festival. Land Ho! premieres today in Sundance’s NEXT section. Filmmaker: A full-on directorial […]
