Interviews
Interviews
-
Cinematographer Nick Bentgen on Shooting Matt Wolf’s Sundance Short, It’s Me, Hilary: The Man Who Drew Eloise
Following 2013’s Teenage, cinematographer Nick Bentgen reteams with director Matt Wolf for a short film about the man behind the look of one of children’s literature’s most-loved characters, Eloise. It’s Me, Hilary: The Man Who Drew Eloise is a portrait of Hilary Knight, whose sharp line drawings visualized for generations the Plaza Hotel-dwelling young girl introduced in Kay Thompson’s books. Executive produced by Lena Dunham and Jenni Konner of Girls, the short film will premiere on HBO in March but receives its festival launch at Sundance on January 24. Here, Bentgen, who directed Northern Lights and shot Ballet 242 and […]
-
Cinematographer Thaddeus Wadleigh on Shooting Kirby Dick’s Sundance Film, The Hunting Ground
Cinematographer Thaddeus Wadleigh and director Kirby Dick have previously collaborated on seminal and important non-fiction films that directed attention and effectuated change with regards to controversial social issues. Outrage in 2009 looked at gay politicians who vote anti-gay legislation. The Invisible War (2012) tore open the discussion of rape in the military. Their latest, The Hunting Ground, looks at the especially timely issue of campus rape and its coverup. In our interview below, Wadleigh — who is co-credited on this new film and on The Invisible War with Kristin Johnson — talks about the specific challenges of shooting a film […]
-
The Treasure of the Sierra Madre Underwater: Kevin Macdonald on Black Sea
Kevin Macdonald’s Black Sea is a wonderfully entertaining action movie for adults, a hybrid of morality play and thriller that recalls the smart, terse genre films of John Huston and Raoul Walsh while referencing more contemporary issues relating to recent downturns in the global financial markets. It tells the story of recently laid off submarine captain Robinson (Jude Law), a man who has given his life to the sea and suddenly finds himself with no purpose and no way to make a living. When he hears about a WWII-era German U-boat filled with gold just sitting at the bottom of […]
-
Sundance ’15: Cinematographer Sean Price Williams on Shooting Christmas Again
In an interview elsewhere on this site, director Charles Poekel said he wanted his feature Christmas, Again to look like a “Christmas tree ornament from your attic.” With that directive, what better D.P. to hire than Sean Price Williams? His love of and delicate touch with celluloid — its textures, its organic feel — shine through in such films as Listen Up, Philip and The Black Balloon. And his mobile camerawork and ability to shapeshift to whatever the production environment dictates made him an ideal collaborator for Poekel, who was shooting his first feature in his own Christmas tree stand […]
-
Cinematographer Adam McDaid on Shooting Kevin Pollak’s Sundance Doc, Misery Loves Comedy
Do you have to miserable to be funny? That’s the question asked by Kevin Pollak’s, Misery Loves Comedy, screening at Sundance as a Special Event. And, appropriately for a film containing 50 interviews of funny people ranging from Jimmy Fallon and Judd Apatow to Penn Jillette and Lewis Black, cinematographer Adam McDaid’s job was to work quickly, make the people look good and allow their stories to come through transparently. Below, he talks about all of that as well as what to do when faced with a wall of sun-lit windows. Filmmaker: How and why did you wind up being […]
-
Director James Ponsoldt on his David Foster Wallace Drama, The End of the Tour
Are you one to meet your heroes? By reading, watching, listening to their work, do you feel a connection to them? Or are they enigmas whose mysteries you need to crack? In the world of contemporary letters, few figures loom as large as David Foster Wallace, whose sprawling, wickedly funny, fiercely observant works grappled with both the necessity and near impossibility of sincere, non-ironic expression in the age of commodified mass media and a meaningless public discourse. In essays about punctuation and cruise ships, tennis stars and cooked lobsters, and in stories and novels including his protean cultural phenomenon, Infinite […]
-
“I Wanted the Film to Feel Like a Christmas Tree Ornament from your Attic”: Charles Poekel on Sundance NEXT Film Christmas Again
With Charles Poekel’s charmingly melancholy debut, Christmas, Again, the independent film maxim “write what you know” gains a corollary: “write what you can learn.” For his tale of a withdrawn Christmas tree salesmen just trying to get through the season, again, Poekel gained knowledge of his protagonist’s trade by opening and operating his own stand in Greenpoint — a job he’s still doing five years later. Defiantly non-melodramatic and with the well-worn feel of a ’70s New York character study, Christmas, Again has both poetry and an unprepossessing air. In other words, it’s a perfect holiday visitor. Christmas, Again premiered […]
-
Cinematographer Dominique Colin on Shooting the Sundance World Competition Film, The Summer of Sangaile
From Lithuania and screening in Sundance’s World Cinema Dramatic Competition, The Sound of Sangaile is a film that fuses a teenage girl’s coming-of-age story with a fantasy of flight. With a protagonist obsessed with stunt planes and plenty of aerial photography, Alante Kavaite’s feature posed challenges to cinematographer Dominique Colin — whose credits include, I must note, two masterpieces and personal favorites by Gaspar Noe (Carne and I Stand Alone). Below, Colin discusses those challenges and more. The Sound of Sangaile premieres on Sundance’s opening day, Thursday, January 22. Filmmaker: How and why did you wind up being the cinematographer […]
-
Cinematographer John Gulesarian on Shooting Sundance Dramatic Competition Film, The Overnight
Following 2014’s Song One and 2013’s Breathe In, cinematographer John Gulesarian returns to Sundance with his third film in three years, The Overnight. Directed by Patrick Brice and starring Adam Scott and Taylor Schilling, the film is set during a long Los Angeles night, one in which a chance encounter between two families leads to what the program calls “a painfully funny take on sexual frustration and parenthood.” The film premieres Friday, January 23 in the Dramatic Competition. Below Gulesarian talks about small crews, practical lights, and how a $10 piece of equipment can save the day. Filmmaker: How and […]
-
Michael Ballhaus on Framing and Arguing with Fassbinder on The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant
In this fascinating short interview released by The Criterion Collection, legendary D.P. Michael Ballhaus discusses working with Rainer Werner Fassbinder on one of the director’s best films, The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant. After talking about how Fassbinder didn’t like to shotlist, Ballhaus describes one particularly difficult move and the director’s reaction when it wasn’t done just the way he wanted it. And even if Ballhaus weren’t an erudite interview, the clips alone here would be worth watching. The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant is now out in standard def and Blu Ray from Criterion.
