Interviews
Interviews
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“I Opted for a Low-key Chiaroscuro Look”: DP Sherwin Akbarzadeh on Shayda
Writer-director Noora Niasari’s debut feature, Shayda, is a deeply personal tale of trauma and tenacity. With a script mining from Niasari’s lived experiences, the film centers on the titular character Shayda (Zar Amir Ebrahimi), an Iranian woman living in an Australian women’s shelter with her 6-year-old daughter. With the Iranian New Year upon them, Shayda attempts to forge a new life for them after her recent divorce from abusive husband Hossein. However, when a judge grants him visitation rights with his daughter, Shayda becomes increasingly concerned that her ex-husband will kidnap Mona and flee back to their native Iran. Cinematographer […]
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“We Hope That This Film and Its Female Narrative Will Echo the Voice of Iranian Women”: Editor Elika Rezaee on Shayda
Elika Rezaee understood that signing on to edit Shayda, the deeply personal narrative debut from writer-director Noora Niasari, would require the utmost sensitivity. The film mines from Niasari’s lived experiences, following the titular character as she and her daughter Mona temporarily move into an Australian women’s shelter after Shayda’s divorce from her abusive husband. When a court order deems that her ex is entitled to visitation rights with their daughter, Shayda becomes afraid that he will take Mona and return to their native Iran. Rezaee tells Filmmaker about her first reaction to Niasari’s script, her editing career origins and how she […]
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“In the Desert, There Were Challenges We Couldn’t Foresee”: DP Boaz Freund on The Longest Goodbye
The inherent loneliness of deep space exploration is the foundation of The Longest Goodbye, filmmaker Ido Mizrahy’s latest documentary. Particularly as it concerns NASA’s looming deadline to have a mission blast off to Mars by 2033, Mizrahy explores how technology can aid astronauts in maintaining vital connections—to friends, family and Earth itself—and what scientific advancements are being made to preserve the social and emotional well-being of these intrepid explorers. Cinematographer Boaz Freund, who’s previously collaborated with Mizrahy, tells Filmmaker about shooting in the vast Utah desert, making Mars a character in the film and working with colorist Marc Boucrot. See […]
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“I Wanted To Make Sure the Film Felt Lived In”: Editor Ryan Kendrick on Sometimes I Think About Dying
The depressing atmosphere of cubicle culture permeates Sometimes I Think About Dying, Rachel Lambert’s latest directorial effort. At least until a charming new hire begins to break down the defenses of Fran (Daisy Ridley), the film’s protagonist who, yes, often thinks about her own death to kill time. Editor Ryan Kendrick tells Filmmaker about his previous collaborations with Lambert, how his history as a documentary editor helped on this narrative project and how he broke into the business. See all responses to our annual Sundance editor interviews here. Filmmaker: How and why did you wind up being the editor of your […]
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“A Foray Into the Heart of Different Family Dynamics”: Editor Anouk Deschênes on The Longest Goodbye
While the prospect of traveling on a years-long expedition to Mars might seem like an alien scenario to most, Ido Mizrahy’s documentary The Longest Goodbye argues that we may have more in common with deep space astronauts than we think. Especially in the wake of COVID, we all know the feeling of being indefinitely estranged from loved ones, with only the Internet to aid us in our human quest for connection. Filmmaker asked editor Anouk Deschênes to detail her process on this film, from signing onto the project to cutting the film’s most difficult scene. See all responses to our […]
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“We Needed To Embrace a Certain Amount of Ugliness”: DP Dustin Lane on Sometimes I Think About Dying
Daisy Ridley stars in Sometimes I Think About Dying, directed by Rachel Lambert and co-written by Kevin Armento, Stefanie Abel Horowitz and Katy Wright-Mead. Ridley plays Fran, an office worker who, as the film’s title suggests, is driven to such mind-numbing boredom that she often thinks about her own death to pass the time. That is, until a new employee named Robert (Dave Merheje) begins striking up conversation with her. Surprisingly, he manages to pique her interest, effectively breaking the monotony of her isolating office job. DP Dustin Lane tells Filmmaker how he crafted the visual language of the film […]
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“This ‘Space Problem’ Became Our Problem”: Ido Mizrahy on The Longest Goodbye
With NASA under “presidential orders” to land humans on Mars by 2033—and the industry titans of Silicon Valley rushing to make space exploration sexy again (not to mention cash in on that lucrative action)—it might be a good time to stop and ask not when our long-mission astronauts will launch, but rather who should be going and how they will survive. And not just physical survival, but mental and emotional, for even the Trekkiest among us may give pause before signing up for a years-long journey that requires relentless isolation, being stripped of any semblance of privacy and deprived of […]
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“To Change Reality, You Need to Change the Narrative”: E Mãlama Pono, Willy Boy Director Scott W. Kekama Amona at Hawaii International Film Festival 2023
At the end of the recent Hawai’i International Film Festival, Filmmaker reached out to director Scott W. Kekama Amona to learn more about E Mãlama Pono, Willy Boy, which won the festival’s Audience Award for Best Short Film. An astonishingly assured, measured debut, Willy Boy is one of the more important Native Hawaiian and indigenous titles to come out in recent years, successfully addressing issues like land-rights injustice, political disenfranchisement, police overreach and native identity in a concise narrative framework that takes place in only one day, from one character’s awakening to their eventual “awakening.” Shot in a steely, timeless black-and-white […]
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“Emanuele Asked Me to ‘Undertake the Journey’ With Him”: Editor Clelio Benevento on L’Immensità
After premiering at the 2022 Venice Film Festival, Italian director Emanuele Crialese’s latest feature L’Immensità makes its way Sundance in the festival’s “Spotlight” section. Co-written by Crialese alongside Francesca Manieri and Vittorio Moroni, the film is a semi-autobiographical account of the director’s coming of age in Rome during the ’70s. Editor Clelio Benevento discusses how he came to work on the film, the differences between his and the director’s work styles and the gratitude he has for his film school professors. See all responses to our annual Sundance editor interviews here. Filmmaker: How and why did you wind up being the […]
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Editor Walter Murch on the Golden Ratio, Recreating a ’70s-era Editing Room and The Conversation
Watching a documentary on film history, editor Walter Murch was struck by how different cinematographers tended to frame faces in close-ups similarly. “I noticed something peculiar,” he said. “No matter what the film was, the eyes of performers in close-up seemed to float along the same line from shot to shot.” Murch tested his theory by tying a string of knitting yarn across his television screen. Dividing measurements from above and below the line gave him 1.618, a number that represents phi, or the golden ratio. Further measurements of faces in close-ups—from the upper frame edges to hairlines, from chins […]
