Sundance
-
Sundance Announces Short Film Challenge, Premieres Five Shorts on Global Poverty
At a private event featuring film screenings and a panel discussion, the Sundance Institute today announced the Sundance Institute Short Film Challenge, supported by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. The Challenge intends to spur the production of documentary and narrative short films (three to eight minutes long) depicting the creativity of real people seeking solutions to the challenges of extreme hunger and poverty in their communities. Said Sundance Institute Executive Director Keri Putnam in a statement, “With the support of the Gates Foundation, we are proud to launch this short film challenge and support filmmakers around the world in […]
-
Of Gods and Dogs Wins 2014 Sundance Short Film Grand Jury Prize
Of Gods and Dogs, by the Syrian Arab Republic’s Abounaddara Collective, has won the 2014 Sundance Film Festival Short Film Grand Jury Prize. The film tells the story of a Syrian soldier seeking vengeance on the God who led him to kill an innocent man. Also announced today at a ceremony in Park City, UT, were seven other awards, including the Short Film Jury Award: U.S. Fiction, which went to Janizca Brava’s Gregory Goes Boom. A record 8,161 shorts were submitted to the festival, of which 66 were selected for screening. The Short Film jurors were: Vernon Chatman, producer, writer, […]
-
Interview with Song One Director Kate Barker-Froyland
When I asked where the most film-related location for our photoshoot might be, director Kate Barker-Froyland suggested that we meet in Williamsburg. Her feature debut, Song One, starring Anne Hathaway, is a film about the love of music which weaves its story through Brooklyn and lower Manhattan, which are areas that Barker-Froyland herself frequents often. We met for breakfast at the Reynard Restaurant in the Wythe Hotel on an assaultingly cold winter’s morning. Still, Barker-Froyland was upbeat and ready to take to the city streets in just her sundress, wind chill notwithstanding, to get the right shot. While most filmmakers […]
-
Interview with The Sleepwalker Director/writer Mona Fastvold
Filmmaker: Why this movie? Why did you decide to do it? Fastvold: I’ve always been compelled tell a story about the complex relationship between sisters (I’m one of five). It’s a unique and naturally beautiful bond; the strange way siblings so easily regress into childhood patterns and the intense love and jealousy between them… All that instinctual competitiveness and care. Filmmaker: How much of your crew was female? Was hiring women a consideration for you? Fastvold: In fact, the crew was female by majority but that was just by chance! Filmmaker: How did you go about raising funding for it? Fastvold: I had made a […]
-
Interview with Mr leos caraX Director Tessa Louise Salomé
Filmmaker: Why this movie? Why did you decide to do it? Salomé: The movie picked me up. As I was working on Holy Motors, I started to collect bits and pieces, archives, anything that was part of Leos Carax’s universe. When I realized how much I had gathered, it became obvious that I couldn’t stop there. I dived right into his world… and without even noticing it, I started to make the film. It was exciting to unravel some of the mysteries surrounding him. Seeing all of his movies again was an extraordinary experience: they haven’t aged a bit. They may even be more […]
-
Women of Sundance: Appropriate Behavior
“So, is this exciting to you, or, like, totally normal by now?” director Desiree Akhavan asked her executive producer, Katie Mustard, when we three met over coffee just two weeks after their film, Appropriate Behavior, was accepted into Sundance’s NEXT section. While this is Akhavan and her London-based producer Cecilia Frugiuelle’s first time at Sundance, Mustard has had nine films there – seven features and two shorts. Mustard had been drawn to come on board Akhavan’s film because the script was “just so good” and so “fresh.” Akhavan, who stars in the film as an Iranian-American bisexual struggling to find […]
-
Interview with Cold in July Producer Linda Moran
When I walked in to photograph Linda Moran at her office at Belladona Productions in Chelsea, she was on the phone making magic happen. Her film Cold in July, which she produced, was speedily getting picture locked for Sundance and her office, that she runs with fellow producer René Bastian, was abuzz with activity and inclusiveness: it has what I call the “Google Effect” – which is to say that the office is so cool and fun to work in, employees love coming to work. Linda promptly introduced me to the office mascots: her dogs Zombie and Coco who insisted on […]
-
Interview with The Disobedient Director Mina Đukić
Filmmaker: Why this movie? Why did you decide to do it? Đukić: I wanted to stop asking myself “why” about things that were haunting me and instead start a journey of both finding answers and losing them on my way. I felt the urge to express my feelings about many ambiguous and tickling things. Filmmaker: How much of your crew was female? Was hiring women a consideration for you? Đukić: Less than 10. Hiring a main actress with attitude, sensibility and energy that I enjoyed was a consideration for me. Once that worked, we could unleash enough female energy to […]
-
Women of Sundance: Land Ho!
When I went to meet Land Ho! co-director Martha Stephens and producers Mynette Louie and Sara Murphy in their color correction suite in Midtown NYC, they were in fuzzy sweaters with zigzag lines, and were laughing often – which makes sense as their film is a road trip comedy set in Iceland (about two older men who must contend with life after retirement). Just months earlier these sweaters had shielded their crew against the vibrant and freezingly unpredictable Icelandic elements during the production of their film (and kept them warm after getting out of dips in the hot springs – […]
-
Sundance Day Three: Slowing Down
While the days moved just as quickly as earlier in the festival, and really it was only Day 3, Sunday felt slower, calmer. Maybe I felt more confident having two super successful screenings under our belt, maybe I was more in the rhythm of working on little sleep and running between events and interviews, but things seemed to be moving a tad slower. That does not necessarily mean energy was low, very much the opposite. The Memphis crew was buzzing around parties and screenings and thoroughly enjoying themselves. Willis Earl Beal, our lead, was even having a good time – and he […]
