Sundance
-
Women of Sundance: The Foxy Merkins
“How elaborate is the camera?” The Foxy Merkins director Madeleine Olnek texted me as I was walking to photograph her with her female laden crew at Columbus Circle. “We would like to stage ourselves being hit by a cab,” she explained simply and obviously. As it happened, a few months prior to making The Foxy Merkins, a film about lesbian hookers, Olnek was in a taxi driven by a woman named Debbie. They got to talking and Debbie threw out the “If you ever need an [insert random gender, race, or career here]” phrase filmmakers always get. In Debbie’s case it […]
-
Interview with Low Down Writer Amy Albany
Filmmaker: Why this movie? Why did you decide to do it? Albany: The genesis of the movie was a memoir I wrote 10 years ago about growing up in 1970’s Hollywood with my dad who was a talented jazz pianist, and a diehard junkie. Albert Berger & Ron Yerxa of Bona Fide Productions came to my first ever book signing, at Book Soup. Albert said they thought Low Down should be a movie. I thought somebody had put them up to it – you know, as a joke. I checked them out, found out they were legit, to say the least! […]
-
Editing & Music: An Interview with Three Editors at the Sundance Film Festival
Music in cinema continually captivates audiences. Scores and soundtracks can become as renowned as a film itself and play a large part in an audience’s emotional engagement with a movie. Awards are distributed honoring Best Original Song, Best Original Music Score, Best Film Music, and Best Music Direction at multiple film festivals and award ceremonies. But music has also always been a fascinating subject for movies as well. Struggling musicians to sensational bands, and everyone in between, have been captured in film. The Sundance Film Festival is often the first venue at which these movies premiere, and this year is […]
-
Interview with The Skeleton Twins and War Story D.P. Reed Morano, ASC
When you meet cinematographer Reed Morano, ASC, you immediately start to think of cultivating ways you could maybe become a little cooler, because she seems to do life – in general – so well. For our photoshoot, Morano invited me over to her home in Brooklyn, which she shares with her husband and two young sons, who are five and three. Her apartment is cozy and magically extends outside into an unusually large Narnia-esque garden, replete with a swing set and slide for her kids to play on. Her kids are like calm, respectful, independent yet obedient unicorns: “We just […]
-
The One I Love | Director Charlie McDowell
Attention, our audience’s and our own — it’s a valued commodity these days. We struggle to command our audience’s attention, for them to discover our work and then, once they’ve discovered it, to actually focus on it. Meanwhile, we struggle to focus our own attention, to fight our society’s weapons of mass distraction so we can not just see our work to completion but fully discover the meanings within it. What role does attention play in your work? Can you discuss an instance where you thought about some aspect of attention when it came to your film? I can barely […]
-
Hits | Director David Cross
Attention, our audience’s and our own — it’s a valued commodity these days. We struggle to command our audience’s attention, for them to discover our work and then, once they’ve discovered it, to actually focus on it. Meanwhile, we struggle to focus our own attention, to fight our society’s weapons of mass distraction so we can not just see our work to completion but fully discover the meanings within it. What role does attention play in your work? Can you discuss an instance where you thought about some aspect of attention when it came to your film? I’m sorry but […]
-
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 […]
-
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 […]
-
Difret | Director Zeresenay Berhane Mehari
Attention, our audience’s and our own — it’s a valued commodity these days. We struggle to command our audience’s attention, for them to discover our work and then, once they’ve discovered it, to actually focus on it. Meanwhile, we struggle to focus our own attention, to fight our society’s weapons of mass distraction so we can not just see our work to completion but fully discover the meanings within it. What role does attention play in your work? Can you discuss an instance where you thought about some aspect of attention when it came to your film? Bringing attention to […]
-
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 […]
