Sundance
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Appropriate Behavior | Director Desiree Akhavan
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? My editor and […]
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The Skeleton Twins | Director Craig Johnson
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 have never […]
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Interview with Laggies Director Lynn Shelton
Filmmaker: Why this movie? Why did you decide to do it? Shelton: Laggies is the first film I’ve directed that I didn’t also write; the script just really spoke to me. The way that the story unfolds is unexpected but believable, and all the humor comes from a character-based place. Andrea Seigel is a fantastic writer. She’s so facile with creating dialog that feels smart but also breezy. Filmmaker: How much of your crew was female? Was hiring women a consideration for you? Shelton: My considerations when hiring crew are: a) competence, and b) relationship (i.e. “is this going to be a […]
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Five Questions with Obvious Child Director Gillian Robespierre
For her debut feature, director Gillian Robespierre has done the somewhat unlikely and crafted a warm, winning, genuinely funny romantic comedy that, oh yeah, is centered around an abortion. The story of Donna (the always charming Jenny Slate), a young comedian who, after a bad breakup and an alcohol-fueled one-night stand, finds herself pregnant, Obvious Child offers a refreshingly frank, true-to-life portrait of a woman dealing with an impending abortion. But the film is a lot more than just a comedy built around a hot-button issue – it’s an earnest, lived-in, and warm rom-com about navigating one’s aimless 20s, and […]
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Five Questions with Hellion Director Kat Candler
Austin, TX-based filmmaker Kat Candler is no stranger to the Sundance Film Festival. In fact, this is her third straight year with a film at the festival. But unlike ‘12 and ’13 (during which she brought the acclaimed shorts Hellion and Black Metal, respectively), Candler will premiere her first feature since 2006, an expansion of her previous Hellion short. The story of 13-year-old Jacob (newcomer Josh Wiggins), a young man torn between an absent father (Aaron Paul) and the Aunt (Juliette Lewis) who has taken him in, Hellion premieres today in US Dramatic Competition. Filmmaker: The Hellion short was built […]
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Drunktown’s Finest | Director Sydney Freeland
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? For me, attention […]
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Whitey: United States of America v. James J. Bulger | Director Joe Berlinger
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? Tune out the […]
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Lionsgate and CNN Films Buy Dinosaur 13 in First Doc Pickup of Sundance 2014
Dinosaur 13, the opening night film in the doc competition section, just became the first non-fiction acquisition of the 2014 Sundance Film Festival. In a deal brokered by the film’s sales agent, Josh Braun of Submarine, Lionsgate and CNN Films bought North American rights for the buzz doc, which chronicles the real-life drama following the discovery in 1990 of the remains of “Sue,” the largest and most complete Tyrannosaurus Rex ever found. Dinosaur 13 will play theatrically through Lionsgate before having a TV premiere through CNN. The beautifully shot Dinosaur 13 had a lot of interest going into the fest, but […]
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We Are the Giant | Director Greg Barker
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? What a great […]
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Jonathan Harris on Becoming Unstuck
Even though technology-focused artist Jonathan Harris has a project at Sundance New Frontier — I Love Your Work, a documentary about the makers of lesbian porn experienced in your own private viewing booth — he’s been stuck. Creatively stuck, that is. And at Transom, he’s penned (and illustrated) an essay, “Navigating Stuckness,” that is both a meditation on creative block as well as, writes the site, “an autobiographical journey with teachable moments.” He’s broken down the stages of his creativity by years, tracking his life alongside projects like the data visualization work We Feel Fine, the storytelling platform Cowbird and […]
