Sundance
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Fill the Void | Director Rama Burshtein
[PREMIERE SCREENING: Sunday, Jan. 20, Noon — Temple Theatre, Park City] Being an ultra Orthodox woman is about inner spiritual work, away from spotlights, and inside a “home” where my husband is the king. It is the only way for me to stay in love and feel safe. Making Fill the Void meant scarifying the right order of things I truly believe in. Looking back, what made making the film possible, and also surprisingly rewarding, was going to my imaginary “island” where there are no people, titles, honor, or fame. Just me and my thoughts, my passions and my creator. […]
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Five Questions with Escape from Tomorrow Director Randy Moore
There’s something the Sundance Film Guide didn’t tell you about Escape from Tomorrow, the first narrative feature from director Randy Moore – the film was shot guerilla style, on location, at Disney World. Seriously. A debut for the ages, Escape from Tomorrow takes viewers on a surreal journey into the mind of family man Jim Walsh on the last day of his vacation at the park. After finding out that he has been unexpectedly laid off from work, Jim’s day derails until he’s bordering on a complete mental break. This is deranged, imaginative, destabilizing filmmaking – a magical film about […]
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A Teacher | Director Hannah Fidell
[PREMIERE SCREENING: Sunday, Jan. 20, 5:30pm — Prospector Square Theatre, Park City] I like to tell people that I moved to Austin, Texas in order to make A Teacher even though nothing about the story necessitates that it needs to be made in Texas. The film is about a high school teacher who has an affair with one of her students. It could have been made anywhere, but after one too many blizzards a few years back, I was looking for any excuse to move out of Brooklyn, at least for a little while. It’s no secret that moving to […]
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Five Questions with It Felt Like Love Director Eliza Hittman
Coming of age tales are a longstanding mainstay of the Sundance Film Festival, but few films tackle the well-tread genre with the unsentimental eye of It Felt Like Love. The debut feature from filmmaker Eliza Hittman, It Felt Like Love stars first-time actress Gina Piersanti as fourteen-year old Lila, a Brooklyn native who spends her summer pursuing a love affair with an older teen. The film premieres today in the Sundance Film Festival’s NEXT section. Filmmaker: Your previous short, Forever’s Gonna Start Tonight, deals with themes similar to It Felt Like Love. How did your experience making that film, and […]
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Manhunt | Director Greg Barker
[PREMIERE SCREENING: Sunday, Jan. 20, 11:30am — The MARC, Park City] Sacrifice? Come on! For the past 18 months I’ve had the opportunity to immerse myself in the fascinating and morally complex world of the CIA’s long search for Osama bin Laden and conflict against al Qaeda — a secret war that began nearly 20 years ago for the small team of extraordinary women inside the CIA, known as “the Sisterhood,” whose stories are at the heart of my film. These are people for whom trust is everything. Very little could be discussed on the phone, and almost every conversation […]
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Blood Brother | Director Steve Hoover
[PREMIERE SCREENING: Sunday, Jan. 20, 11:30am — Prospector Square Theatre, Park City] Blood Brother was built on of the sacrifices of many people. Personally, I sacrificed time, money, comfort and security. I think I even sacrificed a bit of my fading youth, as aging seemed to speed up over the course of production. But I can’t confidently call these things sacrifices in light of the true sacrifices made by the lives of those featured in Blood Brother. My passion to make Blood Brother created a willingness in me to pay whatever price necessary in order to tell this amazing story. It […]
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Five Questions with Concussion Director Stacie Passon
Stacie Passon’s Concussion has a logline that might be misleading. The story of a bored, lesbian housewife who covertly takes a job as a high-scale prostitute for women, the film is so much more than that high-concept, basic-cable-ready premise implies. Equal parts darkly comedic social satire and gut-wrenching character study, Concussion is anchored by a stunning performance by character actress Robin Weigert, and marks the arrival of a strong new filmmaking voice in director Stacie Passon. The film premieres today in US Dramatic Competition at the Sundance Film Festival. Filmmaker: For a film from a first-time director, Concussion is quite […]
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In a World… | Director Lake Bell
[PREMIERE SCREENING: Sunday, Jan. 20, 5:30pm — Library Center Theatre, Park City] Anybody who’s ever made an independent film will attest that “making sacrifices” isn’t a potential occurrence in the process, but a means to an end. Whether it was re-writes, locations or editorial cuts, babies were slain left and right. I was in a constant state of negotiation with producers, means, and… the world. In that way, I’m no different than anyone else in this business. It’s hard as fuck, which is why not everyone gets to, nor has the audacity to do it. That all said, I became […]
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Five Questions with Blue Caprice Director Alexandre Moors
Named for the car from which John Allen Muhammad and Lee Boyd Malvo committed the 2002 Beltway Sniper Attacks, Alexandre Moors’ debut Blue Caprice attempts to move past the chilling anonymity of those attacks to get at the motivations and interior lives of its two culprits. The film is intimate and disturbing, as Moors, a French director who has mostly worked in music videos until this point, focuses on the dysfunctional father / son bond formed between Muhammad and Malvo (played by Isaiah Washington and Tequan Richmond, respectively), and digs into the distinctly American mindset that they committed their crimes […]
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Five Questions with Cutie and the Boxer Director Zachary Heinzerling
Cutie and the Boxer functions as a love story about a couple and their devotion to their individual art. Zach Heinzerling’s directorial debut concerns itself with the difficulties of marriage, but also the trials of being an artist. After meeting Ushio and Noriko Shinohara in Brooklyn through a friend, Heinzerling was immediately fascinated by their relationship and lifestyle – two extremely different artists in attitude, age, and craft who have been married and lived together for over 40 years. Cutie and the Boxer came together over five years. Two or three years spent solely on getting to know Ushio and Noriko […]
