Sundance
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This is Martin Bonner | Director Chad Hartigan
[PREMIERE SCREENING: Sunday, Jan. 20, 9:00pm — Egyptian Theatre, Park City] I made one no-budget film in 2008 called Luke and Brie are on a First Date. It was a great experience and had an okay life for itself, but I was adamant that I wouldn’t make a no-budget film again. In order to grow (or be perceived as growing), my next film would need to have a name actor and a budget of $250,000. I was confident This is Martin Bonner was that script and I took 18 months to figure out how to get that money or a […]
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Citizen Koch | Directors Tia Lessin and Carl Deal
[PREMIERE SCREENING: Sunday, Jan. 20, 3:00pm — Temple Theatre, Park City] It’s strange to talk about making a film as a sacrifice. Of course we are always under enormous financial pressures and we’ve given up treasured time with family and friends to create this work. But to us it feels like a privilege — especially in these difficult times — to be able to make art, and even more so to be making it independently. The motto of Wisconsin and the last line of our film is “Forward;” as we head to Sundance, we aren’t looking back. Sundance Responses 2013
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C.O.G | Director Kyle Patrick Alvarez
[PREMIERE SCREENING: Sunday, Jan. 20, 8:30pm — Library Center Theatre, Park City] Short of my personal relationships, I sacrificed everything for the film. Years of my life, my personal finances, all of my creative and professional resources. If I wasn’t willing do that, then what would be the point? If you’re not willing to sacrifice for what you love, than you don’t truly love it and if you don’t truly love film, you probably shouldn’t be an independent filmmaker. It’s too much of a challenge. You have to make sure to hold on to that initial spark that got you on to the film so tightly cause, […]
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99% – The Occupy Wall Street Collaborative Film | Co-Director Aaron Aites
[PREMIERE SCREENING: Sunday, Jan. 20, 9:00pm — Temple Theatre, Park City] Our film wasn’t planned. As the events of Occupy Wall Street began to unfold, and Audrey [Ewell] and I decided to make a film around it, we basically went from working on other projects (our own follow-up film to Until The Light Takes Us, as well as the paying freelance work that pays our rent) to instantly being in production on an unbudgeted and risky film project that used an untested methodology to bring it to life, and that relied on the abilities and collaboration of people we’d never […]
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Ain’t Them Bodies Saints | Director David Lowery
[PREMIERE SCREENING: Sunday, Jan. 20, 12:15pm — Eccles Theatre, Park City] Talking about sacrifices when you’ve been given the means to actually make your movie seems a bit glib – but you make them all the same, and perhaps spend an exorbitant amount of time fretting about them late at night, hoping they don’t show up on screen. On this film, there were two forfeitures in particular that went hand in hand. First: for budgetary reasons, we couldn’t shoot our movie in Texas. As a filmmaker from the Lone Star State who enjoys making movies set therein, this was somewhat heartbreaking, and […]
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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 […]
