Sundance
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“Even if You Are Cutting a More Commercial Film, the Inspiration You Can Find From Obscure Films Is Endless”: Editors Jennifer Lee and Maya Maffioli on Master
Master, the debut feature by Mariama Diallo, takes place at the fictional Ancaster College, situated on land once occupied by gallows poles during the Salem witch trials. Blending horror and thriller elements with a critique of racism and privilege, the film follows numerous characters as the college’s façade of gentility begins to unravel. Mixing genres and following a large group of characters means the film could have gone in numerous directions, and editors Jennifer Lee and Maya Maffioli discuss the various incarnations the film assumed throughout the editing process. Filmmaker: How and why did you wind up being the editor […]
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“You Have to Become Vulnerable With Your Director Before You Can Go On Set”: DP Benjamin Loeb on After Yang
Like Columbus before it, Kogonada’s After Yang tackles its heady subject matter—including, in this case, a climate catastrophe and existential questions about the nature of humanity and memory that arise from its sci-fi setting—only obliquely, through composition and framing. Cinematographer Benjamin Loeb explained the significance of emptiness and space to cinema and the love he and Kogonada share for Ozu. Filmmaker: How and why did you wind up being the cinematographer of your film? What were the factors and attributes that led to your being hired for this job? Loeb: Honestly, I believe I was the unicorn of the interviews and came in very […]
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“We Started to Realize That Our Film Connects to the Current Moment in a Powerful and Urgent Way” | Julie Ha & Eugene Yi, Free Chol Soo Lee
The last two years have prompted much contemplation and reconsideration of the reasons why we make our films as well as the ways in which we make them. What aspect of your filmmaking—whether in your creative process, the way you finance your films, your production methodology or the way you relate to your audience—did you have to reinvent in order to make and complete the film you are bringing to the festival this year? We always knew our film would tell the story of how one Asian-American’s life was shaped by racism in the second half of the 20th century. […]
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“Given Enough Time and Space, Any Difficult Scene Can Be Solved”: Editors Jean Tsien and Aldo Velasco on Free Chol Soo Lee
With Free Chol Soo Lee, directors Julie Ha and Eugene Yi examine the life and legacy of Chol Soo Lee, a Korean immigrant wrongfully convicted of committing a murder in San Francisco’s Chinatown at the age of 20 due to the false testimony of white tourists. When journalist K.W. Lee took an interest in Lee’s case, it spearheaded a wave of nation-wide pan-Asian activism. Editors Jean Tsien and Aldo Velasco and co-editor Anita Yu discuss how their understanding of their subject grew over time and how they ultimately decided to zero in on the film’s narrative trajectory. Filmmaker: How and why […]
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“One of the Thrills of Shooting Horror Is You Can Get Quite Expressionistic With Color and Pattern”: DP Charlotte Hornsby on Master
In Master, a student at the fictional Ancaster College, situated on land once used for gallows poles during the Salem witch trials, begins to suspect that the school is haunted and gradually uncovers the secrets behind its progressive veneer. Although the film is loaded with social critique, it operates as a horror film, which allowed cinematographer Charlotte Hornsby room to comfortably deviate from realism in crafting the film’s look. Below, she discusses the influence of filmmakers like Ingmar Bergman and Joanna Hogg and how the film’s aesthetic changes as the narrative unravels. Filmmaker: How and why did you wind up being […]
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“Christine [Choy] Has Always Been a Person Who Puts Her Ideals into Action”: The Exiles Directors Violet Columbus and Ben Klein
The first rule of documentary film? “Lie to everyone.” This from no less an authority (and anti-authority) than Christine Choy, the Oscar-nominated filmmaker (Who Killed Vincent Chin?) and educator (NYU, Cornell, Yale, etc.), founding director of Third World Newsreel, and straight-shooting (no pun intended) civil rights rabble-rouser. (Once during the US Film and Video Festival – soon to be rebranded Sundance – Choy even pulled Robert Redford aside to bluntly ask what was up with all the white people and white snow.) And now she is the cigarette-puffing central character in Violet Columbus and Ben Klein’s The Exiles, which executive produced […]
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“I Would Often Capture the Same Shots on 16mm and Digital”: DP Connor Smith on The Exiles
In 1989, filmmaker Christine Choy was hired to shoot interview footage of dissidents from the Tiananmen Square protests, but she never had the chance to show anyone involved the footage. More than thirty years later, Choy embarks on transcontinental travel to show leaders of the movement that footage, and first-time filmmakers Ben Klein and Violet Columbus and cinematographer Connor Smith were present to capture the journey. Below, Smith discusses finding the shooting style right for the film and what it’s like to capture another filmmaker with his camera. Filmmaker: How and why did you wind up being the cinematographer of […]
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“Getting the Opportunity to Work on a Feature Brought Me Back From the Dead” | Mimi Cave, FRESH
The last two years have prompted much contemplation and reconsideration of the reasons why we make our films as well as the ways in which we make them. What aspect of your filmmaking—whether in your creative process, the way you finance your films, your production methodology or the way you relate to your audience—did you have to reinvent in order to make and complete the film you are bringing to the festival this year? In the last two years so much has changed, yet the basis of why we make films is the same. Our need to connect through our […]
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“Do Younger Israelis Care at All About This History?”: Alon Schwarz on His Sundance-Debuting Doc Tantura
Alon Schwarz’s Tantura takes its title from a particular Palestinian village that was depopulated – by any means necessary, including through a still-contested massacre of civilians – during Israel’s 1948 War of Independence (aka “Al Nakba,” the Catastrophe, if you hail from the occupied side). Yet the doc is less a history lesson than a deep-dive investigation into the stories a nation chooses to tell about itself. Schwarz’s (Aida’s Secrets) own story began when he got access to over 100 hours of shockingly candid audiotaped interviews that the (government and academia-silenced) researcher Teddy Katz conducted decades ago with former soldiers […]
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The 2022 Sundance Question: What Aspect of Your Filmmaking Did You Have to Reinvent?
Each year Filmmaker asks all the incoming feature directors at Sundance one question. (To see past years’ questions and responses, click here.) This year’s question: The last two years have prompted much contemplation and reconsideration of the reasons why we make our films as well as the ways in which we make them. What aspect of your filmmaking—whether in your creative process, the way you finance your films, your production methodology or the way you relate to your audience—did you have to reinvent in order to make and complete the film you are bringing to the festival this year? “Jumping […]
