Oscar nominee and Sundance alum Maite Alberdi (with 2020’s surprisingly lighthearted The Mole Agent, which followed an endearing octogenarian with no private investigative skills on an undercover mission to expose retirement home elder abuse) returned to Park City this year with a much different follow-up. While The Eternal Memory likewise deals with both the joys and indignities of aging, Alberdi trains her lens this time on a dynamic duo who’ve been together for a quarter century, much of it in the media spotlight. Paulina Urrutia was (and still is) an actor and former State Minister, while Augusto Góngora was one of Chile’s most […]

Like most conflicts heavily documentedby Western media, the ongoing Syrian civil war is one in which nearly all nuance has been left on the cutting room floor. Fortunately, Lina’s 5 Seasons of Revolution, a revelatory Sundance debut from a Damascus video journalist who (for safety reasons) goes simply by her first name, shatters the trend. Currently based in Europe, Lina spent 2011-2015 filming her country’s path from high revolutionary hopes to ultimately shattered dreams. But even more importantly, she did so in the most personal and truthful way, by turning the camera on herself and four of her closest friends—all educated, […]

Every production faces unexpected obstructions that require creative solutions and conceptual rethinking. What was an unforeseen obstacle, crisis, or simply unpredictable event you had to respond to, and how did this event impact or cause you to rethink your film? On March 11, 2020, we shot and completed our first day of principal photography of Young. Wild. Free. On March 12…well, you know what happened that day. Our entire industry and the rest of the world shut down because of COVID. I, along with the rest of the producers who had worked so hard to get to the point of […]

Every production faces unexpected obstructions that require creative solutions and conceptual rethinking. What was an unforeseen obstacle, crisis, or simply unpredictable event you had to respond to, and how did this event impact or cause you to rethink your film? Our film has a lot of rare, never-before-seen propaganda footage of apartheid that we were given, kind of in secret, by people who had access to it and wanted to share it with “the right people.” The footage itself was emotionally very challenging, as this was hours of footage of the planning and execution of apartheid by its masterminds. What […]

Every production faces unexpected obstructions that require creative solutions and conceptual rethinking. What was an unforeseen obstacle, crisis, or simply unpredictable event you had to respond to, and how did this event impact or cause you to rethink your film? The most unexpected—or the most difficult—part of the film was the uncertainty of when to finish filming it. Of course, it’s always very difficult to end the recording of a documentary. But this was a film that when we started, we didn’t know when it would be [finished], and that was the main question. When the day came, and Augusto […]

Every production faces unexpected obstructions that require creative solutions and conceptual rethinking. What was an unforeseen obstacle, crisis, or simply unpredictable event you had to respond to, and how did this event impact or cause you to rethink your film? The biggest challenge we faced came at the very beginning of our shoot. The cast and crew had all arrived at the camp, and we were smack in the middle of rehearsals, building sets, finalizing costumes, etc. Then our equipment partner pulled out of the project with no explanation. So here we are, in a remote community in the Republic […]

Despite its recent formation during the fall of 2021, the Documentary Cinematographers Alliance has already put forth a comprehensive guideline of “best practices” DPs should advocate for and adhere to while working on any given nonfiction shoot. This document also serves as a rubric for directors and producers to measure the safety, sustainability and collaborative nature of their documentary project. The DCA also acts as a de facto community hub for DPs all around the country, with group chats and festival panels organized to connect these below-the-line workers—and, most importantly, provide a safe place for transparently sharing their wages, various […]

When family matriarch Cruz (Kiti Mánver) discovers porn during what began as an innocent Internet search, she is awakened to a passionate sensuality that she’s spent her entire life successfully repressing. Unsatisfied by her husband and consumed by newfound curiosity, she joins a women’s sex therapy group in order to better understand her body’s carnal needs. DP Fran Fernández-Pardo tells Filmmaker about shooting MAMACRUZ, the Spain-set film from Venezuelan director Patricia Ortega. See all responses to our annual Sundance cinematographer interviews here.  Filmmaker: How and why did you wind up being the cinematographer of your film? What  were the factors and […]

A routine Internet search turned pornographic discovery is what prompts Cruz (Kiti Mánver), a devoutly religious grandmother, to experience a latent sexual awakening. Though she’s initially stricken with a classic case of God-fearing shame, Cruz embarks on a path of sensual self-discovery via a local women’s sex therapy group in MAMACRUZ, Patricia Ortega’s latest film. Editor Fàtima de los Santos discusses how she got the audience to connect with an “unusual” protagonist, how she aided in changing the MAMACRUZ‘s narrative structure and the difficulty of working on a film without background music. See all responses to our annual Sundance editor […]

Every production faces unexpected obstructions that require creative solutions and conceptual rethinking. What was an unforeseen obstacle, crisis, or simply unpredictable event you had to respond to, and how did this event impact or cause you to rethink your film? The finale of our film takes place in a cemetery. Our plan was to shoot on location at a cemetery that was 15 minutes away from our primary mansion location (where the bulk of our film was shot). Days before the finale was to be filmed, we lost the cemetery location. It was run by the city and I think […]