Sundance Features
-
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 […]
-
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 […]
-
21 Films I’m Anticipating at the 2014 Sundance Film Festival
These lists get harder and harder. You know more filmmakers, you hear more buzz and honing in on pre-festival favorites with any kind of concision becomes more an act of exclusion than a celebration of possibility. (In other words, this list’s length is more determined by the pokiness of Delta’s on-flight wi-fi and the festival opening-day deadline than my enthusiasms for the selections of the 2014 Sundance Film Festival.) Below are 21 festival picks, beginning with a favorite project I’ve been wanting to see realized for years. As you’ll note, I’ve paid particular attention to folks from our 25 New […]
-
Producing Shorts into Features: Three Producers and Their Films at Sundance
Curious about the physical process of turning a short into a feature, Filmmaker magazine interviewed the producers of three separate films about their experiences. Each film was originally a short that previously premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and is now a feature making its World Premiere in the U.S. Dramatic Competition section. Last year director Damien Chazelle’s short won the Jury Prize at Sundance. This year, his feature of the same name, Whiplash, is the festival’s Opening Night feature. Transformed from an intense 15-minute short into a 105-minute full-length film, Whiplash maintained the same producing team but had to […]
-
Five Questions with I Am Not a Hipster Director Destin Daniel Cretton
A dubious term to be sure, it seems that one of the pre-reqs for hipster certification is denying that you actually are one. Based on this criterion, Brook, the main character in Destin Daniel Cretton’s feature debut, definitely qualifies. But I Am Not a Hipster is not so much concerned with labels as it is with crafting an intimate, small-scale character portrait. Adrift in San Diego’s music scene, Brook’s lackadaisical lifestyle is interrupted when his family visits with the intention of spreading his late mother’s ashes. Cretton, who made a splash at Sundance in 2009 with his Grand Jury Prize […]
-
Five Questions with The Surrogate Director Ben Lewin
Strictly speaking figures, The Surrogate has been the big Sundance winner thus far. Scooped up by Fox Searchlight for a massive $6 million, the film is already reportedly being groomed for next year’s Oscar race. The first narrative feature from filmmaker Ben Lewin since 1994’s Paperback Romance, The Surrogate tells the true story of journalist Mark O’Brien, a polio stricken man who, after living most of his life in an iron lung, decides to try to lose his virginity. Starring John Hawkes as O’Brien, The Surrogate received a standing ovation at it’s premiere, and it’s already being praised by critics […]
-
Five Questions with Goats Director Christopher Neil
Goats might be Chrisopher Neil’s first feature as director, but he’s worked for years as an acting coach and rehearsal adviser on projects as wide ranging as Adaptation, The Virgin Suicides, and Star Wars: Episode 3 – Revenge of the Sith. And it’s clear that Neil has accrued quite a stellar reputation among actors, as evidenced by Goats’ impressive ensemble (which includes David Duchovny, Vera Farmiga, and relative newcomer Graham Phillips.) Based on the quirky debut novel by Mark Jude Proirier (who also wrote the film’s screenplay), Goats is an odd but bittersweet coming of age story. Filmmaker: How did […]
-
Five Questions with Shut Up And Play the Hits Directors Dylan Southern and Will Lovelace
Over LCD Soundsystem’s ten-year career, the band grew from early blog darlings to lauded indie stalwarts. After telegraphing the group’s demise years in advance, band-leader James Murphy officially disbanded LCD last April with a star-studded, marathon-length performance at Madison Square Garden. Now, less than a year later, Dylan Southern and Will Lovelace present Shut Up and Play the Hits, a documentary that follows Murphy and his band-mates in the run-up to and aftermath of their now-legendary final performance. If the film’s trailer is any indication, Shut up and Play the Hits will serve as a great encapsulation of the excitement, […]
-
Five Questions with Valley of Saints Director Musa Syeed and Producer Nicholas Bruckman
Musa Syeed’s Valley of Saints is a film warmly awash in setting and culture. Filmed in Kashmir, within the aquatic trading community of Dal Lake, Valley follows Gulzar, a young ferry driver who dreams of moving out of Kashmir, until the arrival of a beautiful American scientist begins to complicate things. Pairing with producer Nicholas Bruckman, Syeed’s first narrative effort patiently probes into a fascinating community (and part of the world) rarely seen on the big screen. Filmmaker: What inspired you to make a film set in Kashmir? Syeed: Both my parents were born in Kashmir. In the 1960s, my […]
-
Five Questions with The Imposter Director Bart Layton
More and more often different mediums and genres of filmmaking are being meshed together and Bart Layton’s newest documentary The Imposter is no different. The film’s official synopsis declares, “Documentary meets Film Noir in this astonishing true story which has all the twists and turns of a great thriller.” But this is not just a hoax to get people into the theatre. Based on an extremely bizarre story of a young man who infiltrates a family by posing as their missing son, the film follows an intricate plot of testimonies that aim to recreate the story’s noir-ish tone. Just as […]
