Sundance Responses
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“A Section of the LA River Which Is Often Overlooked” | Jack Begert, Little Death
Films are made of and from places: the locations they are filmed in, the settings they are meant to evoke, the geographies where they are imagined and worked on. What place tells its own story about your film, whether a particularly challenging location that required production ingenuity or a map reference that inspired you personally, politically or creatively? I have spent the last decade shooting all over Los Angeles, and wanted to use my first film as an opportunity to show different sides of the city—ones that don’t always get the spotlight in movies. In particular, we had a very important […]
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“We Shot in Wildly Different Landscapes” | Sam and Andy Zuchero, Love Me
Films are made of and from places: the locations they are filmed in, the settings they are meant to evoke, the geographies where they are imagined and worked on. What place tells its own story about your film, whether a particularly challenging location that required production ingenuity or a map reference that inspired you personally, politically or creatively? Love Me takes place over Earth’s 10 billion year life, from its birth to its death when the sun becomes a red giant and consumes our solar system. From the beginning, we knew that we couldn’t rely on just VFX to show these […]
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“People Who Have Been Relegated to the Background Finally Stepping Forward” | Kobi Libii, The American Society of Magical Negroes
Films are made of and from places: the locations they are filmed in, the settings they are meant to evoke, the geographies where they are imagined and worked on. What place tells its own story about your film, whether a particularly challenging location that required production ingenuity or a map reference that inspired you personally, politically or creatively? Ninety percent of this film was shot in Downtown LA, specifically the Arts District. I love that part of town and think it’s singular and vibrant and beautiful. I also don’t think it’s photographed as much as some of the more “iconic” […]
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“It Was All About Hanging On For Dear Life” | Ondi Timoner, Dig! XX
Films are made of and from places: the locations they are filmed in, the settings they are meant to evoke, the geographies where they are imagined and worked on. What place tells its own story about your film, whether a particularly challenging location that required production ingenuity or a map reference that inspired you personally, politically or creatively? The answer is The Road. It was made on the road. My brother David and I shot Dig! in a rumble tumble of different locations, be they vans, tour buses, different cities and countries from Europe to Tokyo, all sorts of venues […]
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“We Tried to Look Behind All These Fantasies and Projections” | Arun Bhattarai and Dorottya Zurbó, Agent of Happiness
Films are made of and from places: the locations they are filmed in, the settings they are meant to evoke, the geographies where they are imagined and worked on. What place tells its own story about your film, whether a particularly challenging location that required production ingenuity or a map reference that inspired you personally, politically or creatively? Our film, Agent of Happiness, is a road movie about a happiness agent who travels door to door to measure the happiness index of the society. It’s a physical journey through the meandering roads of the Bhutanese Himalayas where he meets people from […]
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“We Were Very Fortunate to Be Allowed to Shoot There” | Astrid Rondero & Fernanda Valadez, Sujo
Films are made of and from places: the locations they are filmed in, the settings they are meant to evoke, the geographies where they are imagined and worked on. What place tells its own story about your film, whether a particularly challenging location that required production ingenuity or a map reference that inspired you personally, politically or creatively? We think our most significant location was Nemesia’s house, the protagonist’s aunt. It’s the place where Sujo grows up, physically but also spiritually. We have scouted that area for years now: a rural community in the outskirts of Guanajuato, Mexico, Fernanda’s hometown. […]
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“Can Someone Who Uses a Wheelchair Access this Location?” | Amber Sealey, Out of My Mind
Films are made of and from places: the locations they are filmed in, the settings they are meant to evoke, the geographies where they are imagined and worked on. What place tells its own story about your film, whether a particularly challenging location that required production ingenuity or a map reference that inspired you personally, politically or creatively? There was a practical aspect to choosing our locations and sets for Out of My Mind that is not usually at the forefront of filmmakers’ minds: Can someone who uses a wheelchair access this location and every aspect of this location? Our […]
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“This Field Beneath the Field Kept Showing Up in My Dreams” | Jane Schoenbrun, I Saw the TV Glow
Films are made of and from places: the locations they are filmed in, the settings they are meant to evoke, the geographies where they are imagined and worked on. What place tells its own story about your film, whether a particularly challenging location that required production ingenuity or a map reference that inspired you personally, politically or creatively? Just past the far end zone of the high school football field in my hometown of Ardsley, NY there’s a short but steep fenced-off decline down a hill towards a second, smaller field: a baseball diamond with a big outfield of grass […]
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“Malia Will Now Always Be the Right Location for the Film” | Molly Manning Walker, How to Have Sex
Films are made of and from places: the locations they are filmed in, the settings they are meant to evoke, the geographies where they are imagined and worked on. What place tells its own story about your film, whether a particularly challenging location that required production ingenuity or a map reference that inspired you personally, politically or creatively? How to Have Sex is set in European party town. Teenagers from all over the UK flock to various Mediterranean towns. It’s funny that we recreate our culture somewhere hot. Pints and full English breakfasts. These towns are all fairly similar. They […]
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2024 Sundance Questionnaire: Editor Responses
Each year, Filmmaker sends all Sundance feature film or series editors a questionnaire to complete ahead of their film’s festival screening. We also send out a single question for feature directors to answer as well as questionnaires for cinematographers and first-time Sundance feature producers. Below, find links to individual editor responses, which will be updated daily during the festival. “Anyone That Watched the Early Cuts Had the Same Reaction”: Editors Dashya Broadway and Jon Higgins on Your Monster “I Approached Each Edit as I Would an Onion”: Editor Julian Ulrichs on Kneecap “We Realized During the Edit That There Were Several Options […]
