[PREMIERE SCREENING: Saturday, Jan. 17, 5:30 pm — Holiday Village Cinema III, Park City] As an artist I am at liberty to use everything as an influence to tell the story. I have made a three-minute wonder that was entirely filmed on a mobile phone. A series of three-minute films were commissioned by the British television stationChannel 4, and the films aired before the 7:00 p.m. news. I discovered early on how to be true to materials, and this awareness is reflected in my work. The Internet and YouTube are sources for information at our fingertips. I am, however, very […]
[PREMIERE SCREENING: Saturday, Jan. 17, 12:15 pm — Eccles Theatre, Park City] I didn’t respond to the changes in the way people are beginning to view cinema today. My story development process, which began back in 2003, was very much influenced by my own personal experience and my need for authenticity, especially in light of the political issues that rose to the forefront after 9/11 and the subsequent invasion of Iraq. From the start I knew that I wanted to craft a universal story and imbue it with humor so that it was accessible and relatable to a mass audience, […]
[PREMIERE SCREENING: Saturday, Jan. 17, 6:15 pm — Holiday Village Cinema IV, Park City] As a documentary filmmaker I am always telling a story, painting a picture of a reality that to some may be disturbing, to others offensive, but hopefully always eye-opening and informative. As such it will always be the content, the core and the soul of the film that is the driving force behind my creative process. The technological aspects and various formats are secondary. My latest doc The Queen and I is a simple story marked by extraordinary events. Whether my films are screened on iPods, […]
[PREMIERE SCREENING: Saturday, Jan. 17, 3:00 pm — Temple Theatre, Park City] Over the Hills and Far Away is a piece of true magical realism. A family struggles to cope with their son’s autism. In an act of inspiration and desperation combined, they travel to Mongolia and journey through the country on horseback in search of mysterious shamans who they believe can heal their son. It’s hard to believe that this is a documentary and not a dramatic narrative. It’s a filmmaker’s dream to be able to work with such material. So for me it wasn’t a question of finding […]
[PREMIERE SCREENING: Saturday, Jan. 17, 3:15 pm — Eccles Theatre, Park City] It probably would have been smarter if I had thought of kids on a subway watching my movie on their iPod — but then I would have come to the inevitable conclusion that they would never be moved by a drama where you can’t see an actors’ eyes and immediately gotten bored and turned it off. I wanted most of all to make a film similar to the character-driven dramas of the late ’70s that I loved so much as a kid. I can’t imagine those play well […]
[PREMIERE SCREENING: Saturday, Jan. 17, 6:15 pm — Eccles Theatre, Park City] I think “story” is the same as it has always been. Maybe the delivery devices change, maybe the venues evolve, maybe the audiences can absorb information faster and maybe they’re more sophisticated in their demands. But the basic craft and fundamentals of story remain unchanged. We certainly didn’t adjust the concept of the film for YouTube, or any small screen for that matter. Maybe on some subconscious level, the short episodic nature of “the days” grew from watching too many YouTube video bursts. But I can’t say for […]
[PREMIERE SCREENING: Saturday, Jan. 17, 2:15 pm — Racquet Club, Park City] I knew before we began making Barking Water that I wanted to try something different. The story is about an older couple who has had a very tumultuous relationship for the past 40 years. The woman, Irene, comes to the man, Frankie, on his deathbed and agrees to take him from the hospital and get him home. The problem, of course, is that Frankie is dying, so the film explores their relationship as she tries to get him home to see his daughter before he dies. Under the […]
[PREMIERE SCREENING: Friday, Jan. 16, 9:15 pm — Holiday Village Cinema IV, Park City] I think a lot about the small, small screens getting attention these days: iPods, cell phones, YouTube and MySpace. I spend an embarrassing amount of time thinking about the many strangers around the world, sitting in front of their Web cams, reaching out through their video yelps. I’m amazed by the matter-of-fact placement of their bodies in front of their computers, squarely there, waiting, presenting themselves, as if in front of a firing squad of voyeuristic strangers that may love them or shoot them. I obsess […]
[PREMIERE SCREENING: Friday, Jan. 16, 11:59 pm — Egyptian Theatre, Park City] The factor affecting cinema today most relevant to Grace is the prevalence of the filmmaking community’s faith in the shortcut. There’s an idea that we can make movies by checklist, that the way to write a successful script is by formula, and the way to make a successful film is by gimmickry or spectacle — that we just need to get in front of a camera and our computers will figure out the rest later. With Grace, we resisted that and put total faith in footwork. We just […]
[PREMIERE SCREENING: Friday, Jan. 16, 9:30 pm — Temple Theatre, Park City] With Reporter (and my other films), I have done my best to ignore and avoid the modern forces that encourage the shrinking (and consequent speeding up) of cinematic storytelling. I just don’t see the good in trying to satiate the racing human mind and its desperate and diminishing attention span. I try instead to suffuse my films with the qualities of life and art that I most cherish but seem increasingly endangered: subtlety, silence, stillness, tenderness, sincerity and a spaciousness that allows the viewer (hopefully) to experience some […]