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 obvious unforeseen obstacle, crisis, and unpredictable event we had to respond to in making Willie Nelson & Family was the pandemic. But the impact on the process was surprising. As most people know (if they don’t, they will after seeing the five-part documentary film), Willie Nelson lives on the road. He always has to be on the bus, on […]
Dozens of Indigenous women and girls from the Crow and Northern Cheyenne Nations have gone missing over the past decade in Montana’s Big Horn County and its surrounding areas. These cases often go cold, leaving grieving families without any closure—especially when met with the ambivalence of local police. Murder in Big Horn, a documentary from directors Razelle Benally and Matthew Galkin, confronts the epidemic of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women (MMIW) by interviewing loved ones in mourning, Native journalists and law enforcement. DP Jeff Hutchens talks about shooting this project with the utmost sensitivity while also capturing the “palette of […]
Heather (Bobbi Salvör Menuez), a hockey player with a troubled home life, becomes instantly drawn to figure skater Jonny (Amandla Stenberg) who’s just rolled into town. Despite being held captive in her own house during each full moon, Heather yearns to escape and have Jonny by her side. Teeming with queer sensuality and lust-fueled lycanthropy, director Jacqueline Castel’s My Animal injects originality into a classic monster mythology. DP Bryn McCashin tells Filmmaker about lensing the film, which entailed frigid night shoots in Northern Ontario, Canada. See all responses to our annual Sundance cinematographer interviews here. Filmmaker: How and why did […]
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? My Animal was not an easy shoot—we shot nights in the dead of winter in an isolated community in Northern Ontario. While there were a lot of challenges, the biggest and most obvious crisis we faced as a team was a COVID shutdown that resulted in a two week suspension of the shoot. This was what I had feared the […]
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 way Fremont went into production was influenced by a very sad event. Marjaneh Moghimi, the lead producer of the film, unfortunately passed away a couple of weeks into pre-production, which was also about two weeks before we started shooting. This was a film we had worked on together for a few years. Once we knew about her condition, the […]
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? Unpredictable events and obstacles were constant factors during the development of La Pecera (The Fishbowl). In 2017, Puerto Rico was embattled by a category 4 hurricane that caused catastrophic damage across the island and impacted the priorities of many people involved in our production. Then in 2020, a rare series of earthquakes shook the island. These two events led to […]
In La Pecera, the feature debut from writer-director Glorimar Marrero Sánchez, Noelia (Isel Rodríguez) decides to relocate to the Puerto Rican island of Vieques where she grew up after her cancer returns. Reunited with her mother and the island’s natural beauty (and traumatic past of being a U.S. Army testing ground), Noelia refuses treatment and reflects on the root of her long-term illness. DP PJ López discusses lensing the film, which included a difficult night shoot that captured bioluminescence on camera. See all responses to our annual Sundance cinematographer interviews here. Filmmaker: How and why did you wind up being […]
When Noelia’s (Isel Rodríguez) cancer returns, she eschews traditional treatments and retreats to the Puerto Rican island of Vieques where she spent her childhood. Suffering severe contamination from its use as a U.S. Army testing site (and with Hurricane Irma inching closer), Noelia grapples with the painful legacy that lingers over Vieques in La Pecera, writer-director Glorimar Marrero Sánchez’s feature debut. Editor Clara Martínez Malagelada talks about cutting La Pecera, coming on board after the film’s original editor left the project. See all responses to our annual Sundance editor interviews here. Filmmaker: How and why did you wind up being […]
In Jake Van Wagoner’s Aliens Abducted My Parents and Now I Feel Kinda Left Out, new kid in town Itsy (Emma Tremblay) befriends her neighbor Calvin (Jacob Buster) who harbors a strange suspicion. Obsessed with the cosmos, he constantly gazes at the stars and hopes that an alien spaceship that he believes abducted his parents will return to beam him up as well. Editor Whitney Houser discusses cutting the film, which premiered in Sundance’s Kids section. See all responses to our annual Sundance editor interviews here. Filmmaker: How and why did you wind up being the editor of your film? […]