Sundance Responses
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“There Was a Lot of Important World Building To Be Done”: Editor Sam Levy on The Starling Girl
Jem Starling (Eliza Scanlen) is starting to feel out of place among her fundamentalist Christian community in The Starling Girl, writer-director Laurel Parmet’s debut feature. A 17-year-old girl living in rural Kentucky, the only person who Jem seems to relate to is youth pastor Owen (Lewis Pullman). However, as a married man, Owen’s “friendship” with Jem poses some serious problems—most of which will become the teenage girl’s burden to bear. Sam Levy, the film’s editor, tells Filmmaker about his industry origins and how he went about cutting Parmet’s relatively lean first feature. See all responses to our annual Sundance editor […]
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“Everyone on Set Cheered When We Did Playback”: DP Santiago Gonzalez on Shortcomings
Ben (Justin H. Min) is the manager of a local movie theater in Berkeley, California and an aspiring filmmaker. Despite living with his girlfriend Miko (Ally Maki), he spends most of his free time obsessing over unattainable blond bombshells, watching an endless stream Criterion DVDs and hanging out with his queer best friend Alice (Sherry Cola). When she decides to move to New York to pursue an internship, Ben experiences a personal crisis. Based on Adrian Tomine’s graphic novel of the same name (who also penned the film’s script), Shortcomings serves as actor Randall Park’s directorial debut. DP Santiago Gonzalez […]
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“Cows Are Terrible to Work With”: DP Ruben Impens on The Eight Mountains
The winner of the Jury Prize at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival, Felix van Groeningen and Charlotte Vandermeersch’s The Eight Mountains introduces us to Pietro (Lupo Barbiero) as a young boy visiting the small mountain village of Grana with his mother. During this trip, he meets Bruno (Cristiano Sassella), a herder who also happens to be 11-years-old. Many years later, Pietro’s father passes away, leaving him a long-neglected plot of land in Grana. Upon returning to the Alpine town, he reunites with Bruno, who aids him in rebuilding a house on his newly-inherited land, strengthening a friendship that had previously […]
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“I Accumulated Hours of Vital Yet Unpublished Footage”: Mstyslav Chernov on 20 Days in Mariupol
Mstyslav Chernov, a Ukrainian war correspondent and documentary filmmaker, entered the eastern port city of Mariupol on the eve of the Russian invasion. During the ensuing bombing and siege of the city, Chernov and a team of fellow Ukrainian journalists documented the horrors of the encroaching Russian military as they played out, hoping to survive long enough to share their footage with the world. Taking shelter in a hospital as Russian forces surrounded them, their collective fate became increasingly uncertain. Director and DP Mstyslav Chernov gives Filmmaker rapid-fire answers as to how the film (his debut feature) came to be—and how […]
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“A Love Letter to South London”: DP Olan Collardy on Rye Lane
Two recently-heartbroken 20-somethings spend a day kindling an unexpected romance in Rye Lane, Raine Allen-Miller’s debut feature with a script by Nathan Bryon and Tom Melia. As Dom (David Jonsson) and Yas (Vivian Oparah) galavant through South London’s Peckham neighborhood, they begin to mend lingering wounds from past relationships and inch closer to the prospect of falling in love again. Cinematographer Olan Collardy discusses his desire to subvert rom-com conventions, Rye Lane‘s “eclectic mix of influences” and the challenges of shooting the film’s boat rendezvous scene. See all responses to our annual Sundance cinematographer interviews here. Filmmaker: How and why did […]
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“We Had To Protect the Chemistry of the Cast Whilst Maintaining Social Distance”: DP Aaron McLisky on Talk to Me
Twin brothers (and YouTube filmmakers) Danny and Michael Philippou have crafted a ghost story for the influencer age with <i>Talk to Me</i>, their feature debut. When a mummified hand comes into the possession of a group of Australian teenagers, they record members of the group falling under a supernatural spell—channeling the dead when they clasp the hand and utter the requisite incantation: “talk to me.” However, if they allow the spirit to possess their body for more than 90 seconds, they effectively allow the entity to control their mind and body for eternity. With a crowd of teens recording the […]
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“Vodka Is Very Good for You” | Justin Chon, Jamojaya
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? COVID had a deep impact on every aspect of film making during the production of Jamojaya. We couldn’t even get dry ice on Oahu, Hawaii because there were supply chain issues. The biggest issue we had was securing locations. Fears of lawsuits and/or liability made building owners very hesitant. We needed a conference room with windows. Ultimately, we repurposed a […]
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“The Gorgeous Light of LA Sunsets Always Seemed To Come Too Soon”: DP Derek Howard on The Tuba Thieves
The very real news story of tuba thefts occurring at a series of Southern California schools is the inspiration for The Tuba Thieves, visual artist Alison O’Daniel’s feature debut. Yet the film isn’t really about these odd crimes, focusing instead on abstract notions of sound and what is means to “listen,” particularly as it pertains to the d/Deaf and Hard of Hearing experience, a theme that has fueled much of O’Daniel’s artistic output. The film’s cinematographer, Derek Howard, discusses how being an outsider to LA helped him capture the city more honestly, the benefits of his documentary background and the […]
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“We Lost Quite a Bit of Time Waiting Out Lightning Storms”: DP Brian Lannin on The Starling Girl
Seventeen-year-old Jem Starling can’t help but feel out of place in her fundamentalist Christian community. The only person who seems to understand her is Owen (Lewis Pullman), her church’s youth pastor. He’s more than eager to get close to Jem (despite being a married man), making for a complicated relationship that will inevitably bear harsher consequences for Jem than her older male counterpart. Brian Lannin, the film’s cinematographer, discusses his collaboration with director Laurel Parmet (who also happens to be his fiancé), the Kentucky shoot’s unpredictable weather and the film’s most difficult scene to shoot. See all responses to our […]
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“One of Our Sets Burned Down” | Chloe Domont, Fair Play
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? One of our sets burned down the week before we were supposed to film there. It was a bar location at a theater warehouse. We were like, “Okay, what now? We don’t have a set.” It was also tricky because we were filming at another part of that location already, and another company move would have killed us that day. […]
