Sundance Responses
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“We Broke a Cardinal Rule of Documentary Filmmaking” | Jesse Moss and Amanda McBaine, Middletown
Films are made over many days, but some days are more memorable, and important, than others. Imagine yourself in ten years looking back on this production. What day from your film’s development, production or post do you think you’ll view as the most significant and why? The one day that stands out, and will forever, from the production of our film Middletown, is the summer day when we travelled upstate to meet our subject Fred Isseks, for the first time, at his home in Middletown, New York. Fred is a former high school teacher. Our documentary is about a ground-breaking […]
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“We Did Not Lose Our Love for Our City” | Timeea Mohamed Ahmed & Rawia Alhag, Khartoum
Films are made over many days, but some days are more memorable, and important, than others. Imagine yourself in ten years looking back on this production. What day from your film’s development, production or post do you think you’ll view as the most significant and why? Timeea Mohamed Ahmed: I’ll never forget the day I shot a green screen reconstruction with Jawad, the “Rasta” Sufi biker, my subject, from a moment of his experience in the war. We were recreating the moment he learned his close friend had been killed. We thought we were prepared—both of us—but when the camera […]
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“This Shoot Collapsed That Separation Completely” | Reid Davenport, Life After
Films are made over many days, but some days are more memorable, and important, than others. Imagine yourself in ten years looking back on this production. What day from your film’s development, production or post do you think you’ll view as the most significant and why? For me, the most significant day in the course of making this film was the very last day of production. We had planned a simple pick-up shoot to grab some b-roll of me doing research in my apartment in my role as filmmaker-investigator. Almost at the last minute, I decided I wanted to film […]
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“The Enormity of This Historical Moment wasn’t Lost on Me” | Sam Feder, Heightened Scrutiny
Films are made over many days, but some days are more memorable, and important, than others. Imagine yourself in ten years looking back on this production. What day from your film’s development, production or post do you think you’ll view as the most significant and why? On December 4, 2024, with three cameras our crew arrived outside the Supreme Court to film before, during, and after the case United States v. Skrmetti while attorney Chase Strangio was arguing inside. Starting at 9:00 AM, a rally of queer and trans children, adults and allies huddled together in the cold, giving speeches, […]
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“It Was All There, in One Afternoon” | Rachel Fleit, Sugar Babies
Films are made over many days, but some days are more memorable, and important, than others. Imagine yourself in ten years looking back on this production. What day from your film’s development, production or post do you think you’ll view as the most significant and why? I could tell Autumn, the main subject of the film, was a little nervous when we met on the first day of filming. It was understandable—we’d only met through a Zoom call, and now we were there, cameras in hand. But by the second day, we found our rhythm. Autumn invited us to her […]
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“I Couldn’t Shake the Crew’s Faces” | Mark Anthony Green, Opus
Films are made over many days, but some days are more memorable, and important, than others. Imagine yourself in ten years looking back on this production. What day from your film’s development, production or post do you think you’ll view as the most significant and why? I had this idea for a shot… I’ll spare you the details, but it was cool and complicated. Well, possibly cool. But DEFINITELY complicated. Plus it required like 10 people to move furniture and props mid-shot. We rehearsed the shot days before. My AD—who was my protector and guardian angel during production—saved it for […]
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“Actualize a Dream We’ve Had Since Our Early Twenties” | Pasqual Guttierez and Ben Mullinkosson, Serious People
Films are made over many days, but some days are more memorable, and important, than others. Imagine yourself in ten years looking back on this production. What day from your film’s development, production or post do you think you’ll view as the most significant and why? Pasqual Guttierez: To me, the most memorable aspect of this film was not one specific scene or shoot day. It was the collective experience as a whole. The film features my wife, my best friends and myself, and we play versions of ourselves. While the film was always set to be a comedy, I […]
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“A Phenomenal Act That Was Truly Unprecedented” | Sara Khaki and Mohammadreza Eyni, Cutting Through Rocks
Films are made over many days, but some days are more memorable, and important, than others. Imagine yourself in ten years looking back on this production. What day from your film’s development, production or post do you think you’ll view as the most significant and why? The most significant day that we will always remember from the film is when our protagonist, Sara, who was newly elected as a councilwoman in her Iranian village, was celebrating the fact that she was able to create a setting where women in the community could share ownership of their homes with their husbands. […]
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“I Got to Have a Korean Wedding” | Andrew Ahn, The Wedding Banquet
Films are made over many days, but some days are more memorable, and important, than others. Imagine yourself in ten years looking back on this production. What day from your film’s development, production or post do you think you’ll view as the most significant and why? I will always remember the morning of our first day filming the Korean wedding sequence of our movie. My parents were on set, stationed at video village with our producers. It was Youn Yuh-jung’s birthday (we surprised her with a cake at lunch). The set dec team and I fussed over the wedding altar, trying […]
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“I Looked Over and She Was Weeping” | Rachael Abigail Holder, Love, Brooklyn
Films are made over many days, but some days are more memorable, and important, than others. Imagine yourself in ten years looking back on this production. What day from your film’s development, production or post do you think you’ll view as the most significant and why? Ten years from now, the memory that will come to mind when I think of the making of Love, Brooklyn is in post production. I moved to LA to pursue this career back in 2011. I knew no one but my cousin Anakela who is not in the business. She lived in a beautiful […]
