Sundance Responses
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“Perhaps It’s a Miracle to Make Films” | Ricky D’Ambrose, The Cathedral
The last two years have prompted much contemplation and reconsideration of the reasons why we make our films as well as the ways in which we make them. What aspect of your filmmaking—whether in your creative process, the way you finance your films, your production methodology or the way you relate to your audience—did you have to reinvent in order to make and complete the film you are bringing to the festival this year? Filmmaking has always been, since my earliest childhood experiments with a camera, a circumscribed activity—typically thankless, fueled by begrudging favors and cut-rate fees, a marginal and […]
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“Real Healing Means Taking All Our Vulnerabilities and Weaknesses and Realizing They’re Also the Source of Our Humanity” | James Ponsoldt, Summering
The last two years have prompted much contemplation and reconsideration of the reasons why we make our films as well as the ways in which we make them. What aspect of your filmmaking—whether in your creative process, the way you finance your films, your production methodology or the way you relate to your audience—did you have to reinvent in order to make and complete the film you are bringing to the festival this year? I think my focus sharpened. And my absolute need to make the film—I had to make it. So much of Summering is about children and their […]
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“The Reason I Make Films Has Been Reinforced by the Pandemic” | Alejandro Loayza Grisi, Utama
The last two years have prompted much contemplation and reconsideration of the reasons why we make our films as well as the ways in which we make them. What aspect of your filmmaking—whether in your creative process, the way you finance your films, your production methodology or the way you relate to your audience—did you have to reinvent in order to make and complete the film you are bringing to the festival this year? Among all the ways people had to live during the pandemic, mine was undoubtedly one of the privileged ones, and I feel grateful for how lucky […]
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“In That Lack of Motion I Found a New Way of Working” | Sophie Hyde, Good Luck to You, Leo Grande
The last two years have prompted much contemplation and reconsideration of the reasons why we make our films as well as the ways in which we make them. What aspect of your filmmaking—whether in your creative process, the way you finance your films, your production methodology or the way you relate to your audience—did you have to reinvent in order to make and complete the film you are bringing to the festival this year? Being at home. I’ve always been based here on Kaurna land in Adelaide, South Australia. I have lived and worked from here my whole life. And […]
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“The Visual Language of Cinema was Connected to Both Sexual Assault and Employment Discrimination” | Nina Menkes, Brainwashed: Sex-Camera-Power
The last two years have prompted much contemplation and reconsideration of the reasons why we make our films as well as the ways in which we make them. What aspect of your filmmaking—whether in your creative process, the way you finance your films, your production methodology or the way you relate to your audience—did you have to reinvent in order to make and complete the film you are bringing to the festival this year? Those people who are familiar with my work know that my films have always come to me from the inside. Images appear before my mind’s eye […]
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“This Film Feels Like My Life’s Work Until Now” | Margaret Brown, Descendant
The last two years have prompted much contemplation and reconsideration of the reasons why we make our films as well as the ways in which we make them. What aspect of your filmmaking—whether in your creative process, the way you finance your films, your production methodology or the way you relate to your audience—did you have to reinvent in order to make and complete the film you are bringing to the festival this year? From the beginning, the story of the Africatown community did not feel like mine to try to tell. Fascinations with the Old South, and ghosts and […]
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“Find the Story Only You Can Tell and Make It on the Scale You Can Make It” | Lena Dunham, Sharp Stick
The last two years have prompted much contemplation and reconsideration of the reasons why we make our films as well as the ways in which we make them. What aspect of your filmmaking—whether in your creative process, the way you finance your films, your production methodology or the way you relate to your audience—did you have to reinvent in order to make and complete the film you are bringing to the festival this year? In March 2020, I was just a few weeks out from production on my first film in 10 years and my first studio film. When it […]
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“I Thought About How Crucial It Is to Try to Extract Meaning From the Visible and Invisible Historical Layers of a City” | Sierra Pettengill, RIOTSVILLE, USA
The last two years have prompted much contemplation and reconsideration of the reasons why we make our films as well as the ways in which we make them. What aspect of your filmmaking—whether in your creative process, the way you finance your films, your production methodology or the way you relate to your audience—did you have to reinvent in order to make and complete the film you are bringing to the festival this year? Across a year molded by the pandemic, RIOTSVILLE, USA.‘s writer Tobi Haslett, editor Nels Bangerter, and I did the entirety of our collaborative work remotely. While […]
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“So Much Is About Responding in the Moment and Not Living in an Idealized Reality” | Mariama Diallo, Master
The last two years have prompted much contemplation and reconsideration of the reasons why we make our films as well as the ways in which we make them. What aspect of your filmmaking—whether in your creative process, the way you finance your films, your production methodology or the way you relate to your audience—did you have to reinvent in order to make and complete the film you are bringing to the festival this year? I’ve become a lot more flexible. As a person, I tend to be rigid. I make plans and stick to them. As a director, I used […]
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“There’s Nothing Like Being in a Room Together and Bringing a Project to Life” | Ben Klein & Violet Columbus, The Exiles
The last two years have prompted much contemplation and reconsideration of the reasons why we make our films as well as the ways in which we make them. What aspect of your filmmaking—whether in your creative process, the way you finance your films, your production methodology or the way you relate to your audience—did you have to reinvent in order to make and complete the film you are bringing to the festival this year? We conceptualized this project in 2016 and started shooting in 2017. We shot on and off in various sprints until March of 2020. When the pandemic […]
