Sundance Responses
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“My Film Family Was Atomized”: Director Jamila Wignot | Ailey
How did events of 2020—any of them—change your film, either in the way you approached it, produced it, post-produced it, or are now thinking about it? Ailey was made in fits and starts over a period of four years. We’d raise a sum of money to cover one portion of the process, spend the money, stop down, raise more money. Rinse repeat. Stopping down and starting is always tough. You lose momentum or you risk losing key collaborators. By 2019, we’d completed the bulk of production and we were trying to figure out whether to start up our edit when, […]
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“I Usually Avoid Celebrating Birthdays, But it Felt Important to Embrace This One”: Director Pacho Velez | Searchers
How did events of 2020—any of them—change your film, either in the way you approached it, produced it, post-produced it, or are now thinking about it? I imagine that many directors are writing about COVID or the BLM protests, and both of those events shaped Searchers, but I also experienced a more personal milestone—my fortieth birthday. I usually avoid celebrating birthdays, but it felt important to embrace this one. Then came the pandemic, and I spent the day like every other lockdown day, reading the news, listening to podcasts, and experimenting in the kitchen. Besides the symbolic weight of forty, […]
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“The Uncanny Similarities of a Town Dealing with a Fast-Spreading Curse”: Director Sean Ellis | Eight for Silver
How did events of 2020—any of them—change your film, either in the way you approached it, produced it, post-produced it, or are now thinking about it? It didn’t affect us at all except the uncanny similarities of a town dealing with a fast-spreading curse that forces them to stay in their homes and board all the windows shut in order to avoid any unwanted exposure to it (insert funny pandemic virus emoji being chased by a hypodermic needle and a werewolf here). (Check back daily during the festival — new answers are uploaded on the day of each film’s premiere. […]
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“Our Goal Was to Show Precisely His Changing Emotional States”: Editor Jarosław Kamiński on Prime Time
Jakub Piątek’s feature debut Prime Time is a thriller set in the deadly world of broadcast television. In 1999, a youth named Sebastian (Bartosz Bielenia) hijacks a TV studio, taking two hostages along the way. His reasons for doing this slowly unravel, including to himself. Editor Jarosław Kamiński walks us through the chaos of Prime Time’s editing and how best to portray a shifting protagonist’s emotional states. Filmmaker: How and why did you wind up being the editor of your film? What were the factors and attributes that led to your being hired for this job? Kamiński: Jakub Piątek, the director of Prime […]
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“I Had to Put My Own Interests Aside”: Editor Hogir Hirori on Sabaya
Hogir Hirori’s Sabaya tells the untold story of young survivors of Daesh sex trafficking. The documentary follows the actions of the Yazidi Home Center as they infiltrate the Al-Hol camp where several women and children were held against their will as slaves. As the editor of his own film (as well as the cinematographer), Hirori shares how he preserved the exigence of the Sabaya girls’ story while protecting their identities along the way. Filmmaker: How and why did you wind up being the editor of your film? What were the factors and attributes that led to your being hired for this […]
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“The Memory of Shooting Left a Scar”: DP Alex Camilleri on Luzzu
Alex Camilleri’s Luzzu touts itself as one of the first 100% Maltese films. Starring fisherman Camilleri met during his time in Malta, the movie features non-actors in what could be mistaken for a documentary on Malta’s fishing industry and the ecological concerns therein. Acting as the film’s editor, Camilleri walks us through his path to his first feature and the solitary experience of editing your own film. Filmmaker: How and why did you wind up being the editor of your film? What were the factors and attributes that led to your being hired for this job? Camilleri: I’m the writer and […]
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“My Collaborators Are Geniuses”: Editor Christopher Makoto Yogi on I Was a Simple Man
Set in the countryside of O’Ahu, Hawai’i, Director Christopher Makoto Yogi’s second feature film I Was a Simple Man is a surreal portrait of an elderly man’s final days. Told in chapters, the film follows Masao (Steve Iwamoto) as he’s visited by ghosts of his past, including his wife Grace (Constance Wu). Acting as the editor for his film, Yogi discusses staying true to his initial emotion in writing the film, as well as the value of brutal honesty in your team. Filmmaker: How and why did you wind up being the editor of your film? What were the factors and […]
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“It Was Supposed to be Confusing and Nonsensical”: Editor Lance Edmands on Cryptozoo
Dash Shaw’s adult animated feature Cryptozoo is a surreal romp into the world of cryptids, mythic creatures whose existence are debated. After stumbling on the titular Cryptozoo, an eclectic team of individuals set out to capture a dream-eating creature called a Baku. Editor Lance Edmands tells us of the unique struggle of balancing dream logic and streamlined editing that went into the development of Cryptozoo. Filmmaker: How and why did you wind up being the editor of your film? What were the factors and attributes that led to your being hired for this job? Edmands: I became friends with Dash Shaw […]
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“I Wanted to Romanticize a Bit and Be Nostalgic”: DP Eunsoo Cho on I Was a Simple Man
Set in the countryside of O’Ahu, Hawai’i, Director Christopher Makoto Yogi’s second feature film I Was a Simple Man is a surreal portrait of an elderly man’s final days. Told in chapters, the film follows Masao (Steve Iwamoto) as he’s visited by ghosts of his past, including his wife Grace (Constance Wu). DP Eunsoo Cho clues us in on how to capture the majesty of Hawai’i’s landscape, as well as how to portray a movie that eschews time and space. Filmmaker: How and why did you wind up being the cinematographer of your film? What were the factors and attributes that […]
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“Strange to Accomplish Your Dreams in Such Times”: Director Pascual Sisto | John and the Hole
How did events of 2020—any of them—change your film, either in the way you approached it, produced it, post-produced it, or are now thinking about it? The events of 2020 clearly had a major impact on all of us, from the pandemic to the racial unrest protests and all the way to one of the most divided US elections I have ever seen. If I have to filter it within the context of my film, it’s been quite an emotional rollercoaster with a very contrasting set of emotions. On one hand it was one of the darkest years in recent […]
