Sundance Responses
-
“The Natural World and Our Interconnectedness”: Director Sally Aitken | Playing With Sharks
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? Playing With Sharks is the story of a one-of-a-kind, passionate woman, Valerie Taylor, and her remarkable life’s relationship with the ocean’s most notorious predators, sharks. As both a contemporary and archival film, with gob-smacking real scenes of this fearless and glamorous, maverick conservationist, the events of 2020 had the potential to completely derail our production—but—fortunately, probably, ended up defining the movie, certainly, defining the way I feel now in thinking about the natural world […]
-
“People Will Watch Films Differently Today Than They Did a Year Ago”: Director Ronny Trocker | Human Factors
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? Even though many other things happened in 2020, the pandemic was without doubt the most significant event. However, at the moment it is difficult for me to say if it has changed my view on the film in some way. Like most films coming out now, it was written and shot before the pandemic. The post-production was affected by the restrictions, causing some notable delays, but I don’t think it changed the result of […]
-
“Art Is Never Finished, Only Abandoned”: Director Mariem Pérez Riera | Rita Moreno: Just a Girl Who Decided Go For It
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 finished the final cut of the documentary on Friday, March 13th, 2020. That was the deadline to lock the film in order to move on to color correction and sound mix. That night, I had watched the film one last time before leaving the editing room and as I was driving home, an enormous sadness seized me. At first I couldn’t explain what it was, but then I realized I wasn’t satisfied with […]
-
“It Was as if the Film Had Given Us Permission to Connect”: Director Christopher Makoto Yogi | I Was a Simple Man
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 Was a Simple Man is a film that is inspired by my personal experiences with death in the family, and the making of the film was a way for me to confront and process these experiences. But one of the most unanticipated aspects of developing our film was that whenever someone would read the script or listen to me speak about the film, folks would immediately tell me a story about someone dear […]
-
“It’s Reflecting the Times but Arriving Warped”: Director Dash Shaw | Cryptozoo
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? Animation takes a long time. Cryptozoo was written and storyboarded when Obama was president. The first voice recordings were done in the early months of the Trump presidency. The final pick-up voice recordings were recorded remotely due to the pandemic. Now it premieres under Biden. During all of those years, we worked on this every day. The plan never changed, but of course everything (from painting a background, or recording a voice) happens in […]
-
“I Became More Interested Than Ever in Trying to Understand My Daughter’s Story”: Director Peter Nicks | Homeroom
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 filmmaker often begins with a vision: maybe the inspiration of a song, a book, or a hot social issue. Or perhaps it is simply an extraordinary person whose story must be told. This process begins with inspiration and often yields to obsession as we go deeper into turning our inspiration into reality. And along this path it is not uncommon to meet up with that sly artist rigidity, a doppelgänger of our most […]
-
The Sundance Question: “How Did Events of 2020 Change Your Film?”
Each year Filmmaker asks all the incoming feature directors at Sundance one question. (To see past years’ questions and responses, click here.) This year’s question: “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 Scope of the Story Also Expanded”: Director Nanfu Wang | In the Same Breath “I Feel Like in 2020 I Was Lucky”: Director Miriam Guttmann | Seeds of Deceit “Whether It’s a Refugee Crisis or a Pandemic, We Are All in This Together”: Director […]
-
“The Scope of the Story Also Expanded”: Director Nanfu Wang | In the Same Breath
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? In the Same Breath is a product of 2020. The project was developed in response to events from the very beginning of the year in Wuhan, and as the year unfolded and the impact of the virus was felt just about everywhere on Earth, the scope of the story also expanded. Every new day, in my personal life as well as in the making of this film, I was forced to adapt to the […]
-
“I Feel Like in 2020 I Was Lucky”: Director Miriam Guttmann | Seeds of Deceit
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? My middle name is Mazal, which means “luck” in Hebrew. My grandmother used to say “one needs a bit of Mazal.” I feel like in 2020 I was lucky. I was able to finish the project I had been dreaming about for 2.5 years. We worked around the challenges, we feared we might fail, but we flied! (Check back daily during the festival — new answers are uploaded on the day of each film’s […]
-
“Whether It’s a Refugee Crisis or a Pandemic, We Are All in This Together”: Director Jonah Poher Rasmussen | Flee
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 was in Oslo, Norway finalizing Flee, when the Danish Prime Minister went on TV calling for a national lockdown because of the COVID-19 pandemic. I made it home to Copenhagen just before the borders closed and from there it felt like everything went into slow motion. The very final steps of finishing the film took as long as the rest of the entire production, and as all the cinemas around me had closed […]
