Sundance Responses
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“AN OVERSIMPLICATION OF HER BEAUTY” | writer-director, Terence Nance
[PREMIERE SCREENING: Saturday, January 21 9:00 pm –Egyptian Theatre, Park City] I come from a studio art background and consider myself an artist who made a film. I make music, murals and performances as well, so I hesitate to call myself a filmmaker. That said, I’ve been thinking lately that outside of the “burden of branding,” it doesn’t really matter what I call myself; my work will name me at the end of the day, and I’m interested to hear what that name will be after a few years of making work. So I guess if I am indeed named […]
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“THE COMEDY” | co-writer-director, Rick Alverson
[PREMIERE SCREENING: Saturday, January 21, 8:30 pm –Library Center Theater] I’ve always been suspicious of movies and visual media and my interest in film developed out of that suspicion. In the world that I knew as a child, in an era preceding the Internet, many of us were reared in part, at least in terms of our social behavior, by television. Much of what we understood of the adult world we learned through osmosis, through the colors and exoticism of television, through the play of bodies and the exchange of words and gestures in that very artificial space. We were […]
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“YOUNG AND WILD” | writer-director Marialy Rivas
[PREMIERE SCREENING: Saturday, January 21, 12:15 pm –Prospector Square Theatre, Park City] I didn’t have an option, when I was 7 years old I felt “the calling”, I knew since then what I wanted to do with my life: become a filmmaker. Since then, it has been pretty much like being passionately in love with somebody, why do we fall in love with some particular person and not the next? It doesn’t really have a rational explanation -at least not for me- you are just in love. During the years, I have tried to give it a sense, so here […]
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“COMPLIANCE” | writer-director, Craig Zobel
[PREMIERE SCREENING: Saturday, January 21, 11:30 pm –Library Center Theatre, Park City] My movie is closely based on a true event, though I actually stumbled upon the story years after it was a news item. (Is “Ripped from old headlines!” a saying?) To delve too much into the events might dampen some of the film’s enjoyment, but in brief, it involves some people who are essentially talked into holding a person against her will, naked, in the stockroom of a fast food restaurant for hours. I can’t say when I first discovered this story that I had a “Eureka!” moment, […]
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“ARBITRAGE” | director, Nicholas Jarecki
[PREMIERE SCREENING: Saturday, January 21 6:30 pm –Eccles Theatre, Park City] I have no talent for painting or sculpting, really anything that requires dexterity or grace; I leave that to my actors and my crew. I’m constantly surprised at how precisely they can play an action, move a camera, or make a picture edit, all while bringing life to it so that it’s fresh on every take. That’s what’s great about being a film director: you get to play with brilliant others, then steal the credit for all their work. To me that sounded easier than figuring out how to […]
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“BLACK ROCK” | director, Katie Aselton
[PREMIERE SCREENING: Saturday, January 21 11:45 pm –Library Center Theatre, Park City] For me, there is nothing like the experience of walking into a theater and escaping with a movie for couple of hours. The smell of popcorn, your feet sticking to the floor, the shared experience with those around you… that can’t be duplicated at home on your t.v., your computer, your iPad, whatever. Going to a movie theater is truly special. To be a part of that experience and be able take people on that two hour journey is exciting. It’s an honor for me to do so.
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“4 SUNS” | writer-director, Bohdan Sláma
[PREMIERE SCREENING: Saturday, January 21 6:00 pm –Egyptian Theatre, Park City] The best thing in the world is singing. But for someone who can’t sing, like me, film is the perfect form of expression.
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“THE FIRST TIME” | director, Jonathan Kasdan
[PREMIERE SCREENING: Saturday, January 21 12:15 pm –Eccles Theatre, Park City] I have no rhythm. I was twelve years old. I was taking guitar lessons. In the middle of my fifth lesson my teacher just stopped, started putting away his guitar. I was like, “What are you doing? We still got 40 minutes.” He said, “Kid, you have no rhythm. Whatsoever. You can’t even clap to the beat. You will never be a musician. Ever.” So the truth is, if I had my druthers, I would be a rock star today – and the medium for my story would be […]
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“WHERE DO WE GO NOW?” | director, Nadine Labaki’a
[PREMIERE SCREENING: Saturday, January 21 2:45 pm –Prospector Square Theatre, Park City] Growing up in Lebanon as a little girl, my childhood was synchronized between home and shelter. Living in a country adorned in politics, secular perturbations, and injustice, our lives evolved around continuous wars. Most of our days were spent in confinement behind sacks of sand. There were times when it was too dangerous to even leave our homes. We couldn’t go to school, we couldn’t go outside to play, and we couldn’t practice what normal childhood was. Early on, I started developing a unique relationship with the TV […]
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Detropia | Directors/Producers Rachel Grady and Heidi Ewing
[PREMIERE SCREENING: Saturday, January 21, Noon –Temple Theatre, Park City] Rachel Grady: I’m a documentary filmmaker because it’s basically like going to an amazing graduate school with each new project. And getting paid to do it. It gives you an excuse to learn, explore, hypothesize, get it wrong, change your mind, discover new ideas and then share your results with complete strangers. That’s extremely fun to me. Heidi Ewing: In our view, there is no other medium that is better suited for Detroit than the medium of documentary film. The slew of popular picture books about the city and its […]
