Sundance Responses
-
“PRICE CHECK” | director, Michael Walker
[PREMIERE SCREENING: Wednesday, January 25 6:30 pm –Eccles Theatre, Park City] When you are in the film business, someone, let’s say your dentist, will inevitably tell you a story that they think is a great idea for a movie. But they don’t know how to write a script, they just know how to clean teeth, so they want you to write it for them. If I had an idea that I thought would make a good novel, I would tell it to the poor guy who made the mistake of telling me that he was a novelist, because I don’t […]
-
“GYPSY DAVY” | director, Rachel Leah Jones
[PREMIERE SCREENING: Tuesday, January 24, 3:00 pm –Yarrow Hotel Theatre, Park City] I’m not an independent filmmaker; so-called independent filmmakers—all the more so documentarians—are some of the most dependent people around. We depend on funders and characters, on permission-givers and gatekeepers, on our own (free) will, determination and hubris—not to mention on the weather. A film teacher I once had gave me the one really truly valuable lesson in all my MFA: “You want to make a movie?” she asked us. Yes, we nodded. “Then go out and tell everyone you know that you’re going to make a movie.” Otherwise, she […]
-
“VALLEY OF SAINTS” | director, Musa Syeed
[PREMIERE SCREENING: Monday, January 23, 6:00 pm –Yarrow Hotel Theatre My parents aren’t big moviegoers. In their nearly 40 years in America, they can probably count the number of times they’ve gone to a theater on one hand. So, when I was 8 years old, I was surprised when they decided to take the family out to the movies for the first time. But while other kids got to see Aladdin or Home Alone 2, my parents sat us down to watch Spike Lee’s Malcolm X. In one of the many scenes that stuck with me, Malcolm is able to […]
-
“THE LAST ELVIS” | director, Armando Bo
[PREMIERE SCREENING: Monday, January 23, 8:30 pm –Prospector Square Theatre, Park City] I’m a third generation of filmmakers. When I was a boy I used to visit the sets of my father and grandfather. I worked as an extra, in production, in location scouting, in direction. I cannot say exactly why I do it. I only know that I enjoy it and I don’t see myself doing anything else. I believe that cinema, being a combination of most of the other arts, if it is well executed, it is without a doubt the art that goes deeper and mobilizes more […]
-
“THE IMPOSTER” | director, Bart Layton
[PREMIERE SCREENING: Monday, January 23, 5:30 pm –Prospector Square Theatre, Park City] As a documentary-maker you could wait a lifetime to happen upon a story as extraordinary as this one. From the moment I heard about it it sounded like something that could hardly have taken place in the real world – a Frenchman successfully steals the identity of a missing Texan boy and begins a new life within the boy’s family posing as their child? If it were a work of fiction it would seem far-fetched. And from this sparked the need to find out more – about the […]
-
“5 BROKEN CAMERAS” | directors, Emad Burnat & Guy Davidi
[PREMIERE SCREENING: Monday, January 23 9:00 pm –Yarrow Hotel Theatre, Park City] Co-Director Emad Burnat: I been filming during the last 7 years so I sow many films been done about the wall and the occupation the conflict in palestine but most of these films by film makers or directories who came from out said palestine they didn’t live the experience so after more than 5 years of documenting and filming the struggle in my village bilin and the villages around I decided to make film from point of me because I live here and make this from my feeling […]
-
“THE SURROGATE” | director, Ben Lewin
[PREMIERE SCREENING: Monday, January 23, 12:15 pm –Eccles Theatre, Park City] My mother insisted I pursue a career as a lawyer so, when the opportunity to study filmmaking arose and I could put some distance between us – physically and philosophically – I leapt at it. In later years, my mother joined an extras casting agency and became a recognized face, and ironically, we discovered we had a common passion. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1866249/
-
“SLAVERY BY ANOTHER NAME” | director, Sam Pollard
[PREMIERE SCREENING: Monday, January 23 Noon –Temple Theatre, Park City] I am a filmmaker because as a young man much of my time was spent watching a television show titled The Million Dollar Movie. It was broadcast on the local station WOR Channel 9. They happen to own the RKO Pictures film catalogue and they would show a film all week. The one film that I saw many times that had a tremendous impression on me was Orson Welles’ Citizen Kane. So watching that show every week and seeing that film and others such as Gunga Din, Fort Apache, His […]
-
“JOHN DIES AT THE END” | director, Don Coscarell
[PREMIERE SCREENING: Monday, January 23 Midnight –Egyptian Theatre, Park City] Us guys from the “horror ghetto” don’t usually get the “A” word attached to our work, but thank you. I’m flattered. When I was younger, I was dazzled by the work of the greats such as Fritz Lang, James Whale and Alfred Hitchcock. Their work taught me that film could be used to travel to the dark reaches of the subconscious. These were places that other mediums such as novels and paintings were just not as effective in my opinion. They have a hard time competing with a huge moving […]
-
“CAN” | writer-director,Ra?it Çelikezer
[PREMIERE SCREENING: Monday, January 23, 9:00 pm –Egyptian Theatre] People want evidence. They want the truth. If it is a dream they want, then they want a dream; if it is a nightmare, then they ask for a nightmare. If it is a face they want, they insist on seeing one. In my opinion; you can only achieve this up to a limited point via other forms of art. Film is real! Film is an evidence! It’s the most terrific, and at the same time the most beautiful, secret that could be offered to someone. Whilst telling the story of […]
