Sundance Responses

“HOMEWORK” | writer-director, Gavin Wiesen

[PREMIERE SCREENING: Sunday, Jan. 23, 11:30 am — Library Center Theatre] The biggest surprise for me as I made this movie was how satisfying an experience it was working with my cast. I was very happy about who we had cast, but I didn’t know them beyond their previous work, and in some cases a meeting or two. As the production started coming together I was comfortable with how most aspects of the movie were shaping up: I knew what the challenges were going to be, and I had a firm grasp of what I was going for. The great […]

By Filmmaker Staff on Jan 23, 2011 Sundance Responses
“HELL AND BACK AGAIN” | director, Danfung Dennis

[PREMIERE SCREENING: Sunday, Jan. 23, 12:00 pm — Holiday Village Cinema IV] “Down, down, down!” yelled a U.S. Marine as bullets whizzed overhead and machine-gun fire rattled. We had been drawn into a coordinated ambush deep behind enemy lines. In these difficult situations, I use intense concentration to keep operating my camera system. As we ducked to the next mud berm for cover, I focused on keeping my movements smooth and my distance to the Marine ahead of me constant so I would have a steady tracking shot that would remain in focus. Pinned down by incoming fire, the insurgents triggered […]

By Filmmaker Staff on Jan 23, 2011 Sundance Responses
“HIGHER GROUND” | director, Vera Farmiga

[PREMIERE SCREENING: Sunday, Jan. 23, 12:00 pm — Eccles Theatre] There was a steady drumbeat of “gotchas” on the Higher Ground adventure. From my Clearblue Easy stick test reading “positive” at the same time as financing magically appeared, and then hurdling through preproduction before my baby bump emerged, to our first day when the catering guy stole our craft-service food. He just didn’t company move when we did. Or rather he did, but in the opposite direction. Higher Ground was infested with shockers. However, I’d have to say the biggest startle in all the process for me personally… was editing. […]

By Filmmaker Staff on Jan 23, 2011 Sundance Responses
“SHUT UP LITTLE MAN! AN AUDIO MISADVENTURE | writer-diretor, Matthew Bate

[PREMIERE SCREENING: Saturday, Jan. 22, 6:00 pm — Holiday Village Cinema IV] My discovery and subsequent first listen to the secretly recorded Shut Up Little Man! tapes left me gobsmacked (“surprise” seems too nice a word, although it is the theme of this discussion). Hearing Peter and Raymond’s vitriolic arguments, their foul-mouthed insults and absolute PURE hatred for one another takes you into a world most of us will never experience. It’s captivating, like traveling past a bad road accident. It presents a similar moral conundrum: Should I be fascinated? Should I look/listen? Should I be laughing at their banter? […]

By Filmmaker Staff on Jan 22, 2011 Sundance Responses
“THE CATECHISM CATACLYSM” | co-writer-director, Todd Rohal

[PREMIERE SCREENING: Saturday, Jan. 22, 11:59 pm — Egyptian Theatre] I shouldn’t have been surprised by this, but our cast and crew threw themselves into the idea about making a movie with Satanic elements and potentially dangerous situations — there was sheer joy in the faces of crew members when they were asked to go into a parking lot, draw a pentagram with gasoline and light it on fire. Throwing risk factors into the production only seemed to make everyone anticipate the days with more enthusiasm: “Let’s take all of your borrowed expensive electronic equipment, put it in a boat […]

By Filmmaker Staff on Jan 22, 2011 Sundance Responses
“THE REDEMPTION OF GENERAL BUTT NAKED” | directors, Eric Strauss & Daniele Anastasion

[PREMIERE SCREENING: Saturday, Jan. 22, 9:00 pm — Temple Theatre] Neither of us was prepared for how much we would genuinely like Joshua Milton Blahyi. The fact that a human being can be warm, funny and endearing, yet also responsible for the deaths of thousands, is something that’s very difficult to reconcile. For five years we documented Joshua’s life and struggles. During this time we got to know him on a very personal level, not just as filmmakers, but as human beings. Navigating this relationship between filmmaker and character, and trying to stay objective throughout, can be extremely tricky. There were days […]

By Filmmaker Staff on Jan 22, 2011 Sundance Responses
“THESE AMAZING SHADOWS” | directors, Kurt Norton & Paul Marian

[PREMIERE SCREENING: Saturday, Jan. 22, 3:00 pm — Redstone Cinemas 8] We were really surprised by the extraordinarily wacky and absurdist humor of early filmmakers. Our documentary, These Amazing Shadows, focuses on the National Film Registry, so naturally we immersed ourselves in the incredible diversity of the 550 films on the list (Hollywood classics, avant-garde, documentaries, animation, home movies, silents and more). What quickly jumped out was that Monty Python, Saturday Night Live and Seinfeld have nothing on early filmmakers. Let’s just take two silent films as examples (I know some of you are thinking, “Silent films are boring!” but come […]

By Filmmaker Staff on Jan 22, 2011 Sundance Responses
“VAMPIRE” | writer-director, Iwai Shunji

[PREMIERE SCREENING: Saturday, Jan. 22, 6:00 pm — Egyptian Theatre] A few years after I wrote the first draft of the script, I read a news story in the local Japanese newspaper where the police were investigating a series of cases where the suspect or murderer would find and stalk his victims through online suicide websites/chat rooms and message boards. I found this coincidence completely shocking and surprising — I could not believe the similarities between the film and what was really happening. It’s creepy…

By Filmmaker Staff on Jan 22, 2011 Sundance Responses
“BENAVIDES BORN” | co-writer-director, Amy Wendel

[PREMIERE SCREENING: Saturday, Jan. 22, 8:30 pm — Library Centre Theatre] “Surprises,” wow. There were many in developing the story. Discovering this unique sport of women’s powerlifting and how big it is in South Texas was a wonderful surprise for us. We also had no idea that Texas had a mandatory and competitive “One Act” theater arts program. That program gave us an opportunity to survey a broad range of teenager talent, but more importantly, it is turning out graduates who are truly interested in storytelling and were eager to get involved in either script workshops or actual production. As […]

By Filmmaker Staff on Jan 22, 2011 Sundance Responses
“TERRI” | director, Azazel Jacobs

[PREMIERE SCREENING: Saturday, Jan. 22, 5;30 pm — Library Center Theatre] The biggest surprise, which is always the biggest surprise for me when I make a movie, is what things stay the same and what feels different. It’s never what I expect. Terri is the biggest story I have yet tried to tell, in size and scope, and it took more people, more money, more everything to make. Though it was great that people got paid, it was still tight in the ways that were familiar; there wasn’t money to be wasted and time was as precious as it always is, […]

By Filmmaker Staff on Jan 22, 2011 Sundance Responses

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