Sundance Responses
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Your Sister’s Sister | Writer/Director Lynn Shelton
[PREMIERE SCREENING: Friday, January 20 8:30 am –Library Center Theatre, Park City] In 2005, on the set of We Go Way Back (my first feature film as writer/director), I remember having the distinct feeling that I’d finally found what I was always meant to do. It was an electrifying and completely transformative revelation. As far back as I can remember I always knew I wanted to be an artist. Finding myself smitten with nearly every creative medium in existence probably made the fact that I ended up deeply exploring a variety of them before settling on narrative filmmaking unavoidable. I […]
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“ESCAPE FIRE” | director, Matthew Heineman
[PREMIERE SCREENING: Friday, January 20, 11:30 am –Library Center Theatre, Park City] I believe that documentary film has the ability to motivate, to inspire, and to help bring clarity to complicated issues in a way that other media cannot. Much of the traditional media attention on healthcare has focused on the partisan politics in our nation’s Capitol—from the contentious passage of the Affordable Care Act to the ongoing polarized debate about its impact. There have been countless articles, news stories, blog posts, and tweets about this topic. And everybody in America, whether they like it or not, has been affected […]
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“ABOUT THE PINK SKY” | writer-director, Keiichi Kobayashi
[PREMIERE SCREENING: Friday, January 20 3:00 pm –Egyptian Theatre, Park City] 1. Why are you a filmmaker? I was working on a TV show in Japan and was busy working insane hours everyday, when one night Akira Kurosawa came to me in a dream. He said, “Is there a reason for that particular shot? You need to watch my films more!” The next day, I turned on the TV and they were announcing Kurosawa’s death. I thought it must be a sign from heaven. Since then, I’ve been storing up all the strength, will and energy I need to make films. And now that […]
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“FILLY BROWN” | directors, Michael Olmos & Youssef Delara
[PREMIERE SCREENING: Friday, January 20, 5:30 pm –Library Center Theatre, Park City] Michael Olmos: For me, being a filmmaker – an explorer of stories – is about discovery and finding connections. Of recreating that magical life altering feeling you get when something that you where never aware of, suddenly enters your conscious mind, and completely rewires you – it is an all encompassing experience. It can happen on an emotional level or intellectual level, and it often causes a physical response – you cry, laugh, bend over in pain, whatever. Sometimes these discoveries where right in front of you, but […]
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“BIG BOYS GONE BANANAS” | director, Fredrik Gertten
[PREMIERE SCREENING: Friday, January 20, 8:30 pm –Prospector Square Theatre, Park City] 1. Why are you a filmmaker? Why did you choose this profession? Do we really choose professions? I have done many different things in my life, from hard labor at a shipyard to starting up a musicians co-op record company. I worked as a journalist for years and had a weekly column in a daily in Southern Sweden/ I also worked as foreign correspondent for national radio, newspapers and magazines and hosted a TV show on the swedish king Charles XII and Tzar Peter the Great set in […]
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“ROBOT AND FRANK” | director, Jake Schreier
[PREMIERE SCREENING: Friday, January 20 6:30 pm –Rose Wagner Performing Arts center, SLC] I got into film because I was spectacularly mediocre at everything else. I loved art and performance, but wasn’t much of an actor, was a pretty bad keyboard player and couldn’t draw at all. When I got to try out filmmaking at an NYU summer high school program, it was the first time where the things I made vaguely resembled the ideas I had in my head. That doesn’t really explain why Robot & Frank had to be a film, except that in my hands it would […]
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“SEARCHING FOR SUGAR MAN” | director, Malik Bendjelloul
[PREMIERE SCREENING: Thursday, January 19 9:30 pm –Library Center Theatre, Park City] I’m a filmmaker because it’s one of very few activities I know of that can completely absorb me. Both when shooting and editing, it’s a pure creative state of mind where I can forget everything else—sometimes even that I’m hungry—because I’m so absorbed. That’s why I do this—it’s a job that you can never grew tired of. Every day there are new creative challenges to overcome and new ideas to come up with in order to do that. You’re constantly moving. I like that. The choice to use […]
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Hello I Must Be Going | Director Todd Luiso; Screenwriter Sarah Koskoff
[PREMIERE SCREENING: Thursday, January 19, 9:30 pm –Eccles Theatre, Park City] Sarah Koskoff: I had always only written for the stage, but when I wrote Hello I Must Be Going it was a film from the beginning and could only be a film. I wanted to explore what it would be like for a grown woman to wake up suddenly in her parents’ house with nothing of her own, totally dependent–the subtle humiliations of being an adult thrust into the position of being a child. There was something just so horrible and so painfully funny to me about her situation, […]
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“BEING ELMO: A PUPPETEER’S JOURNEY” | director, Constance Marks
Originally posted on Jan. 23, 2011 as part of our annual question we ask directors attending the Sundance Film Festival. Being Elmo: A Puppeteer’s Journey is nominated for the Audience Award. [PREMIERE SCREENING: Sunday, Jan. 23, 3:00 pm — Temple Theatre] The most surprising thing I found while making BEING ELMO: A Puppeteer’s Journey was how insanely popular this furry red monster has become. For the past year I’ve carried a bright red Elmo messenger bag. I would get spontaneous feedback every day from almost everyone: old men, teenage girls, postal workers and especially mothers. Hundreds of times I […]
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“THE SON OF NO ONE” | writer-director, Dito Montiel
[PREMIERE SCREENING: Friday, Jan. 28, 6:15 pm — Eccles Theatre] So we’re filming in the Queensbridge Projects — the place I spent a million teenage days rehearsing with my hardcore band in Johnny Waste’s apartment (actually Ravenswood Projects). Back then it was the murder capital of New York. Still pretty rough though. I’m standing next to Al Pacino and we’re getting ready for a scene where he’ll talk with a little boy about two murders. He takes a minute to look at all the kids out playing in the big center playground. (We had a lot of extras all dressed […]
