Sundance Responses

“THE TEMPTATION OF ST. TONY” | writer-director, Veiko Õunpuu

[PREMIERE SCREENING: Sunday, Jan. 24, 8:30 pm — Prospector Square Theatre, Park City] In the editing I cut out some scenes to make the film run smoother. The first version was more than three hours long. Sometimes I think I cut out too much but then again, when your film is canned, labeled and shipped off to another continent you might want to come to terms with its possible shortcomings so you don’t have to get acquainted with the symptoms of a mild psychosis later in life. Therefore I’ll just say that everything was all smooth and suave, no hard […]

By Jason Guerrasio on Jan 24, 2010 Sundance Responses
“ENEMIES OF THE PEOPLE” | co-director, Rob Lemkin

[PREMIERE SCREENING: Sunday, Jan. 24, 9:00 pm — Holiday Village Cinema IV, Park City] There is a scene toward the end of Enemies of the People where two of our main characters, Suon and Khoun, admit to eating human body parts during the Killing Fields of the Khmer Rouge. I had been aware of this from when I first started filming with them in June 2007. My problem was this: This was vital information that an audience should know since our film is an up-close and personal account of a terrifyingly brutal episode in recent history. There could be no […]

By Jason Guerrasio on Jan 24, 2010 Sundance Responses
“LUCKY” | director, Jeffrey Blitz

PREMIERE SCREENING: Sunday, Jan. 24, 9:00 pm — Temple Theatre, Park City] I think the hardest part of any film is figuring out when to let go of your original conception and let it become something else. If you release the ideal film that’s playing in your head too soon, you risk finding yourself lost in the wilderness. If you hang on too long, you might be ignoring the inevitably more interesting reality that the world has dropped in front of you. So that and figuring out new ways to shoot in bathrooms (there are four of them that made […]

By Jason Guerrasio on Jan 24, 2010 Sundance Responses
“THE FREEBIE” | writer-director, Katie Aselton

[PREMIERE SCREENING: Sunday, Jan. 24, 9:00 pm — Yarrow Hotel Theatre, Park City] I recast our lead guy three days into shooting. It was terrifying, but it was something I had to do. He wasn’t having fun, we weren’t having fun, and I’m sorry, but when you’re making a film for no money, just for the love of the project, you better be having fun doing it! And in the end, we did. Those last 11 days were incredible!

By Jason Guerrasio on Jan 24, 2010 Sundance Responses
“LOVERS OF HATE” | writer-director, Bryan Poyser

[PREMIERE SCREENING: Sunday, Jan. 24, 5:15 pm — Racquet Club, Park City] For me, the hardest decision to make is of course the most important: the “telling the universe” moment, when you finally just decide on a shooting date, regardless of time, resources or common sense and start barreling toward it, telling your friends, your co-workers, yourself and thereby the universe that indeed, you are gonna make another movie. At first, it seems ridiculous and you usually have to push it back, but then serendipity takes over and the universe starts to drop things in your lap. You start the […]

By Jason Guerrasio on Jan 24, 2010 Sundance Responses
“THE TAQWACORES” | director, Eyad Zahra

[PREMIERE SCREENING: Sunday, Jan. 24, 5:30 pm — Prospector Square Theatre, Park City] The thought of making The Taqwacores into a motion picture happened right after I finished the book. It took weeks for me to voice the thought to others, and weeks more to actually act upon it. Was I ready to take on such a subject? Was I the right guy? Were my intentions right? Would people get the point? Would it be more misunderstood then understood? These were the questions swirling in my head. The idea of physically making the film at such a low budget wasn’t […]

By Jason Guerrasio on Jan 24, 2010 Sundance Responses
“GASLAND” | director, Josh Fox

[PREMIERE SCREENING: Sunday, Jan. 24, 5:30 pm — Temple Theatre, Park City] My film, Gasland, is about the largest domestic natural gas drilling boom in American history, now occupying 34 states. I was approached to lease my family’s land in the Delaware River Basin right on the border of New York and Pennsylvania. It’s not a big place by any means, but the drilling boom is everywhere, and we were approached. The hardest decision I had to make was to include not only my personal story in the film but to narrate it and appear in it. The film is […]

By Jason Guerrasio on Jan 24, 2010 Sundance Responses
“8: THE MORMON PROPOSITION” | director, Reed Cowan

[PREMIERE SCREENING: Sunday, Jan. 24, 2:15 pm — Racquet Club, Park City] The hardest decision for me was getting well with the fact that the entire film goes up against everything I was ever taught. To not question the leader of the church of my birth. To not point a critical view in the direction of the religion I was always taught to be the ONLY true religion on the planet and the ONLY way to attain the highest level of Heaven. We are the product of our cultures, and shedding the fear that was ingrained in my psyche was […]

By Jason Guerrasio on Jan 24, 2010 Sundance Responses
“THE DRY LAND” | writer-director, Ryan Piers Williams

[PREMIERE SCREENING: Sunday, Jan. 24, 12:15 pm — Eccles Theatre, Park City] I was born and raised in Texas and have a strong loyalty to the state. One thing I’ve known since I was a child is that while they may appear to be similar, New Mexico and Texas might as well be Venus and Mars. The Dry Land’s characters, setting and nuances are all rooted in Texas. However the lack of substantial tax incentives in Texas made it very difficult to argue for a Texas shoot. With this in mind my financiers pushed for me to consider shooting in […]

By Jason Guerrasio on Jan 24, 2010 Sundance Responses
“WASTE LAND” | director, Lucy Walker

[PREMIERE SCREENING: Sunday, Jan. 24, 3:00 pm — Holiday Village Cinema IV, Park City] In Star Trek there’s the “prime directive,” Starfleet’s code of noninterference. What do filmmakers abide by? Should documentaries interfere with their subjects’ lives? But how could they not? I don’t believe in objectivity. I observe the observer’s paradox every moment I’m filming. Your presence is changing everything; there’s no mistaking it. And when you’re climbing Everest with eight blind people (as I did for my last film Blindsight) there is no acceptable margin for mistakes. So now when the artist Vik Muniz and I were conceiving […]

By Jason Guerrasio on Jan 24, 2010 Sundance Responses

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