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“A Labor of Love, Every Step of the Way”: Editor Grace Zarah on Sirens
Although Sirens captures a historic band—the all-woman Lebanese thrash metal band Slave to Sirens—at an equally historic moment in their nation’s history, director Rita Baghdadi and editor Grace Zarah quickly agreed that it was neither of these threads but instead the moments of friendship that were at the heart of their footage. Below, Zarah talks about looking for those moments and determining how to depict the August 2020 port explosion in Beirut. Filmmaker: How and why did you wind up being the editor of your film? What were the factors and attributes that led to your being hired for this […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Jan 23, 2022 -
“We Had a Remarkable Number of Catastrophes to Navigate”: DP Rita Baghdadi on Sirens
The subject of Sirens, Rita Baghdadi’s third documentary feature, is the all-woman Lebanese thrash band Slave to Sirens, who are captured here against the unrest that has shaken Lebanon in recent years as well as in performances, including one at the Glastonbury Festival. Baghdadi recalls the difficulty of capturing sufficient footage at the festival and how she turned a film about a band into a film about being in your twenties. Filmmaker: How and why did you wind up being the cinematographer of your film? What were the factors and attributes that led to your being hired for this job? […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Jan 23, 2022 -
“I Was Never Going to Compromise on the Intimacy” | Rita Baghdadi, Sirens
The last two years have prompted much contemplation and reconsideration of the reasons why we make our films as well as the ways in which we make them. What aspect of your filmmaking—whether in your creative process, the way you finance your films, your production methodology or the way you relate to your audience—did you have to reinvent in order to make and complete the film you are bringing to the festival this year? Over the last two years, I definitely found myself contemplating why I make films and how I make them. When the pandemic hit, it seemed as […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Jan 23, 2022 -
“The Universality of the Cartoon Form” | Jono McLeod, My Old School
The last two years have prompted much contemplation and reconsideration of the reasons why we make our films as well as the ways in which we make them. What aspect of your filmmaking—whether in your creative process, the way you finance your films, your production methodology or the way you relate to your audience—did you have to reinvent in order to make and complete the film you are bringing to the festival this year? The majority of the interviews in my film were shot pre-COVID, and our aim was to shoot live-action flashback scenes in summer 2020. When the obstacles […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Jan 23, 2022 -
“It Was So Physically Demanding That It Almost Killed the Three of Us”: DP Aaron Moorhead on Something in the Dirt
Something in the Dirt is the fifth film that Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead have directed together, but this one is paradoxically the most ambitious and the most intimate. Shot during the COVID pandemic, it by necessity made almost entirely by Benson and Moorhead, as well as their producer, David Lawson, and a production designer, Ariel Vida. Below, Moorhead discusses how they incorporated the isolation mandated by COVID into the film and disguised the conditions of the shoot with a bit of movie magic. Filmmaker: How and why did you wind up being the cinematographer of your film? What were […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Jan 23, 2022 -
“We Wanted to Make Sure There Was Intention With Every Shift”: Editor Stacy Moon on Honk for Jesus. Save Your Soul
Honk for Jesus. Save Your Soul, Adamma Ebo’s feature-length adaptation of their short film of the same name about a couple attempting to rebuild the congregation of their once-thriving megachurch after a scandal. Partially shot in the faux-documentary style of the film’s own documentarians, the film required the hand of a diligent editor to make every shift between the film’s different styles meaningful; editor Stacy Moon discusses how she made these shifts purposeful and more below. Filmmaker: How and why did you wind up being the editor of your film? What were the factors and attributes that led to your […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Jan 23, 2022 -
“Life Has More Meaning Creating With People That You Love” | Justin Benson & Aaron Moorhead, Something in the Dirt
The last two years have prompted much contemplation and reconsideration of the reasons why we make our films as well as the ways in which we make them. What aspect of your filmmaking—whether in your creative process, the way you finance your films, your production methodology or the way you relate to your audience—did you have to reinvent in order to make and complete the film you are bringing to the festival this year? From a purely creative standpoint, it seems the last couple of years have rapidly changed how we receive and interpret genre film ideas as an audience, […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Jan 23, 2022 -
“I’ve Realized How Much More Creative I Am When I Allow Myself Rest” | Adamma Ebo, Honk for Jesus. Save Your Soul
The last two years have prompted much contemplation and reconsideration of the reasons why we make our films as well as the ways in which we make them. What aspect of your filmmaking—whether in your creative process, the way you finance your films, your production methodology or the way you relate to your audience—did you have to reinvent in order to make and complete the film you are bringing to the festival this year? The aspect of my filmmaking/creative process that I’ve had to reinvent during these last two years is how I reinvigorate my creative mind. I used to […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Jan 23, 2022 -
“Perhaps We Were Swayed Into Making Something a Little More Joyous” | Jim Archer, Brian and Charles
The last two years have prompted much contemplation and reconsideration of the reasons why we make our films as well as the ways in which we make them. What aspect of your filmmaking—whether in your creative process, the way you finance your films, your production methodology or the way you relate to your audience—did you have to reinvent in order to make and complete the film you are bringing to the festival this year? There wasn’t much creatively that we wanted to reinvent with Brian and Charles, particularly as some of the main themes of the film are loneliness and […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Jan 23, 2022 -
Sundance 2022 Critic’s Notebook: Speak No Evil, Resurrection, Happening
Shudder announced the acquisition of Christian Tafdrup’s Speak No Evil just before the film’s Sundance premiere. It’s probably one of this year’s breakout titles—at any rate, enough people in my Twitter feed recommended it to redirect me from previously planned viewing and Tafdrup’s freshly signed to WME. In his “Meet the Artist” video, the co-writer (with his brother, Mads) and director displays an entertaining flair for hammy hucksterism in an Alfred Hitchcock Presents intro vein. Sitting in front of a fire, he smilingly reads out comments from a test screening (“The director has to be mentally examined”; “A horrible, horrible film”; “This film […]
by Vadim Rizov on Jan 23, 2022
