[PREMIERE SCREENING: Sunday, Jan. 23, 6:30 pm — Eccles Theatre] When we unmasked the Bog Monster and it turned out to be old man Whithers, we were literally dumbfounded. Why? Because he OWNS the allegedly haunted amusement park. We should’ve seen it.
Since Joe Swanberg’s first feature film, Kissing on the Mouth, premiered at SXSW in 2005, he’s managed to make at least a feature a year, multiple web-series, and found regular launch-pads at SXSW and IFC Films. When Swanberg directs a film, he really functions as a craftsman of the entire work: while he eschews screenplays in favor of improvisation, he works as cinematographer, editor, and usually acts in the film. As the nexus of a low-budget film movement stressing honesty, stories chronicling the lives of people in their twenties, and improvisation (this movement begins with an “M,” ends with “core,” […]
In our first video interview from the 2011 Sundance Film Festival we sit down with Miranda July to talk about her latest film, The Future.
[PREMIERE SCREENING: Sunday, Jan. 23, 12:00 pm — Temple Theatre] How to Die in Oregon tells the stories of terminally ill Oregonians as they decide when, and whether, to end their lives at the time and circumstance of their own choosing under Oregon’s Death with Dignity Act. What inspired me to make the film was the desire to explore the profound choices an individual would have to make in order to take the life-ending medication. I knew that telling this story was going to be difficult because it would require extraordinary access and a willingness to participate in the film, […]
[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 […]
[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 […]
[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. […]
[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? […]
At Sundance, the mastermind of Alamo Drafthouse and tanlines. “Jason Eisener’s HOBO WITH A SHOTGUN is going to burn a swath of destruction across the collective faces of Sundance badgeholders. I can’t wait.” Photo credit – Elijah Wood at the Fight For Your Right to Party Party.
On the night the latest edition of the Sundance Film Festival kicked off, I was approached by a man in a beat-up looking bubble coat and slacks three thousand miles away in a Crown Heights, Brooklyn laundromat. He extended his hand, in which he was holding six plastic sheets with DVDs in them, and tersely said, “Movies.” I looked down at the half-a-dozen bootleg discs in his hand, most of which were sequels to “urban” thrillers I had never heard of in the first place. “I’m good,” I brusquely whispered, causing him to saunter off into the fluorescent hum and […]