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“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 -
“My Goal for This Film Was to Combine Two Completely Distinct Styles in a Way that Seamlessly Tells the Story”: DP Alan Gwizdowski on Honk For Jesus. Save Your Soul
In Honk For Jesus. Save Your Soul combines faux-documentary and straightforward cinematic narrative styles to tell the story of a couple attempting to rebuild the congregation at their once-thriving megachurch in the aftermath of a scandal. Cinematographer Alan Gwizdowski discusses how he combined the two styles in a way that was intuitive for the audience while emphasizing the ambiguities of the narrative and the film’s critique of documentary filmmaking. 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? Gwizdowski: Another cinematographer, Adam Bricker, […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Jan 23, 2022 -
“We Wanted to Craft a Film That Wasn’t So Tightly Hewn to a Narrative Arc”: Editor Aaron Wickenden on 2nd Chance
2nd Chance, like Ramin Bahrani’s previous films, tells the story of a precarious person attempting to attain greater wealth and security. For his first documentary, Bahrani has investigated the story of Richard Davis, a bankrupt pizzeria owner who invented the modern bulletproof vest, only to embroiled in countless subsequent controversies. Editor Aaron Wickenden explains how the films of Werner Herzog influenced 2nd Chance and recalls the times he nearly ran over Roger Ebert and Michael Shannon. 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 -
“The Oppressive Voyeurism You’re Constantly Surrounded By As a Woman”: Writer/Director Chloe Okuno and Co-Writer Zack Ford on Watcher
The eerie, nagging feeling of being watched is elevated to a hauntingly tangible reality in Watcher, the feature directorial debut of Chloe Okuno. Co-written by Okuno (recently acclaimed for helming the “Storm Drain” segment in the horror anthology V/H/S/94) and seasoned screenwriter Zack Ford (who in 2021 ran for mayor of Skaneateles, NY before ultimately relocating to L.A.), the film follows Julia (Maika Monroe) and Francis (Karl Glusman), a young American couple who relocate to Bucharest for Francis’s work. Shortly after settling into their minimalist new digs, Julia begins to notice an unsettling presence in her most intimate spaces. As […]
by Natalia Keogan on Jan 22, 2022 -
“It’s a Lot Easier to Make a Genuine Connection With Someone Without a Whole Bunch of Gear in Between You and Them”: DPs Zac Manuel & Justin Zweifach on Descendant
Just north of Mobile, Alabama is the historic community of Africatown founded by 32 West Africans who were transported to the US on the Clotilda, the last known slave ship to enter the country. Margaret Brown’s Descendant tells the story of the descendants who still reside in Africatown, as well as of the persistent power imbalance between the descendants of the slaves and the descendants of the Meaher family that chartered the expedition, who today own much of the industrialized land and factories around Africatown. Cinematographers Justin Zweifach and Zac Manuel discuss what they learned making the film and how they […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Jan 22, 2022 -
“I Don’t Want to Make Seamless Films”: Sierra Pettengill on Riotsville, USA
Where Sierra Pettengill’s previous all-archival film, The Reagan Show (co-directed with Pacho Velez), asked the question “How did we get here?” by re-examining the ’80s, her new feature Riotsville, USA goes back further, to the oft-examined period from roughly 1967 to 1968. As she explains in a press kit interview conducted by programmer Nellie Killian (also credited as a researcher on the film), the project originated when, while reading Rick Perlstein’s Nixonland, Pettengill grew curious about what, exactly, might have happened at the titular sites. “I Googled [“Riotsville”] and I didn’t find much of anything—and for me, as an archival researcher, that’s just the […]
by Vadim Rizov on Jan 22, 2022
