[PREMIERE SCREENING: Monday, Jan. 24, 3:00 pm — Eccles Theatre] The biggest surprise associated with the making of Take Shelter was, without question, Jessica Chastain. When traveling the festival circuit with my first film, Shotgun Stories, I was fairly outspoken about the fact that Michael Shannon is one of the greatest actors working today. When casting Take Shelter, a film that is anchored by the relationship of a married couple, the biggest question I had was: “What actress could go toe-to-toe with Michael Shannon?” Then the universe delivered me Jessica Chastain. When thinking about this role my executive producer, Sarah […]
A storytelling pandemic. By Lance Weiler.
From a screenplay by Leslie Dixon, Neil Burger takes us on a pharmaceutical-fueled joyride through a conspiratorially intelligent New York business world in Limitless. By Scott Macaulay PLUS: Leslie Dixon on nurturing your inner Tarantino.
[PREMIERE SCREENING: Monday, Jan. 24, 12:00 pm — Temple Theatre] As a first-time filmmaker, being accepted into the U.S. Documentary Competition at Sundance was obviously the biggest surprise. But what was also a huge surprise was going back to read the outline that I wrote in the summer of 2008 when Hot Coffee was just a dream. After finishing the film in the summer of 2010, I reread my original outline and to my great surprise realized that the final version of the film was almost exactly what I had laid out in the outline, despite having not gone back […]
[PREMIERE SCREENING: Monday, Jan. 24, 12:15 pm — Eccles Theatre] The biggest surprise is how the movie began, and how it ended. We started with no money, a basic treatment and a Sony EX3. I didn’t really care about getting all my ducks in a row before starting. We just started. Brit Marling, Morgan Marling (her sister), Liang (my friend from China) and I went to Connecticut where I grew up and we set out to make this epic indie minimalist science fiction drama. On the first day, Brit came back from a run in the morning and told us […]
Michael Tully began his career with a flurry, getting selected for Filmmaker‘s 25 New Faces of Independent Film in 2006 on the back of his debut feature Cocaine Angel, and then following it up the next year with Silver Jew, a documentary about Silver Jews frontman David Berman. In the years since, Tully has stayed active, shooting Mary Bronstein’s Yeast, acting in a handful of movies by fellow Generation DIY peers, including Aaron Katz’s Quiet City and Ry Russo-Young’s You Won’t Miss Me, and editing the indie film website Hammer to Nail. But, in terms of new films, he has […]
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,” […]
[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 — 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, 11:59 pm — Egyptian Theatre] I shouldn’t have been surprised by this, but our cast and crew threw themselves into the idea about making a movie with Satanic elements and potentially dangerous situations — there was sheer joy in the faces of crew members when they were asked to go into a parking lot, draw a pentagram with gasoline and light it on fire. Throwing risk factors into the production only seemed to make everyone anticipate the days with more enthusiasm: “Let’s take all of your borrowed expensive electronic equipment, put it in a boat […]