Andrew Cohn
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“The Interior Lives of People That Aren’t Typically Represented in Cinema”: Andrew Cohn on The Last Shift
Fascinated with the unseen men and women of forgotten America, Andrew Cohn, proud Midwestern and versatile filmmaker, has created a body of documentary work that witnesses modest, real lives without condescension or pity. Features like Medora or Night School engage with their subjects—a teenage basketball team in small-town Indiana or adult students juggling economic and personal struggles—in a compassionate and collaborative manner. Translating that honesty to fiction now with The Last Shift, his first scripted film, Cohn continues to give voice to the working poor, in this case two fast food employees in Michigan, where he’s from, whose relationship exemplifies […]
by Carlos Aguilar on Sep 25, 2020 -
Night School Director: “Why I (Only) Make Films in the Midwest”
With Oscilloscope releasing his latest documentary, Night School, this Friday in New York at the IFC Center and June 23 at the Laemmle Theater in Los Angeles (with nationwide roll-out to follow), filmmaker Andrew Cohn posts this guest essay about his choice to make films largely in America’s heartland. Here he recounts his experience making his previous film, Medora, and how it made him question the motives and strategies many non-fiction filmmakers bring to their depiction of Midwestern subjects. Oscilloscope will donate a portion of all proceeds from ticket sales to educational initiatives at Goodwill Industries’ McClelland Scholars, the organization […]
by Andrew Cohn on Jun 7, 2017 -
Five Questions with Medora Directors Andrew Cohn and Davy Rothbart
Andrew Cohn and Davy Rothbart have been friends since childhood, when they used to shoot hoops together in their hometown of Ann Arbor, Michigan. Since then, Rothbart has become a contributor to This American Life and an acclaimed writer of short fiction and personal essays, and also had his (Manti Te’o-esque) tale of a phone romance with someone who turned out to be a guy adapted into the 2009 film Easier with Practice. Rothbart and Cohn collaborated a few years ago on FOUND: People Find Stuff. Now It’s a Show, the off-Broadway show based on the magazine Rothbart started. Now they […]
by Nick Dawson on Mar 9, 2013
