Gillian Robespierre
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“Find a Small, Possibly Unsexy Job You Can Do Well”: At IFP Week, Directors and Producers on Getting Started in Indie Film
So you’ve made a film. Congrats, but you’re not out of the woodwork yet. You may never be. The four filmmakers and one producer who appeared on the IFP Week panel called “On Working (and Staying) in Indie Film Today” had vastly different stories to tell about how they turned movie-making into an actual job. The biggest name on the panel was Gillian Robespierre. Having directed and co-written the indie hits Obvious Child and this summer’s Landline, she has more stability than most in her field, having parlayed those successes into TV work on top of a future making her […]
by Matt Prigge on Sep 21, 2017 -
“More Eyes, More Money and More Pressure”: Editor Casey Brooks on Landline
Gillian Robespierre assembled a familiar team for her second film. Like her 2014 breakthrough Obvious Child, Landline features the work of DP Chris Teague, co-writer/producer Elisabeth Holm, star Jenny Slate and editor Casey Brooks. In the below interview, conducted before the film’s world premiere at Sundance 2017, Brooks discusses the film’s balance of comedy and drama, his entry into editing and dealing with heightened expectations in the wake of Obvious Child. Landline costars John Turturro, Edie Falco, Abby Quinn and Jay Duplass. Filmmaker: How and why did you wind up being the editor of your film? What were the factors and attributes that led to […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Jan 28, 2017 -
DP Chris Teague on Shooting Landline, Gillian Robespierre’s Follow-Up to Obvious Child
Three years ago, writer/director Gillian Robespierre premiered Obvious Child at Sundance to much acclaim. The film would go on to earn more than $3 million at the domestic box office, making it one of the bigger titles to emerge from Sundance 2014. Robespierre returns to the festival in 2017 with Landline, which reunites her with lead actor Jenny Slate and DP Chris Teague. Set in 1990s New York, Landline is a seriocomic portrait of a family in flux. Below, Teague discusses shooting in NYC apartments, the influence of ’70s American cinema on Landline and recreating the Village Halloween Parade on a small budget. Filmmaker: How and […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Jan 20, 2017 -
Sundance 2017: Five Questions with Landline Director Gillian Robespierre
Everything changed for Gillian Robespierre after Sundance. In 2014 she arrived at the festival with her debut feature, Obvious Child, a personal, provocative, NYC-set comedy starring Jenny Slate. Before the festival even wrapped, she had found an enviable distributor for the film in A24. Obvious Child would go on to play on 200 screens nationwide, earn more than $3 million and garner Robespierre a directing award from the National Board of Review. She returns to the festival three years later with Landline, an observant family comedy set in ’90s New York. Filmmaker spoke with Robespierre ahead of the film’s world premiere about her love […]
by Soheil Rezayazdi on Jan 19, 2017 -
You Have To Laugh
The first words of Obvious Child are heard over black. Effervescent stand-up comedian Donna Stern (the pitch-perfect Jenny Slate) appears in flashes, lording over her audience as she addresses the myth of clean underwear in graphic detail. If it wasn’t already apparent from the mere premise of her Sundance breakout, director Gillian Robespierre knows how to make a first impression. A romantic comedy that upends all that the genre holds dear, Obvious Child, based on Robespierre’s 2009 short, is an irreverent, hilarious and touching examination of a woman’s brash misstep and her hesitant navigation through its domino-like ramifications. Impregnated during […]
by Sarah Salovaara on Apr 28, 2014 -
Women of Sundance: Obvious Child
Gillian Robespierre, Elisabeth Holm and Jenny Slate are highly skilled comedians who are prone to self-deprecation and the bawdiest of humor that will make even the most sexually liberated feel prude. When I went to Robespierre’s apartment to take their photo, however, it was not a time for gag humor with kitschy props (condoms were, for example, off limits). Their film, Obvious Child, written and directed by Robespierre, produced by Holm and starring Slate, is both bold in its humor and also its intent: to make a comedy that talks about real issues that women face – something usually saved for […]
by Danielle Lurie on Jan 19, 2014 -
Appropriate Behavior and Obvious Child D.P. Chris Teague
In every young filmmaking scene, there are always one or two up-and-coming DPs you want to shoot your movie. These are the guys, or women, who have shot award-winning student films, who have loyal crews, and who know how to bring extra style, assurance and compositional smarts to first-time features. In the New York independent film community, Chris Teague has been one of those folks, and this year his talents are receiving greater recognition at Sundance, where two of his narrative feature films are debuting. In the Premiere section is the debut of Gillian Robespierre’s Obvious Child, a sly comedy […]
by Scott Macaulay on Jan 18, 2014 -
Five Questions with Obvious Child Director Gillian Robespierre
For her debut feature, director Gillian Robespierre has done the somewhat unlikely and crafted a warm, winning, genuinely funny romantic comedy that, oh yeah, is centered around an abortion. The story of Donna (the always charming Jenny Slate), a young comedian who, after a bad breakup and an alcohol-fueled one-night stand, finds herself pregnant, Obvious Child offers a refreshingly frank, true-to-life portrait of a woman dealing with an impending abortion. But the film is a lot more than just a comedy built around a hot-button issue – it’s an earnest, lived-in, and warm rom-com about navigating one’s aimless 20s, and […]
by Jane Schoenbrun on Jan 17, 2014 -
Tribeca Announces New All Access Projects
The Tribeca Institute’s artist program Tribeca All Access, now 10 years old, today announced 11 new projects that it is supporting. Two of these are by 2012 “25 New Faces” alums: Long Year Begin, a doc project co-helmed by Malika Zouhali-Worrall (Call Me Kuchu), and Terence Nance’s political thriller The Lobbyists, a very intriguing follow-up to An Oversimplification of Her Beauty. Other promising projects already on my radar that TAA is funding include Roots & Webs, a mushroom-themed doc produced by Beasts of the Southern Wild‘s Josh Penn; Obvious Child, Gillian Robespierre’s edgy rom com; and Pilgrim Song director Martha Stevens’ third feature, Papaw Easy. Commenting on Tribeca All Access’ […]
by Nick Dawson on Mar 14, 2013 -
IFW: MEETING JUNKIE
Hi. My name is Gillian Robespierre. I’m a writer/director attending the 2011 IFP Emerging Narrative project forum with my script Obvious Child. It’s a romantic comedy with an abortion. Yes, it’s a comedy. I just got home from three crazy days of m-f’ing meetings. I’m hopped up on caffeine and adrenaline. I won a grant, thank you Rooftop! And a picture of me meeting with Sundance Institute’s Rachel Chanoff made it into the Filmmaker Magazine Blog! It looks like Rachel is telling my fortune. I hope she sees a puffy Northface jacket in my future to wear at Sundance. I […]
by Gillian Robespierre on Sep 26, 2011
