Jessica Yu
-
Physical Therapy
Jessica Yu revisits the subject of her own Academy Award-winning short documentary Breathing Lessons by speaking with writer/director Ben Lewin, whose The Sessions brings the story of the paralyzed poet Mark O’Brien to dramatic life.
by Jessica Yu on Nov 1, 2012 -
ENVISION 2012: EIGHT TIPS FOR SOCIAL ISSUE FILMMAKERS
Last week in New York City, the Independent Filmmaker Project, the United Nations Department of Public Information, and the Ford Foundation presented Envision 2012: Stories for a Sustainable Future. The two day event featured screenings of sustainability-focused documentaries (including Jessica Yu and Participant Media’s new Last Call at the Oasis), keynote addresses from Don Cheadle and Alexandra Cousteau, and panel discussions that included social issue advocates and established filmmakers. And, while the discussions this year did focus on the issue of sustainability, there was still plenty of universal wisdom dispensed that social issue filmmakers – no matter their chosen subject […]
by Jane Schoenbrun on Apr 24, 2012 -
The Weight of Water: An Interview with Jessica Yu
by Nick Dawson on Apr 17, 2012Jumping from social-issue documentary films — like her new Last Call at
the Oasis — to independent narrative to network television, director JESSICA YU has one of the most multi-faceted careers around. By NICK DAWSON. Photograph by Henny Garfunkel -
JAMIE STUART PROMOS CINELAN AND GE’S NEW FOCUS FORWARD
Sundance seems a little incomplete for me without Jamie Stuart, who is shooting this year for Cinelan and GE’s new Focus Forward initiative. Led by Cinelan co-founders Morgan Spurlock and Karol Martesko-Fenster (Filmmaker‘s founding publsiher), the program brings 30 new three-minute short films to festivals internationally. So, to get my Stuart Sundance fix I’ll post this piece he shot for the organization, which is premiering its first five films here at the festival. Jamie may be lensing for this new short-form doc producer, but I wouldn’t be surprised if a photo gallery of snow-capped peaks, shuttle busses lumbering down Park, […]
by Scott Macaulay on Jan 20, 2012 -
TIFF 2011: THE YEAR OF THE DOC?
The buzz word at this year’s TIFF is “doc.” For the first time in its 35-year history, the Toronto International Film Festival opened with a documentary: Davis Guggenheim‘s From The Sky Down, which profiles the world’s most popular rock band, U2. Filmgoers and critics are also buzzing over Crazy Horse, by verite legend Frederick Wiseman; Samsara (by Baraka‘s Ron Fricke); Tony Krawitz‘s The Tall Man,; and Girl Model by Ashley Sabin and David Redmon. The doc vibe was in the air on Monday morning at a breakfast launch for Focus Foward. Sponsored by Cinelan and GE, Focus Forward invites big-name documentarians such as Morgan […]
by Allan Tong on Sep 17, 2011 -
Five Questions with Last Call at the Oasis Director Jessica Yu
For Oscar-winning filmmaker Jessica Yu’s latest film, Last Call at the Oasis, she looks at the frightening realities of the current global water crisis. Produced through the social issue giants Participant Media, Yu’s film has the makings of a must-see like An Inconvenient Truth and Food, Inc. Filmmaker: Tell us a little about what your film is about? Yu: Last Call at the Oasis is about the water crisis, which is global and urgent, yet largely hidden here in the U.S. The film tells stories of people who are on the front lines in dealing with water shortage or contamination, […]
by Jason Guerrasio on Sep 7, 2011 -
Greek Tragedy
As a filmmaker, Oscar winner Jessica Yu is smart, adventurous, and utterly fearless. You’d have to be to make a talking-head documentary inspired by the 5th century B.C. playwright Euripides (an idea proposed by the Carr Foundation) and then decide to outfit key scenes with wooden rod puppets speaking ancient Greek. But her new film, Protagonist, which was nominated for the Grand Jury Prize at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival and gets a theatrical release November 30 from IFC Films, is not high-concept marionette theater, it’s a fascinating investigation of what drives passionate people to acts of radical self-negation—and of […]
by Damon Smith on Nov 28, 2007
