Jordana Spiro
-
“I Love Unpacking Human Behavior…”: Five Questions for Night Comes On Director Jordana Spiro
Opening in theaters today is the debut feature from actress and short-film director Jordana Spiro, whose Night Comes On subversively wraps both a coming-of-age tale and story of sister bonding within a work of hardboiled revenge. Dominique Fishback, the breakout star of HBO’s The Deuce, plays Angel, a teen who, after being sprung from juvenile detention, trades sex for a handgun and hits the road, traveling towards the man who murdered her mother years ago. She picks up her younger sister, Abby, from her foster home, and as their relationship is teased out, the film’s rhythms shift, with the hours […]
by Scott Macaulay on Aug 3, 2018 -
“I Had to Face My Phobia of Using Lights”: DP Hatuey Viveros Lavielle on Night Comes On
For her first directorial feature following three shorts, Night Comes On, actor Jordana Spiro reteamed with DP Hatuey Viveros Lavielle. The feature follows a young woman just released from juvenile prison (Dominique Fishback of The Deuce), whose plans are derailed when she’s unexpectedly reunited with her 10-year-old sister (newcomer Tatum Marilyn Hall), who’s been placed in foster care. Prior to the fest, Lavielle described her collaboration with Spiro and affinity for natural light as forces shaping Night Comes On. 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 […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Jan 26, 2018 -
“Balancing the Tone Between Quiet Subtlety and Flourishes of Style”: Editor Taylor Levy on Night Comes On
Jordana Spiro has appeared as an actor on Ozark, The Good Wife, Dexter and a number of other TV series. She makes her debut as a feature film director with Night Comes On, a film she also co-wrote with Angelica Nwandu, the founder of the Instagram-based company The Shade Room. The film tells the story of two troubled sisters: Angel (Dominique Fishback) and Abby (Tatum Marilyn Hall). Spiro hired Taylor Levy, an additional editor on the 2017 Sundance title Brigsby Bear, to edit the film. Before its five screenings at Sundance 2018, Levy spoke with Filmmaker about what drew him to the […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Jan 26, 2018 -
“This Beautiful and Wild Community that Exists in Film”: Director Jordana Spiro | Night Comes On
As you made your film during the increasingly chaotic backdrop of the last year, how did you as a filmmaker control, ignore, give in to or, conversely, perhaps creatively exploit the wild and unpredictable? What roles did chaos and order play in your films? The beautiful thing about chaos in film for me is the reminder of how much of a team sport it is. Right now, I am thinking of a particular moment in our shoot. There is a main sequence in the film that takes place in one house. As a kind of a road trip film, we […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Jan 25, 2018 -
Jordana Spiro at the Sundance Directors Lab, Part 2
[Jordana Spiro’s first blog post can be found here.] I was directing my last scene for the lab. It was set in a tiny bathroom and the only place to be out of the camera’s view was the small bedroom on the side with the equipment. After the actors finished a take, the bedroom door opened and Robert Redford asked if he could join me and watch for a while. Sure you can, Robert Redford. We settled in together on the twin bed to watch the small monitor as the actors went for another take and then we talked through […]
by Jordana Spiro on Jul 8, 2014 -
Jordana Spiro at the Sundance Directors Lab
A little while ago I was sent an email asking me to write this blog sharing my experience at the Sundance Directors Lab. I pretended I didn’t receive it. Communicating in first person without a script is not fun for me. As an actress, I am comfortable doing things in front of a crowd, and I ventured into writing/directing because my longing to express myself is strong. However, to do so without it being through something like the mechanism of film can turn me into a jumble of over-thinking nerves and desire to be liked. Fearlessness is a sexy, powerful […]
by Jordana Spiro on Jun 18, 2014
