Leave No Trace
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“Maybe It’s a Filmmaker’s Job to Look for Hope, To Find Examples of When People Do Things Right…”: Writer/Director Debra Granik on Leave No Trace
Following a strong reception at the Sundance and Cannes film festivals, Debra Granik’s latest feature, Leave No Trace, has been placed by critics as the third in a trilogy of films (after Down to the Bone [2004] and Winter’s Bone [2010]) about people living “in the margins” of American society. A less thorough and invested filmmaker may have been tempted to make a reactionary and didactic film about those left behind in Trump’s America, but Leave No Trace is pared back both on the level of its dialogue and in its unwillingness to assign blame to any one party. Granik […]
by Daniella Shreir on Jun 28, 2018 -
“I Never Saw a Shot on Anything Bigger Than a 5″ Monitor”: DP Michael McDonough on Leave No Trace
Cinematographer Michael McDonough met director Debra Granik in 1994, when they were both enrolled at the same NYU film studies class. Leave No Trace is their third collaboration, following Down to the Bone and Winter’s Bone, and also marks Granik’s first narrative feature in the eight years following the latter. Leave No Trace follows father Will (Ben Foster) and 12-year-old daughter Tom (Thomasin Harcourt McKenzie), squatters secretly living in a forest in almost total isolation. When they’re spotted by a hiker, social workers get involved and Tom is torn from the woods, entering the social world and potential friendships for the first time. Prior to […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Jan 30, 2018
