Luke Lorentzen
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A Conversation with Luke Lorentzen from Mary Lampson’s The Cutting Room (A Work in Progress)
The following conversation is an excerpted chapter from The Cutting Room, an upcoming book by documentary film editor Mary Lampson tracing the story of a woman building a life and career as an editor in an industry hostile to both women and independent filmmaking. Traveling over the decades through massive changes in documentary storytelling and filmmaking technology, the book revisits her work with some of the great talents of the documentary form while chronicling major technological changes connected directly to her brother Butler Lampson’s groundbreaking work on the development of the personal computer. In a moment when the conversation about documentary film feels all too […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Mar 25, 2024 -
“Each Film I Make Will Require New and Different Ways of Thinking”: Editor Luke Lorentzen on A Still Small Voice
An aspiring chaplain must complete her yearlong residency at NYC’s Mount Sinai Hospital during a particularly dark period for public health in A Still Small Voice, the latest from doc filmmaker Luke Lorentzen. Between 2020 and 2021, Mati conducts visits as part of the hospital’s spiritual care department, navigating the grief, trauma and uncertainly that weighs heavily on these patients—and herself. Lorentzen, who acted as director, cinematographer and editor, discusses his experience cutting the film, which he describes as his “favorite part of the filmmaking process.” See all responses to our annual Sundance editor interviews here. Filmmaker: How and why did […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Jan 31, 2023 -
“I Had To Shoot This Film as a One-Person Crew”: DP Luke Lorentzen on A Still Small Voice
An aspiring chaplain named Mati navigates tragedy, grief and her own bandwidth for handling the incalculable loss of the pandemic in A Still Small Voice, the latest from documentary filmmaker Luke Lorentzen. Finishing her yearlong residency at the spiritual care department in New York City’s Mount Sinai Hospital, Lorentzen captures Mati and her supervisor Rev. David’s fight to maintain hope and warmth between 2020 and 2021, two of the deadliest years in U.S. history. Lorentzen, who directed, shot and edited the film, discusses how his one-person shoot allowed him to blend into the doc’s setting—and gain the trust of subjects—more […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Jan 31, 2023 -
Sundance 2023: A Still Small Voice, La Pecera, Against the Tide
Midnight Family, Luke Lorentzen’s debut feature, was adeptly shot in widescreen by the director/cinematographer/editor, as is follow-up A Still Small Voice, which represents the inverse of its predecessor in several ways. The Midnight Family were a clan of private ambulance drivers in Mexico City, filling in a public healthcare gap for profit, albeit not much of one—chasing patients for payment, eating junk food because that’s all they can afford to fuel shifts on the nocturnal streets of Mexico City, which are obviously more likely to produce memorable images than a hospital’s perpetual faux-daylight. And while Lorentzen’s main subject, Mati Engel, certainly experiences […]
by Vadim Rizov on Jan 23, 2023 -
“Offering Participants the Option to Request Changes or Even Remove Themselves Entirely” | Luke Lorentzen, A Still Small Voice
Every production faces unexpected obstructions that require creative solutions and conceptual rethinking. What was an unforeseen obstacle, crisis, or simply unpredictable event you had to respond to, and how did this event impact or cause you to rethink your film? I started this project interested in further developing my ability to connect and build trust with the people I film. But it became clear that the depth, connection and intimacy that I felt would be central to this story could only happen if participants (chaplains and patients alike) felt safe and comfortable sharing deeply personal moments in front of the […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Jan 21, 2023 -
New Directors/New Films 2019 Critic’s Notebook: The Chambermaid, Midnight Family, Honeyland
Labor was a theme binding many selections at this year’s New Directors/New Films, which concluded this past weekend at the Film Society of Lincoln Center and the Museum of Modern Art. That feels timely, in the wake of the success enjoyed and debates sparked by Alfonso Cuarón’s Roma, about a loyal mestiza housekeeper and nanny caring for a well-off Mexico City family, and the high-profile arrival in the U.S. House of Representatives of progressive firebrand Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a proud former waitress whose working class roots have rattled the Fox News crowd. Not that world cinema attends to trending topics, but […]
by Steve Dollar on Apr 10, 2019 -
Sundance Film Festival 2019: Midnight Traveler, Midnight Family
Let’s talk about empathy and documentary for a moment. A few years ago, during a slack midday period, a pair of young men made me an offer: $10 for 20 minutes of my time. This seemed fair, so I entered a small room and put on my very first VR helmet. For four and a half minutes, I watched a 360 short about the refugee crisis. There was a camp, and I could swivel around in my chair to see all of its dimensions while sad music played over onscreen statics; at the end, I think there was a URL […]
by Vadim Rizov on Feb 6, 2019 -
“I Initially Didn’t Think I Would Be the One to Cut This Film”: Director/DP Luke Lorentzen on Editing Midnight Family
In Mexico City, there are only 45 publicly operated ambulances for a population of nine-million-plus, creating a need filled by private labor. Luke Lorentzen, whose first feature New York Cuts premiered at IDFA in 2015, embedded himself with one privately operated ambulance run as a family business, tagging along night after night. Operating as his own shooter for Midnight Family, Lorentzen’s sophomore feature is a formally controlled, sympathetically embedded portrait of multiple instances of economic inequity (with car chases!). Via email, Lorentzen spoke about his work on the editorial side. Filmmaker: How and why did you wind up being the editor of your film? […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Feb 2, 2019 -
Director/DP Luke Lorentzen on Making Midnight Family as a Solo Shooter (with Two Cameras)
In Mexico City, there are only 45 publicly operated ambulances for a population of nine-million-plus, creating a need filled by private labor. Luke Lorentzen, whose first feature New York Cuts premiered at IDFA in 2015, embedded himself with one privately operated ambulance run as a family business, tagging along night after night. Operating as his own shooter for Midnight Family, Lorentzen’s sophomore feature is a formally controlled, sympathetically embedded portrait of multiple instances of economic inequity (with car chases!). Via email, the director/DP spoke to the challenges of operating two cameras as a solo shooter, depending on Mexico City’s existing nighttime light […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Jan 27, 2019 -
“Sometimes Restraint and Holding Back Yields a Far More Meaningful Result…”: Luke Lorentzen on Sundance Doc Midnight Family
Poetically composed and effortlessly segueing between graveyard-shift stillness and chaotic rides through the darkened streets of Mexico City, Midnight Family is a unique cinematic gem. Director Luke Lorentzen spent nearly three months embedded night after night in a private ambulance run by the Ochoa family, an all-male team who race to the scenes of accidents hoping both to save lives and get paid by those they aid. Filmmaker caught up with the award-winning director to discuss this rare glimpse into an incongruous underworld characterized by equal parts heroic acts and monotonous labor prior to the doc’s January 27th premiere at […]
by Lauren Wissot on Jan 27, 2019
