Sujo
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“We Were Very Fortunate to Be Allowed to Shoot There” | Astrid Rondero & Fernanda Valadez, Sujo
Films are made of and from places: the locations they are filmed in, the settings they are meant to evoke, the geographies where they are imagined and worked on. What place tells its own story about your film, whether a particularly challenging location that required production ingenuity or a map reference that inspired you personally, politically or creatively? We think our most significant location was Nemesia’s house, the protagonist’s aunt. It’s the place where Sujo grows up, physically but also spiritually. We have scouted that area for years now: a rural community in the outskirts of Guanajuato, Mexico, Fernanda’s hometown. […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Jan 19, 2024 -
“Simplicity Would Become One of Our Fundamental Rules”: DP Ximena Amann on Sujo
Sujo, the Sundance 2024 World Cinema Dramatic Competition premiere directed by Astrid Rondero and Fernanda Valadez, follows the life of a Mexican boy who is orphaned when his father, a cartel gunman, is killed. Below, cinematographer Ximena Amann, who also shot Rondero’s previous film, The Darkest Days of Us, discusses the challenges and delights of working with children and shooting in a protected natural area with minimal equipment. See all responses to our annual Sundance cinematographer interviews here. Filmmaker: How and why did you wind up being the cinematographer of your film? What were the factors and attributes that led […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Jan 19, 2024 -
“Creating Editorial Iterations Can Often Be Like Smelling Too Much Perfume”: Editor Susan Korda on Sujo
In Sujo, co-directed by Astrid Rondero (The Darkest Days of Us) and Fernanda Valadez (Identifying Features) and premiering at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival as part of the World Cinema Dramatic Competition, the eponymous child is left orphaned when his father, a cartel gunman, is killed. The film then follows the turbulence that echoes throughout his life as he grows older. The film’s editor, Susan Korda, is best known for the Oscar-nominated For All Mankind, but she also edited Rondero’s The Darkest Days of Us and Valadez’s Identifying Features. Rondero and Valadez also worked on each other’s films, making this […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Jan 19, 2024
