Sundance Film Festival 2013
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A Teacher | Director Hannah Fidell
[PREMIERE SCREENING: Sunday, Jan. 20, 5:30pm — Prospector Square Theatre, Park City] I like to tell people that I moved to Austin, Texas in order to make A Teacher even though nothing about the story necessitates that it needs to be made in Texas. The film is about a high school teacher who has an affair with one of her students. It could have been made anywhere, but after one too many blizzards a few years back, I was looking for any excuse to move out of Brooklyn, at least for a little while. It’s no secret that moving to […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Jan 19, 2013 -
A Young Producer’s Sundance Photo Diary, Day One
I don’t have a film premiering at Sundance this year, though not for the lack of trying. I don’t have an awesome, all inclusive ticket package or badge, and my name doesn’t pop up on guest lists at premiere parties. I am a young producer hustling my way through the arduous independent film landscape and lucky to be at the Sundance Film Festival. I’m here with my film collective, The Spirit Farm, and with a few projects on my slate. I’ve decided to catalog my time at Sundance bouncing between movies and meetings, cocktail parties (that I can squeeze my way […]
by Alexandra Byer on Jan 19, 2013 -
Five Questions with It Felt Like Love Director Eliza Hittman
Coming of age tales are a longstanding mainstay of the Sundance Film Festival, but few films tackle the well-tread genre with the unsentimental eye of It Felt Like Love. The debut feature from filmmaker Eliza Hittman, It Felt Like Love stars first-time actress Gina Piersanti as fourteen-year old Lila, a Brooklyn native who spends her summer pursuing a love affair with an older teen. The film premieres today in the Sundance Film Festival’s NEXT section. Filmmaker: Your previous short, Forever’s Gonna Start Tonight, deals with themes similar to It Felt Like Love. How did your experience making that film, and […]
by Jane Schoenbrun on Jan 19, 2013 -
Manhunt | Director Greg Barker
[PREMIERE SCREENING: Sunday, Jan. 20, 11:30am — The MARC, Park City] Sacrifice? Come on! For the past 18 months I’ve had the opportunity to immerse myself in the fascinating and morally complex world of the CIA’s long search for Osama bin Laden and conflict against al Qaeda — a secret war that began nearly 20 years ago for the small team of extraordinary women inside the CIA, known as “the Sisterhood,” whose stories are at the heart of my film. These are people for whom trust is everything. Very little could be discussed on the phone, and almost every conversation […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Jan 19, 2013 -
Blood Brother | Director Steve Hoover
[PREMIERE SCREENING: Sunday, Jan. 20, 11:30am — Prospector Square Theatre, Park City] Blood Brother was built on of the sacrifices of many people. Personally, I sacrificed time, money, comfort and security. I think I even sacrificed a bit of my fading youth, as aging seemed to speed up over the course of production. But I can’t confidently call these things sacrifices in light of the true sacrifices made by the lives of those featured in Blood Brother. My passion to make Blood Brother created a willingness in me to pay whatever price necessary in order to tell this amazing story. It […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Jan 19, 2013 -
Five Questions with Concussion Director Stacie Passon
Stacie Passon’s Concussion has a logline that might be misleading. The story of a bored, lesbian housewife who covertly takes a job as a high-scale prostitute for women, the film is so much more than that high-concept, basic-cable-ready premise implies. Equal parts darkly comedic social satire and gut-wrenching character study, Concussion is anchored by a stunning performance by character actress Robin Weigert, and marks the arrival of a strong new filmmaking voice in director Stacie Passon. The film premieres today in US Dramatic Competition at the Sundance Film Festival. Filmmaker: For a film from a first-time director, Concussion is quite […]
by Jane Schoenbrun on Jan 19, 2013 -
In a World… | Director Lake Bell
[PREMIERE SCREENING: Sunday, Jan. 20, 5:30pm — Library Center Theatre, Park City] Anybody who’s ever made an independent film will attest that “making sacrifices” isn’t a potential occurrence in the process, but a means to an end. Whether it was re-writes, locations or editorial cuts, babies were slain left and right. I was in a constant state of negotiation with producers, means, and… the world. In that way, I’m no different than anyone else in this business. It’s hard as fuck, which is why not everyone gets to, nor has the audacity to do it. That all said, I became […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Jan 19, 2013 -
Five Questions with Blue Caprice Director Alexandre Moors
Named for the car from which John Allen Muhammad and Lee Boyd Malvo committed the 2002 Beltway Sniper Attacks, Alexandre Moors’ debut Blue Caprice attempts to move past the chilling anonymity of those attacks to get at the motivations and interior lives of its two culprits. The film is intimate and disturbing, as Moors, a French director who has mostly worked in music videos until this point, focuses on the dysfunctional father / son bond formed between Muhammad and Malvo (played by Isaiah Washington and Tequan Richmond, respectively), and digs into the distinctly American mindset that they committed their crimes […]
by Jane Schoenbrun on Jan 19, 2013 -
Gay Film Auteur Travis Mathews Talks Interior. Leather Bar.
San Francisco-based gay filmmaker Travis Mathews built his reputation as one of the leading figures in the latest new wave of gay independent cinema on the back of a series of award-winning intimate, confessional documentary films about young homosexual men, In their Room. His first narrative feature, I Want Your Love, explored gay friends negotiating their way towards and through sexual relationships and featured unsimulated sex. His new film, Interior. Leather Bar, co-directed with the actor James Franco, is just as honest in its depictions. This film within a film begins with a re-imagining of the lost 40 minutes of […]
by Julian Hoxter on Jan 19, 2013 -
Five Questions with Cutie and the Boxer Director Zachary Heinzerling
Cutie and the Boxer functions as a love story about a couple and their devotion to their individual art. Zach Heinzerling’s directorial debut concerns itself with the difficulties of marriage, but also the trials of being an artist. After meeting Ushio and Noriko Shinohara in Brooklyn through a friend, Heinzerling was immediately fascinated by their relationship and lifestyle – two extremely different artists in attitude, age, and craft who have been married and lived together for over 40 years. Cutie and the Boxer came together over five years. Two or three years spent solely on getting to know Ushio and Noriko […]
by Alexandra Byer on Jan 19, 2013
