Sundance Film Festival 2015
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“Fear Will Keep Me Cool and Calm”: The Chinese Mayor | Producer Qi Zhao
What fear — whether it’s personal, or one related to the development, financing, production or distribution of your film — did you have to confront and conquer in the making of your movie? I have learned to be fearless in my career as an independent documentary producer in China. There is almost no public funding to support independent documentaries, there are very few theatrical permits issued to independent documentaries and there is virtually no distribution platform for independent documentary either. If these are the reasons to fear, it will be endless. Personally, fear for me is a mixed feeling of anxiety to […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Jan 22, 2015 -
“The Party Had So Often Been Misportrayed”: The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution | Director Stanley Nelson
What fear — whether it’s personal, or one related to the development, financing, production or distribution of your film — did you have to confront and conquer in the making of your movie? Early in the development phase of this project, I was apprehensive about approaching former Black Panther Party members because the Party had so often been misportrayed by popular media. I had a great fear of being turned down and not having any former Party members be part of the film at all. At some point I decided this was a film that needed to be made and in order […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Jan 22, 2015 -
Five Questions with Mulignans Director Shaka King
Certain to be one of the most intelligent films at Sundance, Shaka King’s Mulignans is four minutes of biting, vicious satire that ably turns the tables on its viewer. A response to the casual and not-so-casual racism of your average gangster film, King and his cohorts commiserate from the stoop of their Bed-Stuy brownstone about the influx of white people in the neighborhood, in thick Italian accents, wild gesticulations and track suits. Even before King’s character is throwing his cigarette butt at a passing white boy or casually calling a white woman the n-word, you sense just how deeply absurd it is that […]
by Sarah Salovaara on Jan 22, 2015 -
“The People Behind the Crimes”: Directors Frida Barkfors & Lasse Barkfors | Pervert Park
What fear — whether it’s personal, or one related to the development, financing, production or distribution of your film — did you have to confront and conquer in the making of your movie? When we first got to Florida Justice Transitions in 2010, we expected to make a film about the parallel society that we had read the sex offenders in this trailer park lived in. Very soon we met the people in the park, and by sitting with them in therapy, talking to them, and getting them to open up about their situation, we learned about sex offences and sex offenders […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Jan 22, 2015 -
“Know Your Beat”: (T)ERROR Director Lyric Cabral Offers Advice on Documentary Pitching on the She Does Podcast
This week on the show, we interviewed photojournalist and documentary filmmaker, Lyric Cabral. She, along with her co-director David Felix Sutcliffe, is premiering her feature-length film (T)ERROR at Sundance this year in the U.S. Documentary category. (T)ERROR is billed as “the first film to document on camera a covert counterterrorism sting,” but the documentary has been in the works for over a decade. Lyric came across the film’s subject, an FBI informant, when she was only 19, but knew she was too young to tackle the story then. Lyric talks about the uncomfortable situations she’s found herself in as a […]
by Elaine Sheldon and Sarah Ginsburg on Jan 21, 2015 -
Learning from The Interview at the 2015 Art House Convergence: Sundance’s Keri Putnam Calls For New Distribution System
This year’s Art House Convergence (AHC), the organization’s 10th annual event, drew 500 delegates from art house cinemas, film festivals, and film distributors to Midway, UT to discuss the state of independent film exhibition in the United States. Over the course of the organization’s first decade, the AHC has grown from a small gathering of two dozen non-profit cinemas seeking new ways to support independent film while building sustainable business models for their theaters into something of a full-blown trade organization. Now it represents the interests of hundreds of theaters (and helps incubate the development of a similar organization for […]
by Tom Hall on Jan 21, 2015 -
The Sundance Question: What Fear Did You Confront in the Making of Your Movie?
Each year Filmmaker asks all the incoming feature directors at Sundance one question. This year, our question revolves around fear. Specifically, what fear — whether it’s personal, or one related to the development, financing, production or distribution of your film — did you have to confront and conquer in the making of your movie? (To see past years’ questions and responses, click here.) We’ll upload the responses individually over the course of the festival. So, as the festival progresses, click the links below. The Sundance Film Festival is being held in Park City, Utah from January 22nd to February 1st. “The People Behind the Crimes”: Directors Frida […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Jan 21, 2015 -
Sundance 2015: The Queer Cinema Landscape
Just to remind everyone what a bellwether of LGBT cinema it is — last year’s Sundance Film Festival brought us the U.S. (and often World) premieres of such exciting LGBT films of 2014 as Love Is Strange, Stranger By The Lake, Lilting, To Be Takei, The Skeleton Twins and the Oscar-shortlisted The Case Against 8 just to mention a few. So basically you can expect that many of the films listed below will become the hits of 2015! This year’s festival runs January 22- February 1 in Park City, Utah. Nearly 120 films will be shown (selected from amongst the […]
by Jenni Olson on Jan 21, 2015 -
Seven Tips for Directors and Producers with Films at Sundance
Over the years, Filmmaker has run several “Sundance Survival Guide” pieces. (One from 2012 we continue to recommend is Alicia Van Couvering’s “Mistakes Were Made.” ) Here, fresh for 2015, is new one from Mynette Louie, President of Gamechanger Films and producer of Land Ho! (Sundance 2014), California Solo (Sundance 2012), and Children of Invention (Sundance 2009). Check back tomorrow for a grab-bag of advice — including several tips we’ve never run before in any form — from several recent Sundance veterans. 1. Empower your crew to promote the film, and show them your thanks. Sundance is not just about […]
by Mynette Louie on Jan 20, 2015 -
Fox Searchlight Acquires Noah Baumbach’s Sundance-Bound Mistress America
Fox Searchlight has struck early, acquiring Noah Baumbach’s highly anticipated Mistress America two weeks before its premiere at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival. As described in the press release, “In Mistress America, Tracy (Lola Kirke) is a lonely college freshman in New York, having neither the exciting university experience nor the glamorous metropolitan lifestyle she envisioned. But when she is taken in by her soon-to-be stepsister, Brooke (Greta Gerwig) – a resident of Times Square and adventurous gal about town – she is rescued from her disappointment and seduced by Brooke’s alluringly mad schemes.” The film is written by Baumbach […]
by Scott Macaulay on Jan 9, 2015
