Sundance Film Festival 2018
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DP Noah Greenberg on Chloë Sevigny and Kristen Stewart-Starring Lizzie Borden Drama Lizzie
The 1892 murder of Lizzie Borden’s father and stepmother has inspired numerous books, TV movies and even stage musicals but few feature films. That changes with the arrival of Lizzie from director Craig William Macneill. His film pairs two of the leading actresses of American independent cinema: Chloë Sevigny as Borden and Kristen Stewart as Bridget, her live-in maid and kindred spirit. Lizzie debuts in competition at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival. Prior to its premiere, Filmmaker spoke with cinematographer Noah Greenberg (Most Beautiful Island) about the film’s naturalistic (and claustrophobic) visual palette. Filmmaker: How and why did you wind up being […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Jan 19, 2018 -
“My Own Feeling of Unease in Living with and on the Internet”: Director Bo Burnham | Eighth Grade
As you made your film during the increasingly chaotic backdrop of the last year, how did you as a filmmaker control, ignore, give in to or, conversely, perhaps creatively exploit the wild and unpredictable? What roles did chaos and order play in your films? Chaos was pretty much the name of the game for our film. Our film concerns two very specific and incredibly chaotic times: eighth grade and right now — and we wanted to portray those times honestly. Not to interpret what was happening and provide answers, but to capture what’s happening and pursue the feeling of not […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Jan 19, 2018 -
Sundance 2018 Critic’s Notebook, Day 1: Our New President, Three Identical Strangers
Two things shape my Sundance coverage this year — one purely personal, the other macro. The personal was recently reading Christian Metz’s Film Language, the kind of text normally consumed in undergrad cinema studies (not my major) but belatedly a worthwhile book all the same; I wanted some new tools to think about movies, and this fit the bill. The opening essays are recognizably Barthes-ian contemplations of i.e. what makes the moving image more plausible than a still image and the middle gets mired in a lot of precise definitions of paradigmatic vs. syntagmatic, but the finale is a surprisingly fiery, […]
by Vadim Rizov on Jan 19, 2018 -
“Chaos Was Our Mantra”: Director Daryl Wein | White Rabbit
As you made your film during the increasingly chaotic backdrop of the last year, how did you as a filmmaker control, ignore, give in to or, conversely, perhaps creatively exploit the wild and unpredictable? What roles did chaos and order play in your films? Chaos was our mantra for White Rabbit. We decided early on we wanted to embrace the unknown. To literally and figuratively go down a rabbit hole. This meant, that even though we knew the basis for our story, which was an exploration of Asian American identity, LGBTQ issues and female gender dynamics, anything was possible. Invention […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Jan 19, 2018 -
“Modern-Day Slavery is Happening in our Neighborhood….”: Bernadett Tuza-Ritter on her Sundance Debut Feature, A Woman Captured
Making its U.S. premiere at Sundance in the World Cinema Documentary Competition, A Woman Captured is the remarkable debut feature doc from Hungarian filmmaker Bernadett Tuza-Ritter, who stumbled upon a horrifying story in her native country hidden in plain sight. Marish is a housekeeper in her early 50s, though her hard-knock life has aged her considerably. She has spent over a decade cooking, cleaning and serving, mostly as a human punching bag, both verbally and physically, to a mystery woman of indeterminate wealth who remains off-screen. That woman, Eta, who we hear but never see, has allowed Tuza-Ritter access to […]
by Lauren Wissot on Jan 19, 2018 -
“The More I Embrace Chaos, the Better”: Director Narcissister | Narcissister Organ Player
As you made your film during the increasingly chaotic backdrop of the last year, how did you as a filmmaker control, ignore, give in to or, conversely, perhaps creatively exploit the wild and unpredictable? What roles did chaos and order play in your films? I have always employed and celebrated capital-C Chaos in my work, perhaps it’s a reflection of the world I find myself in, perhaps it’s a result of Chaos on many levels, both good and bad, being a constant in my family life. In specific terms, Chaos was my muse and my guide in the documenting of […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Jan 19, 2018 -
Documentary DP Tim Cragg on the Sensational Family Saga of Three Identical Strangers
Three men make a remarkable discovery in Three Identical Strangers, a new documentary premiering at Sundance from Tim Wardle. The men, all strangers, learn that they are in fact identical triplets separated at birth. Wardle chronicles this real-life saga through dramatizations from the ’70s and ’80s, present-day documentary footage and studio interviews. To shoot the film, Wardle hired Tim Cragg, a DP with more than 40 credits as a documentary cinematographer. Cragg spoke with Filmmaker ahead of the film’s six screenings at Sundance about the challenges of filming Three Identical Strangers. Filmmaker: How and why did you wind up being […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Jan 19, 2018 -
Kamau Bilal on Serving as Director and DP for Documentary Short Baby Brother
Missouri-based filmmaker Kamau Bilal chronicles his brother’s move back home to his parents’ house in Baby Brother, a documentary short that premiered at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival. A documentary DP, editor and director, Bilal’s recent work includes shooting Abortion: Stories Women Tell for HBO. Below, Bilal discusses the traits of a “cinematic film,” the influence of Ramin Bahrani’s Chop Shop and his concerns on exploiting a documentary subject. Filmmaker: How and why did you wind up being the cinematographer of your film? What were the factors and attributes that led to your being hired for this job? Bilal: For this film I operated […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Jan 19, 2018 -
Stop-Motion DP Tristan Oliver on Creating a Behind-the-Scenes VR Short for Wes Anderson’s Isle of Dogs
UK-based cinematographer Tristan Oliver has worked on stop-motion features, shorts, music videos and commercials for more than 20 years. Oliver served as DP on Fantastic Mr. Fox, Chicken Run and Wes Anderson’s forthcoming Isle of Dogs. For that last feature, Anderson also tapped Oliver to shoot a VR short on the making of the film, which enters theaters on March 23. Oliver spoke with Filmmaker about the cameras used on the film, translating Anderson’s aesthetic to stop-motion and the film as “an homage to Japanese cinema.” The short will screen as part of Sundance’s New Frontier program. Filmmaker: How and why […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Jan 18, 2018 -
“It Must’ve Driven My Family Insane”: Reinaldo Marcus Green | Monsters and Men
As you made your film during the increasingly chaotic backdrop of the last year, how did you as a filmmaker control, ignore, give in to or, conversely, perhaps creatively exploit the wild and unpredictable? What roles did chaos and order play in your films? I’m a zero-inbox kind of guy. I can’t have widget notifications on my phone, they drive me insane. So, in general, I like to get ahead of things before they get ahead of me. As Negro Leagues pitcher Satchel Paige said, “Don’t look back, something might be gaining on you.” I’ve always attributed that quote to […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Jan 18, 2018
