Sundance Film Festival 2022
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“It Was Important to Me That VR Felt Like a Euphoric and Cozy Place to Be”: DP Joe Hunting on We Met in Virtual Reality
We Met in Virtual Reality is a documentary shot, as the name suggests, within virtual reality. Director Joe Hunting trains his camera on a range of activities, including pool games, dances and educational classes to tell the stories of a number of couples who met in VR during the COVID-19 lockdown. Hunting, who directed, edited, and shot the film, spoke about his challenges and goals as cinematographer. 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? Hunting: I was a self […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Jan 21, 2022 -
“Restrictions Sometimes Bring to Life Really Great Shots”: DP Greta Zozula on Call Jane
In Phyllis Nagy’s directorial debut Call Jane, Joy’s pregnancy leads to a life-threatening condition. When the medical establishment refuses to help, Joy turns to a clandestine organization called the “Janes” that is based on the real-life Jane Collective. The period piece is heavy on sequence shots, which both posed challenges and enabled the creativity of DP Greta Zozula, who discusses the film below. Filmmaker: How and why did you wind up being the cinematographer of your film? Zozula: I was introduced to Phyllis in the early part of last year. The subject matter was important and I was drawn to the […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Jan 21, 2022 -
“I Didn’t Want to Use Tears as a Way to Communicate”: Isabel Castro on Sundance 2022 Premiere Mija
The perils of being a fledgling musician go deeper than tour burnout and being paid with drink tickets. Isabel Castro’s nonfiction feature Mija, predominantly shot in Southern California, focuses on the unique plight of emerging alternative Latino artists—many of whom must tandemly fight for industry recognition and for largely undocumented family members to evade deportation. As portrayed in Mija, an integral part of the Latino music scene is Doris Muñoz, an up-and-coming music manager who juggles her various professional responsibilities while sponsoring her parents’ application for their green cards. At the film’s start, one of the artists Doris manages is singer-songwriter […]
by Natalia Keogan on Jan 21, 2022 -
“The Experimental Works I Was Already Creating Had Huge Potential to Invent a New Form of Immersive Global Filmmaking” | Joe Hunting, We Met in Virtual Reality
The last two years have prompted much contemplation and reconsideration of the reasons why we make our films as well as the ways in which we make them. What aspect of your filmmaking—whether in your creative process, the way you finance your films, your production methodology or the way you relate to your audience—did you have to reinvent in order to make and complete the film you are bringing to the festival this year? I began my filmmaking journey inside social VR during the fall of 2018, not foreseeing how valuable that endeavor would be. When the pandemic hit, it […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Jan 21, 2022 -
“We Find the Authenticity of Real Locations to Be Such a Huge Factor in Making a Believable and Captivating Movie”: DP Benjamin Kirk on Watcher
Shot on both vacant streets and luxury apartments in Bucharest, Watcher examines a woman uncertain whether to trust her instincts as she begins to suspect that someone—possibly a neighbor—is stalking her. As DP Benjamin Kirk explains, the camera embodies the state of mind of Julia, heightening the audience’s sense of peril, and films by David Fincher and Roman Polanski were touchstones for both Kirk and director Chloe Okuno. 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? Kirk: Director Chloe Okuno and […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Jan 21, 2022 -
“Consideration of Our Own Mortality Provides Our Work With Urgency and Focus” | Phyllis Nagy, Call Jane
The last two years have prompted much contemplation and reconsideration of the reasons why we make our films as well as the ways in which we make them. What aspect of your filmmaking—whether in your creative process, the way you finance your films, your production methodology or the way you relate to your audience—did you have to reinvent in order to make and complete the film you are bringing to the festival this year? The pandemic served as a potent reminder that a consideration of our own mortality provides our work with urgency and focus—and with a decidedly necessary dark […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Jan 21, 2022 -
Sundance 2022 Critic’s Notebook: When You Finish Saving the World
I eased into the opening hours of my second virtual Sundance Film Festival better prepared than at this time last year. The festival, of necessity, pivoted back to online-only mode with so little heads-up time that seasonal staffers evidently learned they were out of gigs at the same time everyone else on Twitter heard about the change of plans—financially devastating for the suddenly unemployed and uncompensated, very regrettable for filmmakers, logistically fairly easy to adjust to for everyone else after a few years’ virtual fest training. This time last year I had a projector, but also roommates and hence the […]
by Vadim Rizov on Jan 21, 2022 -
“The Pandemic Just Exaggerates All the Issues You Already Face in Production to an Almost Comedic Level” | Chloe Okuno, Watcher
The last two years have prompted much contemplation and reconsideration of the reasons why we make our films as well as the ways in which we make them. What aspect of your filmmaking—whether in your creative process, the way you finance your films, your production methodology or the way you relate to your audience—did you have to reinvent in order to make and complete the film you are bringing to the festival this year? Personally, I feel that the pandemic just exaggerates all the issues you already face in production to an almost comedic level… you have to laugh so […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Jan 21, 2022 -
“This Was the First Film I’ve Ever Made Where Every Day of Shooting Started With Dread” | Oliver Hermanus, Living
The last two years have prompted much contemplation and reconsideration of the reasons why we make our films as well as the ways in which we make them. What aspect of your filmmaking—whether in your creative process, the way you finance your films, your production methodology or the way you relate to your audience—did you have to reinvent in order to make and complete the film you are bringing to the festival this year? Having shot a film as vaccinations rolled out in the United Kingdom, and knowing that our project could be doomed if we had an outbreak of […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Jan 21, 2022 -
“Even if You Are Cutting a More Commercial Film, the Inspiration You Can Find From Obscure Films Is Endless”: Editors Jennifer Lee and Maya Maffioli on Master
Master, the debut feature by Mariama Diallo, takes place at the fictional Ancaster College, situated on land once occupied by gallows poles during the Salem witch trials. Blending horror and thriller elements with a critique of racism and privilege, the film follows numerous characters as the college’s façade of gentility begins to unravel. Mixing genres and following a large group of characters means the film could have gone in numerous directions, and editors Jennifer Lee and Maya Maffioli discuss the various incarnations the film assumed throughout the editing process. Filmmaker: How and why did you wind up being the editor […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Jan 21, 2022
