Sundance Film Festival 2025
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“We Wanted To Play with This Line Between Artifice and Reality”: DP Eric Yue on Atropia
Atropia takes place at a military role-playing facility when the real emotions between an actress and a soldier role-playing an insurgent begin to complicate the establishment’s purpose. The film, premiering as part of the U.S. Dramatic Competition, is the feature debut of director Hailey Gates after playing in front of the camera in Twin Peaks: The Return, Challengers and Uncut Gems, among others. Eric Yue (I Saw the TV Glow, A Thousand and One) served as Atropia‘s cinematographer. Below, Yue discusses navigating the film’s separate levels of reality through lighting and camera technique. See all responses to our annual Sundance cinematographer interviews here. Filmmaker: What were […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Jan 25, 2025 -
“A Way to Capture the Spirit of the Times”: DP Pavel Talankin, Mr. Nobody Against Putin
Pavel Talankin, a teacher at a small town in the Ural Mountains, found himself in an extraordinary situation when Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine led to the militarization of his school. He began filming his life and the changes around him, and that footage became the basis for Mr. Nobody Against Putin. Mr. Nobody Against Putin will premiere as part of the 2025 Sundance Film Festival’s World Cinema Documentary Competition. Talankin, the film’s co-director and cinematographer, sheds some light on what spurred him to begin filming below. See all responses to our annual Sundance cinematographer interviews here. Filmmaker: How and why did you […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Jan 25, 2025 -
“You Have to Give It the Love It Needs”: Editor Matthieu Bouchard on Two Women
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“The Beginning of A Very Powerful Artistic Exchange” | Chloé Robichaud, Two Women
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“Our Communication Had Been Restricted” | David Borenstein, Mr. Nobody Against Putin
Films are made over many days, but some days are more memorable, and important, than others. Imagine yourself in ten years looking back on this production. What day from your film’s development, production or post do you think you’ll view as the most significant and why? The making of our film is a story as epic as the film itself. From my perspective, it’s filled with unforgettable moments: the first time I connected with Pasha in Russia, the trust-building conversations we shared over the phone and the nerve-wracking security incidents that kept us awake through long, tense nights. The most […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Jan 25, 2025 -
“Editorially It Was Similar to Quilt-Making”: Brittany Shyne on her Sundance-Debuting Seeds
While “stunning directorial debut” is an overused description that seldom lives up to the Sundance hype, in the case of Brittany Shyne’s Seeds it’s also quite precise. The lush, B&W-shot doc is a gorgeous portrait of what may very well be the last in a long line of generational Black farmers in rural Georgia, one in which Shyne’s camera serves as both portal and means of preservation. By quietly and patiently embedding with two extended families in the small town of Thomasville, Shyne is able to capture everything from the languid rhythm of daily work, from harvesting cotton to repairing […]
by Lauren Wissot on Jan 25, 2025 -
“An Entertaining Film About a Very Pressing and Complicated Topic”: Editor Nicolaj Monberg on Mr. Nobody Against Putin
Pasha is a nonconformist and a teacher in a small town in the Ural Mountains who finds his world turned upside down when Russia launches its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Director David Borenstein’s documentary, Mr. Nobody Against Putin, follows Pasha, himself the cinematographer and credited co-director, as he watches his institution transform into a militarized indoctrination center for nationalist ideology. Mr. Nobody Against Putin screens as part of Sundance’s World Cinema Documentary Competition. Below, editor Nicolaj Monberg explains how he balanced the desire for an entertaining film about contemporary Russian politics with the gravity of its subject matter. See […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Jan 25, 2025 -
“I Filmed It, and I Posted It. Now, Watch”: David Borenstein on His Sundance-Debuting Mr. Nobody Against Putin
David Borenstein’s Sundance-premiering Mr. Nobody Against Putin stars Pavel “Pasha” Talankin (also credited as co-director), an “unlikely hero” in an even more unlikely collaboration. A jokey primary school teacher in his Ural Mountains hometown of Karabash (which has the dubious distinction of being one of the most polluted cities on the planet), Pasha spends many days mentoring the kids who use the thirty-something’s open door office as a hangout/safe haven. That is, when he’s not documenting their young lives as the school’s videographer. Which is why things get rather complicated for this pro-democracy, but non-activist, educator. For once Putin decides […]
by Lauren Wissot on Jan 25, 2025 -
“Shooting Vérité Means Embracing the Coincidences”: DP Lars Erlend Tubaas Øymo on Folktales
In the northern extremes of Norway, along the Russian border, is a folk high school that teaches teenagers self-reliance and survival. That school is the subject of Folktales, directed by Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady, who also co-directed Jesus Camp and Endangered, among others, together. Most remarkable about Folktales is its remote location. Below, cinematographer Lars Erlend Tubaas Øymo (Songs of Earth) discusses the challenges of working in the Arctic and walks us through the equipment that made shooting a film at temperatures significantly below freezing possible. See all responses to our annual Sundance cinematographer interviews here. Filmmaker: How and why did […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Jan 25, 2025 -
“A Film Is Like a Puzzle” | Vladimir de Fontenay, Sukkwan Island
Films are made over many days, but some days are more memorable, and important, than others. Imagine yourself in ten years looking back on this production. What day from your film’s development, production or post do you think you’ll view as the most significant and why? In many ways, a film is like a puzzle. It is a slow and gradual process that is often very challenging depending on the number of pieces you’re missing. But because of the story, and the way in which we filmed it—backwards—it was especially true of Sukkwan Island. Roy agrees to spend a formative […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Jan 25, 2025
