Sundance Film Festival
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“Without Realizing it, I Made a Movie That Obeyed the Rules of Social Distancing”: Director Jane Schoenbrun | We’re All Going to the World’s Fair
How did events of 2020—any of them—change your film, either in the way you approached it, produced it, post-produced it, or are now thinking about it? My film was shot just before the pandemic (wrapped March 1 2020—what luck!), which is a fact that the few people who have seen it so far sometimes find hard to believe. The movie is quite concerned with isolation. It is about characters who never leave the house, whose main form of social connection happens through screens, who exist in a virtual realm that is sort of real and sort of unreal. While writing […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Jan 31, 2021 -
“Organic Beauty and Inherent Quirks”: DP Nanu Segal on Marvelous and the Black Hole
Kate Tsang’s debut film Marvelous and the Black Hole follows thirteen-year-old Sammy Ko (Miya Cech), who struggles with delinquency shortly after the death of her mother. After meeting Margot (Rhea Perlman), a magician dead set on taking Sammy as her assistant, Sammy reluctantly begins a friendship with her and learns to heal through the expressive art of sleight of hand. DP Nanu Segal explains how they captured the intimacy of a teenage girl’s internal and external worlds and the “meeting of the minds” between Kate Tsang’s script and her own visual approach. Filmmaker: How and why did you wind up being […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Jan 31, 2021 -
“On the First Film We Had Been Arrested, so We Knew This Danger Was Real”: DP Henrik Bohn Ipsen on President
Camilla Nielsson’s President tells the tumultuous story of Zimbabwe’s 2018 general election, the first since the country attained independence that Robert Mugabe was not a candidate. It is in many ways a follow-up to Nielsson’s 2014 film Democrats. DP Henrik Bohn Ipsen discusses the film’s difficult and ephemeral subject matter, and the synergy between his camerawork and Nielsson’s direction. 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? Ipsen: I had worked with director Camilla Nielsson on her previous film Democrats, […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Jan 31, 2021 -
“We Had Found Ourselves in the Fairytale”: Director Salomé Jashi | Taming the Garden
How did events of 2020—any of them—change your film, either in the way you approached it, produced it, post-produced it, or are now thinking about it? By the start of 2020 we had completed filming and had already started editing. Together with the editor Chris Wright, we were shaping a new world where nothing would be stable, nothing and no one could be trusted, where trees could move. We were half way through editing in Berlin, building this surrealistic world, an unreal world, when the pandemic struck. And suddenly, it was as if we were living in our film or our […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Jan 31, 2021 -
“I Drove Out to Texas Alone and Slept in My Car on the Way”: Director Manuel Crosby | First Date
How did events of 2020—any of them—change your film, either in the way you approached it, produced it, post-produced it, or are now thinking about it? We dodged the COVID bullet during production, as we had shot everything before 2020. However, we were halfway through post when everything hit. The majority of our post team lives in Texas, but I live up in Northern California. I needed to get down there to oversee finishing, and flying in a metal tube recirculating airborne viruses for several hours wasn’t going to work. In order to keep things safe and comfortable for the team […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Jan 31, 2021 -
“A Continuing Lesson to Be Patient with Myself”: Director Kate Tsang | Marvelous and the Black Hole
How did events of 2020—any of them—change your film, either in the way you approached it, produced it, post-produced it, or are now thinking about it? Marvelous and The Black Hole is about trying to find light in dark times. My producer and I were in the middle of rushing to finish post for a festival deadline when everything shut down in March. Working on this joyful film during a national crisis and pandemic was a continuing lesson to be patient with myself, keep going, and to really celebrate each win. I hope it brings the audience some hope during difficult times. (Check […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Jan 31, 2021 -
“It Is Always Tempting in Animation to Show More Than You Need to”: Art Director Jess Nicholls on Flee
Deftly merging animation and documentary, Jonas Poher Rasmussen’s Flee tells the true story of a gay Afghan refugee living in Copenhagen since being granted asylum. Art director Jess Nicholls shares how they protected their subject, Amin’s (a pseudonym), identity through the unbounded use of animation, and how to tell a true story through unique mediums. 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? Nicholls: Just to clarify, I’m not a cinematographer but an art director as Flee is an animated […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Jan 31, 2021 -
“Everyone Started Living a Kind of Extended Groundhog Day”: Director Nicole Beckwith | Together Together
How did events of 2020—any of them—change your film, either in the way you approached it, produced it, post-produced it, or are now thinking about it? Everyone started living a kind of extended Groundhog Day when lockdown began, and that feeling was heightened for me as I was watching the same movie, sometimes the same scene or moment over and over and over and over whether I was finishing the edit or working on post. I felt very grateful that the film was kind and hopeful and bittersweet—as the world outside was becoming less and less of those things I […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Jan 31, 2021 -
“The DNA of the Film Becomes Second Nature”: DP Frank Barrera on Together Together
Nikole Beckwith’s surprising romantic comedy Together Together lacks an actual romance. Matt (Ed Helms) decides to have a child despite being single, so he seeks the help of gestational surrogate Anna (Patti Harrison). The two strike up an unlikely friendship, a purely platonic relationship between two self-described loners who gradually learn a thing or two about love. DP Frank Barrera details how his team made difficult seems look effortless and how to film realistic drama. 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 […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Jan 31, 2021 -
“Technology Hasn’t Taken Away the Longing to Hug”: Director Natalia Almada | Users
How did events of 2020—any of them—change your film, either in the way you approached it, produced it, post-produced it, or are now thinking about it? One of many of the long lasting repercussions of COVID is that it radically and fundamentally changed our relationship to technology. Whether to Zoom with grandma or have business meetings, order groceries or clothes, take an exercise class or attend school. We’ve all become dependent not only on the technology in our homes but on the invisible infrastructure that sustains it—by which I mean everything from the fiber optic cables that carry our digital […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Jan 31, 2021
