Sundance Film Festival
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“The Biggest Challenge Facing Producers and the Film Industry at Large Is an Unhealthy Relationship to Labor”: Producer Jesse Hope on A Love Song
Max Walker-Silverman’s A Love Song pits a pair of reconnected childhood sweethearts—both now widowed—against the backdrop of an intimate American West. Shot in rural Colorado in the midst of the COVID pandemic, the film required precautions in excess of what was stipulated in then-new union guidelines, necessitating everyone involved to enter and form a “bubble” for the duration of production. First-time producer Jesse Hope discusses the difficulties and rewards of such an approach and how his experience working on sets with directors like Quentin Tarantino and the Coen brothers prepared him to take the reins. Filmmaker: Tell me about the […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Jan 28, 2022 -
“There Are Sequences That Still Make Me Shudder”: Editor David Pelegrín on Piggy
Piggy‘s protagonist, Sara, is a victim of intense bullying who one day watches as an unknown man kidnaps her tormenters. When the police begin to investigate, Sara remains silent, and as the film continues her relationship to the unknown man, equally repelled and thankful, complicates. Editor David Pelegrín remarks on the importance of keeping the film close to Sara’s perspective and of the potential follies of relying on test screenings. Filmmaker: How and why did you wind up being the editor of your film? What were the factors and attributes that led to your being hired for this job? Pelegrín: […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Jan 24, 2022 -
Sundance 2022 Critic’s Notebook: Fire of Love, Every Day in Kaimukī and Shorts
Derrida’s “archival turn” of the ’90s has officially taken over mainstream documentary filmmaking—a trend that has been covered in general interest thinkpieces in Indiewire as well as in academic scholarship, and one that’s proven more lucrative than I could have ever imagined. For the second year in a row, Sundance opened its U.S. Documentary competition selections with a blockbuster archival film, and National Geographic Documentary Films won the bidding frenzy for Sara Dosa’s Fire of Love with a “mid-seven figures” purchase almost a year after reports that 2021 Sundance “Day One” film Summer of Soul sold for north of $12 […]
by Abby Sun on Jan 24, 2022 -
“Be as Sincere About the Complexity and the Ambiguity of Our Emotions as Possible” | Carlota Pereda, Piggy
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 felt the need to be more honest, more truthful to the nature of my characters, to dig deeper into the theme of my movies. It […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Jan 24, 2022 -
“We Wanted to Avoid the Usual Thriller Look”: Rita Noriega on Piggy
Piggy follows a heavily bullied teen living in a small Spanish Town sees her tormenters kidnapped. Feeling grateful for the perpetrator who saved her, she refuses to tell police what she saw. Horror and social commentary are inseparable in Piggy, which tackles questions of justice and small-town morality. Below, cinematographer Rita Noriega emphasizes how she avoided aesthetics more commonly associated with thrillers and how the film has changed since its first incarnation as a short film. 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 24, 2022 -
“The ‘COVID Coordinator’ Became an Essential Team Member” | Kathleen Hughes & Abigail Disney, The American Dream and Other Fairy Tales
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? Disney: Early in the pandemic, I descended pretty quickly into an identity crisis as a filmmaker. I wondered what would happen to film when it can […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Jan 24, 2022 -
“The Problem Is Getting More and More Urgent”: Editor David Cohen on The American Dream and Other Fairy Tales
Abigail E. Disney, the granddaughter of Walt Disney Company co-founder Roy O. Disney, has spoken out against the treatment of Disney employees and the compensation of Disney executives in the past; with The American Dream and Other Fairy Tales, she and co-director Kathleen Hughes investigate the poor working conditions and hand-to-mouth living of Disneyland workers and the riches of Disney CEO Bob Iger. Editor David Cohen explains how he shaped the footage into a narrative and the constant evolution of Abigail Disney’s role in front of the camera. Filmmaker: How and why did you wind up being the editor of your […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Jan 24, 2022 -
“I Was Just Desperate to Bottle up My Wonderful Dad Somehow”: DP Ondi Timoner on Last Flight Home
After a patient in California makes a Death With Dignity request, there is a 15-day wait until that request can be filled. Ondi Timoner’s Last Flight Home was filmed during that period, when Timoner’s father said his final goodbyes to his family. As Timoner, who also served as the director of photography, describes, she attempted to be as unobtrusive as possible while filming, but her footage captures the pain of losing a loved one, as well as the solace a family finds in itself in such moments. Filmmaker: How and why did you wind up being the cinematographer of your […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Jan 24, 2022 -
Sundance 2022 Critic’s Notebook: Dos Estaciones, Meet Me in the Bathroom
In the opening sequence of Juan Pablo González’s second feature, Dos Estaciones, DP Gerardo Guerra’s Steadicam roves a tequila farm’s fields as workers chop down agave plants; when they pause for lunch, the camera pans equally slowly, seemingly without planning, to bring whoever’s speaking into frame. In these opening moments, Dos Estaciones could be any one of a number of post-Lisandro Alonso films composed of tracking shots, slow pans and nonprofessional performances by Latin American laborers, differentiated only by the skill and specifics of their execution. A static shot then introduces farm owner, Maria Garcia (Teresa Sánchez), trying and failing to start her […]
by Vadim Rizov on Jan 24, 2022 -
“I Feel So Blessed That Somehow My Father’s Brilliance Was Captured”: Editor Ondi Timoner on Last Flight Home
When Ondi Timoner began to film her family and her father as he waited the obligatory 15 days before opting for death with dignity, she never intended to make a feature-length documentary. As she spent more time with the footage, however, she realized that she had captured something that is paradoxically both rare, in that it is infrequently discussed and depicted, and universal, in its confrontation of death. Timoner answered questions about undergoing that journey and what she learned as she repeatedly watched and edited the scene of her own father’s death. Filmmaker: How and why did you wind up […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Jan 24, 2022
