Sundance Film Festival
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“They Amplify the Size of Her Eyes, Enhance Every Nervous Tic”: Adam Carter Rehmeier | Dinner in America
Whether capturing or creating a world, the objects onscreen tell as much of a story as the people within it. Whether sourced or accidental, insert shot or background detail, what prop or piece of set decoration do you find particularly integral to your film? What story does it tell? The eyeglasses Patty (Emily Skeggs) wears in the film are one of the more integral props in Dinner in America. They amplify the size of her eyes, enhance every nervous tic, really give the audience a clearer window into how she processes the world around her. On the happy accident side […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Jan 24, 2020 -
“A Metaphor for a Woman’s Rebuilding of Her Broken Life”: Phyllida Lloyd | Herself
Whether capturing or creating a world, the objects onscreen tell as much of a story as the people within it. Whether sourced or accidental, insert shot or background detail, what prop or piece of set decoration do you find particularly integral to your film? What story does it tell? There’s an object on screen that is the beating heart of the film. It’s not there at all in the beginning and it grows inch by inch. It’s a house! A self-build. A metaphor for a woman’s rebuilding of her broken life. It was impossible to work out how to shoot […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Jan 24, 2020 -
“No Object Is More Important Than People, Artists, Community and Love”: Catherine Gund | Aggie
Whether capturing or creating a world, the objects onscreen tell as much of a story as the people within it. Whether sourced or accidental, insert shot or background detail, what prop or piece of set decoration do you find particularly integral to your film? What story does it tell? One object dominates the narrative of my documentary film Aggie: a four-and-a-half foot square canvas painted by Roy Lichtenstein in 1962 called Masterpiece. Who knows exactly what this piece meant to my mother, Agnes Gund, when she bought it in 1976, but like thousands of other contemporary artworks she has collected […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Jan 24, 2020 -
“Objects Are Her Entire World”: Zoé Wittock | Jumbo
Whether capturing or creating a world, the objects onscreen tell as much of a story as the people within it. Whether sourced or accidental, insert shot or background detail, what prop or piece of set decoration do you find particularly integral to your film? What story does it tell? In Jumbo, objects are not just a backdrop, they are the story! From the ride miniatures that Jeanne precociously constructs in the confines of her overtly decorated room to Jumbo, the 15 ton machine that she falls in love with, objects are her entire world. Her bedroom being filled with them, […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Jan 24, 2020 -
“Documenting the Scene on Camera is Sort of Like a Dance With the Subjects”: DP Kristoffer Kumar on The Painter and the Thief
The Painter and the Thief is a documentary that investigates the legitimacy of conventional labels: criminal and victim, vagrant and artist, unstable and rational. It follows Czech painter Barbora Kysilkova, who had a naturalistic work of hers heisted from an Oslo art gallery, as well as Karl-Bertil Nordland, the man convicted for stealing it. Mysteriously, the painting was never recovered, but Kysilkova had a proposition for the man who made her work vanish—could she paint his portrait? What follows is a story about human connection and its infinite possibilities. DP Kristoffer Kumar, who has collaborated with Ree extensively, talks about […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Jan 23, 2020 -
“We Have Around 10 Unplanned Appearances of People Riding Scooters in the Movie”: Carlos López Estrada | Summertime
Whether capturing or creating a world, the objects onscreen tell as much of a story as the people within it. Whether sourced or accidental, insert shot or background detail, what prop or piece of set decoration do you find particularly integral to your film? What story does it tell? Electric scooters. The movie is a love letter to contemporary Los Angeles as told by its youth, and these ended up becoming instrumental pieces in understanding Los Angeles culture today. In addition to being extremely helpful for our cast/crew to quickly move around our many urban locations, we have around 10 […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Jan 23, 2020 -
“Wheelchairs, Crutches and Canes Take on New Shape and Meaning”: Nicole Newnham and Jim LeBrecht | Crip Camp
Whether capturing or creating a world, the objects onscreen tell as much of a story as the people within it. Whether sourced or accidental, insert shot or background detail, what prop or piece of set decoration do you find particularly integral to your film? What story does it tell? The props—or tools—of the everyday lives of people with disabilities are part of the fabric of Crip Camp, present in every scene of the band of campers-turned-friends that our film traces through the 1970’s. In Crip Camp, wheelchairs, crutches and canes take on new shape and meaning: campers aren’t “wheelchair bound” […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Jan 23, 2020 -
“The Main Painting That Is Stolen Is of a Dead Swan”: Benjamin Ree | The Painter and the Thief
Whether capturing or creating a world, the objects onscreen tell as much of a story as the people within it. Whether sourced or accidental, insert shot or background detail, what prop or piece of set decoration do you find particularly integral to your film? What story does it tell? The most important objects in our film are the missing paintings. The film is about a painter and a thief. Two paintings are stolen from Oslo-based artist Barbora Kysilkova, and the police catch the thieves but the paintings are never found. Barbora attends the court case hoping to find clues for […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Jan 23, 2020 -
The Sundance Question: What Prop or Piece of Set Decoration is Particularly Integral to Your Film?
Each year Filmmaker asks all the incoming feature directors at Sundance one question. (To see past years’ questions and responses, click here.) This year’s question: Whether capturing or creating a world, the objects onscreen tell as much of a story as the people within it. Whether sourced or accidental, insert shot or background detail, what prop or piece of set decoration do you find particularly integral to your film? What story does it tell? (Check back daily during the festival — new answers are uploaded each day throughout the festival.) “It is An Object That Should Not Belong to That World”: Maite […]
by Scott Macaulay on Jan 23, 2020 -
Hits & Misses 2019: Surveying the Success of the Sundance Film Festival’s Theatrical Releases
The times, they keep a-changin’. In its immediate aftermath, the story out of Sundance 2019 was its bounteous acquisition market and record-setting sales numbers—from New Line’s $15 million purchase of Blinded by the Light to Amazon Studios’ $27 million splurge on Late Night and Brittany Runs a Marathon. By the summer, a different narrative began to emerge. While these top acquisition titles earned millions of dollars at the box office, they all still under-performed in theatrical release. Then, Amazon Studios’ veteran head of theatrical distribution Bob Berney left the company, a departure that potentially signaled shifting priorities at what had […]
by Anthony Kaufman on Dec 10, 2019
