Sundance Film Festival
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Sundance Dispatch 2: Dina, Quest, My Happy Family
Antonio Santini and Dan Sickles’ Dina is incredibly hard to write about without exposing my underlying biases. Shot by DP Adam Uhl in almost entirely rigorously locked-down static 1.66 (!), Dina tracks the uneasily evolving relationship between its title subject and fiance Scott in the months up to and after their wedding. (She’s the main subject, he the supporting player: the end credits cutely add his name to the title.) Both are, by their own admission and diagnosis, somewhere on the spectrum — where precisely is unclear, as it so often is — and in something like love. The major issue, which becomes increasingly […]
by Vadim Rizov on Jan 22, 2017 -
“Basically What You’re Asking for Is Faith”: Director Michelle Morgan | L.A. Times
During its development, production or eventual distribution, what specific challenge of communication did, or will your film, face? How did you deal with it, or how are you planning to deal with it? For me, the greatest communication challenge that I encountered while working on my film happened during the prep phase, where I was still scrambling to raise funds and cast my leads. This was my first feature and a lot of people just weren’t sure of me yet. And short of surgically implanting someone into my head, it was nearly impossible to convey to them how the film […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Jan 22, 2017 -
Five Questions with Crown Heights Director Matt Ruskin
Colin Warner spent 20 years behind bars for a crime he did not commit. In 1980, police arrested Warner for the killing of a 16-year-old boy in the Brooklyn neighborhood of Crown Heights. His imprisonment, based solely on a mistaken eye witness, robbed him of his freedom from the years of Jimmy Carter all the way to George W. Bush. Warner’s story is the subject of Crown Heights, the second feature film from writer/director Matt Ruskin. The film stars Lakeith Stanfield (Short Term 12) as Warner and Nnamdi Asomugha (Hello, My Name Is Doris) as Carl King, Warner’s best friend who devotes years of his life […]
by Soheil Rezayazdi on Jan 22, 2017 -
“A Prerequisite for Good Filmmaking in China”: Director Jun Geng | Free and Easy
During its development, production or eventual distribution, what specific challenge of communication did, or will your film, face? How did you deal with it, or how are you planning to deal with it? Oftentimes, indie filmmaking in China is something that invites suspicion. You will need to persuade potential collaborators and investors with convincing arguments. For the rest of the process, it could also be true. Chinese indie filmmakers would run into these problems on a regular basis, which is why communicating becomes a craftsmanship. It is of vital importance both in terms of the efficiency and the final result […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Jan 22, 2017 -
“An Act of Resistance against the Flux of Capital”: Editor Yael Bitton on Machines
First-time director Rahul Jain made a strong impression in 2016 with Machines, his documentary portrait of a massive sweatshop in Sachin, India. The film premiered at the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA) and made its U.S. debut this week at Sundance. Praised for its visceral, experiential depiction of manual labor, the film provides a rare glimpse into the textile mills where many of our products originate. Jain hired the Paris-based Yael Bitton as one of multiple editors to give shape to his harrowing footage. Bitton spoke with Filmmaker before the film’s five Sundance screenings about Machines‘ unconventional narrative structure and […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Jan 22, 2017 -
“A Different Kind of Surf Movie”: Director Rory Kennedy | Take Every Wave: The Life of Laird Hamilton
During its development, production or eventual distribution, what specific challenge of communication did, or will your film, face? How did you deal with it, or how are you planning to deal with it? The greatest communication challenge in making Take Every Wave: The Life of Laird Hamilton was how to take a somewhat conventional mode of storytelling – the iconic surf film – and tell it in an unexpected, unconventional way. Most surf films operate like their own contained love stories: Man (or woman) meet wave; Man rides wave; Man reflects on riding wave before going off to ride another. […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Jan 22, 2017 -
“Unexpected, Beautiful Things Began to Happen”: Director John Trengove | The Wound
During its development, production or eventual distribution, what specific challenge of communication did, or will your film, face? How did you deal with it, or how are you planning to deal with it? The Wound was cast almost entirely with non-professional actors who speak Xhosa, a language which I do not understand. In the film they enacted a very nuanced rites-of-passage ritual which I had no first-hand experience of. Despite the support of exhaustive research, excellent script translations and a full-time facilitator on set, I knew that the only hope I had of achieving any kind of life in front […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Jan 22, 2017 -
“A Fiction Film about a Forgotten Region”: Director Felipe Bragança | Don’t Swallow My Heart, Alligator Girl!
During its development, production or eventual distribution, what specific challenge of communication did, or will your film, face? How did you deal with it, or how are you planning to deal with it? I was in a small town on the border of Brazil and Paraguay, trying to convince locals from both sides to work with me on a film, a poetic tale that would bring together actors and non-actors from two areas sharing memories of a war. The effects of the Paraguayan War have lingered and neither side trusts the other. How would it be possible to convince the […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Jan 22, 2017 -
“We Must Continually Declare What Our Film Is About”: Directors Nana Ekvtimishvili and Simon Gross | My Happy Family
During its development, production or eventual distribution, what specific challenge of communication did, or will your film, face? How did you deal with it, or how are you planning to deal with it? As filmmakers we must continually declare what our film is about, and explain the process in which we intend to achieve it. It begins in the funding phase and concludes with the distribution of the film, when you must devise ways to communicate the story to a potential audience. For an artist and filmmaker this process is not necessarily positive, because it can kill your artistic intuition. […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Jan 22, 2017 -
DPs Shaul Schwarz and Christina Clusiau on Big Game Hunting Doc Trophy
Shaul Schwarz and Christina Clusiau are the cofounders of Reel Peak Media, a production company that prides itself on documentary work of both “journalistic integrity and cinematic quality.” Both filmmakers began as photojournalists before making the move to documentary cinema. On Trophy, Schwarz and Clusiau served as DPs with Schwarz acting as director. Their film explores the worlds of big game hunting, breeding, and wildlife conservation. Below, the two discuss these issues ahead of Trophy‘s premiere at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival. Filmmaker: How and why did you wind up being the cinematographer of your film? Schwarz and Clusiau: Since we are directors who started as photojournalists, […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Jan 21, 2017
