Sundance Responses
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“In the Edit Room I Found My Voice”: Editor Helen Kearns on Inventing Tomorrow
Los Angeles-based editor Helen Kearns has cuts seven documentary projects since 2013. She recently served as the editor on Netflix’s The Keepers, the tennis doc Serena and The Music of Strangers, a feature on Yo-Yo Ma’s the Silk Road Ensemble. Her most recent project as editor is Inventing Tomorrow, a doc on the students competing at the world’s largest high school science competition. The film, from director Laura Nix (The Yes Men Are Revolting), screened in competition at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival. Kearns shares her thoughts below on what drew her to the project. Filmmaker: How and why did you wind up […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Jan 29, 2018 -
“Initially it Seemed Impossible”: DP Greta Zozula on Never Goin’ Back
Actor and filmmaker Augustine Frizzell made her debut as a feature director at Sundance this year with Never Goin’ Back, the shaggy-dog story of two teenage friends played by Maia Mitchell and Camila Morrone. Frizzell has appeared as an actor in the films of David Lowery (her husband) in addition to Krisha and a number of shorts. She tapped DP Greta Zozula to shoot the script, which she also wrote. Filmmaker spoke with Zozula ahead of the film’s premiere in the Midnight lineup about the perils of shifting daylight, the influence of Paul Thomas Anderson and the film’s strategic use of handheld camerawork. Filmmaker: […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Jan 29, 2018 -
“The Perfect Time for Us to Be Making this Show”: Creators Josh Feldman and Shoshannah Stern | This Close
As you made your film during the increasingly chaotic backdrop of the last year, how did you as a filmmaker control, ignore, give in to or, conversely, perhaps creatively exploit the wild and unpredictable? What roles did chaos and order play in your films? Josh Feldman: Making our show required both acknowledging, and to an extent, ignoring, the disheartening shift in power in our country’s politics. During the particularly tough days, when the internet was constantly exploding over the latest developments, in the writers’ room we were even more convinced that this was the perfect time for us to be […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Jan 29, 2018 -
“Like a Long Mosaic Music Video that I Didn’t Want to End”: Editor Jason Gourson on Blaze
The first fiction feature film from actor Ethan Hawke since 2006’s The Hottest State, Blaze tells the story of the relatively unsung country musician Blaze Foley. The film’s star, Benjamin Dickey, won the Special Jury Award for Achievement in Acting at the Sundance Film Festival last week. Hawke hired editor Jason Gourson (The Magicians, Glee) to cut his impressionistic biopic. Below, Gourson speaks with Filmmaker about collaborating with Hawke and growing up as the son of a film editor. Filmmaker: How and why did you wind up being the editor of your film? What were the factors and attributes that […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Jan 29, 2018 -
“Any Good Script Deserves its Own Visual Identity”: DP Steven Capitano Calitri on A Kid Like Jake
In the past two years, Silas Howard has directed episodes of the TV series Transparent, This Is Us and The Fosters. He premiered his new feature, A Kid Like Jake, at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival. The film is an adaptation of a 2013 play by Daniel Pearle and stars Claire Danes, Jim Parsons and Octavia Spencer. Howard hired Steven Capitano Calitri – the DP on 30 episodes of Broad City – to shoot the film in New York. Below, Calitri speaks with Filmmaker about his experiences making the film. Filmmaker: How and why did you wind up being the […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Jan 28, 2018 -
“‘Slow Burn’ Was a Phrase We Used Often”: Editor Abbi Jutkowitz Lizzie
Abbi Jutkowitz has worked as an assistant editor on a number of films since 2004, including Super Size Me, The Darjeeling Limited and X-Men: First Class. In 2016 she edited As You Are, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, and she returned to the festival this year with the in-competition drama Lizzie. The film tells the story of Lizzie Borden, the Massachusetts woman who was tried and acquitted of killing her parents in 1892, and stars Chloë Sevigny as Borden and Kristen Stewart as her live-in maid and confidante. Jutkowitz spoke with Filmmaker before the film’s premiere about how she got her […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Jan 28, 2018 -
“The Essence of Cinema Vérité Productions Is Chaos”: Director Matt Tyrnauer | Studio 54
As you made your film during the increasingly chaotic backdrop of the last year, how did you as a filmmaker control, ignore, give in to or, conversely, perhaps creatively exploit the wild and unpredictable? What roles did chaos and order play in your films? As a documentary filmmaker, my favorite approach to storytelling is through the freshness and spontaneity of cinema vérité. With Studio 54, we were presented with the challenge of telling a story built on the unique and intimate friendship between the founding partners, Steve Rubell and Ian Schrager, while grappling with the reality of Steve’s untimely death […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Jan 28, 2018 -
“A Powerful Charge of Life in Front of the Lens”: Director Michael Pearce | Beast
As you made your film during the increasingly chaotic backdrop of the last year, how did you as a filmmaker control, ignore, give in to or, conversely, perhaps creatively exploit the wild and unpredictable? What roles did chaos and order play in your films? I love movies that are made with a compelling sense of design and meticulousness, when the eye of the filmmaker is laser-focused and every expressive element is working harmonically to achieve the maximum impact. When the filmmaker is in an embattled relationship with reality, protecting it from sabotaging their vision, shielding it from its inherent chaos. […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Jan 28, 2018 -
“I Have No Idea How My Little Sony AS7 Camera Survived”: Director Cody Lucich | Akicita: The Battle of Standing Rock
As you made your film during the increasingly chaotic backdrop of the last year, how did you as a filmmaker control, ignore, give in to or, conversely, perhaps creatively exploit the wild and unpredictable? What roles did chaos and order play in your films? I was at the complete mercy of the story. There was no planning or control. I couldn’t go out and plan a shoot, or figure out when the story was over. I had absolutely no idea how long “production” was going to go for. While we battled a pipeline at camp, I shot for eight months […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Jan 28, 2018 -
“A Queer Punk at Heart”: Director Silas Howard | A Kid Like Jake
As you made your film during the increasingly chaotic backdrop of the last year, how did you as a filmmaker control, ignore, give in to or, conversely, perhaps creatively exploit the wild and unpredictable? What roles did chaos and order play in your films? I’ve been making films for a long time now – mostly with friends, mostly on a shoe-string and sometimes renegade, so I’m no stranger to filmmaking chaos and incredible teams that find ways to rise above! One of the amazing things about making A Kid Like Jake was that we were all well-supported, and we assembled […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Jan 27, 2018
