Wyatt Garfield
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“A Very Fine Line Between Realism and Surrealism”: DP Wyatt Garfield on Nine Days
In Edson Oda’s Nine Days, five personified souls outside of the realm of our reality compete for the opportunity to be born on Earth. A man named Will (Winston Duke), who once experienced being born, judges the competitors over the course of nine days—only one will be allowed to continue their existence, while the other four will cease to exist. Cinematographer Wyatt Garfield details the unique cinematic language of Nine Days for Filmmaker. 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 […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Feb 3, 2020 -
“Doing a Shot List is One Thing, Bringing It Alive is Something Else”: Kent Jones on Diane, Understanding Costume Design and Tax Incentives
Best known as a critic and programmer, Kent Jones has also made documentaries for years, but Diane is his first narrative feature. Written specifically for Mary Kay Place, Diane begins as a seemingly modest, naturalistic, one-day-at-a-time portrait of a woman grounded in her family life. Volunteering gives her days structure, while trying to take care of her drug addict son undermines that structure; walking that fine line is a challenge. The centerpiece of this hard-earned naturalism is a scene with Diane, friends and family in a kitchen—a long exchange that feels intensely lived in. In its last third, Diane goes in a different, […]
by Vadim Rizov on Mar 28, 2019 -
Gabe Klinger on Shooting Porto on Multiple Film Gauges, Approaching Sex Scenes and Manoel de Oliveira’s Influence
After taking home the Best Documentary prize from the Venice Film Festival for Double Play: James Benning and Richard Linklater, critic-turned-director Gabe Klinger’s first scripted feature is the fractured, woozy love story, Porto. Set in the titular Portuguese city, it dramatizes in non-linear fashion the shared experiences of a rail-thin American nomad, Jake (Anton Yelchin, in a hypnotic parting performance), and a charming local woman, Mati (Lucie Lucas, making her feature starring debut). Porto debuted at the San Sebastián International Film Festival in late September and followed with showings at the Zurich Film Festival, where I was able to catch up with him […]
by Carson Lund on Oct 11, 2016 -
Booted: Jonas Carpignano’s Mediterranea
A crushing scene in the intense Mediterranea, the first feature by New York City native Jonas Carpignano, exemplifies the nearly unbridgeable chasm that separates recent black African migrants from their reluctant white hosts in contemporary Italy, where the filmmaker has lived for the past five years. Ayiva (Koudous Seihan, an immigrant himself and currently an advocate for migrants’ rights), the single father of a seven-year-old daughter and a recent arrival from Burkina Faso, rides in a truck driven by his boss, Rocco (Davide Schipilliti), on whose estate in the Calabrian town of Rosarno — near the toe of the geographical […]
by Howard Feinstein on Nov 19, 2015
