“We Had to Be Extra Quiet Moving Around”: DP Filip Drożdż on Pianoforte
Pianoforte Founded in 1927, the prestigious International Chopin Piano Competition provides the dramatic stage for Jakub Piątek’s Pianoforte. Tracking some of the talented performers from around the world entering the competition, Piątek’s crowdpleasing documentary, which premiered at Sundance 2023, is lensed by…
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“I Had No Idea How Filmmakers Actually Raise Huge Amounts of Money”: Alison O’Daniel on The Tuba Thieves
The Tuba Thieves, courtesy of Sundance Institute. Photo by Derek Howard. In visual artist Alison O’Daniel’s debut feature The Tuba Thieves, a local news story serves as the impetus for an abstract investigation into the cultural significance of sound, music, communication…
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“The Main Goal Was To Make the Audience Connect With an Unusual Protagonist”: Editor Fàtima de los Santos on MAMACRUZ
MAMACRUZ, courtesy of Sundance Institute. A routine Internet search turned pornographic discovery is what prompts Cruz (Kiti Mánver), a devoutly religious grandmother, to experience a latent sexual awakening. Though she’s initially stricken with a classic case of God-fearing shame, Cruz…
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“The Set Was Built Inside a Real House”: DP Fran Fernández-Pardo on MAMACRUZ
MAMACRUZ, courtesy of Sundance Institute. When family matriarch Cruz (Kiti Mánver) discovers porn during what began as an innocent Internet search, she is awakened to a passionate sensuality that she’s spent her entire life successfully repressing. Unsatisfied by her husband…
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“It’s a Good Thing We Didn’t Shoot in New Zealand”: Writer-Director Laurel Parmet and Producer Kara Durrett on The Starling Girl
The Starling Girl, courtesy of Sundance Institute Telling the story of Jem Starling (Eliza Scanlen), a 17-year-old living in a Christian fundamentalist community in rural Kentucky, Laurel Parmet’s debut feature, The Starling Girl, has been years in the making, Parmet…
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“A Progressive Set of Best Practices That Evolves With the Industry”: The Documentary Cinematographers Alliance
Eden Wurmfeld, Julia Liu, Jenni Morello and Nelson Walker at DCA's Sundance panel. Photo credit: Nausheen Dadabhoy. Despite its recent formation during the fall of 2021, the Documentary Cinematographers Alliance has already put forth a comprehensive guideline of “best practices”…
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“I Was Blind to My Own Blackness by Apartheid’s Design”: Milisuthando Bongela on Milisuthando
Milisuthando, courtesy of Sundance Institute. The self-described South African “writer, editor, cultural worker and artist”—and now debut feature filmmaker—Milisuthando Bongela grew up under apartheid. Yet she also didn’t, at least not within the straightforward narrative of having witnessed a racist…
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“This Film Is Not Just for Disabled People, It Is for Anyone Who’s Ever Felt ‘Other'”: Ella Glendining on Is There Anybody Out There?
Is There Anybody Out There?, courtesy of Sundance Institute. While many non-white, non-straight folks have long lamented underrepresentation in cinema, Ella Glendining has literally never seen anyone that looks like her on-screen—or off-screen, for that matter. (Yes, other similarly bodied…
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“I Realized That a Sauna Is Not Just for Cleaning the Body, but Also the Soul”: Anna Hints on Smoke Sauna Sisterhood
Smoke Sauna Sisterhood, courtesy of Sundance Institute Debuting January 22 in the World Cinema Documentary Competition, Smoke Sauna Sisterhood is an intimate look at a tradition that UNESCO has added to its “Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of…
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“Independent Media Can Strengthen Tribal Sovereignty”: Rebecca Landsberry-Baker and Joe Peeler on Bad Press
Bad Press, courtesy of Sundance Institute. While freedom of the press has certainly been a newsworthy topic these past few years, those of us in the US can at least take comfort in (i.e., take for granted) the fact that…
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“Emanuele Asked Me to ‘Undertake the Journey’ With Him”: Editor Clelio Benevento on L’Immensità
L'Immensità, courtesy of Sundance Institute. After premiering at the 2022 Venice Film Festival, Italian director Emanuele Crialese’s latest feature L’Immensità makes its way Sundance in the festival’s “Spotlight” section. Co-written by Crialese alongside Francesca Manieri and Vittorio Moroni, the film…
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“We Needed To Embrace a Certain Amount of Ugliness”: DP Dustin Lane on Sometimes I Think About Dying
Sometimes I Think About Dying, courtesy of Sundance Institute. Daisy Ridley stars in Sometimes I Think About Dying, directed by Rachel Lambert and co-written by Kevin Armento, Stefanie Abel Horowitz and Katy Wright-Mead. Ridley plays Fran, an office worker who,…
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