By Yun-hua Chen. For me the process of making this film allowed me to digest my feelings and experience as a means of catharsis on a collective level with the film crew….” On 4th August 2020, a catastrophic explosion devastated the port of Beirut due to 2,570 tons of ammonium […]
“Rejecting Reality”: Mary Dauterman on Booger
By Alexandra Heller-Nicholas. I come from a commercial background. I’m mostly directing pieces where everyone looks perfect…. I did not want Booger to feel like that at all. It’s raw and disgusting and grimy.” At its most placid, depictions of grief on-screen veer away from excessive physical displays. Gentle weeping […]
“Three Goodbyes”: An Interview with Celine Song on Past Lives
By Yun-hua Chen. Characters that I am trying to create are in general characters that are very thrilled to exist as who they are. So, I think this is really about not making apologies.” Exploring untaken paths and traces of human connections that feel like originating in past lives, Celine […]
Shepherding It to the Finish Line: An Interview with Russell Owen
By Leo Collis. Filmmaker Owen discusses gaining some momentum after a decade of grind. A lot can happen in 11 years. In fact, the last five years alone feels like two lifetimes. It was back in 2012, when I was a bright-eyed intern for Film International, that I first spoke […]
“Playing Innocent Would Have Meant Lying”: From the Introduction to Christian Petzold: Interviews
By Marco Abel, Aylin Bademsoy, and Jaimey Fisher. The following is an excerpt from the Introduction to our volume of interviews with German filmmaker Christian Petzold, entitled Christian Petzold: Interviews and published in the University Press of Mississippi’s Conversation with Filmmakers series. We thank UPM for permission to reprint this […]
Letting Them Be: An Interview with Ali Edwards and Sophia Castuera on August at twenty-two
By Leo Collis. “This isn’t a coming out story. This is just a story about a group of people and who they happen to love. I find that, as an artist, it was important to have Cal just be.” —Ali Edwards Navigating the world is tough at the best of […]
Digital Radicalization: An Interview with Harshad Nalwade on Follower
By Devapriya Sanyal. I wanted to understand what makes some people latch on to a leader or a cause like this to passionately.” Follower, Harshad Nalwade’s debut film which premiered at the IFFR, encapsulates the fight between Belgaum’s two main stakeholders in the state of Karnataka which has long been […]
Interdependent Elements: An Interview with Iranian Film Editor Haideh Safiyari
By Ali Moosavi. In the first place, you must be very patient…. You should know that it is a very difficult and time-consuming job and can affect your health. Meanwhile, you should be sensitive to the social issues in your environment and learn from other forms of art, too.” When […]
The Other Side: An Interview with Sophie Linnenbaum on The Ordinaries
By Yun-hua Chen. We wanted to lean into this classic world of superheroes and create this contrast between the supposed superhero and the ordinaries, which is what this film is about – what is ordinary, what is special? And we try to bring these elements together in this title.” –Sophie […]
Beyond New Romantic: Documentary Filmmaker Kevin Hegge on Tramps! and London’s Subcultural History
By Alexandra Heller-Nicholas. I’ve always found it really irritating how people have this default setting to complain about younger generations, when it’s young people who cultivate change and move things forward. That idea of movement is what the movie is really about.” –Kevin Hegge A superficial glance back at the […]