By Yun-hua Chen. Every time we meet the standard expectation of what the film should be, or shouldn’t do, we kind of push it a little harder until it comes to this devastating end. I think a lot of people aren’t always prepared for it.” In The Long Walk, the […]
Bruce Willis: One-Day Wonder – An Interview with Edward Drake on Gasoline Alley
By Ali Moosavi. Pay [Bruce Willis] a million bucks for one or maximum two days work…. Though you may only have eight or nine minutes of useable footage, you follow certain rules: show [him] very early in the film, use him in as many locations as you can.” If you’ve […]
Of Matriarchs and Magic: Kate Dolan on You Are Not My Mother
By Alexandra Heller-Nicholas. I hate the use of “strong” as a constant descriptor for female characters, it feels so one-dimensional…. I just took inspiration from all the women I’ve known in my life and they can be strong, but also weak, they can be stubborn but also thoughtful.” It’s Samhain […]
Environmental Factors: An Interview with Filmmaker John Andreas Andersen on The Burning Sea
By Anees Aref. I wanted the environments to feel real and the people to feel real. As a director it’s a chance to take, because the audience is so used to seeing there has to be a bad guy, to create the classic conflict there has to be some idiot. […]
A “Spiritual Comedy”: An Interview with Jöns Jönsson on Axiom (Berlinale 2022)
By Yun-hua Chen. It’s always very hard to put these labels on films. It’s easier to come up with new labels that didn’t exist before, and that is why I call the film a spiritual comedy. There is humor in it. There are absurd and funny situations. And adding thriller? […]
A Creative Hunger: Actor/Writer Kelly Murtagh on Shapeless
By Alexandra Heller-Nicholas. The tone does feel hard to put into words, I think, because Shapeless is so experiential…. Eating disorders can seduce, seeping in subtly, promising relief. You fall for it, just one time. And then another….” “Lived experience” is increasingly becoming one of those descriptors that overuse is […]
Against the “Purity Laws of Cinema”: An Interview with Isabelle Stever on Grand Jeté (Berlinale 2022)
By Yun-hua Chen. The gender concept is now so flexible. And that, I find quite appealing. The not quite so ordinary thing in this film is that here a woman is the perpetrator, and the story is told from her perspective and this perspective remains unpunished.” German director Isabelle Stever’s […]
Sting in the Tail: Filmmaker Avalon Fast on Honeycomb (Slamdance)
By Alexandra Heller-Nicholas. These girls were actively looking for a way out, and to create separation between themselves and the world they gladly left behind. I think they felt more comfortable living in their new world the way they wanted, and controlling when others were allowed to experience and judge […]
Last Survivors Off the Grid – An Interview with Drew Mylrea and Sunil Perkash
By Ali Moosavi. They believe the world is going to end in a nuclear war and they set up places off the grid that are self-sustaining. We took that idea and it evolved into a story about a man for whom the Armageddon was really a metaphorical Armageddon in which […]
TV Divas and Armani Archfiends: Amanda Kramer on Give Me Pity! (IFFR 2022)
By Alexandra Heller-Nicholas. Give Me Pity! is a natural progression to the previous work because it pushes the idea of artificial space further. We’re located on a stage meant to look and feel like a stage. The film is about a consummate performer performing a performance.” Sissy St. Claire is a […]