On Leaning into Emotions: An Interview with Catherine Hardwicke

By Anna Weinstein. Twilight director Catherine Hardwicke has directed six features since her award-winning debut Thirteen in 2003. Her most recent film, Miss You Already, is now in theaters, starring Toni Collette and Drew Barrymore and written by British screenwriter and actress Morwenna Banks. It’s unlikely anyone can escape this film without […]

The Impossibility of Anti-Montage: Sebastian Schipper on Victoria (2015)

By Amir Ganjavie. Various contemporary filmmakers like Aleksandr Sokurov and Shahram Mokri have tried to make features through single continuous takes, introducing creative ways to establish the relationship between digital technology, time, and cinema. Sebastian Schipper is among the latest generation of young directors who has entered the field with Victoria […]

Diva Directors Around the Globe: Spotlight on Anne Fontaine

By Anna Weinstein. French filmmaker Anne Fontaine has written and directed fourteen films since her debut in 1993. Her films, Dry Cleaning (1997), How I Killed My Father (2001), and Coco Before Chanel (2009) brought her international attention as a writer-director, and her film Nathalie (2003) was adapted into Atom […]

Society’s Ailment(s): Sanna Lenken on My Skinny Sister

By Amir Ganjavie. Filmmaker Sanna Lenken’s debut feature, My Skinny Sister, concentrates on the societal problem of the eating disorder anorexia by investigating the love-hate relationship between two sisters. The winner of the Crystal Bear at Berlinale as well as an audience award at the Goteborg Film Festival, My Skinny […]

Emptying Myself: Doona Bae on Performance and A Girl At My Door

By Paul Risker. The art of film performance offers an actor the chance to explore identity in an intimate medium. But there are those characters that resonate powerfully with an actor as she undertakes the journey of lifting her role off the page. For Korean actress Doona Bae, A Girl At My Door represented such an encounter. […]

Nordic Cat-and-Mouse: on the Series Øyevitne (Eyewitness)

By Paul Risker. The latest Nordic series Øyevitne (Eyewitness, 2014) adds to the UK audience’s seemingly insatiable demand for foreign language crime drama, particularly from the Nordic sphere. With yet another strong female character whose strength emerges through less her physical prowess and more her cerebral and spirited personality, Øyevitne’s […]