By M. Sellers Johnson. I wanted to address the horror of watching somebody slowly becoming disfigured and losing their grip on sanity…. To me, that was the scary part of the movie and what we really wanted to do.” —Joshua John Miller At the time of its release, the iconic […]
Shrinking Down Tropes to the Everyday: Josh Margolin on Thelma
By Jonathan Monovich. My favorite kinds of movies are ones that can feel relatable and simultaneously big/cinematic. When I can marry those two aspects in an interesting way, I get creatively excited.” Have you ever imagined what it would look like if Jason Statham were replaced by a rebellious grandma […]
A Microcosm of Oppression: The Survivors (Sobreviventes)
By Yun-hua Chen. A fable and a metaphor about coexistence in isolation at the time of slavery and colonialization.” A fable and a metaphor, The Survivors is a tale about coexistence in isolation at the time of slavery and colonialization. Set in the mid-19th century, survivors from a wrecked slave […]
Like Magical Realism: Tomás Gómez Bustillo on Chronicles of a Wandering Saint
By M. Sellers Johnson. Here’s a way to use VFX that feels like magical realism. Like the literature that I had read that uses fantastical elements but doesn’t go into fantasy.” Tomás Gómez Bustillo Set in a rural Argentine village, Chronicles of a Wandering Saint is a darkly comic tale […]
Family Drama in “Real Life”: An Interview on Ghostlight (CCFF 2024)
By Jonathan Monovich. Being a real-life family, we didn’t need to try to create that dynamic like three unrelated actors would, so it made it easier.” To close out the 11th Chicago Critics Film Festival (CCFF), the Chicago Film Critics Association saved the best for last. Ghostlight (2024) written by […]
On an “Interior” Documentary: Filmmaker Rachel Elizabeth Seed on A Photographic Memory
By M. Sellers Johnson. I loved the idea that I could convey the interior of my imagination in my documentary and that it could be anything, like a narrative film, because no one can argue with your imagination. And yet, it’s really my story, and these are real people.” Documentarian […]
Strength in Representation: Filmmaker Jen Rainin on the Queer Doc Ahead of the Curve
By Brad Windhauser. My producing partner, Rivkah Beth Medow, and I kept talking about how frustrated we were with the lack of nuanced, well-told stories that represented strong queer women. We just weren’t seeing very many of them….” Jen Rainin’s excellent documentary Ahead of the Curve (2023), which debuted on […]
Taking Martial Arts Practice to the Movies: Filmmaker Jim Towns and Actor-Producer Jose Luis Torres II on Killer Ex
By Matthew Sorrento. In so many films, heroes have this unlimited, almost inhuman stamina, but anyone who’s done any sparring knows just how fast you get totally exhausted during physical combat. I think being mindful of something like that when directing a fight scene both humanizes a character….” –Killer-Ex Director […]
Forgiveness of the Frontier: An Interview with Viggo Mortensen on Directing The Dead Don’t Hurt
By Yun-hua Chen. I think that, in some sense, forgiveness is more important than revenge. There’s a desire for revenge…. That’s sort of instant gratification for certain kinds of movie fans, but it’s not very interesting or realistic.” The Dead Don’t Hurt, a unique Western imbued with Viggo Mortensen’s distinct […]
A Captivating World of Indigenous Culture: Filmmaker Ivan Sen on Limbo
By Jenny Paola Ortega Castillo. There’s a lot of secrets to all the land in Australia, especially since colonization…. And sometimes the land gives those secrets up if you listen to it. And so this incredible landscape was the inspiration for the characters who are very similar to this damaged […]