FIVE QUESTIONS WITH “THE SURROGATE” DIRECTOR BEN LEWIN

Strictly speaking figures, The Surrogate has been the big Sundance winner thus far. Scooped up by Fox Searchlight for a massive $6 million, the film is already reportedly being groomed for next year’s Oscar race. The first narrative feature from filmmaker Ben Lewin since 1994′s Paperback Romance, The Surrogate tells the true story of journalist Mark O’Brien, a polio stricken man who, after living most of his life in an iron lung, decides to try to lose his virginity. Starring John Hawkes as O’Brien, The Surrogate received a standing ovation at it’s premiere, and it’s already being praised by critics as a light-hearted, accessible crowd-pleaser.

Filmmaker: How did you first come across Mark O’Brien’s story. What inspired you to adapt it?

Lewin: I stumbled across Mark’s article “On Seeing a Sex Surrogate” on the internet. I felt that if I could do on film what he had done to me with his writing, then I could potentially deliver something powerful.

Filmmaker: What kind of research did you do into O’Brien’s medical history? And how closely did you work with people who knew him personally

Lewin: I am very familiar with polio from my own experience and felt I understood Mark’s medical condition pretty well. I worked very closely with Susan Fernbach, Mark’s partner during the last few years of his life, and of course, Cheryl Cohen Greene, the surrogate.

Filmmaker: John Hawkes is a very versatile actor, but this role seems like quite a departure from the work he’s garnered acclaim for. What made you think he was right to play O’Brien?

Lewin: I was deeply impressed with the fact that John Hawkes strove to embrace the real Mark O’Brien as much as he possibly could.  It went beyond delivering a great performance. It became personal. I think he genuinely wanted to do this for Mark.

Filmmaker: Considering the obvious physical limitations, how did you work with John Hawkes and Helen Hunt to develop their on-screen chemistry?

Lewin: I was just there.  They created the chemistry themselves from their intense connection with the script and their determination to … Read the rest

SUNDANCE ANNOUNCES JURY PRIZES IN SHORT FILMMAKING

At a ceremony last night, Sundance announced this year’s short film prize winners. The 2012  shorts jury, which included Beavis and Butthead creator Mike Judge, Pariah director Dee Rees, and TIFF public program director Shane Smith, narrowed down the sixty-four shorts currently playing at the festival to six winners. The big winner was Cutter Hodierne’s fictional Somali pirate expose Fishing Without Nets, which took home the Jury Prize in Short Filmmaking. Meanwhile, Ben and Josh Sadie’s (Daddy Longlegs) The Black Balloon was awarded the US Fiction Prize while Kosovo filmmaker Blerta Zeqiri’s The Return (Kthimi) won the International Fiction Prize.

The Full list of Winners:

Jury Prize in Short Filmmaking: FISHING WITHOUT NETS / U.S.A. (Director: Cutter Hodierne, Screenwriters: Cutter Hodierne, John Hibey) — A story of pirates in Somalia, told from the perspective of the pirates themselves. Said the Short Film Jury of the film, “By approaching a story of epic scope with an intimate perspective, this visually stunning film creates a rare, inside point of view that humanizes a global story.”

Jury Prize in Short Film, U.S. Fiction: The Black Balloon / U.S.A. (Directors: Benny Safdie, Josh Safdie) — The Black Balloon strays from the herd and experiences what life as an individual is like. He explores New York City in the deepest way, seeing all of its characters.

Jury Prize in Short Film, International Fiction: The Return (Kthimi) / Kosovo (Director: Blerta Zeqiri, Screenwriter: Shefqet Gjocaj) — A man comes back from a Serb prison to his wife and son. Much has changed since he was declared missing and continuing where they left off four years ago may not be as easy as it seems.

Jury Prize in Short Film, Non-Fiction: The Tsunami and the Cherry Blossom / U.S.A. (Director: Lucy Walker) — Survivors in the areas hardest hit by Japan’s recent tsunami find the courage to revive and rebuild as cherry blossom season begins. A visual haiku about the ephemeral nature of life and the healing power of Japan’s most beloved flower.

Jury Prize in Animated Short Film:… Read the rest

FIVE QUESTIONS FOR “GOATS” DIRECTOR CHRISTOPHER NEIL

Goats might be Chrisopher Neil’s first feature as director, but he’s worked for years as an acting coach and rehearsal adviser on projects as wide ranging as Adaptation, The Virgin Suicides, and Star Wars: Episode 3 – Revenge of the Sith.  And it’s clear that Neil has accrued quite a stellar reputation among actors, as evidenced by Goats’ impressive ensemble (which includes David Duchovny, Vera Farmiga, and relative newcomer Graham Phillips.)  Based on the quirky debut novel by Mark Jude Proirier (who also wrote the film’s screenplay), Goats is an odd but bittersweet coming of age story.

Filmmaker: How did you first come across Mark Jude Poirier’s novel? What were you first impressions of it?

Neil: I stumbled across the Goats novel by reading a review of it in the New York Times.  My first impression was, “How the hell did this guy know and write my story?!” It was spooky. There were/are so many similarities between Ellis’ story in the novel and my own childhood. In fact, I grew up on a goat farm with a goat-herding step-father and a new-age mother. I ran to the bookstore to buy it. After reading about twenty pages, I knew I had to make it into a film. I showed up to my first meeting with Mark Poirier with my dog-eared copy of the novel in hand and we hit it off. He said, “You know this book better than I do.” I optioned the book myself and that’s how it all began.

Filmmaker: Proirier also wrote the screenplay. How intimately was he involved in the production and post-production processes?

Neil: Mark adapted it and we’ve had a strong, collaborative relationship from the beginning. I still love Mark’s novel as much as the day I first read it, and I wanted to honor it at every step of the filmmaking process. We worked closely on every draft of the script. Mark, who’s from Tucson where the story is mostly set, even took me to the real locations from the book. I also encouraged every actor to read the novel. … Read the rest

PHOTO STREAM: SUNDANCE DIRECTORS, CAST, AND CREW

Celeste and Jesse Forever‘s Question & Answer Portion:

Andy Samberg joked that it was finally nice to be acting in something where he “wasn’t rapping or wearing a bird suit.”

Director Lee Toland Krieger.

Elijah Wood’s co-stars cleared the stage, leaving him alone to answer a question regarding his influences for his gay character. Wood answered that most of the inspiration came from costume designer Julia Caston’s impeccable wardrobe choices.

The End of Love‘s Question & Answer Portion:

Director Mark Webber spoke about the process of making a film with his own son as the protagonist.

The End of Love‘s cast.

For Ellen‘s Question & Answer Portion:

Producer Bradley Rust Gray (left), Paul Dano, and John Heder joined in applauding director So Yong Kim on her achievement.

Beasts of the Southern Wild‘s Question & Answer Portion:

The cast and crew of Beasts, which was acquired at the festival by Fox Searchlight.

The protagonist of Beasts, Quvenzhané Wallis, spoke about the casting process – proving she is just as precocious in real life as she is in the film.

Arbitrage‘s Question & Answer Portion:

The director Nicholas Jarecki, fielded some difficult questions at the Q&A following his film’s screening.

Welcome to Pine Hill‘s Question & Answer Portion at the Slamdance Film Festival:

Director Keith Miller answers questions after the premiere of his feature film at the Slamdance Film Festival, which runs concurrent to the Sundance Film Festival.… Read the rest

WATCH TEN SUNDANCE SHORTS ONLINE, INCLUDING NEW WORKS BY JEREMIAH ZAGAR AND TODD SKLAR

Jeremiah Zagar, the prolific documentary filmmaker behind 2008′s In a Dream is back with Heart Stop Beating: A Body Without A Pulse, a new short screening before Escape Fire this week at Sundance.

Heart Stop Beating is a brief, fascinating look at Billy Cohn & Bud Frazier, two doctors who successfully replaced a dying man’s heart with a mechanical device this past March, proving that human physiology can be supported without a pulse. Over its four minute run-time, the documentary features glimpses into the operating room, as well as interviews with Cohn and Frazer.

Watch it below:

Also available to stream over at Yahoo’s Sundance page are nine shorts screening at this year’s festival.  Viewers can vote for their favorite, with the winner getting a $5,000 “Yahoo Audience Award” prize.

The available shorts include:

’92 Skybox Alonzo Mourning Rookie Card

Jim and Dave, two brothers who don’t like each other very much, are forced to come together when their dad dies in Kansas City. Dave is pretty sure he has an Alonzo Mourning Skybox Series rookie card, but Jim has other ideas. (Dir. Todd Sklar)

Aquadettes

A meditation on life, death, and synchronized swimming. (Dir. Drea Cooper, Zackary Canepari)

The Arm

To keep up with social pressure in a technologically advanced world, Chance starts a texting relationship with Genevieve—a girl he meets at a yogurt shop. But tragedy forces Chance to realize that he was never in a relationship at all. (Dir. Brie Larson, Sarah Ramos, Jessie Ennis)

Dol (First Birthday)

A gay Korean American man yearns for a family life that is just out of reach. (Dir. Andrew Ahn)

The Debutante Hunters

Henley

Una Hora por Favora

Long Distance Information

“CALIFORNIA SOLO” | director, Marshall Lewy

[PREMIERE SCREENING: Wednesday, January 25 9:45 pm –EcclesTheatre, Park City]

I remember watching the end of Hannah and her Sisters as a teenager, when Woody Allen finds out he’s not going to die from a terminal illness and then fails at a suicide attempt. How does he find the will to live again? He walks past a theater where a Marx Brothers comedy is playing, he slips in and loses himself in the magic of Duck Soup, and all his problems melt away.

Of course, right? I mean, what better way for a person to celebrate life than to go sit in a dark room in the middle of the day for two hours and watch other people hit one another over the head on a giant screen?

I used to get choked up at the end of Hannah and her Sisters every time I watched it – which was far more frequently than your average teenager, by the way – because I identified with how Woody Allen feels about movie-going at that moment. I found no better cure-all than to slip into a sparsely crowded screening of some obscure film at the Brattle or Film Forum, and get lost in it. I wanted to make movies like the movies I loved when I grew up.

But following that idyllic dream into adulthood turns out to be a somewhat masochistic choice.  I bet every filmmaker at Sundance can attest that it’s hard to get a movie made, it can be tough to make a living as an independent filmmaker, and when you are lucky enough to make a film, it doesn’t quite turn out the way you thought it would. There’s very little about the whole thing that’s romantic.

I don’t even get lost in movies the way I used to, and that’s partly because now I’m a person who makes them. I’m jealous of people who can still be transported by a movie, their problems melting away. Instead of movie magic, I see shot selections and story beats and what equipment they had.

My romantic attachment to movies … Read the rest

“PRICE CHECK” | director, Michael Walker

[PREMIERE SCREENING: Wednesday, January 25 6:30 pm –Eccles Theatre, Park City]

When you are in the film business, someone, let’s say your dentist, will inevitably tell you a story that they think is a great idea for a movie. But they don’t know how to write a script, they just know how to clean teeth, so they want you to write it for them. If I had an idea that I thought would make a good novel, I would tell it to the poor guy who made the mistake of telling me that he was a novelist, because I don’t know how to write a novel.  I work in film, so I write screenplays, and, when I can, I direct them. I don’t really have ideas and then wonder which medium would best suit the story. When the idea for Price Check came, I wrote the script, and, eventually, directed it.

When I was young, I wanted to be an actor. I can’t remember when I first heard the word “director”, but at some point I became aware that there was a process of making a film, and from then on, I was hooked.  Like most people who work in film, I got caught up in the magic of it all. It’s an amazing thing to walk into a dark room for two hours and be transported into another world, and go on an emotional journey with characters that you get to know and love.

One of the things I love about film is that it can be so many different things: funny, serious, arty, scary, low brow. There is an idea that pure cinema is silent, that the images alone need to tell the story, but this kind of thinking always bothered me.  There are films, like the Marx Brothers films, that aren’t visual films, but are as pure as cinema gets.  Price Check is a talky film, but it’s a visual film as well.  Every shot was planned and storyboarded, some of the sets are abstract, the acting is heightened – all of this is part of the … Read the rest

A YEAR WITHOUT RENT IN PARK CITY: FRANK RINALDI’S “SUNDOWNING”

The first 70 minutes or so of Frank Rinaldi’s Sundowning is a fascinating film, a creepy-as-fuck, measured look at some sort of mental breakdown. It’s the kind of film where you sit there for the entire time thinking to yourself, “I have no fucking clue what’s going on in this film, but I’m pretty sure the director does.” And that’s great. You don’t always have to know what’s going on, as long as the audience feels like they’re in capable hands.

Shannon Fitzpatrick stars as Shannon, a woman that’s apparently being kept in an apartment by Susan (Susan Chau), a matronly figure who dictates the events of Shannon’s day, every day for nearly 2 years.

The film is nearly silent as Shannon and Susan goes through their daily routine over and over again, but the longer we go on, the more that starts to fall apart, and the more and more sinister it gets. It becomes clear that Susan is in some way manipulating Shannon, for reasons that are unclear. That’s the creepy part.

There’s an easy comparison here to Giorgos Lanthimos’ Dogtooth, an equally disconcerting film about people in isolation. The framing here is more traditional, but the sound design is more ambitious, going completely silent on occasion and then ramping up enough that you wonder if they’ve blown out the speakers.

It’s incredibly effective and mesmerizing.

And then it all falls apart.

The third act represents a complete tonal shift. The film goes from 16:9 to 4:3 and (I think) from film to video. It’s also completely unnecessary. It’s one of those things where each minute of the 3rd act pulls you father and farther away from what the filmmakers worked so hard to create. It drags on and on, seemingly forever, before returning to the previous style for an explanation of what’s been going on.

A lot of people seemed to love the explanation, one person in the Q&A congratulated the director on the “bold choice” of withholding all of that information until the end. And it is a bold choice. Just not bold enough. I … Read the rest

“GYPSY DAVY” | director, Rachel Leah Jones

[PREMIERE SCREENING: Tuesday, January 24, 3:00 pm –Yarrow Hotel Theatre, Park City]

I’m not an independent filmmaker; so-called independent filmmakers—all the more so documentarians—are some of the most dependent people around. We depend on funders and characters, on permission-givers and gatekeepers, on our own (free) will, determination and hubris—not to mention on the weather. A film teacher I once had gave me the one really truly valuable lesson in all my MFA: “You want to make a movie?” she asked us. Yes, we nodded. “Then go out and tell everyone you know that you’re going to make a movie.” Otherwise, she explained, you’ll never make it to the finish line. In other words, let your ego (read: the fear and potential shame of not realizing what you set out to do) lead the way. And it’s so true. There you are, a single mother (regardless of how many co-producers you arm yourself with)—the filmmaker-progenitor, male or female, will always be a single mother; the kind who nobody knocked up; the kind who voluntarily walked into the sperm bank of creative ideas and impregnated themselves with a film. “You’ll fall in and out of love with your movie so many times, you won’t know how to begin, let alone end,” the professor of production continued… To which I would add, just like with children: you also won’t know where you end and your film begins…

Nevertheless, I make documentaries because I LOVE them—a good doc inspires like nothing else—but also because it seems I just wasn’t daring enough to choose an easier, cheaper, less risky medium to “do my thing.” I don’t make documentaries because I believe in “reality” as such, but because I’m a sucker for it’s narrative impact—especially when it is “subjectively” rather than “objectively” told. I’m a political animal and the documentary, one of the “discourses of sobriety,” as Bill Nichols so aptly put it, is my “drug of choice.” I’m a girl who feels compelled to name things, to “speak truth to power,” knowing full well that truth and power are relative. And once I start making a … Read the rest

FIVE QUESTIONS WITH “SHUT UP AND PLAY THE HITS” DIRECTORS DYLAN SOUTHERN AND WILL LOVELACE

Over LCD Soundsystem’s ten-year career, the band grew from early blog darlings to lauded indie stalwarts. After telegraphing the group’s demise years in advance, band-leader James Murphy officially disbanded LCD last April with a star-studded, marathon-length performance at Madison Square Garden. Now, less than a year later, Dylan Southern and Will Lovelace present Shut Up and Play the Hits, a documentary that follows Murphy and his band-mates in the run-up to and aftermath of their now-legendary final performance. If the film’s trailer is any indication, Shut up and Play the Hits will serve as a great encapsulation of the excitement, madness, and poignancy of a band bowing out at the top their game.

Filmmaker: When did you first meet James Murphy? And how did you two end up directing this project?

Lovelace & Southern: We first met James in the summer of 2010 through a mutual friend. We’d just finished another film (the Blur documentary No Distance Left to Run) and were kicking around ideas for the next project. We were pretty sure we wouldn’t make another music film straight away, but then the opportunity to meet with James arose. As fans of his band, we were really keen to see if there was a possibility of something happening. We were surprised at how open he was to working together because we knew he had existing relationships/friendships with other directors, but at that point didn’t know us at all. So we were flattered that he even entertained two weird British strangers! But we got on really well with James in those initial conversations and talked over the different possible routes we could take with the movie. The thing we were most interested in was his decision to end the band at a point when it seemed to be hitting its stride. We knew we didn’t want to make a biography of the band. We were much more interested in making a film that was all about that very specific moment in time – that moment when the band ended.

It was only when James told us that they … Read the rest