KATE LYN SHEIL DISCUSSES ACTING AT SXSW

With a focused, intense, and somewhat mysterious screen persona, actress Kate Lyn Sheil has stood out in a number of recent independent films, including Silver Bullets by Joe Swanberg and Sophia Takal’s Green. At SXSW this year she arrives with four titles, including Amy Seimetz’s Sun Don’t Shine and Bob Byington’s Somebody Up There Likes Me. Here I talk with Sheil about how she got into acting, being a movie fan, her influences and the particular pleasures of independent film.

 … Read the rest

FIVE QUESTIONS WITH “FRANKIE GO BOOM” DIRECTOR JORDAN ROBERTS

On paper, Jordan Roberts’ frankie go boom certainly stands out as one of SXSW’s boldest offerings. From the film’s profanity-laden ‘official’ premise (quoted below) to its star-studded cast and strange teasers disseminated across the internet, Roberts is building quite a mythology for the project. Starring Sons of Anarchy’s Charlie Hunnam and Bridesmaid’s Chris O’Dowd as warring brothers, and Lizzy Caplan as the girl caught in the middle, the film premieres tonight as part of SXSW’s Narrative Spotlight section.

Filmmaker: Let’s start with the film’s official description – “a flik by bruce about his little brother frank who’s a crybaby fuck who shudnt do lame-ass emberrissing shit if he doznt want people 2 see it on the internet.” That certainly stands out from the pack. How did you arrive at that description?

Roberts: There are two brothers in the film, with wildly different world views. That duality sort of drove every phase of the process, from script through editing; even music choices. And the two characters constantly jockeying for the dominant position in the film — and in Frank’s life — is wonderfully brought to life by Charlie Hunnam as the milder of the two, and Chris O’Dowd as the unhinged older brother, Bruce. But, oddly, when it came time to give the film a log-line for the festival, the raw, rude and grandiose subjectivity of Bruce’s POV came out of my fingertips as I typed. I eventually tried to backpedal (probably succumbing to my inner-Frank’s modesty.) I even called and asked SXSW to go with a more traditional log line, but there was a mix-up and they ended up running with the original, which made quite a splash. Moral: Trust your fucking gut.

Filmmaker: How did you come up with the film’s premise? What was the writing process like?

Roberts: When I set out to write it, I had three goals:

1) To make a broad comedy that was set in a truthful environment, emotionally. “A farce played in the real world” was our catch-phase.

2) A filthy comedy that had, at its core, a love story; and… Read the rest

FIVE QUESTIONS WITH “LA CAMIONETA – THE JOURNEY OF ONE AMERICAN SCHOOLBUS” DIRECTOR MARK KENDALL

Director Mark Kendall carries a spirit of adventurous, a keen eye for character, and a wellspring of ambition into his first documentary feature, La Camioneta: The Journey of One American School Bus. Starting out at an auction in rural Pennsylvania for decommissioned school-buses, Kendall boards one of the buses sold and accompanies the driver on the perilous journey to the vehicle’s new home – Guatemala.

The road to Guatemala is fraught with corruption and violence, with local gangs demanding bribes from drivers to ensure their safety. Since 2006, nearly 1,000 bus drivers have been killed along the route, and Kendall captures the personal stakes behind this haunting statistic in colorful detail. But beyond that, he crafts an intimate meditation on the tapestries that bind societies together; on how an object as seemingly stagnant as a school bus can mean so many different things to so many different people.

Filmmaker: What initially drew you to this subject? What inspired you to take this journey?

Kendall: This film was inspired by a conversation that took place on board a camioneta back in 2009. I was travelling on a six-week bus trip through Central America, and during my time in Guatemala the camionetas were my principal form of getting around. I immediately recognized them as old school buses and my curiosity was piqued when one of the drivers told me that the camioneta we were riding on came from a school district in Tennessee, just 20 miles from where I was living at the time.

I found myself thinking about the old school bus I used to ride to basketball games in high school. Where was it now? Is it driving around somewhere in Guatemala? Who were the people that buy and repair these buses? How did they bring them down to Guatemala? And who was responsible for making them become so beautiful?

Originally, my idea was to follow one out-of-service school bus through the entire journey it took to become a camioneta and to use that transformative process as a narrative thread to weave together the stories of the people who … Read the rest

FIVE QUESTIONS WITH “WELCOME TO THE MACHINE” DIRECTOR AVI ZEV WEIDER

The process of making your first documentary – overseeing all of the moving parts, researching and scheduling interviews, shaping raw footage into a compelling, complete whole – this is undeniably a daunting process. Now imagine doing the same while caring for newborn triplets.

When filmmaker Avi Zev Weider and his wife turned to in-vitro fertilization after having trouble conceiving, they never expected triplets. But this is indeed what they got – three underweight infants who spent the first several months of their lives in the hospital’s high-tech neo-natal intensive care unit. Weider was already fascinated with the topic of humankind’s relationship with technology. But having personally witnessed the miracle of life made possible via scientific innovation, he set out to explore the implications of man’s growing dependance on technology from a decidedly personal perspective.

Filmmaker: Welcome to the Machine is part personal doc, part educational doc. How did you decide to explore the subject of man’s relationship with technology instead of simply focusing on the birth of your children?

Weider: The short answer is that it was decided for me. I was at work on a film about our relationship to technology for some time before I became the father of triplets. My realization that their birth, survival and continued growth were intimately tied up with technology came after I was already putting the film together. Similarly, I had no intention of making a film about having triplets, but there I was, living what I was already illustrating in the film. So, it all evolved rather naturally.

Filmmaker: Your topic is so vast, with so many different implications and applications across modern society, how did you go about choosing your subjects?

Weider: At first I just went after what I thought was interesting, trying to focus on certain key subjects, like artificial intelligence or the Turing Test. I was reading a lot of books on these kinds of subjects, so I began contacting the authors to see if they would interested in doing an interview. But after a while I began to see connections between these and other potential interview subjects and knew that … Read the rest

FIVE QUESTIONS WITH “DAYLIGHT SAVINGS” DIRECTOR DAVE BOYLE

The indie film world doesn’t commonly produce sequels (Linklater and Solondz being the obvious exceptions), and it’s even rarer to see one come as quickly as Daylight Savings does. Returning to the characters he first explored in last year’s Surrogate Valentine, namely singer-songwriter Goh Nakamura, playing a fictionalized version of himself here, Savings premieres tonight in SXSW’s 24 Beats Per Second section. Valentine made waves at Southby last year, and paired with Boyle’s still-fresh 2009 offering White on Rice, the young director is quickly establishing himself as a prolific and exciting voice.

Filmmaker: What inspired you to follow-up Surrogate Valentine so quickly with a film that returns to the same characters? Were you planning on this second installment while you were making Valentine?

Boyle: There’s something to be said for momentum. It seemed important to start shooing the second film before we all moved on to other projects. The whole thing has kind of blended together into one long 2-year project!

The idea for Daylight Savings came about during post production, right before our debut at SXSW 2011. We had such a good time making it, and more importantly, we felt like there was more of the story to tell. Once we made the commitment to do it, we found a three week break in everyone’s schedules in August and September of last year and we decided to make it happen.

Filmmaker: What is it about Goh’s personality that strikes you as so ripe for this sort of documentary / narrative blend?

Boyle: Goh and I are both pretty laid back and reserved, though both of us are in fields that reward high energy. I felt like I could do something semi-autobiographical with Goh in the lead, transposing my experiences in film to the music world.

That’s not to suggest that somehow the “Goh” of the movie is a facsimile of myself, or that we are exactly alike in real life. His true personality shines through in a number of ways, though at the end of the day he really is playing a character.

Beyond that, Goh … Read the rest

FIVE QUESTIONS WITH “BEWARE OF MR. BAKER” DIRECTOR JAY BULGER

Early in Beware of Mr. Baker, director Jay Bulger admits that he was initially shocked to discover that his subject, legendary rock and roll drummer Ginger Baker, was still alive. With a resume that includes stints with Cream, Blind Faith, and Public Image Ltd, and a reputation for drug-addled excess, Baker seems both a relic of a bygone era and a likely candidate for ‘rock and roll casualty’ status.

And yet Bulger does track Baker down, finding him living the life of an ex-pat in South Africa. Baker has grown from a difficult, curmudgeon of a youth into an even more difficult, curmudgeon of an old man. As Bulger recounts his subject’s life story with awe, and interviews Baker’s peers (including Cream band-leader Eric Clapton), he begins to chisel away at the central question of what makes Baker such an effortlessly brilliant and respected drummer but such a tortured, misunderstood human being.

Filmmaker: Beware of Mr. Baker follows an article that you wrote for Rolling Stone. What inspired you to return to Baker as a subject? Were there things that you didn’t explore in the article that you wanted to in the doc?

Bulger: I had previously never been published, but Ginger Baker gifted me with an opportunity to write an article about him, blindly inviting me to come live with him in South Africa. After the story was published in Rolling Stone, I just felt like I had to get back there to see if he’s still overtaking people while driving his Range Rover 100 mph through the Witzenburgh Mountains. People needed to meet the man, hear him play the drums, and experience this legendary character for themselves. Having interviewed people for the article, I returned to South Africa with many questions; but the article and the film are incomparable. Ginger’s hands, feet, and voice narrate Beware of Mr. Baker.

Filmmaker: Early on, one interviewee says of Baker – “he personally is what the drums are all about.” Do you agree with this statement?

Bulger: While certain attributes of Ginger Baker were said to have been the inspiration for Animal, … Read the rest

FIVE QUESTIONS WITH “FAT KID RULES THE WORLD” DIRECTOR MATTHEW LILLARD

For many of us children of the 90s, Matthew Lillard occupies a special place in our pop-culture hearts. He’s the emblem of a particular film movement, woven nostalgically into us like Molly Ringwald and Judd Nelson were for those who came of age a decade earlier. He’s the star of Hackers, She’s All That, SLC Punk – the killer in Scream! And his reasoned, career-rejuvenating turn last year in Alexander Payne’s The Descendents reestablished him as a unique on-screen presence.

So it’s interesting to find Lillard moving behind the camera at this juncture in his career. But somehow, Lillard’s first jaunt as director, an adaptation of K.L. Going’s best-selling teen novel Fat Kid Rules the World, seems perfectly in line with the rest of his career. The tale of an overweight, suicidal high schooler coming of age through his involvement in a local punk scene, Fat Kid stands the chance of inspiring a fresh generation of kids, and establishing Lillard in a whole new artistic light.

Filmmaker: The obvious first question – after over two decades as an actor, what inspired you to make the leap towards directing? What was it about this project that drew you in?

Lillard: Two decades? Really? Shit… that’s going to mess me up for the rest of the day.

I made the leap into directing because acting, while it’s my passion, is a very myopic pursuit, and after twenty years I wanted to do something different. To me acting class, doing plays, teaching acting, those things I love. But making movies is my job. Also, before The Descendants came along, let’s just say the movies I was doing weren’t what you would call spiritually fulfilling.

Filmmaker: How did you first discover K.L. Going’s book? How intimately was Going involved in the filmmaking process?

Lillard: I recorded the book on tape, and as an overweight teenager the book struck a chord with me. I read twenty pages and picked up the phone to inquire about obtaining the film rights. I just thought the hero of the book, while being obese, was a … Read the rest

FIVE QUESTIONS WITH “PAVILION” DIRECTOR TIM SUTTON

Filmmaker has written about Pavilion before, whether to praise its beautiful website or to highlight an interesting merchandising strategy that director Tim Sutton discussed at last year’s IFP Narrative Labs. But what of the film itself – a meditative, ethereal blend of documentary and narrative, united around the theme of youth in transition. Indeed, Pavilion, which premieres tonight in SXSW’s Emerging Visions section, should speak for itself. The film almost feels like a National Geographic or Planet Earth-style glimpse into the secret lives of teenagers; into those quiet, unseen moments so difficult to capture – or for many of us – to even to remember. For fans of Matthew Porterfield, Lance Hammer, or Gus Van Sant’s Elephant; for filmmakers and film enthusiasts interested in where the line between fiction and reality, memory and imagination, blurs, seek out Pavilion.

Filmmaker: In your director’s statement you discuss your inspiration for making Pavilion – as you put it, wanting to find “a realistic way of telling an authentic story about a species and generation we know little about.” Why did you decide upon the medium of film for this exploration?

Sutton: I’ve worked with kids of all ages. I’ve taught filmmaking to five year olds, tutored middle schoolers, worked with high school students in various settings. I’m a father, and so I feel like I understand at least enough about kids’ lives and inner-lives to recognize that they are a total mystery. They’re insecure, sweet, frustrated and, quite often, incredibly intelligent – regardless of whether or not their judgment is the best.

Most kids’ schedules (not to mention their sense of time) are, obviously, very different from adults. That time – the downtime, really – that’s what’s totally fascinating to me. I knew that working within my budget and aesthetic, a very loose and natural approach to the narrative was important. So action was everything (what do these kids do? Where do they go? Let’s just watch). Dialogue, on the other hand, meant nothing to furthering the film. Talk is just talk.

We had no rehearsal. We met the Arizona … Read the rest

FIVE QUESTIONS WITH “ELECTRICK CHILDREN” DIRECTOR REBECCA THOMAS

Working from an uber-quotable central question – “pregnant from rock and roll?”- Electrick Children follows Rachel (Julia Garner), a young woman growing up in a fundamentalist Mormon household that eschews all forms of modern technology. When, after her fifteenth birthday, Rachel accidentally hears a cassette tape with rock music on it, and subsequently discovers that she’s immaculately pregnant, she puts two and two together and answers the question above with a resounding yes.

The debut feature from director Rebecca Thomas, Electrick Children follows Rachel to Las Vegas, where she searches for the singer on the tape (who she assumes must be the father), and finds herself enveloped into a culture and scene in stark contrast to her simple upbringing. The film recently opened the Narrative Competition in Berlin, where it was lauded as an emotionally gripping coming of age tale.

Filmmaker: How much of Electrick Children is inspired by your own upbringing in the Mormon faith? Were there remembrances or feelings from your youth that you were hoping to explore?

Thomas: My upbringing was very different from the lifestyle of the family depicted in the fundamentalist Mormon community I created in Electrick Children. There are of course similar feelings that I share with Rachel that I wanted to explore. That is, mainly, the feeling of wanting to find something (or in her case someone) very specific, and having to leave home to find it. It’s the feeling Dorothy has in The Wizard of Oz when she sings “Somewhere Over the Rainbow.” It seems like a youthful plight to think there is someone or some place magical beyond the rainbow that will make things better or solve a problem. Rachel uses her very specific faith to power her through her journey. For me, Mormonism is something I know personally, so it was simply easy for me to write specifically.

Filmmaker: Are you still a practicing Mormon? What’s your view on the anti-technology ethos espoused by Rachel’s family in the film?

Thomas: The lifestyle of the family in the film is inspired by real fundamentalist Mormon colonies in Southern Utah. However, … Read the rest

FIVE QUESTIONS WITH “PILGRIM SONG” DIRECTOR MARTHA STEPHENS

A winding, ephemeral jaunt through the Appalachian backwoods, Pilgrim Song is so well-executed and carefully made that it almost appears effortless. The film follows James, a recently unemployed music teacher who decides to spend his first days of unemployment questing down Kentucky’s Sheltowee Trace Trail. Through a series of vignettes, director Martha Stephens gets at the psychological roots for James’ trek, roots which have as much to do with a desire to escape as with loftier transcendental ideals. In the film’s latter half, as James forms an unexpected bond with a single father he meets along the trail, Pilgrim Song offers a rare opportunity for true self-reflection.

Stephens hails from the David Gordon Green school of filmmaking (both figuratively and literally – she’s a recent North Carolina School of the Arts grad). Following 2010′s Passenger Pigeons, a modest hit on the festival circuit, Pilgrim Song continues to establish Stephens as the rare American director able to transform realism into poetry.

Filmmaker: Can you talk a bit about the project’s genesis? After Passenger Pigeons, what inspired you to make this film?

Stephens: My whole life I’ve had a gnawing sensation eating away at my core, I guess you could call it a restless spirit. Whenever I’ve felt overwhelmed by these feelings of dissatisfaction or inner turmoil, I’ve looked to the open road for clarity and comfort. Heeding the road’s call, I feel cognizant. Even though I’m often alone, my existence is somehow validated. With Pilgrim Song, I wanted to write a story about someone grappling with these universal feelings of discontent. Instead of a road trip, I wanted to showcase Kentucky’s natural beauty by having him thru-hike the Sheltowee Trace Trail. It was my way of both paying tribute to my home state and exercising deep-seated feelings of blue longing.

Filmmaker: Pilgrim Song has a very laid back structure. At times it feels more a collection of moments than a traditional narrative. How did you develop and decide upon the experiences that James has along the trail?

Stephens: I’m a fan of films that provide the audience with … Read the rest