What happens to the tangible outpourings of grief and support – such as letters and teddy bears – that pour in during the aftermath of a tragedy like the Sandy Hook Elementary School shootings in Newtown, Connecticut? Director Ashley Maynor and producer Paul Harrill follow the trail of condolence items in their interactive documentary, The Story of the Stuff.
Using cameras on mobile phones with some clever adaptations, cinematographer Radium Cheung brought his vast experience and unique sensibilities to Tangerine, the story of a transgendered prostitute in Los Angeles. The result is an eye-popping yet humanistic look at a hard world.
Fort Bliss follows a single mother trying to reconnect with her son following her 15-month deployment in Iraq as a…
The Independent seeks out the collaborators, mentors, colleagues, and friends of our 10 to Watch filmmakers in order to hear more about how they inspire others working in independent film. Steven Abrams talks with Eden Brolin and Danielle Brooks about what they learned from working with 10 to Watch’s Katie Cokinos.
Joshua Oppenheimer’s latest film, The Look of Silence, is a companion piece to the critically acclaimed, and hotly debated, The Act of Killing. The Independent‘s staff writer Dana Knight spoke with Oppenheimer at SXSW, where he commented on how Americans misinterpret cinéma vérité. “It’s actually precisely because of the camera not despite it…that certain things are happening,” he said.
“Oh, he was frustrated with me and I was frustrated with him through the process of making this film, but I’m a fan of the man,” says Ondi Timoner to The Independent’s Dana Knight. The pair talks shop about filming Russell Brand for Brand: The Second Coming, which premiered at SXSW 2015.
“I didn’t want her to be just a girl looking. She had to drive herself…” says director Sanna Lenken about My Skinny Sister. The story is in the POV of a young girl whose sister has an eating disorder. Lenken talks with Dana Knight about how she adapted events from her life into her first feature-length fiction film.
Jonathon Narducci tries to blow up perfect ideas of love in his documentary, Love Me, about men and women whose matches are made the old-fashioned way, by mail order. Dana Knight asks how he reached his conclusions about how and when love succeeds.
Dana Knight and Mary Dore talk about the origins of women’s liberation and Dore’s documentary about the era, She’s Beautiful When She’s Angry, nearly two decades in the making.