We update our 10 Filmmakers to Watch in 2017 list every day for 10 days as we announce each filmmaker. With reader recommendations and industry colleagues, 10 to watch identifies artists who are breaking new ground, either in their own career or in the form at large.
Lucie Guest is on our 10 to watch for her work as an actress, writer, and director in her award-winning short film, Never Better, about a loveable loser and the search for closer at the end of a relationship.
New Zealand human rights lawyer turned filmmaker Amelia Evans is not one to shy away from controversy. She follows the lives of pedophiles to find ways to prevent child abuse and understand their taboo attraction to children in her thought-provoking documentary Minor Attraction.
Game developer Navid Khonsari and filmmaker Bessie Khonsari join our 10 to Watch list with a genre-merging project, 1979 Revolution, a video game that aims to evoke the empathy of film. Navid and Bessie Khonsari participated in the New Frontier Story Lab at the Sundance Institute in 2014 and 1979 Revolution appeared as an exhibit in Sundance Film Festival’s New Frontier and at SXSW in 2015.
Producer Stephanie Langhoff has a dream job working for Mark and Jay Duplass. Her work on The Bronze got her noticed at Sundance – where the film’s much-talked-about sex scene also turned some heads.
The Independent’s Mike Sullivan talks with Scott Brock, who has worked as an editor and consultant with our 10 to Watch filmmaker Thomas Ikimi on several of his projects.
Having lived on three continents, Thomas Ikimi brings an international perspective to his films. His latest is the short thriller Nostradamus, which revolves around drone warfare and premiered at the 2015 Tribeca Film Festival, and coincidentally was chosen as one of the best films of the fest by our senior critic, Kurt Brokaw.
Comedian and storyteller, Hasan Minhaj, may be best known as one of the newest correspondents for The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, but it was his work merging stand-up with storytelling that brought him to our attention. You can read about his latest project, a solo show, Sakoon, and its film adaption, Paint the Town, in 10 to Watch.
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.