Actor, writer, and musician Zoe Lister-Jones makes her directorial debut with the dramedy Band Aid. The Independent’s Evan Crean caught up with Lister-Jones about the film’s exploration of a long term relationship–its deep wounds and power dynamics–her decision to hire an all-female crew for Band Aid, and how Jewish identity enters into her art.
Fawzia Mirza makes our 10 Filmmakers to Watch list for 2017 with her film Signature Move, a feature that she co-wrote, produced, and stars in, which premiered at SXSW. The film tells the story of a Muslim lesbian in a new relationship, her Lucha-style wrestling, and the pressures of her conservative live-in mother. It is a romantic comedy.
Australian filmmaker Kitty Green makes our 10 Filmmakers to Watch in 2017 list with her documentary Casting JonBenet, where she not only sheds new light on a 20-year old crime, but bends the form of documentary.
Filmmaking team Sonja O’Hara and Jaspal Binning make our 10 to watch list in 2017 for their webseries <em>Doomsday</em> about cult in upstate New York awaiting the end of days. The duo created, produced, directed, and star in the series. O’Hara is the script writer.
Demetri Martin brings his unique brand of visual humor to the big screen in the new dramedy Dean. The Independent’s Evan Crean spoke with Martin about his move to directing, his many lessons learned, and where the ideas for his artwork and comedy originate.
After a post-screening Q&A session, Cabral, 28, spoke to Neil Kendricks about his risky modus operandi and tackling the challenging logistics of filming on location in the Najayo prison where approximately 70,000 prisoners are crammed into a facility built for 20,000 inmates. Sometimes, art can emerge from the most unlikely places.
John Cassavetes is one of the founding fathers of independent cinema. In this article Kurt Brokaw examines a rare Cassavetes interview. A powerful interview where the legendary director reflects on himself and his life, in 1989, the same year of his death.
Acclaimed actor Stephen Lang’s impressive career moves easily between indies such as this fall’s hit horror film Don’t Breathe and big studio films such as Public Enemies and Tombstone. Here he tells how his most personal indie project led to his biggest studio movie and how the two remain intertwined to this day.
Abatemarco, who spent nearly seven years making Kivalina, advises first-time documentarians to recognize that some of the hardest work of making a film is not technical or financial, but interpersonal. “It’s about your relationship with your subjects over time. That is the real work and the real difficulty. Somehow you’ll find the money but the most difficult work is to carry the story for however long you have to carry it, because these are heavy subject matters.”