By Oakley Anderson-Moore (https://nofilmschool.com/2017/01/independent-film-visions-women-sundance-speak-out)
"In polarized times, the need for fresh, diverse, and unhomogenized culture becomes more urgent."
It's an interesting year to be at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival to say the least. As one of the biggest summits for independent filmmaking in the world, it's a natural place to get excited about the possibilities of our medium. Add to that yesterday's presidential inauguration and today's women's marches happening across the country, and you get a festival full of ardent conversation about the future and our role in it as filmmakers.
To get people thinking about our craft, and in light of today's nationwide marches led by women and the men who support them, we asked five talented female filmmakers with work at the Sundance Film Festival about their vision for the future of independent film in 2017 and beyond. We got five altogether different answers.
Award-winning filmmaker Pascale Lamche (Stalingrad, Black Diamond) is at Sundance with her feature documentary, Winnie, a complex portrait of Winnie Mandela and her frontline fight for liberation under apartheid.
From Lamche:
"Independent film is by definition not subject to another's
authority. It is, and has been historically, the result of permanent
struggle—to carve out space for the making of each film, for independent
film practice, for independent film distribution and
exhibition. Complacency and mediocrity can't settle where there is
permanent flux. So good work is made, and as opportunities for seeing
good work multiply, audiences develop. And of course, capital generally
moves to where it sees people wanting to spend time.
"And in polarized times, the need for fresh, diverse and unhomogenized culture becomes more urgent. New energies are galvanized. So I think interesting struggles lie ahead, and good work may find itself a little edgier than before. Audiences may become a little hungrier for filmmakers to face up to a certain responsibility to reflect and reflect upon our world."
"And in polarized times, the need for fresh, diverse and unhomogenized culture becomes more urgent. New energies are galvanized. So I think interesting struggles lie ahead, and good work may find itself a little edgier than before. Audiences may become a little hungrier for filmmakers to face up to a certain responsibility to reflect and reflect upon our world."
"So I think interesting struggles lie ahead, and good work may find itself a little edgier than before."
Writer/director/lead actor Michelle Morgan has an impeccable sense of comedic timing, and her feature narrative L.A. Times showcases a playfully stylized world of endearing characters who are navigating the L.A. dating scene.
From Morgan:
"My vision for independent film in 2017 and beyond is one that is
more inclusive, more accepting and encouraging of people that don't fit
the typical filmmaker mold. It really shouldn't be a major topic of
conversation that someone other than a white male is making a film. In
2017, I'd like to see less competitiveness and more of a willingness to
help and encourage our fellow filmmakers because opportunities are not
always equal in this business and I think we really need each other's
support."
"In 2017, I'd like to see less competitiveness and more of a willingness to help and encourage our fellow filmmakers..."
Director and producer Shruti Ganguly (Yosemite, Black Surf) produced the imaginative VR film Through You which uses dance to tell a story of love born, lived, lost, burned, and seemingly gone forever.
From Ganguly:
"My vision for the future of our industry is to speak louder, but
speak clearer. To visualize with open eyes and open hearts. My vision is
that our efforts and projects have a responsibility to the communities
that are in our movies as well as to our audiences; that a
call-to-action is generated not just at the end of the film, but in the
germination of an idea. And that we help each other more."
"My vision for the future of our industry is to speak louder, but speak clearer."
Independent Spirit Award winner and Rockefeller fellow Laura Dunn (Green, The Unforeseen) is at the festival with her feature documentary Look and See: A Portrait of Wendell Berry, which traces the decline of modern U.S. agrarian culture through iconic American author Wendell Berry.
From Dunn:
"I'd love for independent film to return to its roots, to be less
flashy, less eager to chase after the trends and more
independent-MINDED—to reflect visions that challenge us to imagine
another world."
"...be less flashy, less eager to chase after the trends and more independent-MINDED..."
Sabaah Folayan is an activist, storyteller, and was a lead organizer for the Millions March. Her feature documentary Whose Streets? is an unflinching look at the Ferguson uprising in St. Louis, Missouri.
From Folayan:
"As a filmmaker, we could spend a lifetime honing this craft. I hope
films like 'Whose Streets' can help to usher in a new sense of
open-mindedness about what documentary can be, and the artfulness that
can be applied to it. It would be great for non-fiction filmmaking to
lose that stale connotation of expert interviews, dead on. And move away
from the kind of exploitative, 'look at all these explosions,' and move
away from the bird’s-eye view style. We have this dry set of
conventions. Our resistance needs to be on the plane of storytelling as
well. We need to do this guerilla-style filmmaking—and that may be
articulated in completely different ways by different filmmakers. But
looking at these stories as media that can be used to shape and change
has a potency. I’m excited to keep pushing boundaries and see other
filmmakers keep pushing boundaries."
"Our resistance needs to be on the plane of storytelling as well."
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