Sundance Originals Archive for January, 2018

The Daily Buzz from Sundance (Day 10)

We have a special episode today, in which we begin by meeting and discussing filmmaking opportunities for women with Iyabo Boyd and Senain Kheshgi. We then moved on to discuss the film Last Race with director Michael Dweck. We finish by speaking with part of the hilarious and talented team behind the episodic Halfway There, including director Rick Rosenthal, writer Nick Morton, and actors Matthew Lillard and Sara Shahi.

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The Daily Buzz from Sundance (Day 9)

Ever had a project that you were super-passionate about but didn’t know how to fund? Elise McCave of Kickstarter discusses how to crowdfund for your passion projects. Heather Lenz talks about directing Kusama, and we talk about Game Changers with Louie Psihoyos, Joseph Pace and James Wilks. We end with the team behind Science Fair, Cristina Costantini, Darren Foster, Kashfia, Robbi, and Dr. McCalla.

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The Daily Buzz from Sundance (Day 8)

We cover Roll with Me, Zion and Nancy as well as talk to AAPI directors about their films. We start with two diverse AAPI directors, Bing Liu and Cecilia Hsu, then discuss Roll with Me with Lisa Frances, Jorja Fox and Gabriel Cordell. We also speak with Floyd Russ, director of Zion, and one of that short film’s producers. Director Christina Choe joins us for her psychological drama Nancy.

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The Daily Buzz from Sundance (Day 7)

Today we have Chloe Zhao, director of The Rider,  on planning a film with budget restrictions. Co-directors of Genesis 2.0, Christian Frei and Maxim Arbugaev, talk about filming in the heart of Siberia. And we welcome female shorts directors, Anna Margaret Hollyman, of Maude, and Emily Anne Hoffman, of Nevada.

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The Daily Buzz from Sundance (Day 6)

Our Hot Topics Roundtable features Sean Means, longtime movie critic at the Salt Lake Tribune and Maria Smith, executive creative director of M&C Saatchi LA. We’re joined by Slamdance co-founder Dan Mirvish, also director of Slamdance closing-night film Bernard and Huey, from a long-neglected Jules Feiffer script. Director Charlie Bims and actress Julie Sokolowski joins us to talk about their Slamdance feature Human Affairs.

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The Daily Buzz from Sundance (Day 4)

Day Four offers great insight for listeners furthering film careers. We speak with Carrie Lozano and Simon Kilmurry of the International Documentary Association. Pascal Plante, director of Fake Tattoos drops by, as well as the director and cast of Funny Story, Michael Gallagher, Matthew Glave, Jana Wintimitz and Emily Bett Rickards.

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The Daily Buzz from Sundance (Day 3)

Day Three ranges across film genres and guests. We start off with the Russo brothers who are here at the Sundance film festival to receive the Founders Award from Slamdance, along with Peter Baxter from Slamdance. We move on to speak with Rainbow Experiment director Christina Kallas and Isaiah Blake, a part of the cast. Closing the podcast: the We the Animals feature team.

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The Daily Buzz from Sundance (Day 2)

Day Two of Sundance 2018 is filled with snow! Today’s episode starts with Salt Lake’s City Weekly’s Scott Renshaw, a juror for Slamdance film competitions. Anote Tong and Matthieu Rytz of Anote’s Ark discuss the literal sinking of the island of Kiribati and raising awareness around climate change. We end with the moving feature ilm White Rabbit with director Daryl Wein, and cast Vivian Bang and Nana Ghana.

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The Daily Buzz Podcast from Sundance

It’s officially Day One of Sundance 2018, and the first episode for The Daily Buzz is packed with amazing films. This episode begins with a heartwarming tribute to the late Irene Cho, the founder of Daily Buzz; moves on to a fascinating account of the lives and training of service dogs in Pick of the Litter, made by Dana Nachman and Don Hardy; and ends with a packed panel with Nick Offerman, Kersey Clemons and Brett Haley for Hearts Beat Loud.

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It shows how out of it I was in trying to be in it, acknowledging that I was out of it to myself, and then thinking, “Okay, how do I stop being out of it? Well, I get some legitimate illogical narrative ideas” — some novel, you know?

So I decided on three writers that I might be able to option their material and get some producer, or myself as producer, and then get some writer to do a screenplay on it, and maybe make a movie.

And so the three projects were “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep,” “Naked Lunch” and a collection of Bukowski. Which, in 1975, forget it — I mean, that was nuts. Hollywood would not touch any of that, but I was looking for something commercial, and I thought that all of these things were coming.

There would be no Blade Runner if there was no Ray Bradbury. I couldn’t find Philip K. Dick. His agent didn’t even know where he was. And so I gave up.

I was walking down the street and I ran into Bradbury — he directed a play that I was going to do as an actor, so we know each other, but he yelled “hi” — and I’d forgot who he was.

So at my girlfriend Barbara Hershey’s urging — I was with her at that moment — she said, “Talk to him! That guy really wants to talk to you,” and I said “No, fuck him,” and keep walking.

But then I did, and then I realized who it was, and I thought, “Wait, he’s in that realm, maybe he knows Philip K. Dick.” I said, “You know a guy named—” “Yeah, sure — you want his phone number?”

My friend paid my rent for a year while I wrote, because it turned out we couldn’t get a writer. My friends kept on me about, well, if you can’t get a writer, then you write.”
~ Hampton Fancher

“That was the most disappointing thing to me in how this thing was played. Is that I’m on the phone with you now, after all that’s been said, and the fundamental distinction between what James is dealing with in these other cases is not actually brought to the fore. The fundamental difference is that James Franco didn’t seek to use his position to have sex with anyone. There’s not a case of that. He wasn’t using his position or status to try to solicit a sexual favor from anyone. If he had — if that were what the accusation involved — the show would not have gone on. We would have folded up shop and we would have not completed the show. Because then it would have been the same as Harvey Weinstein, or Les Moonves, or any of these cases that are fundamental to this new paradigm. Did you not notice that? Why did you not notice that? Is that not something notable to say, journalistically? Because nobody could find the voice to say it. I’m not just being rhetorical. Why is it that you and the other critics, none of you could find the voice to say, “You know, it’s not this, it’s that”? Because — let me go on and speak further to this. If you go back to the L.A. Times piece, that’s what it lacked. That’s what they were not able to deliver. The one example in the five that involved an issue of a sexual act was between James and a woman he was dating, who he was not working with. There was no professional dynamic in any capacity.

~ David Simon