Sundance Institute Workshop

SUNDANCE INSTITUTE WORKSHOP

The Art of Nonfiction: Close Encounters with the Creative Process

21 SEP (Sat) 10:00-13:30 | Conducted in English | $120

In this special session focusing on documentary, a series of three filmmaker-to-filmmaker conversations reveal the creative approaches, challenges and solutions behind 5 radically different nonfiction films. For insights on editing, producing, and directing we are joined by festival filmmakers Ben Berman, director of The Amazing Johnathan Documentary; Irene Taylor Brodsky, director of Moonlight Sonata: Deafness in Three Movements; Penny Lane, director of Hail Satan? ;Todd Douglas Miller & Thomas Petersen, the director and producer of Apollo 11; and Ryan White, director of Ask Dr. Ruth.

CONTENT

TRUST ME I'M A FILMMAKER: THE ART OF BIOGRAPHY

Speaker:

Penny Lane (Hail Satan?) ,

Ryan White (Ask Dr. Ruth)

As media infiltrates every aspect of our lives and audiences become more media literate, documentary filmmakers now have expanded tools to tell stories. Filmmakers Penny Lane and Ryan White will discuss strategies for building trust with documentary subjects, and representing real lives on screen. Lane's Hail Satan? is a portrait of the Satanic Temple and its co-founder Lucien Greaves. In White's Ask Dr. Ruth Dr. Ruth Westheimer reflects on her life from holocaust survivor to America's most famous sex therapist.

GETTING PERSONAL: THE ART OF PERSONAL FILM

Speaker:

Ben Berman (The Amazing Johnathan Documentary) ,

Irene Taylor Brodsky (Moonlight Sonata: Deafness in Three Movements)

Documentary films are often framed as portraying an "objective" truth. What happens when a filmmaker becomes part of the story? How do directors shape their characters in the edit? In The Amazing Johnathan Documentary Berman must become a character in his own film as he begins to question what is true and what is an illusion in the life of magician The Amazing Johnathan. Brodsky's Moonlight Sonata: Deafness in Three Movements is an intimate portrayal of deafness in the lives of her son, her father, and Ludwig van Beethoven. Both directors discuss the challenges and lessons from the editorial process.

PAST AS PRESENT: THE ART IF ARCHIVAL FILM

Speaker:

Todd Douglas Miller (Apollo 11)

How do documentary filmmakers make history come alive? In this intimate session director Todd Douglas Miller and producer Thomas Petersen will share how they brought an iconic moment in history to a whole new audience. Apollo 11 uses only archival footage, thousands of hours of audio and hundreds of hours of video, including long-forgotten and previously unreleased 70mm footage from the launch of Apollo 11 and moon landing in 1969.

Moderator : Tabitha Jackson

(Director of Documentary Film Program, Sundance Institute)