Moviemaker – Winter 2019

MOVIEMAKER.COM WINTER 2019 45

SISTER AIMEE

(NEXT)

Who: Samantha Buck and

Marie Schlingmann

Logline: In 1926, America’s most famous

evangelist is looking for a way out and

finds herself on a wild road trip to Mexico.

Things that influenced this film were:

Paper Moon, Something Wild, and maybe

the 2016 election.

The most expensive thing in our budget

was: Old Ginger, our period car.

The biggest lesson we learned making

this movie was: hire great actors. They can

teach you something new about your charac-

ters, they’ll allow you to make your days, and

in a big ensemble, there are no unimportant

parts. To paraphrase Jonathan Demme: Who-

ever’s on screen is the star of the movie.

When we heard we got into Sundance

we: Conference-called our producers and

Anna Margaret Hollyman and laughed

and cried.

STARS DAVID OYELOWO (R) AND STORM REID (L) LOOK LIKE THEY’VE SEEN A GHOST IN DIRECTOR JACOB ESTES’

SUPERNATURAL CHILLER RELIVE

RELIVE

(Premieres)

Who: Jacob Estes, director

Logline: There’s a connection so strong

between an uncle and his niece that their

relationship continues even after she’s

murdered.

STAR MIA WASIKOWSKA AND WRITER-DIRECTOR MIRRAH FOULKES ARE A ONE-TWO PUNCH IN JUDY AND PUNCH

JUDY AND PUNCH

(World Cinema

Dramatic Competition)

Who: Mirrah Foulkes, writer-director

Logline: Seaside (nowhere near the sea),

puppeteers Judy and Punch are trying to

resurrect their marionette show in an anar-

chic town on the brink of mob rule.

My favorite scene (or shot) in the film is:

a shot of a rabbit in the forest miraculously

doing exactly what I needed it to do.

An audience watching my film probably

won’t know that: nine times out of 10, the

animals didn’t do what I needed them to do.

The most expensive thing in our budget

was: probably Valiant, our beautiful

Friesian hero horse.

The biggest lesson I learned making this

movie was: if something doesn’t feel good

it’s probably not. Keep pushing until it does

feel good, and fight if you have to. And don’t

work with animals!

A darling I had to kill along the way was:

a sequence in which kids charge through the

forest on Shetland ponies. Every time the

kids got even close to the ponies, they were

surrounded by an army of safety officers.

When I heard we got into Sundance I:

knew I could get through the last few weeks

of post. I was so tired and had no idea if

anyone was going to like the movie, but get-

ting in to Sundance gave me the kick

I needed to get to the finish line.

I’m most excited about seeing
TOP LEFT: PHOTOGRAPH BY JACK TAYLOR / BOTTOM LEFT: PHOTOGRAPH BY BRIAN DOUGLAS / Jennifer Kent’s The Nightingale this year.
BOTTOM RIGHT: PHOTOGRAPH BY BEN KING / ALL IMAGES COURTESY OF SUNDANCE INSTITUTE

The greatest flash of inspiration or

brilliance we had making this film was:

When we were scouting locations for our

“diner scene,” there was a jar of bubble

gum by the cash register that happened to

be there at one of the 10 diners we scouted

that day. Had we not scouted that diner

on that very day, and had I not happened

to sit on the western side of the booth but

rather on the eastern side, then a massive

plot point we added to the movie might

have never come to mind, strictly because

the inspiration for it would have been out-

side of my happenstance geographic field

of view. For those who have seen the movie,

what I’m talking about is “the bubble gum

scene.”

I would love to meet Stanley Kubrick

in Park City. I know, that’s impossible...

but I’d like to meet him.