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6½ questions with: Lynn True & Nelson Walker

05.18.10 @ 12:14PM Tags : documentary, interview, lynntrue, nelsonwalker, summerpasture, tseringperlo

Lynn True, Nelson Walker, and Tsering Perlo’s documentary Summer Pasture premiered at this year’s Full Frame Film Festival, where it received a Full Frame Inspiration Award Honorable Mention. Summer Pasture takes place in the Kham region of Tibet, where nomads have lived off the land for 4,000 years — but many nomads today find themselves at a crossroads of tradition and modernity.

Among a hundred other documentaries and dozens of premieres, Summer Pasture jumped out at me because of the dedicated and principled filmmaking on display — not to mention the gorgeous cinematography, which was achieved without the support of a grip truck and an electrical department but rather by living in the field and grabbing shots opportunistically while putting to use solar-powered battery chargers. The film addresses timely global issues of rural self-subsistence living versus urban wage labor, and despite the faraway setting, Summer Pasture addresses universal themes through its depiction of the young couple at the heart of the film, Locho and Yama. Here’s the trailer; my interview with directors Lynn True and Nelson Walker follows. More »

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6½ questions with: Barry Jenkins

03.10.10 @ 12:00PM Tags : barryjenkins, diy, ifc, interview, medicineformelancholy

Barry Jenkins’ terrific DIY feature Medicine for Melancholy won awards at the Sarasota, Woodstock, and San Francisco International film festivals and garnered three Spirit Award nominations. A.O. Scott of the New York times called it an “exciting debut” and made it a NY Times Critic’s Pick. M4M was picked up for distribution by IFC Films and was released theatrically last January (VOD and DVD releases followed).

Barry and I attended the Telluride Film Festival Student Symposium together in 2002 and have run into each other a few times since on the festival circuit. Here we talk about DIY filmmaking, distribution deals, VOD, new media, brand integration, and film school.

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