A Guide to Indie Film: From Labs to Sundance to Theaters

Laurel Parmet is a director and writer who has been nominated and awarded for her shorts, Kira Burning and Spring. Kara Durrett is a producer who works in both independent film and television, producing films such as Save Yourselves! and Topside. We were honored to speak to both of them about their recent film, The Starling Girl, which made its world premiere at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival.

In this episode, No Film School’s GG Hawkins, director Laurel Parmet, and producer Kara Durrett discuss:

• The surreal, emotional feeling of premiering at Sundance

• What the film, The Starling Girl, is about

• Why Laurel believes going to film school was invaluable for her

• Getting fully financed and then losing it all when the pandemic started

• Pitching a film - how to do it and why it’s so amazing

• What the remote editing experience was like

• Plotting out each scene to encourage certain audience emotions

• Feeling fortunate from the positive response after premiering at Sundance

• The process of bringing a film to the screen

• How to maintain stamina on projects that take years to make

• What you need to do before deciding to become a producer

Listen to more episodes of the No Film School podcast right here:

This episode of The No Film School Podcast was produced by GG Hawkins.