By Michael Goldman

Veteran rocker Neil Young (using his filmmaking alter-ego, Bernard Shakey) hit Sundance to promote his new movie, CSNY Deja Vu–the film chosen to close the festival. The movie documents the Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young 2004 Freedom of Speech tour, and the reaction to the tour’s anti-war message across North America just around the time that public opinion began to turn against events in Iraq. Young teamed with veteran television journalist Mike Cerre to intermingle concert footage from the tour with a series of journalistic vignette stories produced by Cerre at Young’s behest, all shot in HD, covering people and events surrounding the tour–from his band-mate Steven Stills’ work campaigning for Democratic candidates to Iraq veterans using music to protest the war to some vocal fans reacting with great anger to the band’s political message. After arriving at Sundance, Young spoke with millimeter senior editor Michael Goldman about his reasons for making the movie, his growing interest in filmmaking, and his views on the use of film as a medium for creating political dialogue.

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Kicking It Director Susan Koch

Nerakhoon (The Betrayal) Director Ellen Kuras

Mike Seymour of I Love Sarah Jane

Choke Director Clark Gregg

Where in the World is Osama bin Laden? Editors Julie Lombardi and Gavin Coleman

Captain Abu Raed DP Reinhart Peschke

Anywhere USA Director Chusy Haney-Jardine

Be Kind, Rewind Director Michel Gondry

FLOW: For Love of Water Editor Caitlin Dixon

By Darroch Greer

Listen in on an exclusive interview with Kicking It Director Susan Koch as she talks about the creation of her Sundance film. Digital Content Producer Contributor Darroch Greer asks the questions.

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By Michael Goldman

The Sundance-debuting documentary, Nerakhoon (The Betrayal), represents the directorial debut for cinematographer Ellen Kuras. Nerakhoon was the first professional feature film project Kuras ever got involved with, took her 23 years to complete, and was directly responsible for her decision to become a cinematographer. It’s a compelling look at the impact on a family of Laotian immigrants to the United States of the ongoing consequences of their involvement in the secret U.S. air war in Laos during the Vietnam era. Kuras made the film in partnership with the central player in the drama—Laotian immigrant Thavisouk Phrasavath, who went on to become her officially credited co-writer and co-director on the project. She recently discussed the making of the film, including the unique challenges in editing and conforming material shot in dozens of different formats over the course of more than two decades, with millimeter Senior Editor Michael Goldman. You can hear part of their conversation by clicking the link below, and check out the January/February issue of millimeter for more on how the project came together.

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I just caught up with Mike Seymour, executive producer and visual effects supervisor on I Love Sarah Jane, one of the shorts screening here at Sundance. (Read Eric Melin’s review here.) Seymour told us about his use of the Thomson Viper FilmStream camera on Sarah Jane, including his data-capture scheme, and a little bit about FX PhD, the online visual effects school he’s involved with, which helped postproduce the effects-heavy short. Click here for my interview with Mike Seymour live at the Filmmaker’s Lodge at Sundance.

By Darroch Greer

Listen in on an exclusive interview with Choke Director Clark Gregg as he talks about the creation of his Sundance film. Digital Content Producer Contributor Darroch Greer asks the questions.

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By Michael Goldman

One of the more highly anticipated documentaries appearing this year at the Sundance Film Festival is Morgan Spurlock’s Where in the World is Osama bin Laden? The movie was largely shot by Spurlock’s small crew using primarily a Sony HDW-F900 camera system as they literally traveled the world attempting to unravel the mystery of the notorious terrorist’s whereabouts. He returned from his adventure with hundreds of hours of HD footage to sort through as he built the movie, and much of that job fell to co-editors and frequent Spurlock collaborators Julie Lombardi and Gavin Coleman. Along with co-editor Sean Frechette and two assistants, they spent months sorting their way through “pieces of a thousand-hour puzzle,” as Lombardi explains it, working primarily on four Avid Xpress Pro systems (three running with Avid Mojo acceleration systems) and a Unity server system at Spurlock’s editorial headquarters in New York. As the Sundance Festival was about to begin, Lombardi and Coleman spoke with millimeter Senior Editor Michael Goldman about the project’s challenges and their creative approach to cutting the documentary together.

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By Michael Goldman

One of the earliest adopters of the Arriflex D-20 film-style digital camera for a major feature film this past year was cinematographer Reinhart Peschke, who shot a film debuting at Sundance called Captain Abu Raed, which was produced and filmed entirely in the nation of Jordan using the D-20 for writer-director Amin Matalqa. Peschke worked with Arriflex Munich and GigaPix Studios of Chatsworth, Calif., to develop a workflow for recording images from three D-20s directly to hard drives, and in the process, overcame a number of technical challenges while shooting in Jordan. Peschke recently spoke with millimeter Senior Editor Michael Goldman about those challenges. Listen to part of their conversation by clicking the link below and be sure to check out the September/October 2007 issue of millimeter for a detailed story on the making of the movie. Millimeter Senior Editor Michael Goldman asks the questions.

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By Darroch Greer

Listen in on an exclusive interview with Anywhere USA Director Chusy Haney-Jardine as he talks about the creation of his Sundance film. Digital Content Producer Contributor Darroch Greer asks the questions.

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By Michael Goldman

French director Michel Gondry, the force behind 2004’s Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, offers Sundance Film Festival-goers a much differently offbeat piece this year with Be Kind, Rewind. Gondry collaborated with cinematographer Ellen Kuras and others to manufacture the story of some well-intentioned goofballs trying to help a dying urban video rental store survive by simplistically remaking onto VHS tape many of the movies in the store’s library. The aesthetic approach to making those faux movies, and the technical challenges involved were quite extensive. Gondry recently discussed these issues with millimeter Senior Editor Michael Goldman. Check out the January/February issue of millimeter for a feature article on the making of Be Kind, Rewind.

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