that won Sundance Film Festival were shown both in the Los Angeles and New York DGA Theaters. On June 10, 2002, in the N.Y. Sundance Best Director program, Fern Wakneen, Assistant Executive Director of DGA East, introduced the programs that included discussions with the directors, moderated by DGA members.
Tadpole, directed by Gary Winick, won the Feature Directing Award and was made for approximately $150,000 with Sony HDCAM cameras, and made news when it was bought by Miramax for $6 million. Though Winick has made several films over the past 15 years, this was the first time he's had a film accepted by Sundance.
In his conversation with moderator Dan Algrant, Winick praised digital video (DV) because it reduced stress and cut costs. However, "because DV can be so flexible and spontaneous, I think you should be more prepared than you are in 35mm. I storyboard all my films. When I am on set, and once I get what I want, then I am free to try things. I shot 70 hours for a 78-minute movie. You have to be disciplined, then you can branch out."
He was also fortunate that he cast actors, such as Bebe Neuwirth and John Ritter, who are veterans in working quickly in their TV sitcoms. As for his lead, Sigourney Weaver, Winick wanted her to rehearse for two days for her 10-day shoot. "She pushed for a week of rehearsals, which really helped. That restaurant scene [three-way conversation with Ritter, Neuwirth and Weaver], they were such naturals."
Sister Helen, which won the Documentary Directing Award, explodes with the theatrical force of a Eugene O'Neill play directed by Roberto Rossellini. It was followed by a Q&A with directors Rebecca Cammisa and Rob Fruchtman and moderated by DGA member Debra Dickson.
The feature-length documentary was shot over a year-and-a-half period, as it followed the brutal but tender story of Sister Helen, a Benedictine nun who operates a halfway house for recovering alcoholics and drug addicts in the South Bronx. Cammisa, a still photographer, began the project when she met Sister Helen. Rob Fruchtman joined her and the two co-directed the film.
Both Cammisa and Fruchtman lived in the home with the addicts and the nun. "She was very challenging to live with; the way she acted with everyone was the way she acted with us," said Cammisa. "It was a roller coaster living with her."
Living in the house paid off for the filmmakers because the realism, the anger, the grief are so outsized that it approaches theater.
"We both wanted to make a film that was dramatic, that basically unfolded," Fruchtman said. "That kind of film should, in the best of worlds, feel like a story. Documentary is almost a misnomer for many films that are very dramatic. This was a dramatic story, and I think we had enough steam to do that. We wanted it to unfold. We were hoping that there would be an arc and there was."
