The first Sundance Fest episode kicks off with Ondi talking to Anita filmmakers Freida Lee Mock and Lili Haydn. The movie is the long-awaited account of the life of sexual harassment lightning rod, Anita Hill.
Kalyanee Mam comes to discuss her doc about the lives of Cambodian people along the Tonle Sap river, A River Changes Course.
We also profile Which Way is the Front Line from Here, the new wartime doc by the makers of RESTREPO.
Watch new episodes of BYOD live each week on Tuesdays at noon on TheLip.TV, or tune in for the archived replay starting here on the following Thursday.
ABOUT BYOD:
BYOD is hosted by Ondi Timoner, director of “DIG!,” “JOIN US” and “WE LIVE IN PUBLIC,” and has the rare distinction of winning the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance twice. Each week the show explores a different documentary filmmaker or aspect of filmmaking, with special guests and a live Q&A– diving deep into creative process and the business realities of producing and distributing films. Ondi shares her insider views, opinions, and personal stories, welcoming audience participation. BYOD aims to entertain, inform, and elevate documentaries in general by bringing attention to films and film makers that deserve exposure.
GUEST BIO:
FILM AND FILMMAKER INFO:
ANITA
Freida Lee Mock is an Academy Award®-winning filmmaker, a director, producer, and writer whose award-winning films include “G-Dog,” “Sing!” (Academy Award® nominee, Best Documentary Short Film, 2002), “Maya Lin: A Strong Clear Vision” (Academy Award Winner, Best Feature Documentary Film, 1995; Directors Guild of America Award nominee 1995), “Never Give Up: The 20th Century Odyssey of Herbert Zipper,” (Academy Award® Nominee, Best Documentary Short Film, l996), “Rose Kennedy: A Life To Remember,” (Academy Award® Nominee, Best Documentary Short Film, l99l), “Lillian Gish: The Actor’s Life for Me,” (Prime-time Emmy Winner for Outstanding Informational Special, l989). “To Live Or Let Die,” explores the moral and ethical issues involved in the care of very ill newborn babies (lead program for the PBS series In Matters of Life and Death (Academy Award® nominee, Best Documentary Short Film).
She is the co-founder of the American Film Foundation with Terry Sanders, and the mother of noted film director Jessica Sanders.
Lili Haydn
George Clinton calls her “the Jimi Hendrix of the violin.” Rolling Stone called her music “fiery and virtuosic…”
Lili Haydn has released four critically acclaimed major label recordings as a solo artist. Lili (1997 Atlantic Records), Light Blue Sun (2003 BMG Music), Goodbye Stranger Ep (2007 Nettwerk Music Group), and Place Between Places (2008 Nettwerk Music Group). She has played with, sung with, and opened for everyone from Roger Waters, Herbie Hancock, Sting, Jimmy Page and Robert Plant, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Josh Groban, Seal, Matchbox 20, Cyndi Lauper, Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, and George Clinton’s P-Funk All Stars to name a few. Both as a solo artist and as support, Lili has performed in premiere concert halls such as Carnegie Hall, the Vienna Opera House and the Hollywood Bowl.
At the center of all Lili Haydn’s musical ventures is a belief that music has the power to uplift and to heal, no matter what the medium. For an artist whose music has always been eclectic, cinematic, and broad in scope, there are no boundaries, and Lili looks forward to continuing to bring her unique voice to film and TV, as well as to her inimitable performances and recordings.
A RIVER CHANGES COURSE
Ft. Director / Cinematographer Kalyanee Mam
Twice a year in Cambodia, the Tonle Sap River changes course, while life for the Khmer people continue to flow in a perpetual cycle of death and rebirth and of creation and destruction.
Working in an intimate, verité style, filmmaker Kalyanee Mam (Director of Photography for the Oscar-winning documentary Inside Job), spent two years in her native homeland following three young Cambodians as they struggled to overcome the crushing effects of deforestation, overfishing, and overwhelming debt.
A breathtaking and unprecedented journey from the remote, mountainous jungles and floating cities of the Cambodian countryside to the bustling garment factories of modern Phnom Penh, A River Changes Course traces a devastating and beautiful story of an ancient culture ravaged by globalization.
DIRECTOR/PRODUCER/CINEMATOGRAPHER
KALYANEE MAM
Kalyanee was born in Battambang, Cambodia during the Khmer Rouge Regime. In 1979, she and her family fled the refugee camps at the Thai-Cambodian border and eventually immigrated to the United States. Even to this day her mother recounts stories of their flight. Kalyanee’s father walked ahead of the family to protect them from land mines. They slept on pieces of plastic laid across the wet, jungle floor, while constantly evading soldiers pursuing them along the way. These stories and many others inspired Kalyanee to return to her native homeland for the first time in 1998, during the summer of her junior year at Yale. And they continue to inspire her to make films about atrocities occurring in Cambodia even today. But she was not always a filmmaker. After graduating from UCLA Law School, she worked as a legal consultant in Mozambique and Iraq. In Mozambique, she discovered a passion for photography. In Iraq, she discovered a passion for advocacy on important contemporary issues. These two passions enabled her to direct, produce, and shoot her first documentary short Between Earth & Sky (co-director David Mendez) about Iraqi refugees. And also led her to work as Cinematographer, Associate Producer, and Researcher on the Oscar-winning documentary, Inside Job with director Charles Ferguson. Kalyanee hopes to continue to combine her passion for art and advocacy to tell both compelling and universal stories.
WHICH WAY IS THE FRONT LINE FROM HERE: The Life and Time of Tim Hetherington
Ft. Director Sebastian Junger and Producer James Brabazon
Photojournalist and filmmaker Tim Hetherington was always searching for the humanity within wartime conflict, as evidenced in his award-winning body of work. When he and Sebastian Junger spent a year filming a platoon of U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan in their Academy Award–nominated and Sundance Grand Jury Prizewinning film Restrepo, they weren’t simply looking for action; instead, they chose to focus on the many small moments that make war real. Hetherington’s footage of time he spent with the rebel army during Liberia’s civil war and in Libya prior to his untimely death from a mortar blast in 2011 conveys a rare sense of intimacy in sharp contrast to the violence surrounding him. Although he spent most of his time traveling to the epicenter of war zones, he was seeking the truth, rather than adventure. That is Hetherington’s enduring gift.
Director Sebastian Junger gracefully weaves together footage of Hetherington at work and moving interviews with his family, friends, and colleagues to capture his compatriot and friend’s unique perspective, compassion, and intense curiosity about the human spirit.
Dir: Sebastian Junger – New York–based writer and journalist Sebastian Junger first ventured into film with the documentary Restrepo, which he shot and directed with colleague Tim Hetherington. The film won the 2010 Sundance Grand Jury Prize for best documentary and was nominated for an Academy Award. Junger’s accompanying book, War, spent more than a month on the New York Times best-seller list; his other books include The Perfect Storm, Fire, and A Death in Belmont. As a contributing editor for Vanity Fair, Junger has reported from war zones across the world.
Producer James Brabazon is an award-winning frontline journalist and documentary filmmaker. Based in London, he has travelled in over seventy countries, investigating, filming and directing in the world’s most hostile environments. His awards include the Rory Peck Trust Sony International Impact Award 2003, the Rory Peck Freelancer’s choice Award 2003, and the IDA Courage Under Fire Award 2004. He has made over thirty international current affairs films broadcast by the BBC, Channel 4, CNN, SABC and the Discovery Channel. He lectures on the ethics and practicalities of reporting from war zones and his writing has been published in the Observer, the Independent and the Guardian.
ADD’L LINKS:
http://thelip.tv/%E2%80%9Cg-dog%E2%80%9D-documentarian-and-oscar-winner-freida-lee-mock/
https://www.facebook.com/HetheringtonDoc
http://www.ariverchangescourse.com/
EPISODE BREAKDOWN:
00:01 Welcome to Sundance 2013.
00:50 Freida Lee Mock and Lila Haydn of ANITA.
18:03 ANITA, clip.
19:34 A River Changes Course, Clip.
21:25 Kalyanee Mam, of A River Changes Course.
22:50 Kalyanee’s experience at year zero of Cambodia under the Khmer Rouge.
40:06 A River Changes Course, Clip.
42:48 Which Way Is The Front Line From Here, Clip.
43:50 Sebastian Junger and James Brabazon of “Which Way Is The Front Line From Here.”
45:40 A profound friendship with Tim Hetherington and an enduring tribute to his work and life.
59:59 “Which Way Is The Front Line From Here,” Clip.
