Overview
Note: This stream has ended. Watch the archived discussion below or on our YouTube channel.
Join us on Wednesday, December 16 for Creative Forces Online! This FREE event will feature the team behind the Sundance Grand Jury Prize-winning film Boys State – an Apple Original Film. The team will give a behind the scenes look at how they worked together on Boys State, as well as take a deeper dive into some of the technical considerations behind the documentary's unique cinematography approach. The stream will be hosted by Director of Education Jeff Lee, with time for audience Q&A throughout.
About Boys State
The sensational winner of the Grand Jury Prize for documentary at this year's Sundance Film Festival and 2021 IDA Documentary Award nominee for Best Cinematography, Boys State is a wildly entertaining and continually revealing immersion into a week-long annual program in which a thousand Texas high school seniors gather for an elaborate mock exercise: building their own state government. Filmmakers Jesse Moss and Amanda McBaine closely track the escalating tensions that arise within a particularly riveting gubernatorial race, training their cameras on unforgettable teenagers like Ben, a Reagan-loving arch-conservative who brims with confidence despite personal setbacks, and Steven, a progressive-minded child of Mexican immigrants who stands by his convictions amidst the sea of red. In the process, they have created a complex portrait of contemporary American masculinity, as well as a microcosm of our often dispiriting national political divisions that nevertheless manages to plant seeds of hope.
Speakers
Amanda McBaine
Amanda McBaine is a Sundance Award-winning producer making her feature directing debut with Boys State. As a producer, her films include The Overnighters, The Bandit, Speedo and Ghosts of Attica. Along with her husband and creative partner Jesse Moss, she is a partner in Mile End Films, a San Francisco-based production company.
Jesse Moss
Jesse Moss is an acclaimed documentary filmmaker. His films include The Overnighters (Sundance Special Jury Prize for Intuitive Filmmaking), recognized by many critics as the top documentary of 2014; The Bandit; Full Battle Rattle (SXSW Special Jury Prize); Speedo: A Demolition Derby Love Story; and Con Man. Recent work includes, in collaboration with Alex Gibney’s Jigsaw Productions, the “Payday” episode of the Netflix series Dirty Money, and The Family, a five-part Netflix series, about an enigmatic and influential Christian organization, based on Jeff Sharlet’s best-selling book. His recent short La Boca Del Lobo for the New York Times Op Doc series, about the impact of immigration-related arrests on the Hispanic community in Atlanta, marked his first collaboration with Concordia Studio. He also produced Gay Chorus Deep South (2019 Tribeca Audience Award) and William Kunstler: Disturbing the Universe (Sundance 2010). He frequently works with his wife and co-conspirator Amanda McBaine. | www.jessemoss.com
Thorsten Thielow
Thorsten is a Brooklyn-based Cinematographer and Director. He was most recently the director of photography for Boys State, which premiered at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival. Thorsten is a founding member of the NYC Kamera Kollektiv, a boutique agency for documentary cinematographers. Working on documentaries for theatrical release and primetime television Thorsten is passionate in making films that illuminate the human condition and bring about social change. He specializes in intimate character studies and vérité projects. | www.thordp.com
Martina Radwan
Martina, a native German, based in NYC for more than 20 years, has been the cinematographer of award-winning features and documentaries for over a decade. Some of her most recent films include Inventing Tomorrow, The Final Year, The Family I Had, The Promised Band, and Through A Lens Darkly. Saving Face, for which she earned a 2013 Emmy nomination for Outstanding Cinematography, was the winner of the 2012 Academy Award and the 2013 Emmy for Best Documentary. Her narrative works ranges from drama (Rain, Under Construction) to thrillers (The Killing Floor, Train). Martina has also collaborated with numerous international artists, like ANOHNI for whom she shot the video background for her Hopeless Tour, as well as conceptional artists like Andrea Geyer, Josiah McElheny and Wu Tsang. | martinaradwandp.com
Claudia Raschke
Award-winning cinematographer Claudia Raschke is best-known for her ability to bring the rich tones of the motion picture medium to a diverse spectrum of films, from highly stylized commercial endeavors to behavioral documentaries to lower-budget works of art. Raschke has worked on five Oscar-nominated documentaries. Her most recent six-part documentary series for National Geographic will air Fall 2019 and her feature documentary RBG was nominated for an Oscar and has been screening in theaters around the world. | www.claudiaraschke.com
Wolfgang Held
Emmy-winning Director of Photography Wolfgang Held has photographed many indie movies and documentary features. Filming all over the globe, Held has been exploring both documentary and fiction filmmaking, in search of authenticity and truth.
His most recent feature credit is O.G., starring Jeffrey Wright, which was shot in an active maximum-security prison. Held photographed Brüno for Sacha Baron Cohen and Larry Charles and The Fourth Estate, a Showtime doc series about the New York Times. He is currently working for Liz Garbus and Alex Gibney on the upcoming Netflix series on The Innocence Project, incorporating cinema-verite filmmaking and dramatic recreations to tell the stories of those who have been innocently convicted. | wolfgangheld.com
Marshall Curry (moderator)
Marshall Curry is an Oscar-winning documentary filmmaker. He is the director of Street Fight, Racing Dreams, If a Tree Falls: A Story of the Earth Liberation Front, Point and Shoot, A Night at the Garden, and executive producer of Mistaken for Strangers. His first non-documentary film, The Neighbor's Window, won the 2020 Academy Award for best Live Action Short. Curry is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and is co-chair of Cinema Eye Honors. He was selected by Filmmaker Magazine as one of "25 New Faces of Independent Film," was awarded the International Documentary Association (IDA) Jacqueline Donnet Filmmaker Award, and received the International Trailblazer Award at MIPDOC in Cannes. | marshallcurry.com.
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