Directors Notes // The Home of Independent Filmmaking

A Grieving Woman Experiences a Close Encounter in Meredith Hama-Brown’s Music Video for Loscil’s ‘Sol’

Meredith Hama-Brown reveals how she and her team embraced light and lasers to create a visually distinctive UFO for her emotional healing music video.

Animation

The Unintended Consequences of Technological Evolution are Unravelled in Sean Buckelew’s ‘Drone’

Sean Buckelew joins us to explain how the phrasing of an online headline inspired his narrative about an AI drone with a conscious.

Live Action, Premiere

Colby Day Traverses the Archetypal Romantic Journey of a New Relationship in Dance Short ‘Lead/Follow’

Colby Day explains how he practically translated his intimate play, about a couple experiencing new love, into a free-flowing dance short.

Live Action, Premiere

Paul Holbrook’s ‘Old Windows’ Captivates With a Conversation Between Strangers That Is Much More Than It Seems

We spoke to Paul Holbrook about stripping down the dialogue in his nuanced short where an unsettling interest in the past grows tensions.

Documentary

Jacob Lee’s BAFTA Short ‘A Drifting Up’ Offers a Cathartic Montage of City Life & Human Connection

Jacob Lee tells us how dancing as a means of stress relief became a self-shot, BAFTA-nominated documentary about overcoming depression and anxiety.

Article

Directors Notes Top 20 Filmmaker Conversations of 2022

From an exhilarating year of DN interviews, this selection of 20 favourites epitomises the rich, insightful conversations we had with directors in 2022.

Live Action

A Filmmaker Asks His Roommate to Watch His Short in Frank Mosley & Hugo De Sousa’s Comedy ‘The Event’

Co-Directors Frank Mosley & Hugo De Sousa break down the comedic implications of the still camerawork in their uncomfortable conversation friendship short.

Documentary, Music

Las Vegas’ Original Elvis Impersonator Confronts His Fading Identity in Ivan Olita’s Short Doc ‘A King’

Ivan Olita shares how he authentically portrayed the Las Vegas visitors rarely see for his film about the conflicted identity of an Elvis impersonator.

Art & Fashion

Nat Gee Traverses the Ebbs and Flows of an Intense Anxiety Attack in Experiential Short ‘Waves’

Nat Gee explains how she used movement and camerawork to convey the inner workings of an intense anxiety attack for her experimental dance short.