Author

About the Author /

Sarah is a true multi-hyphenate within the film industry. Alongside her role as Associate Editor & Head of Outreach for Directors Notes, her extensive festival experience ranges from MC and juror duties to previously serving as Deputy Director of Brighton Rocks, where she helped steer its growth into a BIFA-qualifying event. Sarah also produces for Brighton film collective The Imaginary Project and contributes as a freelance writer for publications including 1.4 and Shots Magazine.

Live Action

Reinis Spaile Uses a Grim Milieu to Expose Mundane Relationship Cracks in ‘Young Love in a Dirty Place’

Reinis Spaile talks about his affinity for using film to capture the contrast between a bright young couple and their degrading love.

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Live Action, Premiere

A Woman’s Trying Journey of Atonement Unfolds in Uncomfortably Close Quarters in Aiden Arata’s Comedy ‘Powder Room’

Writer/Director Aiden Arata talks to DN about shooting her wry meditation on friendship and forgiveness within the tight confines of a house party bathroom.

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Live Action

Nathalie Álvarez Mesén Embraces the Freedom of a Sexual and Mystical Awakening in Feature Debut ‘Clara Sola’

Nathalie Álvarez Mesén reveals the considered details which underpinned the creation of her poetic drama about a woman's sexual and mystical awakening.

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Live Action

A Fading Actress Delivers a Bloody Restaging of a Shakespearian Comedy in Kelsey Bollig’s Visceral ‘The Fourth Wall’

Kelsey Bollig explains how she brought the energy of theatre to screen in 'The Fourth Wall' while exploring the separation between actors and the audience.

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Live Action, Premiere

Mark H. Rapaport Renders a Disturbing Vision of Family Therapy in ‘Andronicus’

Mark H. Rapaport reveals how he created the portrait-style cinematography which accentuates the tensions in his perverted family drama.

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Art & Fashion

A Stylised Contemporary Female Fighter Is Reborn in Camila Arroyo’s Dance Fashion Film ‘Soldaderas’

Camila Arroyo outlines the intense self-reflection and on the job learning required to feature in and direct her collaborative dance/fashion film.

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Art & Fashion

Sebastian Hill-Esbrand Extols the Need to Proudly Celebrate Diverse Womxn Bodies & Spirits in ‘Booty Freedom’

Sebastian Hill-Esbrand explains why his celebratory dance short spurred him to build a female-centric team of collaborators in front of & behind the camera.

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Documentary

Nathan Long’s ‘Calling Attendance’ is an Unflinching Snapshot of the Harsh Realities of Life for Too Many Children

We talk to director Nathan Long about drawing on the narrative aesthetics of photojournalism for his brutally stark and effective campaign film.

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Live Action

A Young Thief Longs for the Comfort of the Mothers She Steals From in Melissa Anastasi Aquatic Drama ‘Chlorine’

DN talks to Melissa Anastasi about interweaving visuals of water to create a lyrical film about the yearning for nurturing familial bonds in 'Chlorine'.

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Music Video

Lado Kvataniya’s ‘Revansh’ is a Violent Allegorical Representation of the Gritty Reality of Life in Modern Russia

Lado Kvataniya discusses staging a surreal metaphorical portrait of Russian living using 16mm and hidden cuts for Husky track 'Revansh'.

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Music Video

Vira-Lata Linger in the Purgatorial Reality Between Heaven and Hell in Sensorial Music Video ‘Medo’

Directing duo Vira-Lata talk to us about utilising the gritty feeling of authenticity lent by expired 16mm stock in their sensorial Terno Rei music video.

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Live Action

Denzel Whitaker Spotlights the Toxic Collision of Modern Celebrity, Cancel Culture and Mental Health in ‘5150′

We talk to Denzel Whitaker about delving into the power of modern celebrity in our culture and the complexities of race in America in short film '5150'.

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