Part 1 of our special series on documentary filmmakers features Carlo Nassise and Eva Rendle, two brilliant artists who screened their work at the Big Sky Documentary Film Festival. Though distinct in their content, each film explores relevant socio-cultural themes in the west. In this interview, we'll discuss the craft of cinematography, including story arcs, filmmaking techniques, surprising scenes, and the unique relationships between the filmmakers and subjects.
'Coby & Stephen Are In Love'
Coby Yee, a 92 year old retired nightclub dancer and icon from San Francisco Chinatown, and Stephen King, an experimental filmmaker 20 years her junior have found an unlikely love in each other through matching outfits, dance, and art. Stephen is intensely interested in images, film, and memory and manages an eccentric archive of Coby's illustrious dancing career. As their last dance performance in Las Vegas approaches, Coby and Stephen prepare a final routine.
About the Filmmaker:
Carlo Nasisse is a director, photographer, and cinematographer pursuing long-form projects that explore regional culture, ecology, and the relationships between humans, landscape, and politics. His work has been featured in SXSW, Slamdance, Big Sky, Florida Film Festival, Maryland Film Festival, and Oaxaca. His essay film "East Side" screened as part of the Experimental Response Cinema's "Wake America" series. His short documentary, The South Texas Cow Punk, won the student grand jury prize at the Oak Cliff film festival in 2017. In June 2019 his short film, "Coby and Stephen are in Love" screened as part of an exhibition titled "An Opera for Animals" at the Rockbund Art Museum in Shanghai. This same film appeared at the Times Museum in Berlin. He has photographed feature and short narrative films, as well as numerous documentaries. In the Summer of 2018, he was a resident at the Union Docs center for documentary art in Brooklyn. He is currently co-directing with Mexican geographer, Geronimo Barrera, his first feature-length documentary, Xa-Lyu K'ya, about the relationship between international carbon trading schemes and indigenous autonomy within the endangered cloud forests of Oaxaca, Mexico.
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'All that Remains'
A year after deadly wildfires ravaged Northern California's Wine Country, its vulnerable population of farmworkers, many of them undocumented, find themselves in a heightened state of insecurity and inequality. All That Remains is a portrait of the second responders and vineyard workers who are still dealing with the aftermath of the fires, long after the media has turned away.
About the Filmmaker:
Eva Rendle is an award-winning documentary filmmaker and journalist whose work covers agriculture, immigration, and environmental issues in the West. She lives and works in Denver, Colorado.
