4 Questions: IN THIS PLACE
We thought it would be a good idea to help you get to know some of our fantastic filmmakers. So, borrowing an idea from LA Weekly’s Karina Longworth (the Bernard Pivot to our James Lipton), we submitted four questions to each filmmaker about and themselves and their films. We’ll be randomly posting as many responses as we can fit in between now and the kick-off.
Today’s filmmaker is Amy Bench, who wrote and directed In This Place, featured in our free-to-the-public Kids Fest program of family-friendly films.
It’s like Wes Anderson meets Michel Gondry meets Miranda July. The movie is a semi-autobiographical story about my family moving to distant corners of the world. Like Michel Gondry I used animation to explore the main characters (and my) fascination with fantasy, and like Anderson and July the characters were stylized versions of real people. One of the most exciting aspects of making the film was traveling to the far corners of this country to film the exotic, expansive backdrops.
I am a recovering engineer and now a full-time filmmaker. I was lucky enough to spend the last several years in graduate school and this is my thesis film. Now that I’m out- I’m living off of saved up student loans and grants while I hopefully make the transition to being a full-time filmmaker. My specialty is cinematography, so I’m hoping to pay the bills shooting films for other people as well as telling my own stories.
3. Have you been to deadCENTER before? What’s something you look forward to discovering (or re-living) at the festival and/or in Oklahoma City?
I haven’t, but am very excited to check out Oklahoma. It’s ironic that a film about everyone going to the far corners of the world will be shown in the dead center of the US. The part I’m most looking forward to is meeting other filmmakers.
4. Every filmmaker has influences and cinematic heroes. Name one of yours, and while you’re at it, tell us one film (or scene) in history that you wish you had directed (and why).
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