there are a few remarkable films getting oscar buzz that are documentaries. flea is a perfect example of how documentaries are blurring lines. it is a foreign language film, it s an animated film and it s a documentary. and it excels in all categories. flea tells the story of an afghan refugee who fled the taliban in the 19905 as a boy. his difficult, solitaryjourney from kabul to moscow and then copenhagen. the director said choosing an animation as a way to tell the story freed in to tell details of his life as a refugee that he had kept secret for 25 years. what you see in the film, what you hear in the film it s the first time, it talks about these things, and it is difficult to talk about. the fact that he could stay
who perhaps had never heard of west side story. we thought the messages were so relevant to our time and to the generation that my kids are working their way through, that we felt that this was the right time to reimagine west side story. how evident are stephen sondheim s talents in yourfilm? because in a way it must be very tough for you right now, you must miss him being with you as you launch your film. it was devastating, it is still devastating. we are still not. i am still not really accustomed to not being able to text him and e mail him and compare movie trivia to the 1930s films. or to all the films with leonard. i mean, stephen was a tremendous cineaste and on the scale of martin scorsese and del toro, that kind of a cineaste, as i have been all my life and for all his great work in the nonlinear, linear musical stage, he is a genius.
west side story is probably the first musical that really resonated with me and that i really grappled with and thought about and considered and the idea that the story was being told, this timeless story, this romeo and juliet story, was being told through verse and through song was really compelling and intriguing and provocative for me. one of the songs that has stuck with me and that i hold onto from west side story is america because it explores issues that are important and relevant to me as a latino in this country. it explores some of the tensions and issues that we are still grappling with today.
lin manuel miranda, behind the broadway show hamilton and both the stage and film version of in the heights, a love affair set in new york s washington heights neighbourhood. the film was released this year. he has now directed his first movie, tick tick boom, starring andrew garfield, and it is a musical about the late jonathan larson, a talented composer behind the musical rent, who longs to achieve something of note by his 30th birthday. i know that i worked really hard to get good at writing musicals and that skill set was helpful to me in several ways, because of course what you know you don t know. i learnt a lot on this which i will bring me hopefully to the next one, but musicals are like real life but more fun. and a desire to see a better version of real life may be driving
the first feeling is gratitude and such an honour to be able to have been entrusted by the trustees and stephen sondheim to be able to make our west side story. # skyscrapers bloom in america. # cadillacs zoom in america. stephen sondheim was notjust a lyricist of the 1957 broadway west side story musical, but also for the 1961 movie and speilberg s new film. sadly, he died at the age of 91, just a few days before the world premiere. the production boasts a very talented cast. rachel zegler plays the pivotal role of maria, pretty much an unknown actress. this is her performing maria four years ago, well before stephen spielberg had even heard of her. # i have a love. # and it s all that i need. the actress responded to an open