[Watch the video interview on Youtube here]
Film Courage: How soon into your visits to Sing Sing did your writing process begin?
Greg Kwedar, Writer/ Director/Producer: We had begun the writing process kind of in earnest after we had this first breakfast at Brent’s apartment [Producer/Co-Writer Brent Buell]. This was six years of development. The timeline is long and varied but a big part of the development was happening in time with our own education in the program. Also our own moral education in terms of learning about what this program is actually doing and how that could inform our own process and how our process would mirror that.
We struggled for many years to capture what it felt like when we were inside and when we were around these men because there was this very palpable, amazing energy that was shared in these spaces, so vulnerable, so open, no masks. Whenever we would go away and try and write it and go be the filmmakers and put it on the page, it always fell short of what the room felt like.
The big breakthrough for us was when we finally were able to allow our writing process to mirror how the program actually operates, which is really as a community. What that means and looked like was we had to expand our circle. It couldn’t be just Clint Bentley [Co-Writer/Producer] I putting this on a page. We needed to open the room up and bring the people who really lived it into the process. Once we did that then the magic started to happen.
Film Courage: How are you so patient in developing your stories?
Greg: It comes a bit with experience but a big thing that we have discovered for ourselves is that we want to tell stories from the dirt up. I think what that means is we just care a lot about the communities we’re working within. We want to pull the curtain and come behind a place. We know that process of discovery can take time. We always want it to be faster but a movie also will tell you when the time is right and also tell you when it’s not, sometimes forcefully…(Watch the video interview on Youtube here).
SING SING in Theaters Now!
About:
Greg Kwedar is a writer, director, and producer. He made his feature directorial debut with Transpecos, which premiered in competition at the 2016 SXSW Film Festival where it won the Audience Award. He co-wrote and produced Jockey, which premiered at the 2021 Sundance Film Festival in the U.S. Dramatic Competition where it won the Special Jury Award for Best Actor (Clifton Collins Jr.). Jockey also won the Audience Award at the AFI Film Festival and was acquired by Sony Pictures Classics for theatrical release. The film was nominated for an Indie Spirit Award for Best Male Lead and the John Cassavetes Award, and was one of the National Board of Review Top 10 Independent Film of 2021. Kwedar also produced Rising From Ashes, Running with Beto (Winner: SXSW Audience Award 2019), and was co-producer on Ghost Fleet (Telluride & TIFF, 2018). He has spoken to thousands of students across the country and sat on panels about his work at SXSW, Sundance, UNESCO, the United Nations, and more. His latest film Sing Sing, over seven years in the making, which he both directed and co-wrote, premiered at the 2023 Toronto International Film Festival where it was acquired by A24 for theatrical release.
MORE VIDEOS WITH GREG KWEDAR
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