We were on the red carpet for the Tribeca Film Festival premiere of “Roads” and “Burning Cane.”
Sebastian Schipper is an actor-turned-director. He appeared in features including Winter Sleepers, Run Lola Run, and The English Patient, and directed Gigantic (Absolute Giganten), A Friend Of Mine, Sometime In August, and Victoria, which won a Silver Bear at Berlinale and six German Film Awards including Best Film and Best Director. He was very excited to bring his latest project Roads to the festival.
Director Sebastian Schipper talks “Roads.” pic.twitter.com/snliC3ld7R
— The Knockturnal (@_TheKnockturnal) April 29, 2019
The Knockturnal: Fionn Whitehead and Stéphane Bak are great in the film.
Sebastian Schipper: Aren’t they great? Aren’t they amazing? I’m very lucky, yeah.
The Knockturnal: Can you speak about immigration as a backstory in this?
Sebastian Schipper: To be honest, it’s always hard to say that one thing, but I wanted to do something about this crazy world we’re living in. And I also knew that I didn’t want it to be depressing, because we live in a wonderful world. And then one thing came to another. And then I don’t know. I think then I wanted a challenge. I don’t know if you’ve seen Victoria, but the film I shot before, I shot it in one take. So that was a really crazy challenge on a technical level, but I think I wanted a challenge on a storytelling level, because I knew it would be hard to tell about this, because it plays in front of the background of migration. But it’s also about two boys, and they’re both 18, and they find each other in this crazy world, and they become friends, and they party.
The Knockturnal: And I was worried for them because they’re young, and I’m like, “Oh, God, that’s dangerous. Stop it.” I was talking to the screen.
Sebastian Schipper: That’s always the best, yeah.
The Knockturnal: Can you speak about the characters relationship with his dad?
Sebastian Schipper: I knew exactly what I wanted with that, and to be honest .. I’m probably more than anything the dad in that scene. No, I’m serious .. We all know families are multilayered … and no, I didn’t want him to be just a bad dad, whatever. They’re 18. That was for me the most first profound thing, and they’re traveling through Europe, and it’s Europe of today. And so, one comes from Congo, and one is from London. But that for me, in this … the most important bullet points about the film is coming in almost fourth, or fifth. And that’s what I wanted, and that’s what I wanted to pull off.
The Knockturnal: Did you shoot on location for all of it?
Sebastian Schipper: For all of it. Traveled from Morocco to Spain, to France.
Actors Stephane Bak and Fionn Whitehead talk “Roads” @Tribeca pic.twitter.com/wDJ9cRKPR0
— The Knockturnal (@_TheKnockturnal) April 29, 2019
Phillip Youmans is a New Orleans-born filmmaker based in New York City. His latest short film, Nairobi, made with Solange Knowles’ creative agency Saint Heron, and his latest documentary about Jon Batiste and the Stay Human band, will premiere this year. Burning Cane, starring Wendell Pierce, is Phillip’s feature-length debut.
Writer / Director Phillip Youmans talks @burningcane @Tribeca pic.twitter.com/WD2Qo4Y8y3
— The Knockturnal (@_TheKnockturnal) April 29, 2019
The Knockturnal: So tell me about your project.
Phillip Youmans: All right, so Burning Cane is my first feature film. I shot the film and finished the film towards the end of my high school career. And I edited the film throughout all of my senior year. And it’s premiering now, so I’m excited, yeah.
The Knockturnal: And what is it mean to be the youngest filmmaker at Tribeca?
Phillip Youmans: It means a lot. It’s just awesome to finally get the film seen. I don’t know. I’m just excited, honestly, for people to find this here.
The Knockturnal: And how did you get Benh Zeitlin involved to be a producer?
Phillip Youmans: As soon as we wrapped principal, I Instagram messaged Benh with the first trailer that I made, and then he came. Then me and him met up, and then from that point on, we were best friends really. And he was great in helping us get grants that helped us finish the film in terms of post-production and making sure the production value was as high as it could be. And then he sat with me for hours and hours in the edit, just offered a lot of creative mentorship. So Benh is great.
The Knockturnal: Tell me a little about assembling your cast.
Phillip Youmans: So it took a minute actually, but it had to go quickly. We were casting up until we shot. We didn’t know that Wendell was actually going to be in it until after we had already began shooting principal photography. So, my cast are all New Orleans natives. They’re all brilliant actors. I lucked out really, yeah.
The Knockturnal: And tell me about some of the themes that the film explores.
Phillip Youmans: So the film talks about toxic masculinity and how manhood is defined. An overarching question with the film, is how religion and its place in our community is something that really needs to be looked at objectively. Yeah, more than anything, it’s about the relationships between a mother, a son, and her pastor, in this rural Louisiana community. But in terms of the wider idea, it really was about questioning what the place is of the church in our community as black people.
Actor Dominique McClellan talks #burningcane @Tribeca pic.twitter.com/lUnoRAMP96
— The Knockturnal (@_TheKnockturnal) April 29, 2019
