SFIFF58 Interview: ‘Aria for a Cow’ writer/director Dan Lund & Crew

Amos, (Me), Siddhartha, Elizabeth, and Dan of 'Aria for a Cow'
Amos, Me, Siddhartha, Stephanie, and Dan talking ‘Aria for a Cow’

The shorts programs at SFIFF58 have been increasing in popularity the last few years, and Shorts 5: Family Films is no exception. One film from the group, the colorful and magnificent musical Aria for a Cow, is appropriately quite the showstopper. I sat down with Disney animator and Aria for a Cow writer/director Dan Lund, art director and co-producer Amos Sussigan, background designer and painter Stephanie Dominguez, and production manager Siddhartha Maganti at the Hotel Majestic, a few blocks from where their short would premiere the next day and a few hours before their premiere party. The camaraderie within the group is infectious, and they had no trouble jumping right into the nitty gritty of their film: 

Where did the idea for Aria for a Cow originate?

Dan Lund: I’ve always had a pretty healthy ‘outside-of-Disney’ project type thing going. I was a PA in 1989 at Disney and was working with people who were working with Howard (Ashman). I had kept hearing about this passion project of his called ‘Fatty of the Opera’. Right before we started working on Frozen I had this period where I didn’t have an outside project to work on and it kinda freaked me out. I was in New York and I had mentioned to a friend, ‘I wonder what ever happened to Howard’s “Fatty of the Opera” project’ and my friend knew Sarah (Howard’s sister) peripherally and he said, ‘You should email her.’ So I did and she graciously agreed to give me all the information I needed on this passion project if I listened to her favorite song that no one has ever heard by him, called Aria for a Cow.” I really just did it to get the other thing I wanted, but the other thing I wanted turned out to be a little odder than I thought. And I just fell in love with the cow song. She let me turn it into an animated thing. Originally she was thinking of it being a children’s book but I don’t know that world at all. The song was just lyrics on a page. I wrote the wraparound. I didn’t just want to make a music video. I wanted the song to have a home that was as story-driven as the song.

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SFIFF58 Spotlights #3: Shorts — Youth Works / Family Films / Animation

'A Single Life' short from the Animated Shorts Program.
‘A Single Life’ short from the Animated Shorts Program.

SFIFF58 is underway, and we’re here to bring you all the goodies! Here’s a quick look at a few selections from three of the MANY amazing shorts programs, all of which are worth checking out at this year’s San Francisco International Film Festival (April 23-May 7):

Shorts 6: Youth Works
April 25, 11:00am – Tickets & Info
Created by amazing young talent, this collection of narrative, documentary, and animated films is astounding and just a taste of the strong pool of future filmmakers we can expect to see more of down the line.

Kers
(Alexia Salingaros, USA 2014, 5 min)

KERS
KERS

Steadily shot and succinctly edited, Kers is a quick portrait of a female graffiti artist. Challenging the notions of gender roles and respected art forms, the subject reveals the struggles and lifestyle her passion has created for herself.

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SFIFF58 Preview and Spotlights #2: The Postman’s White Nights/The Kindergarten Teacher/Fidelio: Alice’s Odyssey/The Wonders

58SFIFF

Spinning Platters continues its coverage of the upcoming 58th San Francisco International Film Festival (SFIFF) with a spotlight on four more films. The Festival opens next Thursday, April 23rd, and runs until May 7th.  Tickets and more information can be found here.

Today’s post looks at one film from the Masters section and three from the Global Visions section. Keep checking back for more coverage throughout the Fest!

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SFIFF58 Preview & Spotlights #1: Vincent / 7 Chinese Brothers / H. / Sunday Ball / A Few Cubic Meters of Love

SFIFF logo
The 58th San Francisco International Film Festival

 

Welcome film lovers and moviegoers to the Spinning Platters coverage of the 58th San Francisco International Film Festival (SFIFF). Bookmark this site because we’ll be bringing you tons of SFIFF coverage: previews, film spotlights, interviews, and special events coverage. Per usual, our spotlights will cover the films that you’re already excited to see, as well as many titles that you haven’t heard of. SFIFF program notes and tickets are available here.

We’ll be continuing our coverage this week and throughout the Festival. Without further ado, let’s take a look at some of the special events in store and then five of the festival films:

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Film Review: 5 to 7

Dull picture chronicles boring affair

Arielle (Bérénice Marlohe) and Brian (Anton Yelchin) wonder what they possibly could do in a hotel room between the hours of 5 and 7.

According to writer/director Victor Levin’s new film, a “5 to 7” relationship among the French refers to an extramarital affair, fully sanctioned by all involved parties, that may or may not take place during those appointed hours, but is termed thusly regardless. In Levin’s new film named for that expression, though, the affair that is the film’s subject does indeed mostly take place during those evening hours. The participants are 24-year-old aspiring New York writer Brian (Anton Yelchin, best known as the Star Trek reboot’s young Chekov) and the beautiful, older, married Frenchwoman Arielle (Bérénice Marlohe, Skyfall). At least these two get to have a few hours of fun; the viewers of this hokey mess aren’t quite as lucky.

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Film Review: The Longest Ride

A Nicholas Sparks adaptation done right, with all the flaws and annoyances of a Nicholas Sparks adaptation.

A city girl. A cowboy. Country love ensues.
A city girl. A cowboy. Country love ensues.

The newest adaptation of a sappy romantic Nicholas Sparks novel, The Longest Ride, is exactly that — sappy and romantic, and formulaic with a preposterous twist added in for preposterous effect. The story about a young beautiful art lover (Britt Robertson, Dan in Real Life) who falls in love with a young beautiful bull rider (Scott Eastwood, Fury) is the surface romance, featuring lines like “I can’t just quit. It’s all I know”, etc. The more dramatic underlying romance is the story told by an injured old man (Alan Alda, M.A.S.H.), about his courtship and marriage to the love of his life (Oona Chaplin, Game of Thrones) and the sacrifices they made for each other. Combine the two together in a layered emotional cheese fest and you have the makings of a classic Sparks story which the movie studio can use to excitedly make a film trailer that states “Two Stories Separated by Time / Connected by Fate.” (see trailer below)

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Film Review: Furious 7

The seven things you want and need to know about Furious 7 before you go see it.

Vin Diesel and Jason Statham crash a lot of cars in Furious 7
Vin Diesel and Jason Statham crash a lot of cars in Furious 7

Sometimes you’ll hear people talk about a movie as being review-proof. This is one of those times. There’s nothing anyone could do or say to keep you away from Furious 7 if it’s something you already want to see. And if you don’t care, there’s nothing I could say to make you care. So what’s the point? I could tell you it’s a rollicking good time for most of its length, and then it devolves into some pretty dumb stuff, too dumb even for itself. It’s basically a bunch of video game levels with some unskippable cut scenes that you wish you could skip.

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Film Review: While We’re Young

It’s Gen X versus the hipsters in Baumbach’s uneven new film

Cornelia (Naomi Watts) and Josh (Ben Stiller) have a late night discussion.

Writer/director Noah Baumbach, who is 45, and whose girlfriend and frequent muse Greta Gerwig (Frances Ha) is 31, obviously knows a thing or two about Gen X/millennial conflict, and it’s hard not to wonder how much his real life experiences shaped While We’re Young, his new picture exploring the generational divide. While intellectually clever and undeniably funny at times, Baumbach’s film is not without its problems.

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Show Review: “Gotta Dance!” Great Moments of Dance in Film

On Saturday night, the San Francisco Symphony hosted Gotta Dance!: Great Moments of Dance in Film at Davies Symphony Hall. If the first thing you pictured when hearing this title was Gene Kelly dancing under the giant orchestrated set of Broadway lights or the long, flowing white dress of Cyd Charisse (or the flashy green dress, for that matter), then this was absolutely the show for you. But what do I know? Maybe you were there!

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Film Review: Serena

‘Camp’ is the operative word in Bier’s tiresome logging camp melodrama

Jennifer Lawrence and Bradley Cooper playing dress up in Serena.
Jennifer Lawrence and Bradley Cooper playing dress up.

Critically acclaimed Danish director Susanne Bier tries her hand at directing an American period piece with her newest film Serena, and, unfortunately, the result is a serious misstep, paling in comparison to her excellent, award-winning earlier films (In a Better World, After the Wedding, and Things We Lost in the Fire, among others). Based on a novel of the same name by Ron Rash, the picture stars Jennifer Lawrence and Bradley Cooper in a troubled romance, and the fact that so much talent is wasted here is beyond disappointing.

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