Filmmaker, Chloe Zhao

Nomadland filmmaker Chloe Zhao is as "indie" as it gets, but she may not be able to hold onto that title much longer considering that she just finished directing the new Marvel film Eternals, due out in November 2021.  But for now let’s keep our attention on her indie cred and how she started turning heads in the film world.  We’ll start with her debut feature, Songs My Brothers Taught Me.  She wrote, directed and co-edited this one, as well as having co-produced it with Forest Whitaker.  The film was accepted and lauded at both the Sundance and Cannes film festivals.

Her next film, The Rider, was also a highly acclaimed picture about a Lakota cowboy named Brady.  The film was made with non-professional actors on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation.  Although this film also made it to Cannes, what is most significant is the use of non-professional actors.  The reason being that, with a couple of exceptions in the lead roles, Chloe does the same thing with Nomadland.  And it really has an impact on the feel of the movie in a good and very necessary way.  If you look at the credits on IMDB, you’ll see character names such as; Swanky, Patty, Doug, Angela, Carl…and then when you look over to see the names of the “actors” who played them…you see the exact same names.  As I mentioned, there are two big exceptions to the "non actor" aspect.  Frances McDormand plays "Fern" and David Strathairn plays, you guessed it..."Dave".

The film is based on the 2017 non-fiction book Nomadland: Surviving America in the Twenty-First Century by Jessica Bruder, and is about a woman who leaves her small town to travel around the American West.  Of course it’s about a lot more than that, but you should definitely give the film a look to fill in the rest of the blanks for yourself.

Editing Nomadland

In our discussion with Nomadland filmmaker Chloe Zhao we talk about:

• The influence of Manga and comic books on her style and love of editing
• Whether or not editors should be on location and on set
• How she takes inspiration from director Wong Kar-wai
• Abandoning the two-shot
• How her nomad-like editorial setup has evolved

The Credits

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