Four close colleagues are behind the strange and touching non-horror film, A Ghost Story, which opens in cinemas this week, following up a successful premiere at Sundance this year: actor Casey Affleck, writer/director David Lowery and producers James M. Johnston and Toby Halbrooks. They will screen the film, which co-stars Rooney Mara, at KVIFF, which also follows up a team project with the same players, Ain’t Them Bodies Saints, which screened here in 2013. The team’s next project, Old Man and the Gun with Robert Redford and Elisabeth Moss, has just finished filming.
So you’ve formed a stable collaboration, working together regularly. How does that work for everyone?
I like that vocabulary. It’s a stable collaboration. We’ve done three movies together and with Toby and James as well, so it’s a fairly stable collaboration with all of us. It’s nice to work with friends. You don’t always get that opportunity because you travel so much and you meet new people always. That makes it sometimes an added challenge to make a new movie because you have to develop some sort of rapport with people and the shorthand, you gotta try to learn what the other person means and when they want something.
And there’s a stronger bond with you guys than just a professional relationship?
So I get the chance to work with friends but also I think there’s a shared sensibility somehow with this group. I like the movies that they do and the things that they’ve done. And I’ve liked everything that I’ve gotten to be a part of - not that that was the most important part, I would say, but it’s a bonus when you have a great experience. And then you also feel like the thing that has been made is something you’re proud of. I’m always proud when I’m a part of something that they’re working on.
You can read the whole interview in today's Festival Daily.
