If you keep up with the Sundance Film Festival, you have no doubt heard of writer and actor Sara Colangelo. She made her film debut here in 2014, with her movie Little Accidents. Most recently, the talented woman brought a film called The Kindergarten Teacher to the festival. The well-received tale — a remake of a 2014 Israeli drama — focuses on the story of a five-year-old boy with a penchant for poetry, and the morally-questionable teacher who becomes his biggest fan. We won’t give you any spoilers here, but know this: it will make you think.
With Sara Colangelo’s second film, she proves that she is set to make waves in the industry. She is a great writer, a fantastic director, and has a lot of interesting views on the film industry. If you care to learn a bit more about her, check out this article about Five Things You Didn’t Know about Sara Colangelo.
She Wants Equality for Female Characters
One thing that Sara Colangelo frequently points out is that women are rarely antiheroes. This male-dominated character type offers a realistic humanity that can’t be achieved with any other role. One thing that you will notice if you watch The Kindergarten Teacher is that Sara Colangelo can definitely write a female antihero. According to her, she wants the film industry to move away from portraying women in vanilla ways, instead giving them a little more depth and grit.
Her First Film Won an Award
The first film that Colangelo created was called Little Accidents. It was about a woman working in a factory who believed that she had become pregnant and must invite her mentally-disabled ex-boyfriend into her life. The two work through the pregnancy and begin to bond again. This film appeared at Sundance, as well as the Seattle International Film Festival. At the latter, it achieved the great honor of winning the Grand Jury Prize for a Narrative Short.
She’s Working on a World War Two Film
Colangelo has recently stated that she is working on a new, female-focused WWII film. Though it is not clear where she is at in the filmmaking process, she is quite excited to work on something that is set in wartime. She also is looking forward to the challenge of portraying war from a female perspective, something that hasn’t been done that often before.
She Shot The Kindergarten Teacher in 23 Days
Her incredibly fast production of The Kindergarten Teacher is likely why the final product was quite compact and focused. Of course, the efficient filming is also a testament to her skill as a director. Despite working with a very young actor, she was able to pull this off in less than a month. Clearly she can work well under pressure.
She Knows When She’s Getting Bad Advice
One thing that Sara Colangelo has is a good feel for advice. When she was at an industry party, an unnamed (but according to her, well-known) male comedian approached her and told her that she would never make it in the industry if she got married or had kids. Well, she actually ended up getting married and having a kid in the same year that she submitted a film to Sundance — with nary a creative slowdown. Clearly, this woman knows who to take seriously and who to brush off.
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