Lucy walker talks about documentary filmmaking and silverdocs
Lucy Walker is an award-winning English film director. She is best known for directing the documentaries Devil's Playground (2002), Blindsight (2006), Waste Land (2010), Countdown to Zero (2010), and The Crash Reel (2013). She has also directed notable short films, such as The Tsunami and the Cherry Blossom (2011) and The Lion's Mouth Opens (2014), and fifteen episodes of Nickelodeon's Blue's Clues, for which she was nominated for two Daytime Emmys for Outstanding Directing.
She is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, The British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA), the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, the International Documentary Association, and the Directors Guild of America.
The art of storytelling lucy walker
Early life
Walker was born in London. She began directing theater in high school. As a student at Oxford University, she directed and produced an original musical called Querm. The movie won the prestigious Oxford University Dramatic Society Cuppers Award. Walker was the artistic director of the theater group New Company, and her outdoor musical productions of The Jungle Book and Tintin and the Broken Ear were cult hits. After graduating from New College, Oxford with a B.A. (Hons) and a M.A. (Oxon), she was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship to attend the NYU's Tisch School of the Arts' graduate film program, from which she received an MFA. She directed award-winning short fictional films at NYU.
Music
While at NYU film school, Walker supported herself as a DJ and musician. She was featured in a cover story in Option and on the cover of issue No. 154 of The Wire. She appeared frequently at the Soundlab in New York City and in Europe, where she performed solo and as a member of the experimental illbient ensemble Byzar. Walker also directed an avant-garde video for the track "Phylyx", which was broadcast as the show-opening video of MTV's iconic electronica show Amp (episodes 116, 122, and 124).
Walker contributed a chapter on music to Sound Unbound, Sampling Digital Music and Culture edited by Paul D. Miller aka DJ Spooky that Subliminal Kid (The MIT Press, 2008). Her extensive use of Aphex Twin's Selected Ambient Works 85–92 to form the soundtrack to Devil's Playground' is discussed in detail in Marc Weidenbaum's book about the album.
Film career
Walker's 2014 documentary The Lion's Mouth Opens focuses on filmmaker-actor Marianna Palka's attempt to discover if she has inherited Huntington's disease, the incurable degenerative disorder that took Palka's father. Nick Higgins worked with Walker as cinematographer for the documentary. The title is taken from Bob Dylan's poem Last Thoughts on Woody Guthrie, which Marianna recites in the film (Woody Guthrie had died from Huntington’s Disease). Walker premiered The Lion’s Mouth Opens at Sundance on January 26, 2014. HBO acquired the film for broadcast during its Huntington's Disease Awareness Week in May 2015. After its initial festival run, the documentary was expanded from sixteen to twenty-eight minutes.
Walker was inspired to make the 2013 documentary "The Crash Reel" when she met Kevin Pearce (snowboarder) at a retreat organized by David Mayer de Rothschild. "The Crash Reel" premiered at Sundance on January 19, 2013 as the Opening Night Gala film. The film chronicles the rivalry between Kevin and Shaun White, which culminates in Kevin's life-changing crash. The film also showcases the Pearce family, including Kevin's father, renowned glass-blower Simon Pearce, and Kevin's brother, David C. Pearce, who has Down Syndrome. The film was the first movie to ever play at the X Games. Inspired by her documentary's subject, Walker created the "#loveyourbrain" organization and a campaign around Traumatic Brain Injury prevention, awareness, and support. Outside (magazine) featured Lucy in a cover story, "Lucy Walker Will Change Winter Sports".
Walker's 2011 documentary The Tsunami and the Cherry Blossom focuses on the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami and its survivors' struggle to survive. The film premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2011, and it went on to screen at festivals, including Sundance, in 2012.
Waste Land focuses on Brazilian artist Vik Muniz and a group of catadores--pickers of recyclable materials--who transform recyclable materials from the world's largest dump in Rio de Janeiro into contemporary art sold at the most prestigious auction house in London. Waste Land premiered at Sundance in 2010. It is the first film to win Audience Awards at both the Sundance and Berlin festivals. At the International Documentary Association Awards, presenter Morgan Spurlock memorably handed Walker the Best Documentary Feature Award wrapped inside a garbage bag. The joke referenced the black garbage bag that Walker had worn to the New York theatrical premiere of Waste Land. Waste Land was released theatrically in the USA by Arthouse Films, in Canada, in the UK by E1 Entertainment, and in Australia/NZ by Hopscotch Films.
Blindsight premiered at Toronto. It follows the journey of six blind Tibetan teenagers who climb up the north side of Mt. Everest with blind American mountaineer Erik Weihenmayer and their teacher, Sabriye Tenberken, who founded the only school for the blind in Tibet, Braille Without Borders. Both Waste Land and Blindsight won the Audience Award at Berlin Film Festival, making Walker the only filmmaker to have won that award twice.
Devil's Playground, Walker's first feature documentary, examined the struggles of Amish teenagers during their period of experimentation (rumspringa). It premiered at the 2002 Sundance Film Festival.
Countdown to Zero, an exposé of the present-day threat of nuclear proliferation, also premiered at Sundance 2010, the first time a director has had two feature documentaries in one year at this festival. It also played in the Official Selection at Cannes Film Festival, before being released in the US by Magnolia Pictures, in the UK by Dogwoof, and in Japan by Paramount. Its contribution to the debate building to the ratification of the New START Treaty earned Walker a nomination for Arms Control Person of the Year The documentary was credited with raising public awareness and understanding of the dangers posed by nuclear weapons in the 21st century and with helping mobilize support for practical steps to reduce that danger.
Walker's credits in television include directing over a dozen episodes of Nickelodeon's Blue's Clues, her first job out of film school, for which she was twice nominated for Emmy Awards for Outstanding Directing. Her content and commercial work includes directing "Project Daniel" for Intel, which was awarded an AICP Curator's Award and three Bronze Lions at the Cannes Festival of. Creativity
Walker was named one of the "Top 25 New Faces In Independent Film" by Filmmaker and called "the new Errol Morris" by The Hollywood Reporter. Variety has profiled her as a notable "Femme Filmmaker", praising her ability to connect with audiences.
Two retrospectives of Walker's films have appeared at the DC Environmental Film Festival and London's British Film Institute Southbank, both in 2012.
Select Filmography
Devil's Playground (2002) 76 minutes
Blindsight (2006) 104 minutes
Countdown To Zero (2010) 89 minutes
Waste Land (2010) 100 minutes
The Tsunami and the Cherry Blossom (2011) 39/53 minutes
The Crash Reel (2013) 107 minutes
David Hockney IN THE NOW (in six minutes) (2013) 6 minutes
The Lion's Mouth Opens (2014) 28/16 minutes
Film awards and nominations
Lifetime Achievement Awards
Lifetime Achievement Award for Inspirational Filmmaking, Dominican Republic Environmental Film Festival 2013
Rogue Award, Ashland Independent Film Festival 2013
Cinecause Visionary Award, Outstanding Achievement in Social Impact Filmmaking, March 2014
Sheffield Doc/Fest Inspiration Award 2014
Achievement in Directing, Big Bear Lake International Film Festival 2014
Awards and nominations
The Lion's Mouth Opens
Winner, Best Nonfiction Short, Cinema Eye Honors 2015
Winner, Best Documentary Short, Real Shorts 2015
Winner, Marianna Palka Person of the Year, Huntington's Disease Society of America, 2015
Winner, Marianna Palka and Lucy Walker, Global Genes Champions of Hope, 2015
The Crash Reel
Winner, Audience Award, SXSW South By Southwest Film Festival 2013
Winner, Rogue Award – for The Crash Reel and career recognition honor, Ashland Independent Film Festival 2013
Winner, Audience Award, Dallas International Film Festival 2013
Winner, Audience Award, Berkshire International Film Festival 2013
Top Ten Audience Favorite, Hot Docs Film Festival 2013
Winner, Best Documentary Special Jury Award, Seattle International Film Festival 2013
Winner, "Making Movies that Matter" Award, MountainFilm in Telluride 2013
Winner, Audience Award, Melbourne International Film Festival 2013
Winner, Audience Award, Berkshire International Film Festival 2013
Winner, Best Documentary Grand Jury Award, Port Townsend Film Festival 2013
Winner, Granny Award for Best Documentary, New Hampshire Film Festival 2013
Winner, Grand Prize, Kendal Mountain Festival 2013
Winner, Best Mountain Culture Film Award, Whistler Film Festival 2013
Winner, EDA Award for Best Female-Directed Documentary from the Alliance of Women Film Journalists, 2013
Winner, Best Extreme Sports Film – Ladek Film Festival 2015
Intel Look Inside – Project Daniel
Winner, Association of Independent Commercial Producers 2014 Next Cause Marketing Award, the work now being entered to the film archives permanent at New York's Museum of Modern Art (MoMA)
Winner, Association of Independent Commercial Producers 2014 – Curator's Recognition Award
Winner, The One Club One Show Awards 2014 – Design Gold Pencil
Winner, The One Club One Show Awards 2014 – Best in Show (tie)
Winner, Silver Telly and Bronze Telly Award
Winner, Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity 2014 – Bronze Lion, Cyber Category
Winner, Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity 2014 – Bronze Lion, Film Category
Winner, Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity 2014 – Bronze Lion, Branded Content & Entertainment Category
Winner, Clio Awards 2014 Silver Clio – Film category
