Film Screening – “Like Dandelion Dust”

11/12/10
Screening – “Like Dandelion Dust” plus Q&A with director Jon Gunn

We held a special event at our Studio on November 12. A free screening of LIKE DANDELION DUST – described by USA TODAY as "the next Blind Side.” It has been the winner of a dozen Audience Choice Awards for Best Picture, recipient of the Heartland Truly Moving Picture Award, and has been creating nationwide grassroots buzz since its theatrical debut in September. The director, JON GUNN, has taken a number of classes with me (starting in 1999), and has directed two other features, MY DATE WITH DREW (with Drew Barrymore) and MERCY STREETS (with Eric Roberts).

The film, starring Mira Sorvino, Barry Pepper, and Cole Hauser, is in limited release around the country, and will be released on DVD in February, so this was a great opportunity. For trailer and list of theaters around the country where the film is playing, see http://www.likedandeliondust.com/.

Director Jon Gunn stayed for a Q&A after the screening. Jon is a magnetic speaker, open, generous, and frank – and one of the most good-hearted, smart, and dedicated people I’ve met in Hollywood. He shared a ton of stories about working with these terrific actors on very intense material. His approach to making the film was completely actor-centered and risk-taking – dedicated to empowering each individual actor to find performances of great honesty and power.

The movie was beautiful – a story that could easily have become melodramatic was brought to us with clarity and honesty – never for one moment did it succumb to easy sentimentality. I loved this film and recommend everyone to see it, either in a theater if you are lucky enough to live in one of the cities where it is playing, or on DVD when it comes out in February.

It was an incredible night of emotion and insight – and of knowledge, advice, and inspiration for independent filmmakers and actors! Thank you, Jon!!!!!

  • “I am eternally grateful for your help.”

    TAIKA WAITITI, writer-director, JOJO RABBIT, THOR RAGNAROK, HUNT FOR THE WILDERPEOPLE, WHAT WE DO IN THE SHADOWS, BOY, EAGLE VS SHARK, FLIGHT OF THE CONCHORDS

  • “I took a seminar with an acting teacher named Judith Weston. I learned a key insight to character. She believed that all well-drawn characters have a spine, and the idea is that the character has an inner motor, a dominant, unconscious goal that they’re striving for, an itch that they can’t scratch. I took to this like a duck to water.”

    ANDREW STANTON [from his Feb 2012 TED Talk] writer-director, FINDING DORY, WALL-E, FINDING NEMO, A BUG’S LIFE; director, BETTER CALL SAUL, STRANGER THINGS; writer, TOY STORY, TOY STORY 2, TOY STORY 3

  • "Judith's method is wonderful because it is practical. She has given me numerous tools to solve problems on the set and to earn the trust of actors. Her classes and her book are invaluable resources to any director."

    LAWRENCE TRILLING, director, GOLIATH, RECTIFY, PARENTHOOD, MASTERS OF SEX, PUSHING DAISIES, DAMAGES, BROTHERS AND SISTERS, NIP/TUCK, MONK, SCRUBS, INVASION, ALIAS, FELICITY

  • "Thank you for teaching me how to direct actors. Taking your classes made me believe I could direct. Taking your classes gave me a base, a foundation, a framework to find my own style. To step out on faith. I'm forever grateful. Love and respect to you, magnificent Judith Weston." 

    AVA DuVERNAY, director, WHEN THEY SEE US, QUEEN SUGAR, A WRINKLE IN TIME, SELMA, SCANDAL, MIDDLE OF NOWHERE

  • "Everything you taught me was more than useful. I am deeply grateful."

    ALEJANDRO GONZÁLEZ IÑÁRRITU, director, THE REVENANT, BIRDMAN, BIUTIFUL, BABEL, 21 GRAMS, AMORES PERROS