IndieWire considers this comeback brunch with 'Bardo', 'Black Panther 2', 'Glass Onion', 'Causeway', 'Louis Armstrong', '13 Lives'

IndieWire's Consider This FYC brunch returned on Friday, celebrating six of the movies you'll hear about during the 2022-23 awards season. Above and below the talent line of "Thirteen Lives", "Black Panther: Wakanda Forever", "Louis Armstrong's Black & Blues", "Causeway", "Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery" and "Bardo, False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths” all took part in panels moderated by IndieWire editors to discuss what was going on in the dazzling images audiences see on screen.

"Elevating craftsmen and craftsmen is, if I may say so, one of the things IndieWire does best," IndieWire editor Dana Harris-Brisdon said in her keynote address. opening.

Throughout the day, these artists opened up about the labor-intensive process of creating a great cinema. In their quest to achieve that special creative edge that sets them apart from the competition, every detail matters. Panelists from all six films emphasized that the real work begins with meticulous research.

The team behind 'Black Panther: Wakanda Forever' knew that surpassing the technical success of the original film would be a difficult task. Legendary costume designer Ruth E. Carter won an Oscar for her Afrofuturism-influenced work on the 2018 film. But once director Ryan Coogler got the group together to start talking about a sequel, everyone everyone agreed that the success of the first film could not be an excuse to rest on its laurels. In a panel moderated by IndieWire's Marcus Jones, Carter and producer Nate Moore described how they've used other superhero movies as motivation to go further.

"Ryan said that every time he saw a Batman movie, the Batman costume was enhanced," Carter said. "It's different, it's more exciting."

In addition to improving the existing costumes and gadgets used by the nation of Wakanda, the team was also tasked with bringing an entirely new (at least for the MCU) civilization to life. The film's villain, Namor, hails from Talokan, an undersea nation that also has access to Vibranium. When the decision to include Talokan was made, Coogler and his team knew they had to put as much creative energy into it as they did into Wakanda.

"Ryan is a filmmaker who wants things to be tangible and real. He wanted to find cultural reference points as vivid as the reference points we used to build Wakanda," Carter said. was always interested in themes of colonization."

A key point of reference that emerged was the Mayan culture. Like Wakanda, Talokan is a Vibranium-powered civilization that was able to remain untouched by colonial influences. Drawing inspiration from Mayan history, the film had the opportunity to incorporate indigenous Mesoamerican culture in much the same way the franchise had honored African art.

Carter was certainly up for the challenge. The Oscar-winning actress threw herself headlong into research into Mayan aesthetics and ended up finding many patterns that enriched her vision of underwater civilization.

"There were little things that I loved: the jades, the ear coils. You'll see these characters with these ear coils that they're wearing," Carter said. see the Mayan culture."

Ron Howard found himself in a similar situation when he signed on to direct "Thirteen Lives." Like most people, he was familiar with the 2018 Thai cave rescue which saw an entire youth football team and their coach successfully evacuated from Tham Luang Nang cave after being trapped by flooding. But making a film that doesn't just take place in Thailand, but attempts to tell the story of one of the most significant national events in the country's recent history, required a much deeper knowledge of Thai culture than 'with which he entered the project.

"It was exciting for me because of the Thai culture," Howard said during a panel moderated by IndieWire's Jim Hemphill. "A huge challenge that I took seriously, but an exciting personal experience."

Howard always knew that his take on the material should be an inherently Thai story, incorporating specific elements of local cultures and religion. He consulted various translators and other experts and hired Thai cinematographer Sayombhu Mukdeeprom, who told him that "I'll be your angel" when it comes to understanding Thai...