2014 Sundance “Trading Cards” Series: #21. Kristin Gore (War Story)

Eric Lavallee: Name me three of your favorite “2013 discoveries”…
Kristin Gore: The Eric Andre show, Rodriguez, Pulphead by John Jeremiah Sullivan.

Lavallee: Mark’s debut film “Without” was a revelation of sorts here on the site and in the indie sphere. How did you two come to collaborate on this and what special areas did you specialize in apart from what we imagine was giving the female characters a distinct female voice?
Gore: I met Mark through Catherine Keener. She and I worked together in 2008 on NAILED and have been close every since. She introduced me to Mark when they began collaborating on WAR STORY at the end of 2012, and he and I clicked instantly and fell easily and naturally into working together. I loved WITHOUT and I believe WAR STORY is an exciting and intriguing leap forward for Mark as a filmmaker. He’s extraordinarily talented, and Catherine of course always raises everyone’s game.

Lavallee: You come from a mostly comedic background (writer on Futurama and the unreleased but delicious premise of Nailed)…were you out of your comfort zone in the writing of this?
Gore: I never felt out of my comfort zone – I just felt inspired by the material and the people involved. My last novel was about an unsolved civil rights-era hate crime in the south, so I’d moved into non-comedic territory years ago. And I spent the five months before working on WAR STORY writing on FOXCATCHER, which is a very intense drama, so it really wasn’t the gear shift it might seem at first glance. Though I still love writing comedy, believe me. I like it all.

Lavallee: You wore the producer hat on War Story as well…could you detail some of challenges of shooting abroad.
Gore: Shooting a microbudget movie anywhere is challenging in a hundred ways. Shooting one in a little town in Sicily seemed impossible at times, but it was also totally exhilarating. I honestly am still not totally sure how we did it because it seemed on the brink of falling apart the majority of the time. There were banking snafus, language barriers, permit hijinks, mafia threats… luckily the crew was incredible and went above and beyond over and over again. Because of them, and Mark and Catherine, we got it done. And now we’re thrilled to share it with the world.

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