2014 Sundance Film Festival: Mark Jackson’s War Story

World premiering at Park City’s legendary Egyptian theatre (playing opposite was the surprise screening of Richard Linklater 12-year opus), Mark Jackson’s sophomore film on isolation, alienation, introspection and new perspectives is measurably different from his 2011 debut, Without, but both have an air of unease and malaise that is rarely depicted. A rare American independent film to wash up in an Italian backdrop, War Story pulls from the rarely addressed headlines (war photographers/journalists dealing with their own horrific experiences) and begins where the film’s protagonist (Catherine Keener) a repressed, post-traumatic stressed fotog who nurses herself (multiple non-visible injuries) back to what may be a tolerable future.

Catherine Keener, cinematographer Reed Morano (our own American New Wave 25 – 2010) , co-writer and producer Kristin Gore (profiled here) and Dave Eggar (film composer) were among his collaborators and that were present during the post-screening Q&A.