Film Festivals

2019 NEXT Section Sundance Trading Card Series: #2. Danielle Macdonald – Paradise Hills

Published on January 26, 2019

Actress Danielle Macdonald from Paradise Hills is among the voices, faces and creative folks that are a part of the ten films selected for our favourite section at the Sundance Film Festival. Added to the fest at the beginning of the decade, over time, the NEXT section (formerly referred to as “<=>”) has unearthed some of the best voices in micro American indie film projects with the likes of Sebastian Silva, Josh Mond, Rick Alverson, Anna Rose Holmer, Andrew Dosunmu, Craig Zobel, David Lowery and Janicza Bravo. We return with Sundance Trading Card Series focusing on the 2019 NEXT section selected films and personalities.

Eric Lavallee: Name me three of your favorite “2018 discoveries”.
Danielle Macdonald:
1. Hamilton
2. Swell Water Bottles
3. Bodyguard (UK TV series)

Lavallee: How did coiffe, costume design, speech, mannerisms, the character’s place of origin/setting or even lighting/spacing, mise-en-scene inform you about your performance?
Macdonald: Hair, Make Up, Costume, and the set design really helped me find the character and understand the world where the characters live. It’s slightly fantasy, futuristic, like a slightly parallel universe and when I walked onto the sets and got in costume everything just kind of fell into place and I understood this weird world we were creating and how Chloe fit into it. They were such stunning sets and elaborate costumes that it made it easier to understand the tone of the film and how the island is almost an altered reality from where the characters are from.

Lavallee: Could you describe the relationship between your character and the one of Uma..
Macdonald: Uma and Chloe bond instantly. Chloe is open and honest and confident and knows who she is. She’s friendly and accepting and I think Uma felt that warmth and needed it in this crazy and unpredictable situation she finds herself in. They become roommates and friends and quickly form a supportive bond to help each other through this situation they find themselves in.

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Eric Lavallée

Eric Lavallée is the founder, CEO, editor-in-chief, film journalist and critic at IONCINEMA.com (founded in 2000). Eric is a regular at Sundance, Cannes and TIFF. He has a BFA in Film Studies at the Mel Hoppenheim School of Cinema. In 2013 he served as a Narrative Competition Jury Member at the SXSW Film Festival. He was an associate producer on Mark Jackson's This Teacher (2018 LA Film Festival, 2018 BFI London). In 2022 he served as a New Flesh Comp for Best First Feature at the 2022 Fantasia Intl. Film Festival. Current top films for 2022 include Tár (Todd Field), All That Breathes (Shaunak Sen), Aftersun (Charlotte Wells).