#438 – What it feels like to go to Sundance

What's it like to get out of the ‘vacuum’ of your edit suite, take your baby on the road, and actually show your pride and joy to a real live audience?

Terrifying? Exhilarating? Surprising? Joyous?

All of the above?

That's the question I posed to two editors who recently previewed their latest work at Sundance 2025 in the final weeks of January.

And their answers made me want to cut something I'll get to see with an audience!

Benjamin Shearn is the editor of By Design, director Amanda Kramer's latest feature film which stars Juliette Lewis as a chair – sort of.

Holle Singer cut Sugar Babies, a feature documentary directed by Rachel Fleit, which delivers a “portrait of young, hard-up Louisiana women getting by on their wits, wiles and heavily TikTok-filtered faces.” (Variety)

How does it feel to finally show your film in front of a live audience at Sundance?

BS: Overwhelming. By Design (and the director Amanda Kramer’s other work) has a hyper-specific tone. It’s unlike anything else and totally uncompromising.

I don’t think some of the Sundance audience was ready for us.

On one side of me at the premiere were two jet-set types squirming in their seats. On the other side were two fellow weirdo filmmakers with tears in their eyes.

The response to an Amanda Kramer film is always a rollercoaster and Sundance was the whirliest of them all.

HS: When you cut a film, you’re in a vacuum of sorts - hoping what feels relevant to me and Rachel Fleit (the director) will impact an audience.

Premiering Sugar Babies at Sundance was an incredible experience. To hear a roomful of laughter and look around and see tears was profoundly moving.

As was seeing Rachel up at the podium with Autumn, Mighty and Hailey, whose lives were all featured in the film.

What first attracted you to the project?

BS: Amanda and I have been working together for years. One of the highlights of the process is always when she’s first jazzed on an idea.

This time, if memory serves, she called me up and said, “Our next film is going to be about a woman who body swaps with a chair and I think Juliette Lewis will do it.” Then hung up.

Of course, I was in at that point.

HS: People are complex. Rachel is gifted at capturing the nuances and contradictions of what it is to be human.

The film exposes the struggle of what it is to be born with limited resources in this country. Poverty does not discriminate.

We follow a resourceful, young woman creating opportunities for herself and others.