Sara Driver is a filmmaker who tells her stories in ways that many people believe to be new and different. She said her movies often reference folk tales and mythology from other parts of the world and balance the rigidity of a normal storyline with the flow of poetry and art.
“Sara Driver’s fictional films assuredly walk the line of magical realism — grounded, with the confidence to take us, as viewers, anywhere,” Jon Vickers, director of IU Cinema, said in an email.
Driver's film, “Boom for Real: The Late Teenage Years of Jean-Michel Basquiat,” will be shown at 7 p.m. Nov. 29 at the IU Cinema. Driver will be present for screenings of films and an on-stage interview 7 p.m. Nov. 30 at the IU Cinema.
The documentary follows American artist Basquiat in the years before his fame. He was born in New York and is Puerto Rican and Haitian descent. His art style started with graffiti and morphed into Neo-Expressionism, according to his website. The film is free to attend but ticketed. Driver is scheduled to be present during the screening of her film.
Driver will be interviewed at 7 p.m. Nov. 30 in the IU Cinema for the Jorgensen Guest Filmmaker Series. Joan Hawkins, associate professor in the cinema and media studies program, will conduct the interview. The event is free to attend.
“I’ve always admired her films,” Hawkins said in an email. “She is radically uncompromising in her vision and uses technology — particularly retro technology — in totally unique and innovative ways. All while making really entertaining, interesting, and fun stories.”
The 1986 film “Sleepwalk” will be shown at 10 p.m. Nov. 30 in the IU Cinema as well.
Directed by Driver, the film features a woman that is hired to translate an aged Chinese manuscript. The character begins to realize as she is working on the manuscript that she as awakened ancient powers that begin to take control of her life. The movie will be shown on 35mm film and will be free but ticketed. Driver is expected to be present at the film screening.
Two more films directed by Driver will be shown at the IU Cinema this weekend, but Driver will not be present for them. The film “You Are Not I,” based on a short story by Paul Bowles, is scheduled for 4 p.m. Dec. 1 at the cinema.
The 1983 film features a woman escaping from a mental hospital. The second film, “When Pigs Fly," a comedy that is based around a jazz musician and his haunted house, will be screened at 1 p.m. Dec. 2 at the cinema.
Both films are free to attend but ticketed.
“I think that’s how movies come together: you see something, or you read a story, and suddenly you see the whole thing,” Driver said in an interview with Little White Lies. “It’s almost like you dream a film before you make it.”
