Advertisement
Directed by Sia and Daniel Askill, Sia: Nostalgic for the Present captures the artist’s 2016 Coachella performance and world tour. The film hits cinemas starting July 23, and Askill talked about the joys and challenges of making this immersive feature.
Read more: Daniel Askill Reflects On “Amazing Collaboration” With Sia in ‘Sia: Nostalgic for The Present’
If you’re expecting a straight ahead documentary from this film, thank again. “I have worked with Sia for a long time, which has been a really lovely collaboration,” said Daniel Askill. “This film sits in a space that’s somewhere between concert and performance art and visual album. This was actually a film we orginally made for Sia’s Coachella performance in 2016. But it’s not a documentation of that performance.”
“Instead of doing a stage show, we actually we went onto sound stages in Hollywood with Maddie Ziegler and a bunch of actors (including) Paul Dano and Kristen Wiig and a wonderful group of people,” said Askill, who also worked with choreographer Ryan Heffington. “We created this film that then played on the big screens at Coachella. And Sia and her team mimicked it on stage, meaning there were no cameras on stage and the actors’ performances were recreated by dancers, but they were seen from the original film.”
Knowing Sia for two decades was one of the reasons why this film was a creatively “organic” experience for the co-director. “We had some unique challenees because of the nature of how it came together,” said Askll. “But you know, it was really fulfilling and I very much directed it with Sia, which is always an amazing collaboration.”
Full interview with Daniel Askill:
Sia: Nostalgic for the Present, which also features Gaby Hoffmann, Tig Notaro, and Ben Mendelsohn, hits theaters July 23. Share your thoughts on the movie in the comments!
Listen to our weekly movie review podcast CinemAddicts:
