Fellow documentary filmmaker Maureen Maloney recently interviewed director Karen Whitehead about how she ended up as a documentary filmmaker, and specifically got some cool behind the scenes insights into how this documentary on Suzanne Heintz came together. Documentary film fans and budding filmmakers can click below to hear highlights from their conversation, plus you can listen… Continue Reading
Documentary is always a challenge. it’s very close range. If it’s fighting, it’s like boxing. You have to take all those punches and you have to feel the pain. You cannot hide, you expose yourself and also you have no excuse about any mistakes. So I love it because it’s so truthful and clear and direct.… Continue Reading
How do you create the ‘perfect’ singular image for a documentary about an unusual artist/photographer whose 20 year archive is bursting with stunning and surreal images of perfect family portraits? What does it take to invite an audience into our take on Heintz’s world, and her use of ‘mannequin’ props to explore suffocating gender roles… Continue Reading
Over several years ’embedded’ in the process of making a documentary about photographer/art activist Suzanne Heintz, we have been understandably focused on our storytelling structure and overall look and feel of the film. An integral part of this process is thinking about how sound (including music) and visuals can combine to help move along the… Continue Reading
This has been a multi-year project – not untypical for independent filmmakers! But what has really helped us along the way and kept us going to the finish line – is something we learned from Suzanne’s own journey in life and art. That is endurance. We have persisted in our belief and passion for telling… Continue Reading
Just about a year ago, we were fortunate enough to be following art activist/photographer Suzanne Heintz with our documentary cameras in New York as she set about to create a holiday card like no other. But this was not like any other film shoot we’ve been involved with. Navigating Manhattan rooftops and squeezing inside elevators… Continue Reading
This week we, the film’s producers, have been pondering something that uniquely connects us to our subject – satirical photographer and art activist, Suzanne Heintz. We have all recently hit our 50s, and spent the last two decades funneling our creative energy in to projects using the medium of visual storytelling. From the standpoint of… Continue Reading
Identity, Power, Image : these 3 words came together this week in our filmmaking journey with Heintz. Hard on the heels of a thoughtful news feature about Heintz and her work on Fox 31, Denver, (watch it from the link in our previous blog Riders of the Perfect Storm ), the same story and footage was… Continue Reading
Any photo shoot with mannequins is challenging…but our undeterred documentary subject, Suzanne Heintz, kicked it up a notch literally, when she added equestrian sports to the backdrop of her depictions of perfect family life with daughter Mary Margaret and husband Chauncey. Heintz’s goal is not to be simply horsing around although it looks very funny.… Continue Reading
“SK-II Marriage Market Takeover” advertisement. This week skincare company SK-II surprised us all by releasing a bold new TV advertisement, addressing a single woman’s fate in China. In case anyone is in doubt about the relevance of Suzanne Heinz’s art activism, we suggest you take a few minutes to watch the ad (link above), and transport… Continue Reading
Recently, the founder of Girls Who Code, gave an inspiring and vital Ted Talk about raising girls to be brave, not perfect. Of course, Reshma Saujan’s commentary taps into the themes behind Suzanne Heintz’s fifteen year courageous photographic crusade with her mannequin props, husband Chauncey and daughter Mary Margaret. It all began over a decade… Continue Reading
Everything is connected…whether our gadget of choice is a phone/ipad/laptop computer, we are embedded with networking platforms that enable us to transmit, ‘share’ and ‘curate’ our experiences. What has become increasingly fascinating about our journey as documentary filmmakers with satirical artist Suzanne Heintz, is observing the role, relationship and impact the internet has played in… Continue Reading
New Yorkers will have a chance to get up close and personal with Heintz’s satirical photography series next month – (see post in Daily Photo News Review). It is a remarkable moment in Heintz’s project, after 15 years in evolution from student project to multi-media visual arts fanfare – armed with the support of her familyquins.… Continue Reading
“The camera makes everyone a tourist in other people’s reality, and eventually in one’s own.” – Susan Sontag Once you have pounded the streets of Paris with 100 pound of mannequins on your shoulders, and set up Kodak picture perfect moments in America’s favorite national parkland – well, anything goes! As summer draws to a… Continue Reading
Happy 4th of July from the IMITATING LIFE production team and the subject of our documentary, Suzanne Heintz! (No mannequins were harmed in the making of this video, but may have been slightly singed!)
“Is it I who imitates life in images with a counterfeit family? Or are we all duplicitous in this act of fraud when we live our lives recreating templated scenes not fully our own?” — Suzanne Heintz To Suzanne Heintz – a satirical artist who adopted her fake family 15 years ago – life is an endurance… Continue Reading
IMITATING LIFE 