The Filmmakers
 L-R: Patty Kim, Jane Campion and Chris Sheridan
Courtesy: Sydney Film Festival |
From filmmakers Patty Kim and Chris Sheridan:
We made this film simply to move people. That’s most often the starting point for people’s reaction to a situation. Hopefully, people outside Japan see this story and are moved to want to do something to help the families in it.
Their three favorite films:
Patty Kim:
Wizard of Oz
Sweetie
Les Amants du Pont-Neuf
Chris Sheridan:
The Deer Hunter
The Manchurian Candidate
Bottle Rocket
Their advice for aspiring filmmakers:
Three things:
1. Do it because you love it. Not for any other reason.
2. Ignore the naysayers.
3. As Nina Simone says, “Don’t do nothing ‘til you feel it.”
Their most inspirational food for making independent film:
Vietnamese Shaky Beef
Indian Chicken Tikka Masala
Box of Godiva truffles
Tibetan Momos
Bios
Chris Sheridan and Patty Kim
Producers/Directors
Chris Sheridan and Patty Kim are a husband-and-wife directing team. Award-winning former National Geographic filmmakers, they have also produced work for PBS, CBC, NBC and CBS. They have worked and filmed in northern Africa, Asia, South America and even a mile-and-a-half below the sea, at the bottom of the uncharted Pacific Ocean. They’ve honeymooned in the Arctic and count Mongolia as an ideal home.
Sheridan and Kim’s documentary Destiny, about the unusual life and legacy of a young photojournalist murdered by a mob in Somalia, won a top prize at the New York International Independent Film and Video Festival in 2004. Sheridan began his career as a newspaper editor in Montreal. Kim’s first job was as a weathercaster. She’s still convinced there’s a 60-percent chance of showers for the weekend.
Jane Campion
Executive Producer
Jane Campion is best known for her 1993 Oscar-winning film The Piano. The first female director to win the Palme D'or at Cannes, she has directed The Portrait of a Lady, Holy Smoke and In the Cut. Campion's first short, the nine-minute film Peel, won the Palme D'or in 1986. Although known primarily as a fiction filmmaker, she admits to being a great fan of documentary film. She is based in New Zealand and Australia.
Read about the making of ABDUCTION: The Megumi Yokota Story >>
