Although many have experienced the joy of watching Sundance movies, at home or in the theater or in the Park City cold, very few will ever know what it is like to have a film they have directed premiere at one of the most prestigious film festivals in the world. With that in mind, CraveOnline followed Canadian filmmaker Sophie Deraspe over the course of Sundance 2015, to find out what the experience means to her, and try to capture the suspense and excitement leading up to the premiere of her new documentary, The Amina Profile.
We picked up our cameras and bundled up in our coats, and Sophie Deraspe and her documentary’s subject, Sandra Bagaria, guided us through Sundance, telling us more about The Amina Profile and sharing their thoughts and feelings about the Sundance experience, from the perspective of the filmmakers themselves.
Related: The 50 Greatest Sundance Movies
What is The Amina Profile…?
Amina Arraf, a pretty Syrian-American revolutionary who’s having an online affair with Montrealer Sandra Bagaria, launches the provocatively named blog A Gay Girl in Damascus. As the Syrian uprising gains momentum, the blog attracts a huge following. But it’s Amina’s subsequent abduction that sparks an international outcry to free her.
Telling a detective story that involves various intelligence agencies and global media empires, the film travels from San Francisco and Washington to Istanbul, Tel Aviv and Beirut to meet the key players in this quest to reveal the real Amina. This thoroughly modern tale of technology, love and news-as-spectacle questions the ways in which people connect in today’s virtual world.
The Amina Profile is part love story, part international thriller, and a gripping chronicle of an unprecedented media and sociological hoax.
The Amina Profile was received with positive reviews after its premiere at the Sundance Film Festival, with Variety describing it is an “engrossing Canadian documentary [that] weaves a cautionary tale for Information Age.”
William Bibbiani is the editor of CraveOnline’s Film Channel and the host of The B-Movies Podcast and The Blue Movies Podcast. Follow him on Twitter at @WilliamBibbiani.
