Miniseries Episode 5 - IN DOG YEARS with Sophy Romvari

FILM FORMALLY is back! This month, friend of the podcast Sophy Romvari’s films are premiering on the CRITERION CHANNEL and to mark the occasion we’ve recorded a set of commentaries for six of these films - NINE BEHIND, IT’S HIM, PUMPKIN MOVIE, NORMAN NORMAN, IN DOG YEARS, and STILL PROCESSING. We’ll be releasing one per week for the next six weeks.

To listen along, have the film ready to go and hit “play” when prompted within the episode after the introductions.

IN DOG YEARS (2019)

Old dogs are celebrated in ten short stories about love, loss, and letting go.

In this episode, we discuss:

  • Why the CBC hired Sophy to make a dog documentary.

  • Cinemascope as a canine-friendly aspect ratio.

  • A talking head documentary without talking heads.

  • Documentary structure.

  • Will and Sophy’s correspondence editing style.

Sophy’s films can be seen on the CRITERION CHANNEL - feel free to sign up for a free trial if you aren’t a member.

Additional Resources:

In this hybrid-documentary, two long-time friends call each other over Skype to continue their annual Halloween tradition of carving pumpkins together, they swap stories of negative encounters with men. FESTIVALS: True/False Film Festival, Missouri, USA, World Premiere Sheffield Documentary Film Festival, England, UK Hot Docs Canadian Int Film Festival, Toronto, Canada Maryland Film Festival, Baltimore, USA Olympia Film Society, Washington, USA Side Walk Film Festival, Alabama, USA Vancouver International Film Festival, Vancouver, Canada First Look Film Festival, Museum of Moving Images, New York, USA Crew: Directed By: Sophy Romvari Starring: Leah Collins Lipsett + Sophy Romvari Production + Colour: Devan Scott Cinematography: Devan Scott + Paige Smith Editing + Sound Design: Will Ross Location Sound: James Penco Onset Stills: Anna Citak

Devan’s Panoramas

Sophy Romvari is a Canadian filmmaker based in Toronto. Her critically-acclaimed short films have travelled the international festival circuit and have earned her a reputation as a leading young talent.

In 2017, her short Pumpkin Movie premiered at True/False, later playing Hot Docs and Sheffield. It has been praised by critics as "a lovely, subtle work of feminist protest." In 2018 her short Norman Norman premiered at TIFF and went on to serve as the centerpiece of a retrospective of Sophy’s work at the MoMI in NYC in 2019. She has also directed films for CBC Short Docs (In Dog Years, 2019) and Kino Lorber (Remembrance of József Romvári, 2020).

In 2020, Sophy completed her Master’s at York University. Her thesis film Still Processing premiered at TIFF in September 2020 before touring festivals across the world and winning multiple awards. Still Processing is now streaming online  through MUBI and was nominated for a Canadian Screen Award. A collection of 8 of her short films are available on the Criterion Channel as of March 2022.

She is currently in development for her first feature film.