Mike Cahill (filmmaker) explained

Mike Cahill
Birth Date:5 July 1979
Birth Place:New Haven, Connecticut, U.S.
Notable Works:Another Earth (2011)

Mike Cahill (born July 5, 1979) is an American filmmaker.

Early life and education

Mike Cahill was born in New Haven, Connecticut, on July 5, 1979.[1] His first forays into filmmaking were with Fisher-Price and VHS camcorders when he was young.[2] He gained his first credit as a documentarian at the age of 17, when he and a friend directed a film titled The Pocket, about D.C go-go music.[3]

After high school, Cahill studied economics at Georgetown University, graduating in 2001. While a student there he formed a close relationship with professional colleague and friend Brit Marling, whom he met at a Georgetown film festival,[4] [5] [6] and the two began working on short films together where Marling would act and Cahill would direct.[7]

Career

While still in his senior year at Georgetown, Cahill began interning with National Geographic Television and Film, soon becoming their youngest field producer, editor and cinematographer. He and Marling collaborated on Boxers and Ballerinas (2004), an exploration of the U.S.–Cuba conflict through the lives of four characters, while living in Cuba. Cahill next moved to Los Angeles. There he was taken on as editor for two Sundance features, and Everyone Stares: The Police Inside Out.[8]

2011 was Cahill's pivotal year. His first feature film as director, co-written with Marling, Another Earth, about a parallel planet Earth, won the Alfred P. Sloan Prize at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival and was picked up for distribution by Fox Searchlight Pictures.[9] Variety reported: "[It] has been deemed one of the more highly praised pics of the fest as it received a standing ovation after the screening and strong word of mouth from buyers and festgoers." The distributor Fox Searchlight Pictures won distribution rights to the film in a deal worth to, beating out other distributors including Focus Features and the Weinstein Company.[10]

Cahill's second feature film I Origins again won the Alfred P. Sloan Prize, this time at the 2014 Sundance Film Festival, making Cahill the only person to have received the award twice. The film was picked up for distribution by Fox Searchlight.[11]

In 2011, before the release of I Origins, a press release by Fox Searchlight stated that Cahill was working on a film about reincarnation and another about "a fashion designer who lives at the bottom of the sea."[12] As of 2015 he is also working on a sequel of I Origins. "There's a sequel in the works. It's not scripted. We're not in production yet, but we set up at Fox Searchlight".[13]

Starting in 2015, Cahill is an executive producer of the Syfy TV show The Magicians, and directed the pilot episode. He is also an executive producer on The Path, and directed the first two episodes.

Influences

Cahill has cited Julian Schnabel as a significant influence on his work.[14] He considers Krzysztof Kieslowski one of his favorite filmmakers, specifically citing The Double Life of Véronique as having a profound impact on him.[15] Cahill, who has a casual interest in astronomy, was also influenced by the work of astronomer Richard Berendzen, in particular, Berendzen's audiobook Pulp Physics. He is also an admirer of Carl Sagan and Isaac Asimov.[16] [17]

He has always admired science.[18]

His favorite movie of all time is 2001: A Space Odyssey. "Because that movie, what it presents to you, can’t be articulated in any other form than as a movie," he said.[19]

Filmography

YearFilmDirectorWriterProducerEditorDP
2004Boxers and Ballerinas
2005
2006
2011Another Earth
2014I Origins
2021Bliss

Awards and nominations

Year Award Category Film Result
2005 Breckenridge Festival of Film Best of the Fest (shared with Brit Marling) Boxers and Ballerinas
Director's Award (shared with Brit Marling)
2011 Another Earth
Special Jury Prize
Grand Jury Prize
Best Independent Movie
Top Ten Independent Films
Junior Jury Award - Special Mention
Grand Special Prize
2012 Georgia Film Critics Association Best Picture
Best First Feature (shared with Hunter Gray, Brit Marling and Nick Shumaker)
Best First Screenplay (shared with Brit Marling)
Best Music
Best Independent Poster
Best Writing (shared with Brit Marling)
Feature Film - Mental Health
2014 I Origins
Best North American Independent Film
Best Film

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Mike Cahill. World Science Festival. 26 July 2011. 2011. Mike Cahill was born July 5, 1979 in New Haven, CT..
  2. Web site: Interview: Another Earth's Brit Marling and Mike Cahill on Sidewalks TV. Sidewalks Entertainment. 31 July 2011. 20 July 2011. Born in New Haven, CT, Mike Cahill at a young age would experiment with filmmaking on Fisher Price and VHS camcorders.. dead. https://web.archive.org/web/20110928144551/http://www.sidewalkstv.com/web/2011/07/interview-another-earths-brit-marling-and-mike-cahill-on-sidewalks-tv-2011-video/. 28 September 2011.
  3. Web site: Mike Cahill. The A.V. Club. 18 December 2014. 2011.
  4. News: Overbye. Dennis. It's Fashionable to Take a Trip to Another Universe. 26 July 2011. The New York Times. 25 July 2011. Ms. Marling, 27, and Mr. Cahill, 32, who were economics majors at Georgetown and met at a film festival there, said they didn’t have cosmology or science fiction in mind when they started this film..
  5. Web site: Movie by Georgetown Alumni Wins at Sundance Film Festival. Georgetown University. 27 July 2011. 2011. 'I think the bond that formed between us at Georgetown, during that amazing time when you are free to read, learn, think, follow inspiration, with no distractions, both gave birth to our art and collaboration and also gave us a kind of immunity to pressures of the outside world,' Marling says.. dead. https://web.archive.org/web/20120324053448/http://www.georgetown.edu/story/georgetown-alumni-sundance.html. 24 March 2012.
  6. News: Robinson. Tasha. Interview: Mike Cahill. 27 July 2011. The A.V. Club. 22 July 2011. We were friends for many years. We went to school together at Georgetown..
  7. News: Brown. Phil. Mike Cahill and Brit Marling. 31 July 2011. Toro. 27 July 2011. We met at Georgetown and started doing short films together back then. I was the director and she would act in them.. https://web.archive.org/web/20120615102758/http://www.toromagazine.com/features/talking-to/ffabb66d-a0ba-4284-5d02-9e4bbdf66b6b/Mike-Cahill-and-Brit-Marling/. 15 June 2012. dead. dmy-all.
  8. Web site: Leonard Cohen I'm Your Man – Production notes. Lions Gate Entertainment. 31 July 2011. 2006. Currently, Mike lives in Los Angeles, where he has worked on a number of music videos, television shows and films. This past year, he edited 'Leonard Cohen I'm Your Man' and 'Everyone Stares: The Police Inside Out,' both featured at Sundance '06.. dead. https://web.archive.org/web/20110929214104/http://www.lionsgatepublicity.com/epk/imyourman/docs/pro_notes.doc. 29 September 2011.
  9. News: Stein. Ruthe. Parallel planets? 'Earth' may make mind run wild. 31 July 2011. San Francisco Chronicle. 24 July 2011. The movie was a bonanza for Mike Cahill, a National Geographic documentary filmmaker and video artist taking a stab at his first feature film..
  10. Stewart . Andrew . Lodderhose . Diana . First on Variety: Searchlight nabs 'Earth' . . January 26, 2011 .
  11. Web site: Alfred P. Sloan Feature Film Prize Awarded to I Origins at 2014 Sundance Film Festival | Sundance Film Festival . 2014-02-10 . dead . https://archive.today/20140210063830/https://www.sundance.org/festival/release/alfred-p-sloan-feature-film-prize-awarded-at-2014-sundance-film-festival/ . 2014-02-10 .
  12. Web site: Another Earth. Locarno International Film Festival. 31 July 2011. 2011. Cahill is currently developing several feature projects; among them is one on reincarnation and another about a fashion designer who lives at the bottom of the sea. Currently, Mike resides in Brooklyn, New York..
  13. Web site: I Origins Went To Insane Lengths To Get Its Science Right. 17 July 2014 . io9.com. 6 January 2015.
  14. News: Mulligan. Jake. Speaking with the Team Behind 'Another Earth'. https://web.archive.org/web/20120321204935/http://www.thesuffolkvoice.net/arts-entertainment/speaking-with-the-team-behind-another-earth-1.2536869?MMode=true. dead. 21 March 2012. 31 July 2011. The Suffolk Voice. 29 July 2011. 'It's interesting, it's really hard for me to pin down all my sources... there's this great filmmaker Julian Schnabel who I love...'.
  15. News: Schartoff. Adam. Another Earth: Otherworldly Fiction. 31 July 2011. Tribeca Enterprises. 25 July 2011. Filmwax. Krzysztof Kieslowski is one of my favorite filmmakers.. dead. https://web.archive.org/web/20120323161354/http://www.tribecafilm.com/news-features/Another_Earth_Mike_Cahill.html. 23 March 2012.
  16. News: Zeitchik. Steven. 'Another Earth' posits a parallel planet. 31 July 2011. The Los Angeles Times. 21 July 2011. As she struggled to make it as an actress, Marling would sometimes come home to the Silver Lake house she and Cahill shared with another aspiring director, Zal Batmanglij, to find Cahill stretched out on the floor listening to an audiobook by astronomer Richard Berendzen. She and Cahill were captivated by the locutions of the scientist, a protégé of Carl Sagan's who puts a poetic spin on astrophysical math..
  17. Web site: Soistmann . Billy . Interview: Mike Cahill discusses [intertwining] science fiction and drama in Another Earth . Cinedork.com . 31 July 2011 . 25 July 2011 . No, I already was a lay person who was interested. I loved Carl Sagan, I love Isaac Asimov, there's this Dr. Richard Berendzen who's this astrophysicist who has this book called Human Kind and the Cosmos. . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20110815062947/http://cinedork.com/2011/07/25/interview-mike-cahill-discusses-intertwing-science-fiction-and-drama-in-another-earth/ . 15 August 2011 .
  18. Web site: Interview: I Origins Writer & Director Mike Cahill. www.themarysue.com. 21 July 2014 . en. 2018-06-11.
  19. News: Director Mike Cahill on his favorite movie, faith, science and existential questions. Heim. Joe. 2014-08-01. The Washington Post. 2018-06-11. en-US. 0190-8286.

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