“Amy Tan: Unintended Memoir” producer Karen Pritzker and author and subject of the film Amy Tan discussed the chance circumstances that led to the film’s creation.
At Sundance Film Festival’s Variety studio presented by AT&T TV, Pritzker and Tan, author of the beloved “The Joy Luck Club” and lead singer in the literary rock garage band The Rock Bottom Remainders, remembered the doc’s late director and reflected on its unique cinematography.
Tan said the documentary , which will appear on “American Masters,” didn’t initially appeal to her. It was director James Redford, who died last October at the age of 58 from cancer, who had to convince her to agree to the film.
“I was trying to wind down my public life and become a private person and not do things anymore, let alone a whole documentary so but it’s testament to how persuasive Jamie is without appearing to be persuasive,” Tan said. “It was a lot about trust … the more we talked I realized that this was an amazing opportunity already to talk to somebody about very deeply personal matters and I don’t think I could have done that with very many other people, certainly not other filmmakers.”
Pritzker said the film perfectly incorporates Tan and Redford’s creativity in its use of animation: “The movie isn’t just Amy sitting in her living room talking. What is so beautiful about film is the very dynamic, it has the past and the present woven together … the film has a lot of animation used in a really elegant and beautiful way.”