Press Coverage
'The Royal Road' on its way to Sundance:
Filmmaker Jenni Olson, San Francisco Chronicle photo by Mike Kepka.
“I go for very simple compositions that I hope reveal the beauty of the everyday. I hope that people will leave the film with a new way of looking at the world and looking at the city.” — Writer-director Jenni Olson in The San Francisco Chronicle
"The Royal Road is visually stunning. It reveals the depth of beauty in the moments that create a city. I left the theater seeing differently and traveled the streets with a new point of view." And yet more select press quotes"Olson's dialectical approach suggests the formal practices of Jean-Marie Straub and Danièle Huillet, two filmmakers who've documented monuments, landscapes, and other layers of meaning as a way of confronting the past. To call her methods "minimalist" would be to miss the point, not when sound and image are used so richly to make sense of the self between the interstices of history and geography."
- Sean Nam, Slant Magazine "The empty streets of Los Angeles, San Francisco and fragmented remnants of the titular road itself are shot to beguiling effect on 16mm by Sophie Constantinou. These meticulously assembled static shots hold perfect court with Olson's measured, heady voice over as she navigates the strange reality of nostalgia and the incomprehensible melodramas of the mind. If her and California's ghosts mean anything, it may just be the simple reminder to live." - Ben Umstead, Twitch Film
"Every picturesque frame complements her cinephilic nostalgia. Every self-deprecating joke she tells reverberates with those arid vistas. The movie is a delight." — Andreas Stoehr, MUBI "For Bay Area residents in particular, filmmaker Jenni Olson is some sort of shaman. Her highly personal, ultimately universal documentaries, like the extraordinary 2005 tone poem The Joy of Life, cast a veil of healing mystery over even the most mundane locations, on their way to larger truths. She's the reigning queen of pregnant-with-meaning establishing shots. Olson's voiceover sets the mood for her latest, The Royal Road — part history meditation, part diary entry, part lonesome valentine to what some people still imagine to be the "California Dream." Who else could tie up Junipero Serra, Double Indemnity, Marcel Proust, and Outer Sunset dreamscapes into one achingly gorgeous package, with the express purpose of sharing her obsessions? Shot on 16mm film and miraculous to behold." — Kelly Vance, East Bay Express "A deeply personal, remarkably intelligent and profoundly moving experience." — Jeffrey Anderson, San Francisco Examiner "Any film that can evoke such depth and achieve such poignant character development for a narrator is worth checking out. I wouldn’t be surprised if The Royal Road ended up on the Criterion Collection someday, alongside Marker, Akerman, and other great essay filmmakers." — Travis Bean, Film Colossus "A beautiful, haunting history lesson." — Out Magazine "Full of love stories. [Olson] shares her love of unavailable women, classic films and the state of California... Recommended viewing." — Trish Bendix, AfterEllen.com “One of the year’s most poetic documentaries.” — Advocate.com, The 10 Best LGBT Documentaries of 2015 “Fascinating…a film that allows viewers the room to breathe and, more importantly, to think.” — Way Too Indie, Best Documentaries of 2015 * Number 5 on the Keyframe critics poll for the top 10 documentaries of 2015. "88% Fresh Tomatometer" - RottenTomatoes.com |
SELECT PRESS QUOTES
"A beguiling meditation…serenely accomplished."
-Dennis Harvey, Variety "A breathtaking cinematic essay....a masterpiece.”
- Sam Fragoso, RogerEbert.com "As personal as it is political, Olson's meditative project offers a profound lesson on intimacy and history." — Melissa Anderson, Village Voice "One of the most ambitious documentary projects at this year's Sundance Film Festival. [A] deeply personal cinematic docu-poem."
- Ryan Lattanzio, Indiewire.com "Intimate…ambitious." - Boyd van Hoeij, The Hollywood Reporter
"An utterly transfixing piece of work….gorgeous and hypnotic...one of the best, most unusual docs playing the [Sundance] fest."
- Dan Schindel, Nonfics.com "The film deserves a spotlight, for both its stunning originality and hauntingly beautiful cinematography. It’s a film that manages to be universally relatable by being exceedingly personal."
- Alonso Duralde, The Wrap "Dreamlike and often intoxicating; a unique take on love, history and the beauty of objects and places that are doomed to ephemera. Excellent observations by director-writer Jenni Olson, who provides the offbeat narration... The Royal Road is a journey worth taking."
- Jake Jacobson, Criticwire "Jenni Olson’s second feature-length narrative film, The Royal Road... solidifies her standing as a major voice in the use of film as personal essay... The lengthy duration of each shot, coupled with Olson’s voiceover, creates a languid pace and opens up the image to representing several perspectives of time. The strategy is fascinating and keeps perfectly with Olson’s themes— that history continues with or without us, that nostalgia is inevitable, and images themselves can help us to recognize how the past is present and shapes one’s own desires."
- Sean Uyehara, Art Practical "Olson remains a standout in the increasingly crowded field of the essay genre."
- Max Goldberg, The Brooklyn Rail "A humorous exploration of butch romantic desires...a sort of butch reply to Ross McElwee’s classic Sherman’s March."
- Berenice Reynaud, Senses of Cinema "Its gorgeous 16mm cinematography easily makes it the best-looking doc at the fest." - Nonfics.com [The Best Documentaries of the 2015 Sundance Film Festival]
"Ravishingly lensed landscapes appear at once mysterious and obvious... With heartbreaking candor and rigidly honed research that melds personal, cinematic and national history into one contemplative critique." - Jordan M. Smith, Ion Cinema "Breathlessly personal and well made, this documentary is not one that should be missed…for those willing to go along for the ride, this will be something any viewer won’t soon forget." - Joshua Brunsting, Criterion Cast "Even at the Sundance Film Festival where one can see just about everything under the sun, there’s bound to be nothing else quite like The Royal Road." — Stephen Saito, Movable Fest "Top LGBT Pick of Sundance" - Ibad Shah, The Advocate "Pick of Sundance." - Black Book “Profound 16mm compositions...Jenni Olson makes San Francisco very much her own in The Royal Road, an amusing, knowingly digressive essay film.” — Michael Pattison, Fandor "A poetic love letter to San Francisco." - Scott Iwasaki, Park Record "Nonfiction outliers at Sundance are far-flung and cast away into other categories of the festival, such as New Frontier... Consider how [Jenni] Olson's admirable cinematic personal photo-essay The Royal Road, which examines California's history of imperialism, Hitchcock's Vertigo, and her own sex life, could shake up the documentary conversation if it was in the U.S. Competition?" - Anthony Kaufman, Indiewire "A dynamic take on unconventional filmmaking that escorts viewers on a journey that is as thoroughly personal as it is universally affecting. The unmistakable aesthetic of 16mm film creates a viscerally honest backdrop for disparate narratives, artfully woven together by director Jenni Olson’s narration." - Tony Gill, Salt Lake Magazine "This documentary seem[s] to float outside of time. You'd need to see The Royal Road more than once to appreciate its scope fully, and the experience of watching it is akin to falling into a deeply meditative state of mind." — Killian Melloy, Edge Media "Masterful and ephemeral...narration that feels hauntingly and beautifully similar to the spare prose of the exquisite Joan Didion." — John Townsend, Lavender Magazine "A masterclass in reflective filmmaking." — Edward Crouse, Eat Drink Films "Remarkable...a deeply exciting work of poetic-cinema, both emotional and cerebral." — Craig Hubert, Blouin Art Info "Simply poetic...Olson's internal monologue leaps from the screen to captivate the soul." — Dwight Casimere, The Times Weekly |
Interviews with Writer-Director Jenni Olson
Bomb Magazine: Artists in Conversation (interview with Steve Macfarlane)
"Would that we could all be as eloquent as Jenni Olson."
INCITE: Journal of Experimental Media (in-depth interview with Jennifer Peterson)
"Jenni Olson's landscape films project a powerful reservoir of emotion into the everyday non-places of urban life."
Landscape and Memory: A Conversation with Jenni Olson (MUBI)
"Olson’s narration bridges the apparent chasm between the contemporary landscape, the region’s past, and her own experiences. Two hundred and fifty years of history converge poetically and almost seamlessly. The Royal Road traces the residue of colonization and war and gestures toward their role in shaping the California landscape and mindset. The film is neither blunt nor evasive and wanders through subjects like a confident and relaxed traveler, urging viewers along."
Art Uncovered (podcast audio interview)
"Being a landscape filmmaker, it's like...I'm living in a movie. Because I go around all day looking at the world and going, 'What a great shot."" — Jenni Olson
Guinevere Turner and Rose Troche Interview Jenni Olson about Writing, Archival and the Sundance-bound The Royal Road (Filmmaker Magazine)
"At this past summer’s Frameline festival, where their Go Fishreceived its 20th Anniversary Screening, actress and writer Guinevere Turner and director Rose Troche interview filmmaker Jenni Olson about her Sundance-bound documentary, The Royal Road. Topics include Olson’s influences (including Chantal Akerman, James and Sadie Benning), archival documentary practice, urban landscapes and shooting on 16mm film."
WATCH THE VIDEO BELOW!
"Would that we could all be as eloquent as Jenni Olson."
INCITE: Journal of Experimental Media (in-depth interview with Jennifer Peterson)
"Jenni Olson's landscape films project a powerful reservoir of emotion into the everyday non-places of urban life."
Landscape and Memory: A Conversation with Jenni Olson (MUBI)
"Olson’s narration bridges the apparent chasm between the contemporary landscape, the region’s past, and her own experiences. Two hundred and fifty years of history converge poetically and almost seamlessly. The Royal Road traces the residue of colonization and war and gestures toward their role in shaping the California landscape and mindset. The film is neither blunt nor evasive and wanders through subjects like a confident and relaxed traveler, urging viewers along."
Art Uncovered (podcast audio interview)
"Being a landscape filmmaker, it's like...I'm living in a movie. Because I go around all day looking at the world and going, 'What a great shot."" — Jenni Olson
Guinevere Turner and Rose Troche Interview Jenni Olson about Writing, Archival and the Sundance-bound The Royal Road (Filmmaker Magazine)
"At this past summer’s Frameline festival, where their Go Fishreceived its 20th Anniversary Screening, actress and writer Guinevere Turner and director Rose Troche interview filmmaker Jenni Olson about her Sundance-bound documentary, The Royal Road. Topics include Olson’s influences (including Chantal Akerman, James and Sadie Benning), archival documentary practice, urban landscapes and shooting on 16mm film."
WATCH THE VIDEO BELOW!
More Exciting (Vintage) Coverage...
"Sounds less like Kenneth Anger and more like Kenneth Happiness." — BoyCulture.com
"The Royal Road is a cinematic mash-up of nostalgia, butch identity and Hitchcock." — Dot429.com
Learn About Queer Film Historian's Ambitious New Project — Queerty
Project of the Day: Queer Film Historian Jenni Olson's New Experimental Documentary — Indiewire.com
Butch Filmmaker Rising — AfterEllen.com
Kickstart The Royal Road — Sundance.org
"The Royal Road is a cinematic mash-up of nostalgia, butch identity and Hitchcock." — Dot429.com
Learn About Queer Film Historian's Ambitious New Project — Queerty
Project of the Day: Queer Film Historian Jenni Olson's New Experimental Documentary — Indiewire.com
Butch Filmmaker Rising — AfterEllen.com
Kickstart The Royal Road — Sundance.org
EXCLUSIVE SCRIPT EXCERPT: Landscape, Memory: The Birth of VERTIGO — and a look at THE ROYAL ROAD — EatDrinkFilms
For downloadable press images and press kit please click thru HERE.
To reach Jenni Olson for interviews or other questions click the email connect button at the top right corner of this page.
To reach Jenni Olson for interviews or other questions click the email connect button at the top right corner of this page.
