From award winning short to festival feature with Catching Dust writer and director Stuart Gatt

The Filmmakers Podcast

This week on the podcast we chat with writer and director Stuart Gatt about his debut feature film, the festival darling Catching Dust.

Stuart sits down with fellow filmmaker Giles Alderson and discusses making the leap from shorts to feature, how he felt making Catching Dust and what he learnt along the way. They also discuss:

Why making a short film a calling card is vital .

Why he wants to make movies in and set in the US.

His screenwriting process and using flow charts.

Pitching to investors.

Why he feels likes he’s made films in a vacuum with no help from anyone before Catching Dust.

Why you should know your material.

Talking to the cast and crating connections

Directing tips and tricks that are the core of the scene.

Directing process - what did he do?

Being challenged by your DP in a good way.

Catching Dust

Directed and Written by: Stuart Gatt

Produced by: Mark David, Jon Katz, Stuart Gatt and Edward R. Pressman

Starring: Erin Moriarty, Jai Courtney, Dina Shihabi and Ryan Corr

Geena (Erin Moriarty) and her violent criminal husband Clyde (Jai Courtney) hide out in an abandoned commune in the Texas desert, hunted by the law and his former gang members looking to settle old scores. Geena is desperate for interaction with the outside world and exhausted by Clyde’s controlling ways. She decides to leave, but a trailer suddenly arrives carrying Amaya (Dina Shihabi) and Andy (Ryan Corr), a vacationing couple from New York City seeking to save their troubled marriage. Ignoring the risks their presence will bring, Geena convinces Clyde to let them stay, a decision with dangerous consequences for them all.

Writer, director Stuart Gatt is an award-winning British filmmaker of mixed Asian heritage whose stories are often influenced by topical social themes. His short film, My Beautiful White Skin, tackled skin lightening amongst the British Asian diaspora and starred Red Notice’s Ritu Arya. His penultimate film The Dead Sea, starred BAFTA-nominated Sope Dirisu and focused on the plight of Libyan refugees’ perilous journey into Europe. Catching Dust is Stuart Gatt’s feature debut, based on his original script and had its World Premiere at Tribeca Film Festival earlier this year.

EVENTS

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PATREON

Big thank you to:

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Karen Newman

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CREDITS

The Filmmakers Podcast is hosted, produced, edited and written by Giles Alderson @gilesalderson

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Theme Music by John J. Harvey

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