Dylan Southern- Hot Seat Interview- Director- The Thing with Feathers

Leaping from documentary filmmaking to feature films seems like a daunting task to me, the outsider, who would have no clue how to make the jump. Director Dylan Southern makes the jump look easy, especially because the native of England is, at the center of it all, a true artist. His first three documentary films focused on the music of the bands Blur and LCD Soundsystem, as well as the early 2000s music scene in New York. Not to mention, he has made music videos and directed Aziz Ansari’s stand-up show, Buried Alive. There is versatility. It also takes someone who knows art, and that is on full display with his feature debut, The Thing with Feathers. With an emotional performance from Benedict Cumberbatch, telling the story about a father wrestling with the grief of losing his wife and desperately trying to stay strong for his two children, Southern has put together a powerful and heart-wrenching film. I was grateful to speak with Dylan about working with Cumberbatch, making the jump from docs to features, and designing a haunting creature known as Crow. Watch it here: