Landon Van Soest is an Emmy Award-winning filmmaker, Fulbright Scholar, and two-time Sundance Fellow. His work presents social commentary through rich characters and immersive narratives. Landon recently directed the Hulu Original Documentary The Jewel Thief, which was the #1 most viewed movie on Hulu worldwide in the summer of 2023. His previous documentary, For Ahkeem, premiered at the 2017 Berlinale and Tribeca Film Festivals, won seven Best Documentary awards, opened theatrically in ten cities, and is being distributed by The Orchard and Amazon. His first documentary, Good Fortune, was broadcast on the award-winning PBS series POV, where it received an Emmy Award, the Witness Award for Human Rights and the Overseas Press Club’s Carl Spielvogel Award. Landon is a founder of the not-for-profit Brooklyn Filmmakers Collective and co-founder of Transient Pictures, where he has collaborated with non-profits and brands including Toyota, UNICEF, eBay, Facebook, 23andMe, Lincoln Center, ABC, National Geographic and PBS.
Topics Discussed In This Episode:
Landon’s introduction to filmmaking (00:02:06)
Skateboarding’s influence on culture and creative expression (00:04:31)
Landon describes his mindset on approaching his creative projects (00:11:49)
Discussion about Landon’s film Light, Darkness, Light and its conceptual roots (00:13:30)
How Landon chooses which projects he wants to work on (00:38:30)
Yoshino and Landon speak about the process of letting go (00:46:48)
Landon recounts the making of The Jewel Thief on Hulu, the story of master criminal Gerald Blanchard (00:49:15)
Yoshino and Landon discuss the importance of starting projects, evolving through them, and staying authentic to one’s interests (01:00:51)
"I started this series as a means for exploration, an exploration of self, and an exploration of the perspectives of other artists.
This series is an unabridged documentation of conversations between artists. It’s a series dedicated to breaking down the barriers we tend to set up in our own minds. I want to inspire future creatives to have the courage to explore and experiment. This is about making dreams a reality and not about letting our dreams fall to the wayside.
My intention is to give my audience a sense of real human connection, something that feels rich and organic.
When I was thinking of a title I thought of the word “movement”.
In relation to the Renaissance period in art, my goal for this program is to signify a rebirth of consciousness towards the way we look at contemporary art."
