Experiencing Interruptions?

The Way Sam Sees It

When Sam, a talented photographer with Down Syndrome, sees a rainbow outside his window, he endeavors to capture his unique perspective of light and color to create his own masterpiece.

  • Dan Sanguineti
    Director
  • Dan Sanguineti
    Writer
  • Dan Sanguineti
    Producer
    Fragments Web Series, Me and My Mates vs the Zombie Apocalypse, Theatre of the Dead
  • Sam Chapman
    Key Cast
  • Doug Hall
    Cinematography
  • Project Type:
    Documentary, Short
  • Runtime:
    7 minutes
  • Completion Date:
    March 6, 2023
  • Country of Origin:
    Australia
  • Country of Filming:
    Australia
  • Language:
    English
  • Shooting Format:
    Digital
  • Aspect Ratio:
    2.35
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    No
  • Lights Canberra Action 2022
    Canberra
    Australia
    March 10, 2023
    Canberra Premiere
    Top 12 Finalist, Best Use of an Item (A Pride Flag)
  • Alt Film Festival - Spring 2023
    Toronto
    Canada
    Best Documentary
  • SFC Film Festival, Winter 2023
    Canberra
    Australia
    Galactic Award (Silver)
  • International World Film Awards 2023

    Best Documentary
  • LGBTQ+ Los Angeles Film Festival 2023
    Los Angeles
    United States
    Best Direction
  • Screen It International Film Festival 2023
    Brisbane
    Australia
    Finalist
  • Taos Pride Film Fest 2023

    Official Selection
  • Jersey Shore Film Festival 2023

    Official Selection
  • Joy House Film Festival 2023
    Sydney
    Australia
    November 12, 2023
Director Biography - Dan Sanguineti

Dan Sanguineti is an award winning film practitioner, writer and content creator currently based in Canberra, Australia.

Dan is autistic and has ADHD. He received a late life diagnosis. He is an advocate of inclusive and accesible filmmaking, and was from 2019-2022 a filmmaking tutor for Bus Stop Films Canberra, in their Accessible Film Studies program.

He studied for a Master of Creative Writing and a Bachelor Degree in Communication specialising in Media and Multimedia at the University of Canberra. Over the course of his 18+ years as a filmmaker, he has produced a number of feature length films, including Aussie Cult Zombie Comedy, ‘Me and My Mates vs the Zombie Apocalypse.”

Dan is an allrounder on any screen content production, with extensive experience as a Director, Writer, Producer, Director of Photography, Camera Operator, Editor, Production Coordinator and Production Manager.

Dan is currently a Flim and Virtual Production teacher and content developer at the Academy of Interactive Entertainment. He has also previously taught film and media at the the University of Canberra and at the Canberra Institute of Technology.

Add Director Biography
Director Statement

I wanted to share some of my own creative process bringing this project together!

I spent two and half days over a single weekend in the edit suite cutting together a story that we had shot over 3 days. This story, I had outlined and discussed with Sam and his mum Liz prior to filming. I always set out to make a documentary but I also really wanted to challenge the notion of what is documentary storytelling.

I made the decision that I would break certain rules, so as to better emphasise the story I wanted to say on screen. This included a rainbow sequence that we had to re-create. But by some incredible miracle, on the day we set out to get some of our VFX plate shots, there actually were rainbows in the sky and so we got to include a real rainbow in the film - and at first glance some preview watchers couldn’t tell which was real and which we had to recreate!

Another challenge I faced during audio post production involved replacing nearly every single sound effect and environmental sound. This was in part trying to keep our crew very small, so that Sam didn't feel overwhelmed by an audio recordista and boom operator. We used high quality mircophones on cameras, but my direction to Sam could be heard throughout the film. So I decided to rebuild a lot of the sound from scatch and I worked to make everything sound natural, as if it had been captured live during the filming. This was a lot harder than I had imagined.

I also remixed and rearranged music stems by two composers from scratch to help give my soundtrack the feel, pace and emotion I desired. Music for me is essential to my own storytelling ambitions and with such a short time we had available in the filmmaking process, I found myself using every little bit of post production knowledge to bring the project to completion.

This is why I am always drawn to make shorter length films because it’s the most perfect opportunity to practice all my filmmaking skills.