A retired couple drive their restored car south through Arizona to scatter a friend's ashes, and find they remember him very differently.
Southbound is a two-hander set almost entirely inside a moving car. Theo wanted the landscape to say what the couple will not, so the film is built from long, static wides of the road and close, handheld coverage in the cabin, with very little in between.
We shot over nine days with three picture cars borrowed from collectors in Phoenix, each matched to a stage of the journey. Leo Hartmann used a process trailer for dialogue and a camera car with a stabilised arm for the running shots, and framed the whole film at 2.39:1 on anamorphic lenses to make room for the horizon. Interiors were lit by the sun wherever possible, bounced off a white card taped to the dashboard.
The flashbacks were shot in black and white on the same lenses, so they feel like part of the trip rather than a different film. Clara Moss cut against the dialogue, holding on whoever is listening.
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Twelve Rounds
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