page_title: Some Kind of Heaven
section_title: Development and production
hierarchical_section_title: Some Kind of Heaven / Development and production
caption_attribution_description: English: Austin Weber
context_page_description: Some Kind of Heaven is a 2020 American documentary film about The Villages, Florida, the world's largest retirement community. Marking the directorial feature debut of Lance Oppenheim, the film is a stylized portrait of four residents living within The Villages, Florida struggling to find happiness and meaning in life's final chapters. The film, produced by Darren Aronofsky, The New York Times, and Los Angeles Media Fund premiered at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival and was the sole documentary to play in the NEXT section, a category known for "pure, bold works distinguished by innovative, forward-thinking approach[es] to storytelling". The film was acquired by Magnolia Pictures and will be released in 2021.
context_section_description: The film initially emerged from 24-year-old director Lance Oppenheim’s undergraduate thesis in the Visual and Environmental Studies program at Harvard University, where he collaborated with classmate and co-producer Christian Vazquez. At Harvard, Oppenheim worked on an earlier version of the film under the tutelage of filmmakers Robb Moss, Ross McElwee, Lucien Castaing-Taylor, and Alfred Guzzetti, which informed the creation of the rest of the project. The film continued to develop through the Sundance Ignite program, of which Oppenheim was a fellow.
  A Floridian, Oppenheim was interested in returning home to explore why "thousands of retirees were moving across the country, isolating themselves in a Truman Show-like bubble-world that reminded them of their youth". Prior to filming, Oppenheim ventured to The Villages and lived in a rented room for nearly thirty days with retired rodeo clowns to embed himself into the social fabric of the place. Production took place over four shoots (scattered across eighteen months), with a crew five – Oppenheim, Vazquez, cinematographer David Bolen, Melissa Oppenheim Lano (Oppenheim's sister and lead physical producer), and sound recordist Richard Carlos. Bolen, the cinematographer of the film, worked with Oppenheim to develop the heightened style and look of the film before production. Bolen and Oppenheim have been collaborating since the latter was 17-years-old. Using inspiration from Larry Sultan's Pictures from Home series, Ulrich Seidl, Todd Haynes' Safe, and Tim Burton's Edward Scissorhands, Oppenheim and Bolen wanted the film's images to mirror the controlled, manicured and hyperreal landscapes of The Villages.
  After collaborating with Kathleen Lingo at The New York Times on his three previous short documentaries for Op-Docs, Oppenheim approached Lingo regarding the film, initially envisioning it as a short documentary. Lingo urged Oppenheim to develop the project into a feature, thus sparking their fourth collaboration – and The New York Times'  first feature film production – together. Darren Aronofsky met Oppenheim when he was still a senior in college after Oppenheim "found [his] email on the internet" and spent nearly five years sending unsolicited cold-emails. Upon finally getting in touch with Aronofsky and his team at Protozoa Pictures, Oppenheim shared a sizzle reel to the film. Aronofsky, impressed with the surreal setting and film's visual approach, signed on shortly thereafter.
  Editor Daniel Garber joined the project starting when only a quarter of the footage had been shot. Garber worked with Oppenheim to give the stories of the film their shape, even visiting The Villages himself to get a better sense of the place. In interviews, Oppenheim has credited Garber as the film's "co-author", and being integral in the creating a grammar that "was more experiential than other documentaries... something that felt like a narrative film but retained the integrity of being 100% grounded in reality". Oppenheim and composer Ari Balouzian conceived of the score as an "integral part of the story they wanted to tell", embracing a "dreamy, orchestral sounds with harp inflections that invoke Old Hollywood to capture the tension between the sunny, polished exterior of The Villages and its harsher day-to-day realities".
caption: Oppenheim and his crew filming at The Villages, Florida
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