“Striking the right tone with my voiceover narration was tricky as these kinds of instructional videos don’t share a singular tone. The voice varies from golfer to golfer. I had to ask myself, “how would I address amateur golfers if I were one of the most sought after names in the sport?” Turns out, I’d just use a slightly louder version of my regular speaking voice.”
Read More“I was a competitive high school slam poet in Chicago and when I arrive at my small-town college in Minnesota, I needed a new outlet and dove headfirst into my liberal arts film program. I focused on video art, installation, and experimental nonfiction during my four years.”
Read More“We recently found out that one of our friends calls us "the hypothetical friends" behind our backs, because our social skills devolve almost immediately into speaking in hypotheticals, like "what if they did this," "then she did this," until we've basically created a dense psycho little narrative instead of actually living, so filmmaking is a natural progression of our bad personalities.”
Read More“A friend of mine was working on a weed farm in California and she was telling me about her experience there. She said she met the ‘first woman weed smuggler in the US’ and that this woman was one of the highlights of her trip and they had become friends. My ears perked and thought maybe this would be a good subject for a project.”
Read More“The initial idea was based on a dream I had of me being trapped in a room with three other people, trying to figure out a death and the question “who did it?”. It was really a dream that stuck with me because I felt intense waves of fear, hopelessness but also curiosity while the dream unfolds.”
Read More“I was thinking about the limits of empathy, the difficulty of understanding where other people are coming from, the question of how far we’re really willing to go to help. These are issues that regularly come up in my day job of teaching film to undergraduates, but the pandemic put them in a new light.”
Read More“The initial genesis of the idea came from when Molly and I were beginning the process of having a baby. We had had a couple of unsolicited offers from people. The reality was these were actually not creepy or weird, but when Lucas and I were throwing ideas around, I thought “what if someone had done this in person and it was someone I really didn’t want to have as a sperm donor?”
Read More“For most of my adult life, I've had careers in advertising while simultaneously writing and publishing essays, journalism and fiction. But, I've always wanted to be a filmmaker. It really took this pandemic, at the start of which I lost clients, to say what have I got to lose?”
Read More“The idea came when I was watching The Green Ray by Eric Rohmer. The film is about a girl that doesn't know where to go on vacation, and I thought "what if she was on vacation and didn't want to be on vacation?". I wrote the idea on a paper and started scratching outcomes, situations and dialogues.”
Read More“The desire to create kicked into high gear in college when I had the opportunity to perform in theatre (shoutout to Hairspray), write sketches, and create short films. My synapses firing, I knew deep down that from then on all I wanted to do was make movies.”
Read More“J. Mallory McCree, the lead actor in the film, had brought to my attention a newspaper article about a black male artist who suffered from mental illness, and his life spiraled in a violent direction. We wanted to explore what it means to be a Black artist in America who is grappling with racism and trying to navigate the often frustrating and limiting world of art, as well as the stigma of mental illness for Black men.”
Read More“There was something about the memory of not being able to wear short shorts when I was younger that stuck with me into adulthood. Like, what WAS the big deal about short shorts? It was through these smaller moments that I started being conscious of my cultural and religious identity and how it separated me from my friends.”
Read More“This piece was never supposed to be a typical narrative short. I was aiming for something more like an audio-visual poem. An ode to all the authentic and non-linear women out there. I wrote the voice-over first and then everything came together pretty fast.”
Read More“Growing up with an absent father motivated my film “K.I.N.G.” an acronym for "Kid In Need of Guidance”. I wrote this film during my 2nd year film at NYU as an assignment with the intent of shedding light on not not only Caribbean culture but also fatherless children, though that is rampant in black and brown communities, this issue is universal.”
Read More“I bought the tree from a flea market a few years back, against the advice of my girlfriend, she said it’s tacky. (She’s still my girlfriend, there’s no Valetta, she even did some of the handheld shots when I was in costume, so that part is not autobiographical) Since then it always had a place on my desk and a special place in my heart.”
Read More“The biggest challenge was shooting in LA during a pandemic with no permits, schedule or clue if this was gonna work. The easiest part was working with great friends Ben Mullen (DP) and Zach Milller (PD) and knowing it was just for fun.”
Read More“I began investigating the marketing materials for Hudson Yards and the weird form of enlightenment they promise their ultra wealthy residents. From that kernel I just started hanging around Hudson Yards to try and understand how the developers tried to make good on that promise.”
Read More“The first few lines of the voice-over came to me during an early morning train journey in December. The fields were white with frost and it was so beautiful but also slightly eerie. I saw a figure in one of the fields and there was something very lonely about the scene.”
Read More“It started in February/March of 2020, with a conversation with my brother, Koen, around spending more time outside. We both had fond memories of spending time with our parents outside, and that seemed more apparent than ever during the start of lockdown. During these conversations, we both joked about always getting weird looks or sensing a lack of friendliness.”
Read More“I went to move in with my family in March of 2020. The shift just made each of my days feel like a sitcom — everything was so heightened and I started acting like a caricature of myself because it was so weird living with my family. I started writing down and mentally noting some of the ridiculous scenarios and funny exchanges.”
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