🛞THEY GOT ME GOIN’ IN ON MY DAY OFF.🛞 plays more fests
April 2024
-Sat Apr 27, 4:45 PM @ National Film Festival For Talented Youth (Seattle), - SIFF Cinema Uptown [Theatre 1]
-Sun Apr 28, 6:30 PM / May 4th, 9:45 PM @ Atlanta Film Festival, Plaza Theatre [Mike Auditorium] (I’ll be IN-PERSON @ Q&A on the 28th and loitering around town all weekend)
Stay tuned for updates on a few more screenings in the coming months...
✨🕴🏻I LIKE LIVING THIS WAY🕴🏻✨ is up on Youtube and Vimeo. My cousin Carlos plays a down on his luck Michael Jackson impersonator who gets some shocking news from his boss ~ ’No one wants Michael Jackson at their birthday parties anymore.’The film was my sophomore year narrative final, shot and improvised over the course of a day in December 2022.
🌀…AND YOU HAD TOURETTE’S 🌀 is finished and has been sent out to fests. I spent all of last Fall in Prague prepping, shooting, and editing that, as well as working with friends on their own projects, all shot on Super 35 (!!!!!!) I don’t want to say too much about it just yet, though I can guarantee it’s drastically unlike anything else I’ve made. Recorded a dream 💸
Costume fitting the night before our 2 day shoot
I also helped Louisa shoot a music video for Anastasia, whose debut album Darning Woman comes out next month, accompanied by a release show at Baby’s All Right on May 31.
If you can’t make it to Atlanta or Seattle this weekend, Zach and Irmak’s latest films are screening as a part of NoBudge Live in New York next week. In addition to being roommates, Zach and I DP’ed each other’s Prague shorts which means it’ll be a treat… So don’t bother coming if you ain’t into those.
-Mon April 29th, 7:15 @ Nitehawk Prospect Park
Of course, Prague was sweet. I realize this more each day that passes. A pint of beer is cheaper than a glass of water there, if that’s any indication of the kind of time I had. It was particularly special being away with no one but a few friends (and some new ones) with the chance to cut out the noise and focus on our own films with resources at a level we may never get again. At one point a few of us spent a weekend in Vienna, where I briefly lost my laptop and got a €100 ticket for unknowingly evading a tram fare, and it still managed to be one of the best weekends of my life.
ZJ takin’ a break on Abe’s set.
Mainly though, I went to see Luca’s WHAT DOESN’T FLOAT, whose theatrical premiere I also missed in New York. Luca is a good friend and his microbudget debut is a big inspiration pushing me to write a feasibly financeable film to shoot at some point after college. Being some of the only Americans in the audience as well as having Luca and Morgan to vouch for us at the fest, our time in Poland in addition to the Czech Republic has generated waves of charged nostalgia within me in recent weeks.
And though I’m a few months late on this, I would be remiss not to mention “Cashiers Du Cinema,” a smashin’ new ‘Zine published by NYC cinema workers/buddies David and Dan. I’ve never worked at a movie theater so though I didn’t contribute, I was really impressed by the project and upset to have missed the launch party in October. See if you can spot a cartoon’d Young Shane and an all too close to reality rendition of yours truly crafted up by David (he put me next to Marty).
In keeping with the theme of remembering Europe, here’s a list of some films and things I’ve come to heavily associate with my time there. Nostalgia flows ∞
movies:
-DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE (’31, dir. Rouben Mamoulian). Moved me deeply. Have to fill my Golden Age blindspots.
-SOUSTO (’60, dir. Jan Němec)
-THE FIFTH HORSEMEN IS FEAR (’65, Zbyněk Brynych)
-A TOWN PRESENTED TO THE JEWS AS A GIFT BY THE FUHRER (’65, dir. Vladimír Kressl). Saw this at Terezín.
-LOVES OF A BLONDE (’65, dir. Miloš Forman). Laughed so much it hurt.
-THE SHOP ON MAIN STREET (’65, dir. Elmar Klos, Ján Kadár)
-CLOSELY WATCHED TRAINS (’66, dir. Jiri Menzel)
-THE END OF AUGUST AT THE HOTEL OZONE (’67, dir. Jan Schmidt)
-KES (’69, dir Ken Loach) on 35mm at Ponrepo. Didn’t have subtitles so at times was as unintelligible as a Czech film. Still, heartbreaking. I find myself thinking about the soccer game’s scoreboard graphic all the time.
-SWEDISH LOVE STORY (’70, Roy Andersson)
-THE EAR (’70, dir Karel Kachyňa)
-MARTIN (’77, George Romero)
-DAYS OF HEAVEN (’78) - on 35mm at PonRepo and again at Film Forum upon returning to New York.
-THE DRILLER KILLER (’79, dir Abel Ferrara)
-OUT OF THE BLUE (’80, dir Dennis Hopper). Final sequence spooked up on me like a ghost.
-THE APPOINTMENT (’81, dir Lindsey C. Vickers)
-STOP MAKING SENSE (’84, dir Jonathan Demme, 3rd rewatch) IMAX. Abe, Zach, and I danced and sang the entire time at the back of the theater. Unlike screenings in the U.S., it wasn’t much of a party, but we never gave up on trying to make it one!
-RADIO DAYS (’87, dir Woody Allen)
-TALK RADIO (’88, dir Oliver Stone)
-THE ADDICTION (’95, dir. Abel Ferrara) See here.
-LA PROMESSE (’96, dir Luc, Jean-Pierre Dardenne)
-THE VIRGIN SUICIDES (’99, dir. Sofia Coppola)
-LOST IN TRANSLATION (’03, dir. Sofia Coppola, 1st rewatch)
-PUDE VER UN PUMA (’11, dir Eduardo Williams
-THE DIRTIES (’13, dir. Matt Johnson)
-ANATOMY OF A FALL (’23, dir Justine Triet)
-BOTTOMS (’23, dir Emma Seligmann)
-KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON (’23, dir Martin Scorsese)
-OPPENHEIMER (’23, dir Christopher Nolan) This was on my last list but I saw it twice on IMAX 70 in Prague and had an entirely new, absorbing interaction with the film. Nothing quite like it.
-THE SWEET EAST (’23, dir. Sean Price Williams)
-WHAT DOESN’T FLOAT (’23, dir. Luca Balser)
-THE MASK (’23, dir. Conner O’Malley)
other stuff:
-”Television Delivers People” (’73)
-”John Bailey on Days of Heaven”
-”Best Show” ‘Billy Joel tribute band’ (Dec 2001, w/ H Jon Benjamin)
-Nick Mullen: The Year of the Dragon (’23)
-The Curse (’23)
reading:
-The Metamorphosis (Kafka) - The Kafka museum in Prague was mapped out chronologically so that one leaves the building with a pretty exhaustive narrative of the writer’s life. I found it provided me with one of the few emotional experiences I’ve had at any museum.
-Leave Society (Tao Lin)
-On the Back of Our Images, Vol. 1: 1991-2005 (Luc Dardenne)
-Martin Eden (London). Functioned as an anchor for me during my long trip home, with a spiritually resounding final page.
music:
-@thebeatlesnyc on Youtube. Uploads tons of performances by randos at Strawberry Fields in Central Park whenever a Beatles’ birthday (or deathday) passes. Came in handy whenever I missed New York.
-“I Walk Alone,” Index
-“Let Go Of You Girl,” The Left Banke
-Runt (’70) and “I Don’t Want To Tie You Down,” Todd Rundgren. (Seeing him next week in Jersey)
-Duncan Browne, Duncan Browne (’73)
-Prefab Sprout Swoon demos
-Harvest of Dreams, Bobb Trimble (’82)
-“Doot Doot,” Freur
-Murmur, R.E.M. (’83). I’d put them off for forever as all I’d known from them was “End of The World As We Know It.”
-“Kryzysowa narzeczona,” Lady Pank. An 80s Polish hit we kept hearing at a restaurant in Wrocław. Rips.
-“Dummy Line,” Matthew Young
-“Branches Bare,” Hood
-Tiny Cities, Sun Kil Moon (’05)
-Strange Geometry, The Clientele (’05)
-“Black Flowers,” Yo La Tengo
-Broom, Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin (’06)
-In Ear Park, Department of Eagles (’08)
-Good Evening, Nite Jewel (’09)
-These Trails, These Trails (’11)
-This guy’s cover of ‘Prelude & Yodel.’
-Purple Mountains, Purple Mountains (’19)
-Sweethearts Deluxe, Richard Goldman (’20)
-“You’re Really Somethin,” Pat Gatti
-Ed Askew’s rerecorded renditions of previously released songs, in addition to Ask The Unicorn, Imperfiction.
-“Murder Most Foul,” Bob Dylan. Also Lots of Blonde on Blonde and “Goin’ to Acapulco.” And The Complete Budokan… etc.
-Dutch Interior, Gluepot (’22)
-Greg Mendez, Greg Mendez (’23). Another anchor. Apparently my buddy Luke at Film Forum made the video for “Maria.” Small 🌎!