Wednesday, September 16, 2009

"Magnificent" Variety reviews Schmatta: Rags to Riches to Rags


An HBO release of a Blowback production. Produced by Daphne Pinkerson,Marc Levin. Executive producer, Sheila Nevins. Co-producer, Richard Lowe. Directed by Marc Levin.
 
Opening to the lilting strains of "Rhapsody in Blue," "Schmatta: Rags to Riches to Rags" is a loving and sobering look at the demise of New York's garment industry, where the loss of manufacturing jobs to nations with cheaper labor represents "a microcosm of everything that's going on in this country." Filmmaker Marc Levin does a magnificent job of widening the documentary's lens -- providing a glimpse of a disappearing way of life that speaks to the larger issue of where an entire stratum of U.S. blue-collar jobs has gone.
The sons and daughters of those who made a living in the garment industry, it's noted, went on to become doctors and Supreme Court justices. Yet the gains won by labor in the latter half of the 20th century were circumvented by businesses that uprooted their factories and took the work elsewhere, prompting one cutter to say flatly, "I'm a fossil."
Levin neatly frames the story not just with the bustling streets of Manhattan but with the Triangle Factory fire of 1911, in which women working on the eighth through 10th floors -- locked inside when the building erupted in flames -- died horrifically, with some leaping to the street below. Coming full circle, the docu zeroes in on a similar tragedy that occurred decades later in Bangladesh, as well as the controversy over Kathie Lee Gifford allowing her clothing line to be produced in sweatshops overseas.
As perhaps only HBO can -- given the fascination with the fashion industry and kowtowing to its big-name designers in cable's many fashion-oriented programs -- "Schmatta" also zeroes in on the role those labels have played in pursuing lower costs, and the toll that has exacted on those whose careers have died the death of a thousand cuts.
Premiering in Toronto, "Schmatta" will air Oct. 19 on HBO. As a footnote, the project has a personal connection for HBO documentary czar Sheila Nevins, whose great-aunt died in the Triangle fire.
Camera, Daniel Levin; editor, Richard Lowe; music, John Zorn; music supervisor, Michael Halatyn; supervising producer, Nancy Abraham; line producer, Kara Rozansky. Reviewed on DVD, Los Angeles, Aug. 23, 2009. (In Toronto Film Festival -- Real to Reel.) Running time: 74 MIN.
http://www.variety.com/review/VE1117941044.html?categoryid=31&cs=1

Friday, September 11, 2009

Schmatta: Rags to Riches to Rags - Teaser

I had the opportunity to cut a teaser for the upcoming feature documentary Schmatta: Rags to Riches to Rags in which I assistant edited and did research for. If anyone has the privilege to enter the tents at Bryant Park for this weeks September Fashion Week, you will see a promo I also cut specifically for the tents, but who gets into these things anyways?
(CLICK THE LINK IN THE VIDEO TO SEE THE FULL FRAME)

Thursday, August 13, 2009

SCHMATTA to premier at the 2009 Toronto International Film Festival

Many of you know I have been working as an assistant editor on a documentary; that documentary is entitled Schmatta: Rags to Riches to Rags.

"The Garment Center is the heart and soul of Midtown Manhattan and the backbone of the fashion industry. It was the gateway for many immigrants to the American Dream. Now, it’s in danger of disappearing. This HBO feature documentary explores the rise and fall of New York's fabled schmatta (rag) trade as a microcosm for the economic shocks that have changed our lives."

The Toronto International Film Festival will take place September 10 - 19th as one of the leading film festivals in the world. Stay tuned for more festival announcements and check out Blowback Productions on the web (website, facebook).

Thursday, June 25, 2009

Tuesday, June 9, 2009

Bicycle Film Festival


Put the Fun Between Your Legs has found its place at the 2009 New York Bicycle Film Festival.

"The Bicycle Film Festival celebrates the bicycle.
We are into all styles of bikes and biking. If you can name it-Tall Bike Jousting, Track Bikes, BMX, Alleycats, Critical Mass, Bike Polo, Cycling to Recumbents- we've probably either ridden or screened it. What better way to celebrate these lifestyles than through art, film, music and performance? We bring together all aspects of bicycling together to advocate its ability to transport us in many ways.
Ultimately the Fest is about having a good time.
We have been fortunate enough to include works of established artists such as 
Jorgen LethMike MillsJonas MekasBlonde RedheadSwoon and Michel Gondry among others as part of our programming.
Many of the artists who have participated in the Bike Film Fest such as the 
Neistat Brothers and Lucas Brunelle are gaining more and more recognition for their work."

Put the Fun Between Your Legs will be screening Saturday June 20th at 7 pm as part of Program 7 - Urban Bike Shorts, and again at 9:15 and 11:15.  There are tons of films being screened, check out the schedule here.  All films are screening at Anthology Film Archives.

PS: Bicycle Film Festival Orlando and Miami are coming soon, for all of my Florida friends.

Tuesday, April 21, 2009

Nowhere Kids - Photo Published



A friend of mine was flipping through the 2009 Tribeca Film Festival program guide and spotted a photo I had shot on set of Nowhere Kids.  Turns out this program guide was shipped inside last weeks Time Out New York Magazine.  Check out the photo below (top right).



Friday, April 17, 2009

Nowhere Kids - Tribeca Film Festival

From the Tribeca Film Festival site

Nowhere Kids

TFF2009.gif
(Nowhere Kids)
Plays In:
Shorts: Truth or Consequences

Photograph by Chris Walker


Shorts in Competition: Narrative

[STRUT] | 2009 | 18 min | Short Narrative

Directed by: Eric Juhola

USA

New York Premiere

Interests: Crime, Drama, Family Friendly, Identity, Teens
http://www.stillpointpictures.com/nowherekids

Cast & Credits

Primary Cast: Eléonore Hendricks, Evan Louison, Naomi Madsen, Rich Williamson, Donnie Mastro, Cheryl Johnston
Director:
Eric Juhola
Screenwriters:
Eric Juhola, Jeremy Stulberg, Lindsay Goldwert
Producers:
Eric Juhola, Jeremy Stulberg, Randy Stulberg
Director of Photography:
Reed Dawson Morano
Editor:
Jeremy Stulberg
Music:
Christopher Libertino
Production Designer:
Randy Stulberg

Program Notes

Eléonore Hendricks (A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints, The Pleasure of Being Robbed) is Georgia, a teen runaway on the road, searching for her biological mom. She hits a detour when she meets a group of crust-punk street kids on their way to the Mesa, a mysterious place where "rules don't exist." Out of options, Georgia must choose between her fragile family bonds and an escape to the unknown.





Fri, Apr 24, 6:15PM
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Tribeca Cinemas Theater 2 (Map)

Monday, April 13, 2009

exciting news

I've got some exciting news about a film of mine that I can't post yet, but had to sort of share anyways.

cheers.

Wednesday, March 4, 2009

Death on a Factory Farm



Premieres Monday, March 16th 10pm

Each year, ten billion animals are raised for consumption in the U.S., mostly on sprawling, industrialized farms, where virtually no federal laws mandate how the animals are treated - though guidelines exist - and state laws are ineffective. As a result, animals are frequently subjected to what many consider cruel treatment and inhumane conditions in the interest of economic efficiency. DEATH ON A FACTORY FARM chronicles an investigation into alleged abuses that took place at a hog farm in Creston, Ohio. This shocking documentary is produced by Tom Simon (a seven-time Emmy® winner) and Sarah Teale, producer of the 2006 HBO special "Dealing Dogs," which received two Emmy® nominations, including Best Documentary.

Three years in the making, DEATH ON A FACTORY FARM follows the undercover investigation of Wiles Hog Farm by the animal rights group The Humane Farming Association (HFA), and the resulting court case against it. The organization received a tip from an employee at the farm that animals were being abused, including a claim that hogs were being hung by chains and strangled to death as a form of euthanasia. HFA then turned to an undercover investigator (also featured in "Dealing Dogs") going by the name "Pete," who wore a hidden camera while he worked as a farmhand at Wiles.

Over the course of six weeks, Pete secretly filmed numerous disturbing scenes, including piglets being tossed into crates from across a room, impregnated sows held in pens that don't allow them to move, an unhealthy piglet being slammed against a wall to euthanize it, and a sick sow being hung by a chain from a forklift until it choked to death. Having obtained this key evidence, Pete concluded the investigation and quit his job.

HFA brought the footage to the Wayne County Sheriff's Department, which subsequently raided the farm. Prosecutors filed ten criminal charges of animal cruelty against Ken Wiles (the owner of the farm), his son Joe, and Dusty Stroud, a farm employee who participated in hanging the sow.

In the trial that followed, prosecution and defense waged a tense battle over the legality and morality of practices rarely seen by the public and described by the presiding judge as "distasteful and offensive," but defended by Ken Wiles and other members of the tight-knit Ohio farming community as the commonplace reality of producing livestock for consumption.

DEATH ON A FACTORY FARM is seven-time Emmy® winner Tom Simon's second film for HBO. Sarah Teale's previous HBO credits include "Dealing Dogs," "Bellevue: Inside Out" and "Mumia Abu Jamal: A Case for Reasonable Doubt?," which received a CableACE Award.

DEATH ON A FACTORY FARM is an HBO Documentary Films Presentation; a Working Dog/Teale-Edwards Production; produced by Tom Simon and Sarah Teale; edited by Geof Bartz, A.C.E.; music composed by Jamie Lawrence; sound and photography, Tom Simon. For HBO: supervising producer, John Hoffman; executive producer, Sheila Nevins.

Saturday, February 28, 2009

Must Read After My death



Filmmaker Morgan Dews was very close to his grandmother Allis, but it wasn’t until after her death in 2001 that he became aware of an astounding archive she’d amassed throughout the 1960s. Filled with startlingly intimate and candid audio recordings detailing her family’s increasingly turbulent lives, the collection also contained hundreds of silent home movies, photographs and written journals. Using only these found materials, Dews has fashioned a searing family portrait that affords fly-on-the-wall access to one family’s struggles amid an America on the verge of dramatic transformation. Must Read After My Death follows Allis, her husband Charley and their four children in Hartford, Connecticut. Charley’s work takes him to Australia four months each year, so the couple purchases Dictaphone recorders as a way to stay in touch throughout Charlie’s extended absences. A modern woman at least a decade ahead of her time, Allis struggles against conformity – against the conventional roles of wife and mother. She finds the recordings cathartic and, with the family’s cooperation, incorporates them into their everyday existence. When the family turns to psychologists and psychiatrists, their strife increases and the recordings turn progressively darker – even desperate. All the while, Dews employs the family’s many home movies and the seemingly placid, typically American façade that they convey, as visual counterpoint to the raw and sobering tape recordings.

Wednesday, February 4, 2009

Photograph Post IV


Nikon N75 50mm Fuji Velvia

When I shot this back in 2006 I would have never thought to be living in New York City. In fact, I hated it and swore I would never live here. I was on a big red bus tour of the city with my parents and sister, whenever I see them around the city I think back to being on one and looking down upon everyone, but looking up at everything.  Times change and now I feel like I couldn't live anywhere else.

Sunday, January 18, 2009

Photograph Post III


Nikon N75 28mm Kodak Gold 100 

This is the laundromat around the block from my apartment. I try to disturb my surroundings as little as possible, both in my compositions and in everyday situations. The way I treat my art of any kind affects the way I live my life, sometimes enhancing and other times making things harder for myself. But what would life be like without struggle?

Wednesday, January 14, 2009

Medicine for Melancholy



A love story of bikes and one-night stands told through two African-American twenty-somethings dealing with issues of class, identity, and the evolving conundrum of being a minority in rapidly gentrifying San Francisco-a city with the smallest proportional black population of any other major American city.

Sunday, January 11, 2009

Photograph Post II


Photographs by Ed Templeton

Ed Templeton's photographs are a prime example of what I'm interested in.  He shoots people (something I am trying to do more of.) and objects such as road kill.  I feel this series conveys a sort of observational documentary aesthetic that intrigues me both in still photography and motion picture.  These photographs have a southern feel that are unmistakable.

Sunday, January 4, 2009

Photograph Post I


Nikon N75 50mm Kodak Gold 100

I'd like to start posting a photograph a week, whether its one of my own or someone else's that I'm fond of.  Today I am posting one of my own.  This photograph was shot in a junk yard in the small town of Port Jervis, NY, situated in western New York state close New Jersey and Pennsylvania in the southern edge of the Catskill Mountains.  I am interested in still life environmental subjects, environmental as in observing surroundings, symmetry seems to be a theme as well.