Behind The Attic Door - Episode 1 - A New Frontier

From The Attic Door website.

We are proud to present the very first episode of Behind the Attic Door.

Documentary filmmakers Chris Walker and Roman Safiullin have created seven episodes about a group of young filmmakers, on the verge of realizing their childhood dreams, who must journey to the desolate American West in order to realize their vision.

Please stay tuned to the blog every week for a new episode. Even more, help us spread the word. Link our video to other blogs, forums, and social network profiles (our facebook and myspace). Leave us reviews and ratings! Thanks for the unwavering support and we hope you enjoy.

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Behind the Attic Door - Episode 1 - A New Frontier from The Attic Door on Vimeo.

Resumé Update!

Resumé has been updated, check the link to the right.

In other news, I started my first day at Blowback Productions yesterday. Blowback has produced films such as Slam, Protocols of Zion, and my friend Ivy Meeropol's Heir to an Execution.

My day started off watching screeners of selects made for the two projects in progress, one a documentary about the failing garment industry in New York City and the other a verité documentary series on the current race and crime issues in Newark, New Jersey.

My duties include tape logging and production assistant work out in the field. The interns at Blowback are a direct part of the workings of the company and it is very exciting to be a part of.

Logging 136 Archival Film Clips.

Model?

A few months ago, walking down Bedford Ave in Brooklyn, I was tapped on the shoulder and asked if I could be photographed for a magazine.  I said sure and was brought over to a brick wall to have my photo snapped.  The issue's theme is Us Vs Them, the section I appear in is Brooklyn vs Manhattan, apparently looking at the differences in fashion (although Bedford Ave is so ever skewed).

I always joke about a possible career in modeling and it was funny this happened.  Just another NYC experience.

BALLAST

Its not often that feature films are set in the Mississippi Delta, where I shot my short documentary The South Lost The Civil War. The new film BALLAST, directed by first time filmmaker Lance Hammer follows a young boy drifting through the spare flatlands of a wintry Mississippi township and a middle-aged man sits in his rural home, frozen in grief after his brother’s suicide. These striking images set in motion a riveting story of three people trying to reposition their lives after experiencing a traumatic loss. Lance Hammer won the best director award at the 2008 Sundance Film festival for his assured hand with which he tells a delicate, quietly unfolding story using understated means and non-professionals from the Mississippi Delta.



Upon watching the trailer for the film, I noticed right off the bat that this film also explores isolation and a certain mood found in the color and tone of the film. The film seems quiet, meditative and spontaneous yet confined and even features long shots of trains, a theme used in my film. Ballast opens in NYC October 1st at Film Forum. This is a must see for me, and anyone for that matter.

Share The Streets

I've always attributed my introduction to filmmaking to the skateboarding videos I made with my good friend Matt Webster. We grew up together in south Florida and got into skateboarding around the same time, quickly realizing people were documenting their skating and producing videos. Our first few videos were shot with Matt's father's old VHS video camera, shoulder mount style; and edited with two VCRs hooked up together to a TV. Over the years we upgraded cameras and moved on to non-linear editing on our computers. Our biggest production, Share The Streets, was completed in the summer of 2006. Shooting lasted roughly four years with Matt and I living in Orlando. We premiered the video at Cinema Paradiso in Ft. Lauderdale, it will definitely stay with me for the rest of my life.

Below is a segment from the video, the introduction.

Returned

When I traveled to Mississippi to make The South Lost The Civil War I always felt the sense of leaving, returning home, at the time being Orlando FL.  Now living in Brooklyn, NY I feel like I couldn't be further from the south, the heritage I've so terribly dealt with; until my father found documents.  These documents show another heritage, a northern heritage.  It seems my fathers side of the family resided in North Brooklyn, just a few miles from where I now live.  The addresses show Greenpoint, a historically Polish neighborhood, and Bushwick which was once Polish and now predominately Puerto Rican.

Having always known about my Polish heritage, but never seeing the proof, the document, always gave me a disconnected feeling.  Today it feels different, living in New York City and still feeling like an outsider, never able to understand the life here, but having the proof of roots.

Notes