A collection of rock cowboys discuss their lifestyle and personal philosophies in this charming piece by New York City-based filmmaker Graham Mason (previously featured here). Created with miniatures, a 35mm camera, photoshop, and YouTube.
A couple overcomes physical separation by creating their own imaginative space in this short passion project by writer-director Reinis Spaile (previously featured here). Shot in New York last autumn, Spaile explains his approach and use of 16mm film:
“We used high ISO to be able to shoot in low key environments and played with colorful spills. We wanted the image to have a ‘wet’ feel to highlight lonely environments of both characters. The analogue film to me is an irreplaceable medium. You can always see the physicality in the grain and textures. Above all it has this specific workflow — it magnifies the moment you are about to shoot and adds an additional spark for the crew and cast members.”
Starring Demi Ramos & Julian Drabik
Written & Directed by Reinis Spaile
DOP: Emmanuella Zachariou
1st AD: Tomas Migla
Sound: Lucas Miller
Makeup: Carter Elizabeth
Color Grading: Birgit Suitsu
Sound: Arturs Senfelds DDA
Music: 1900
This video was submitted by Reinis Spaile and selected by our team. Click here if you have a project you’d like us to check out!
Fun little animation for DJ/producer Alexander Lay-Far’s upcoming EP, Seasons Change, by Moscow-based illustrator Dasha Chukhrova (previously featured here). Title design by Ksusha Kalchenko.
Love this video for Anna Andreu by Barcelona-based filmmaker Carles Pons Altimira (previously featured here). “Torrent Sanguini” follows the daily routine of a young woman who is plagued by a constant gust of wind — a magical visual meant to represent feelings of isolation from the rest of the world.
Starring Anna Andreu
Written & Directed by Carles Pons Altimira
DOP: Albert Bada Leal
Art Direction: Lluís Campos
Production Director: Angela Berruezo
Costume Director: Mar Medinyà
Sound Direction & Design: Pol Fernández
Gaffer: Dani Alvarez
Production Manager: Max Maltas
Title Design: COURE
Extras: Júlia Gaspar, Marc Vilanova, Martina Manyà,
Marc Torrent, Xavier Andreu, Lluís Campos,
Philippe Teixeira, Allison Figueroa,
Martina Manyà, Marc Vianova
Sam Rodríguez, Nicolau Rodríguez, Mar Medinyà
Marina Arrufat
Thanks to: L’Economat Social de Sants, Eliseu Arrufat, Gemma Cuervas, Familia Pons Altimira, Marc Vilanova, Cooperativa d’ habitatges La Borda SCCL
Label: Hidden track Records
This video was submitted by Carles Pons Altimira and selected by our team. Click here if you have a project you’d like us to check out!
Great look and tone to this unique redemption story by director Nicholas Stachurski of Detroit-based collective Eightfold (previously featured here). “Speed” follows Detroit native Speed Miller as he reflects on the different paths his life has taken. Despite facing a lot of difficult choices, some resulting in arrests and jail time, Speed explains how he ended up on a horse and how the animals dependency on him helps to keep him from going back to the dark side.
Director: Nicholas Stachurski
DP: Casey Stolberg
Editor: Josh Beebe
1st AC: Quinton Rodriguez
2nd AC / Loader: Vinnie Bredemus
Gaffer: Taylor McKean
Grip: Jake Gottman
Production Design: Zach Hagy
PA: Addison Brown
Special Thanks: Luke Jaden
Colorist: Kath Raisch
Company 3 Producer: Amanda Pilnik
Sound & Mix: Tailorsound
Music: Young Roc, ZGTO, Joose The Conqueror
Produced by Eightfold Collective
This video was submitted by Nicholas Stachurski and selected by our team. Consider participating here if you have a project you’d like us to check out!
Directing duo Olivia Peters and Jonas Berry (aka Us) offer up a nice mix of visuals exploring themes of womanhood and witchcraft:
“In this video we set out to capture a feeling of disconnect from your physical form, the notion that your earthbound presence is overshadowed by a spiritual calling that draws your gaze into a world beyond.”
This video was submitted by Jonas Berry and selected by our team. Click here if you have a project you’d like us to check out!
A beautiful meditation on balance and the inherent familiarity of our daily lives by Los Angeles-based filmmaker Daniel Henry (previously featured here). Set to Monteagle’s track, “Tan,” Henry presents a series of eerie and evocative images that seems to emerge from his unconscious, as he explains:
“For me, every year around New Years comes with a dark cloud. This past year in particular was filled with loss and a heaviness that has stuck with me. I needed to tell a story about the dichotomy between sameness and impermanence. Tan is a reflection of how life can sometimes feel like an endless loop of longing, loneliness, horniness and hunger that everyone experiences no matter where they are.
I decided to get outside of my own environment, and headed clear across the country with my friend/collaborator/DP Dustin Lane. We were overcome by the freedom that came with having an insanely small crew. And what resulted was something more intuitive and guttural. We had the luxury of being able to shoot slowly and wait for scenes to unfold on their own. While having a specific list of moments I wanted to capture, we had no set schedule and we able to let curiosity take over. We could walk right in and get close to our subjects.”
Watch “Tan” above and check out some behind-the-scenes images from the shoot below!
Director: Daniel Henry
Director of Photography: Dustin Lane
Assistant / Road Dog: Monster
Editor: Ryan Kendrick
Colorist: Mike Howell
Mixer/Sound Design: Jimmy Sudekum
Nice intensity to this post-apocalyptic video for De Staat by director Floris Kingma of CZAR Amsterdam. Exploring the concept of a world on fire, “Phoenix” contrasts the overwhelming power of the sun with the insignificant nature of humanity.
Director: Floris Kingma
Production Company: CZAR Amsterdam
Concept: Torre Florim & Floris Kingma
Executive Producer: Willem Bos
Producer: Madlen Folk
DOP: Gabor Deak
Post-Production: STORM Postproduction
Digital Composer: Rene Berendsen
Edit: Teun Rietveld
Colorist: Remi Lindenhovius
Datamanagement: Martijn van Houten
Graphics Design: Studio Wonder
Sound Effect Design: Soundcircus
Vulcano Footage: Geoff Mackley
Wardrobe Supply: PAKKEND
Stylist: Lynn van Eck
Song by Torre Florim
Words by Torre Florim
Produced by Torre Florim
Co-produced by De Staat
Engineered / Mixed by Torre Florim
Mastered by Darius van Helfteren
Torre Florim: Lead Vocals / Guitars / Synthesizers
Jop van Summeren: Bass
Tim van Delft: Drums
Vedran Mirčetić: Guitars
Rocco Hueting: Synthesizers
This video was submitted by CZAR Amsterdam and selected by our team. Click here if you have a project you’d like us to check out!
A lovely portrait of Los Angeles-based roller skater, Quest Love, by director Nina Meredith (previously featured here). “And a pink gelato…” offers a brief glimpse into the culture and history of roller skating within the the African-American community.
Director: Nina Meredith
Producer: Phil Staiman
DP: Matthew Potthier
AC: Rob DiCaro
Grip: Matthew Garza
ECD: Kelly Fulton
EP: Zoe Saldana
Edit: Drew Balke
Color: Houmam at VELEM
This video was submitted by Nina Meredith and selected by our team. Click here if you have a project you’d like us to check out!
Great video for Aigel by writer-director Andzej Gavriss (previously featured here). Based on the Russian Orthodox custom of dipping into cross-shaped pools of subzero temperature water, “You’re born” tells the story of a president’s desperate pursuit of immortality.
Written & Directed by Andzej Gavriss
Production Company: TakeShot films
DP: Andrey Nikolaev
Production Designer: Julija Fricsone Gavriss
Executive Producer: Elena Panfilova
Producers: Ravil Salikhov, Natalia Butova, Rudolf Mirzoev
Line Producer: Masha Enatskaya
1st AD: Elena Senatorova
Cast: Zhenya Saveljeva
Wardrobe Stylist: Irene Rovbelle
Lead Actors: Georgi Martirosyan, Evgeny Shwartz
Editor: Vlad Yakunin
Colorgrade: Matt Osborne
CG: Dmitry Talin
This video was submitted by Andzej Gavriss and selected by our team. Click here if you have a project you’d like us to check out!
A fun visual diary by Amsterdam-based director Ayla Spaans. “About Two Girls” introduces us to a pair of sisters and their private world of seemingly endless summer days.
Directed by Ayla Spaans
Art Direction: Yael Weiser
DOP: Zeeger Verschuren
Titles: Asaf Mendelovich
VO: Veerle Burmeister
Gaffer: Olaf Robberse
Music: Jason Malan
Edit: Ayla Spaans
Grading: Ruben Labree
Girls: Ayla Spaans, Mascha Spaans, Veerle Calkoen
This video was submitted by Ayla Spaans and selected by our team. Click here if you have a project you’d like us to check out!
Daniel Soares is a director and photographer from Brooklyn, New York. His unforgettable film, “Forgotten,” chronicles the obscure sport of Jai Alai and was our pick for Best Short Doc of 2019! (Click here for our full list or here to check out more of his previously featured work). Daniel was kind enough to answer some of our questions about his approach to filmmaking and how this particular project came together. Read our full interview with Daniel below!
Jeff Hamada: What is it about documentary filmmaking that excites you?
Daniel Soares: I love the process of discovering the story as you go. It’s exciting. You learn so much about others, different lives, and yourself. You might have a pre-established idea of what the story is but need to keep an open mind to let the story tell you what it really is. I’m very intrigued by real life and people you don’t often see on screens.
JH: What happens after you think you’ve found a great documentary subject? How do you figure out if you actually have something that could be a film or not?
DS: Usually everything starts with me going: “Fuck. This is so good. I gotta make a film about it.” Sometimes it’s a subject, sometimes it’s a thing they do, other times it’s a place. Then I go spend time there to observe if there is a deeper story and if it’s interesting from a cinematic point of view. Because if it’s not, maybe a different medium might be more appropriate to tell the story.
Fundamentally the story needs to appeal to me visually.
JH: How would you describe your aesthetic? And who are some of the people who’ve influenced it?
DS: That’s a hard question because it’s always evolving I’d like to think. I love big cinematic images about little everyday things. For influences filmmakers like Abbas Kiarostami, the Dardenne Brothers and Andrea Arnold come to mind. But the biggest inspiration is walking on the streets and observing people.
JH: As a photographer yourself, how is it directing things and not being the one holding the camera?
DS: I’m very picky when it comes to choosing a cinematographer and only work with someone I admire. And then I usually like to make it very collaborative, so there is a reason for her/him to be there.
A lot of my work uses long takes, in that case I like to frame the shots together with the cinematographer. When it’s a more handheld or moving approach, then obviously I can’t be framing everything, but like I said, the cinematographers I have been working with are also my friends, very talented friends, so it’s always fun.
These collaborations are one of my favourite things about filmmaking.
JH: What are some of your all time favourite films?
DS: “Kid with a Bike” by the Dardenne Brothers, the ‘Paradise’ trilogy by Ulrich Seidl, “Fish Tank” by Andrea Armold. These are a few of the movies that left a mark long time after watching them. A documentary I recently saw that I really liked was ‘Chinese Portrait’ by Wang Xiaoshuai. But the list could change depending on the day.
JH: How did “Forgotten” come about? How did you find Tevin?
DS: I was working on another project with Alvaro, the editor of this piece and he told me about Jai Alai. I had never heard about this sport before. Then I decided to go to Miami and tried to meet the people, it was really hard for them to open up, because of the tension they have with the casinos.
Many players didn’t want to get filmed at first. So I was on the fence of doing this film, but then I met Tevin and all came together. This whole idea of playing a sport and being one of the best in the world, despite nobody caring about it, was something that kept fascinating me. I have a hard time with many Hollywood movies because life just isn’t like that. You don’t just overcome all these gigantic struggles and end on top. Life is more nuanced than that. Tevin’s life is more nuanced than that. So very soon this film became about a very universal human feeling. With Jai Alai more as a backdrop.
JH: Can you talk a bit about achieving the right tone for the film? I would imagine small changes in the edit meant the difference between something feeling beautifully melancholic or just depressing.
DS: There is both in the film. The whole place and situation has a depressing feeling to it. I didn’t try to hide the more depressing world of Jai Alai. I think what holds it together is humanity. The edit is obviously one of the key parts to it.
You re-write the film in the edit, especially with documentaries.
JH: What was Tevin’s reaction to the finished film?
DS: When I first sent him the link to the film I didn’t hear back for weeks. I got worried, because it was premiering at festivals, and in my mind, I thought he didn’t like it. I portrayed him like I saw him, vulnerable and not like this big heroic protagonist. I thought he disliked it for those reasons.
But after some time, right before the Santa Barbara Film Festival I sent him the film again, and he told me he had lost his phone, but this time he had seen it and his words were: “Great job on the Clip, Dan.”
You don’t do these films for the protagonist to like or anything but it did feel good that he approved the ‘clip’.
JH: Obviously the film is about a very specific sport, but it also speaks to the idea of art in general and to what extent an audience matters when it comes to doing what you love. Which begs the question, if no one watched your films would you continue to make them?
Great question. It’s nice when you have an audience. I’m not going to lie. Ultimately every person likes to hear that their work is of relevance to another human being. But, we wake up and we go to bed every day and in between we gotta find something that brings us joy and stick to it. If we achieve that, we won.
JH: What’s next for you?
DS: I’m currently in pre-production of a narrative film I’m about to shoot in the village of my grandfather in Portugal. It involves pigs. And writing another story that plays on a junk yard.
