| Filmed in an intimate setting supported by a mid-wife, an eight-year-old sibling’s delighted reactions and questions of birth are heard off-screen while her baby brother is being born – with all who are present also experiencing the elation of birthing. 1. What motivated you to make this film? A neighbor-friend was about to give birth to her baby and we both were eager for me to capture the moment with my 16mm film Beaulieu camera. 2. From the idea to the finished product, how long did it take for you to make this film? About two months. 3. How would you describe your film in two words!? Joyous childbirth. 4. What was the biggest obstacle you faced in completing this film? This was one of the easier of my films to make – after transferring the sound captured separately, I edited the film with a Steenbeck flatbed editor, and then prepared the A/B rolls myself, and sent it out to the lab for processing at W.A. Palmer Films, in 1983. After receiving a faculty research grant, I sent my original 16mm out to ColorLab in Rockville, Maryland where the film was scanned to digital. The film has had selected screenings, in both forms, projected in 16mm and digital. 5. There are 5 Stages of Filmmaking: 1) Development. 2) Pre-Production. 3) Production. 4) Post-Production. 5) Distribution. What is your favorite stage of the process and why? Production (filming) – I love the act of filming and capturing the action on film. It’s immediate, challenging aesthetically to get all of the right angles, and allows me to “be there.” I love post-production also, but it is a more solitary meditation experience. 6. When did you realize that you wanted to make films? As a child we had a regular-8 camera when I was about nine years old, when I was able to do some of the filming and photography on family trips. After taking darkroom photography courses at Miami-Dade Junior high-school, I began with 16mm experimental filmmaking at the California College of the Arts that brought this all together and launched my career in filmmaking and teaching production on the university level. 7. What film have you seen the most in your life? Most memorable was my orientation into art film when I saw The Red Balloon (1956 directed by Albert Lamorisse), at the Enoch Pratt Library in Baltimore, that inspired me at age five. 8. You submitted to the festival via FilmFreeway. How has your experiences been working on the festival platform site? The ease of having a one-stop distribution website helps with an easy process – upload the movie, poster, etc., and find festivals – that facilitates getting the work out to world-wide audiences, attending international film festivals, and deadlines that prompt completion. 9. What is your favorite meal? Mediterranean sampler. 10. What is next for you? A new film? I’ve recently completed or completing Charlotte Salomon’s Letter and Ottilie Moore Heiress in the Resistance, and Charlotte Salomon Portrait of the Artist, in my trilogy related to my great aunt Ottilie Moore who sheltered and rescued refugees in the South of France during WWII, including the artist Charlotte Salomon, and then finalize my mini-series Ottilie Moore and Charlotte Salomon in the Nazi Era. As far as other new work, I plan to continue with experimental and independent production on various films currently in development. |
- Comment
- Reblog
-
Subscribe
Subscribed
Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
Festival Reviews 