FIVE HOTELS, 17min., USA
Directed by Harry Roseman
Five Hotels is a first person view of traversing from my hotel rooms down to the street. It simultaneously encapsulates dislocation and location. The sound track evokes the unseen. The vertical orientation of the video reaffirms looking ahead along the long hallways as well as following my gaze as I walk forward. The experience of the film is both strange and ubiquitous. Visual issues: abstraction, pattern, form, and structure are embedded in the experience of this film.
Get to know the filmmaker:
1. What motivated you to make this film?
I am constantly making films, both live action and animations. My work, both in film and other media is often in series. The hotel films started with one I made in 2024. The reason I made that film holds for the rest of the series. That is then multiplied by a kind of repetition. The ostensible narrative is very simple, I am leaving my room, going don the hall to the elevator , through the lobby and out into the street. A very straight forward trajectory. At the same tier someone may say good morning, or people may be talking to each other, out of sight but present. Various ways of being there and not being there. The whole time focussed on the patterns of the rugs and floors, both abstract and extremely literal. This is just a part of why I made this film.
2. From the idea to the finished product, how long did it take for you to make this film?
On the one hand once the idea came to me then literally the time it took me to go from my room to the street. But since the film thus far is Five hotels then it took two years for the film as it now stands. I just completed the Sixth hotel so now it is three years.
3. How would you describe your film in two words!?
First person
4. What was the biggest obstacle you faced in completing this film?
The idea that it might not interest a single person.
5. There are 5 stages of the filmmaking process: Development.
Pre-Production. Production. Post-Production. Distribution.
What is your favorite stage of the filmmaking process?
Production
6. When did you realize that you wanted to make films?
I made my first film in my senior year of college. But I did home movies as a young person. Then there was a break of about 4 1/2 decades and I organically started to again make films.
7. What film have you seen the most times in your life?
Umbrellas of Cherbourg.
8. In a perfect world: Who would you like to work with/collaborate with on a film?
Chantal Akerman
9. You submitted to the festival via FilmFreeway. How has your experiences been working on the festival platform site?
Fine
10. What is your favorite meal?
Pasta and custard.
11. What is next for you? A new film?
I am working on a series of animations, I have finished 14 and am working on the 15th. Also I have been working on an episodic series of very short films, about five minutes each and am on Episode 28. Also in the works in the second film “Information”. Today the Sixth Hotel was added to Five Hotels, making the new film Six Hotels. I am not sure how long this work will continue. A drawing I started over six months ago and have worked on a few times, awaits me.
