On the second day of the Los Angeles Music Video Festival, three directors were invited to pitch their ideas to a band in front of a live audience. They each had three minutes to talk and all of them had uniquely different concepts for the song. The first pitch [read more...]]]>

On the second day of the Los Angeles Music Video Festival, three directors were invited to pitch their ideas to a band in front of a live audience. They each had three minutes to talk and all of them had uniquely different concepts for the song. The first pitch by Mat Stone [not the South Park creator] involved animated cat .gifs and fedoras, which was followed by a directorial team who wanted to produce a short involving old people in a retirement home. However, the last contestant really blew everyone out of the water by presenting his hilarious storyboards that involved a girl getting into a stranger’s car and then eventually finding herself in a spaceship. The band, Seventeen Evergreen, chose the winner at the end of the night and without surprise it went to the last presenter.

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LOS ANGELES MUSIC VIDEO FESTIVAL – http://lamvf.com/

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Hannah Jayanti is the director of the upcoming documentary about the classic children’s book The Phantom Tollbooth. Since Jayanti and her team have been funding the film themselves for almost a year now, they decided to start a kickstarter to help them cover the cost of post production. Amazingly, [read more...]]]>

Hannah Jayanti is the director of the upcoming documentary about the classic children’s book The Phantom Tollbooth. Since Jayanti and her team have been funding the film themselves for almost a year now, they decided to start a kickstarter to help them cover the cost of post production. Amazingly, the project was funded in only a couple of days. I remember listening to The Phantom Tollbooth on tape during all of my childhood road trips and loving it. And if the book meant anything to you as well, I think you’re going to really enjoy this film.

Daniel Rolnik: Were you always planning the documentary to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the book?

Hannah Jayanti: Yeah, that’s sort of how it all came about. Our producer, Janice Kaplan, met Norton Juster a few years ago and asked me if I had heard of his book The Phantom Tollbooth. I of course replied yes, I have loved the book ever since my mom would read it to me when I was a kid. Anyways, a couple years went by since that conversation when Janice called me and asked if I would like to interview Norton Juster and Jules Feiffer for a promo clip to spread the word about the 50th Anniversary of the book. But, when I interviewed Norton I realized how witty he was and how the book opened up so many other questions beyond what I could fit into a short clip. So I approached him and Jules about making a feature documentary about The Phantom Tollbooth and they were really into the idea – Norton thought it was a riot.

DR: So you didn’t have to coerce them into it?

HJ: They’ve been great. I mean Norton is one of those people who is really amiable, excited, and approachable. And for how well he’s done, he’s one of the most humble people I know.

DR: This is the first full-length documentary you’ve done, right?

HJ: Yeah, I actually started out as a photographer, but I found that working with video is much more in tune with the way I think..

DR: Was it difficult to figure out how to do a full-length documentary, since you came from a fine arts background?

HJ: I’ve found it all to be amazingly intuitive. It’s not easy, but you know when you’re doing something and even though you’re figuring it out as you go, you somehow just understand it – that’s how I feel about this.

DR: What camera did you shoot the film on?

HJ: We filmed it on a Sony-EX 1

DR: Have you gotten to keep any of the drawings Jules Feiffer made during filming?

HJ: I have the one he drew in the beginning of the trailer at my house, which is really cool. He draws so quickly, it’s crazy.

DR: Did he just use a regular pen to draw it?

HJ: We lent him a pen, he said it was terrible and politely asked us for another one – haha. It’s funny because Norton has told me about how writing is a slightly tortuous experience for him, but for Jules it’s all about the movement and getting his illustrations done really fast.

DR: Have you been shocked by anything Norman or Jules told you during one of your interviews with them?

HJ: I had no idea that Norton knew Jane Jacobs and was influenced by her book The Death and Life of Great American Cities. That opened up a whole other conversation about dystopia and urban environments, because there are all these parts in The Phantom Tollbooth that have some very serious connotations of what it’s like to be in a city. For example, there’s a part in the book where the characters are walking in the city of Reality, but the whole city has disappeared because no one is paying attention to it anymore.

DR: Is The Phantom Tollbooth a lot deeper than most people think?

HJ: A lot of people tell me that they read the book first when they were 8, then 12, then 18, and then again when they were 30 – and each time they find different things that make them love it even more. The book has a playfulness to it, but since it also has substance it’s accessible to people of any age.

DR: Did you have to read the book multiple times before you started the film?

HJ: I still read it often now in order to really understand all the characters and metaphors.

DR: Does Norton agree with most of the metaphors historians have written about his book?

HJ: It’s funny because it’s easy to read a lot of things into it, but it’s a children’s book – let’s not think it’s this philosophy text. What Norton will say is that he didn’t think of any of these things while he was writing it, but I don’t think it’s a stretch to see the metaphors in his work because The Phantom Tollbooth was born from another children’s book he was supposed to write about urban perception.

DR: Are there moments you wish you had caught on camera, but you missed?

HJ: We’re still in production, so there’s hope for us yet! To be honest, people have been so generous with their time, that I haven’t felt like we’ve missed anything yet.

DR: When will you begin postproduction on the film?

HJ: We are hoping to have all our shooting wrapped within the next two months. So, we should start post-production in December.

DR: Are some of the interviewees in the film just normal people?

HJ: I would hate it if the film was only intellectuals analyzing the book, because they would drain the life out of it. So in addition to interviews with the author Norton Juster, the illustrator Jules Feiffer, and the historian Leonard Marcus (who wrote the annotated version) we have conversations with fans young and old. And in the trailer, some of the clips were taken from an incredible independent bookstore in Washington DC named Politics and Prose, where we interviewed one of the people who runs the children’s department.

DR: Have you ever felt silly reading The Phantom Tollbooth in public, since it’s a children’s book?

HJ: I haven’t felt silly reading it at all. I have been having this really amazing experience where people find out about the film and email me letters expressing their love of the book.

DR: What have been some of the most interesting emails fans have sent you?

HJ: Someone sent me their college entrance essay, another person sent me a picture of their tattoo featuring one of Jules illustrations from the book, and I also received an email from someone who told me how when they were a kid they recreated the whole map in their bedroom.

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Answers by: HANNAH JAYANTI
Questions by: DANIEL ROLNIK
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Photos provided by Hannah Jayanti from the upcoming documentary The Phantom Tollbooth Turns 50
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TO SUPPORT THE FILM, VISIT: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/phantomtollbooth/the-phantom-tollbooth-turns-50-a-documentary

John Frame is looking for your help to fund his feature-length animated film. Depending on how much you donate, you can receive everything from an original sketch to a limited-edition sculpture. One of the coolest parts about the project, besides the incredible puppets, is that once the film is [read more...]]]>

John Frame is looking for your help to fund his feature-length animated film. Depending on how much you donate, you can receive everything from an original sketch to a limited-edition sculpture. One of the coolest parts about the project, besides the incredible puppets, is that once the film is complete he is going to host it online for free. I got a chance to interview John Frame several months ago, which you can read HERE, and I can assure you he is a true artist with a real vision. To help fund and complete The Tale of The Crippled Boy you can visit the official kickstarter page: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/331253207/the-tale-of-the-crippled-boy

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JOHN FRAME: http://johnframesculpture.com/

Tzipora’s Nest is a documentary by Malka Nedivi about her mother – a holocaust survivor, hero, and hoarder. I was really excited when I got the email from Malka with a link to the trailer, since she had told me about the film when I interviewed* her for this [read more...]]]>

Tzipora’s Nest is a documentary by Malka Nedivi about her mother – a holocaust survivor, hero, and hoarder. I was really excited when I got the email from Malka with a link to the trailer, since she had told me about the film when I interviewed* her for this site a little bit ago. The film was shot in Israel over the course of six years, when Malka moved back to be with her aging mother up until her passing. The trailer really blew me away and I can’t wait to see the film. And, for those of you wondering, Tzipora (Malka’s mother’s name) translates from Hebrew to English as Bird.

Here is the Trailer

Here is the Official Description

When Malka Nedivi discovers her estranged mother, Tzipora, is subsisting on moldy bread, she moves from Los Angeles to Israel to care for her. ‘Tzipora’s Nest’ follows Malka’s struggle to help her elderly mom while getting lost between the roles of director, only daughter, wife and mother. Fifteen years in the making, Tzipora’s Nest invites you into a world you have never seen. Filmed by her six year old, sixteen year old and even strangers on the street, ‘Tzipora’s Nest’ asks you to put aside any notion of ‘tradition’ or ‘cinema,’ and simply welcomes you to become part of the family. Malka intends to mend Tzipora’s ways, only to find herself in an intense battle against her mother’s equally stubborn will. While trying to help, she decides to film the mother who had cut off one of her pigtails at night and taught her to waltz. The camera she holds acts as a buffer and a shield between them. Malka can cower behind it, or attack her mother with it.

Over the course of six years, giving new meaning to the word guerrilla film-making, this emotionally rich documentary that came out of their experiences describes: the lives of immigrants, the psychological effects of surviving the holocaust, hoarding, aging, and coming to terms with parenting our own parents. Most importantly, though, this story is about a child returning home after many years and getting to know and accept the difficult, loving, unforgettable mother that raised her.

Here is the Official Website

http://tziporasnest.com

*Interview with Malka Nedivi: http://argotandochre.com/2011/08/interview-with-malka-nedivi/

“If I know everything ahead of time it’s not adventure” – Malka Nedivi

Malka Nedivi is an awesome artist/filmmaker that has created a remarkable body of work to coincide with her documentary about her mother. I met Malka during the open house of an artist’s colony in Los Angeles [read more...]]]>

“If I know everything ahead of time it’s not adventure” – Malka Nedivi

Malka Nedivi is an awesome artist/filmmaker that has created a remarkable body of work to coincide with her documentary about her mother. I met Malka during the open house of an artist’s colony in Los Angeles and I instantly gravitated to the sense of play and life in her paintings and sculptures. We met again and got to talk about life during the Yom Kippur War, hoarders, and family…RAD NEWS: Malka just sent me an email saying the documentary is finally complete and will hopefully be screening soon!

Daniel Rolnik: Where are you from?

Malka Nedivi: I’m originally from Israel, but have been in the U.S. for 34 years

DR: When you were 18 did you have to join the Israeli army?

MN: I was in the Air Force – I had a very nice job.

DR: Did you fly the planes?

MN: No, as a matter of fact, that was the joke. The first time I flew in an airplane was when I was 26 moving from Israel to United States, years after I had already left the air force.

DR: Were you involved in any combat?

MN: No, but my husband fought in the Yom Kippur War. I remember praying for him and thinking that war is the worst thing. My job in the air force was to talk to the pilots…they made us swear not to talk about it and even now I feel like I’m sworn to secrecy. It was a very interesting time. It’s sad, it’s army, it’s war.

DR: What mediums do you use?

MN: I use acrylic and fabric. I cut fabric from people’s clothes, even my family’s when they get too old and damaged to give to other people. I love to cut them and use them as a tool. I glue the fabric to cardboard and canvass and add paint and glue. People say I’m recycling, but it doesn’t come from there, it comes from me wanting to use everything. My husband always gets afraid when I tell him “your shirt is dirty”

DR: Because you’re going to cut it haha!

MN: Yeah haha

DR: Which brand of glue do you like to use?

MN: I use Nova and simple Elmer’s glue and mix it all together. If you take a fabric and a certain kind of paper and mix it together you get really interesting blends, almost like what a chemist does. I never write down the recipes because I love to renew myself.

DR: Why don’t you work at home?

MN: At night I love to work at home. But it’s so silent here in downtown. When you’re a mother, and you’re a grandma, and a wife during the day it can be too much noise. I’m very sensitive to the atmosphere around me.

DR: What’s under her face to make it look puffy?

MN: I think I put another fabric over it. This is mostly just fabric and paper. I don’t plan anything, it happens.

DR: So you didn’t plan to make a woman?

MN: I only planned to make a big face. One night I put the canvass on the floor and it didn’t feel like it was enough, so I said ‘what the hell, I’ll go big’. It feels good to make something so big, when you’re so small.

DR: Is one of these supposed to be your parents?

MN: All the inspiration for this body of work came from my childhood and especially my mother.

DR: Was she a painter too?

MN: Not at all, she was a Holocaust survivor and a very eccentric woman. So much so, that I had to fly away from her. It was always too much color and too much noise growing up. It was only when we started to get back together later in life that she began to influence me. I think that if she had a different kind of life she would have been a very good artist. She was a seamstress and just loved stuff.

DR: Did she collect a lot of things?

MN: Everything. Now there’s a name for that, a hoarder. She couldn’t throw anything away, so I threw myself away from her, but somehow now I’m making all this art with all this stuff too.

DR: But, you get to actually use all of it instead of just hoarding it…

MN: Yes, but some people tell me to be careful not to hoard my own art. A man wanted to buy some of my pieces last week. His wife was standing next to him saying ‘no don’t you understand, she doesn’t want to let them go, they’re her family,’ but I want to let them go… To the man who wanted to buy the paintings, I said wait for when the movie comes out, after that I’ll sell them to you.

DR: What’s your film about?

MN: I just finished a documentary I directed about my mother. I followed her for six years up until she passed away. It feels like right now the art goes with the film and it’s my dream to have them all be together. I’m currently looking for someone to represent it and send it to festivals.

DR: How long is it?

MN: My movie is an hour and a half, but I have 120 hours of material.

DR: Were you always a painter?

MN: I was more into theatre.

DR: An actress?

MN: I wanted to be an actress, but nobody wanted me. What I really wanted to do was direct. I started with the theatre and then transitioned to being an editor when I got to America. I was frustrated with movies because when you’re not hired you don’t know what to do with yourself, so I started making ceramics – keep in mind I wasn’t that young by the time I started.

DR: If your characters started talking would they speak English or Hebrew?

MN: This is a nice question. For sure they won’t speak English. They’ll definitely speak Hebrew, Yiddish, and Polish.

DR: Is that you in the painting?

MN: A lot of times I think the characters in the work are me, but it’s not me. I think they may be people that my parents don’t talk about, family who we lost in WWII. I don’t use photographs – it’s all based on how I feel. Sometimes people think my work is really happy, but it doesn’t always come from a very happy place.

DR: She looks kind of sad?

MN: She is.

DR: Do you have to tell her jokes to cheer her up?

MN: No, I acknowledge her though.

DR: Are you religious?

MN: I’m spiritual. I feel Jewish and celebrate all the holidays, but on the same token I wish that the whole world will eventually have one religion, because I have the feeling that so many wars are caused over religion.

DR: Do you ever go back to Israel?

MN: I took my daughters with me and moved to Israel for four year to take care of my mother before she passed away. When you’re an only child and your parents are sick it’s very tough, but the camera helped and so did the art.

DR: Do you ever dance while you paint?

MN: I think it would look a little bit weird if I danced haha. Although I have a big sculpture I created at my home and sometimes late at night when nobody sees I come and hug her. It’s wonderful, she doesn’t say anything – she really listens.

DR: How do you make most of your sculptures?

MN: I used to use ceramic, but now I do the frame from metal. Then I start with clothes and put glue on them and start to build with paper and other materials until it starts to have the shape I want. By then my imagination goes wild and I paint it.

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Answers by: Malka Nedivi
Questions by: Daniel Rolnik
Photos by: Sloane Kanter

Someone, somewhere out there in the galaxy, is making these mashup stickers of Boba Fett in lingerie holding an old tommy gun. We spotted this one on Abbott Kinney in Venice Beach, CA on top of a stop sign. It’s fascinating how Star Wars has remained such a significant [read more...]]]>

Someone, somewhere out there in the galaxy, is making these mashup stickers of Boba Fett in lingerie holding an old tommy gun. We spotted this one on Abbott Kinney in Venice Beach, CA on top of a stop sign. It’s fascinating how Star Wars has remained such a significant part of the art world after all these years, especially since every year several galleries hold group shows in honor of the film – well, at least the original 3.

Alejandro Pina has recently started a kickstarter campaign for his project Xmas on TV. He is trying to pool together enough funds to be able to self-release a graphic novel version of his story about an evil Santa Claus that makes a town experience Christmas every day and a group [read more...]]]>

Alejandro Pina has recently started a kickstarter campaign for his project Xmas on TV. He is trying to pool together enough funds to be able to self-release a graphic novel version of his story about an evil Santa Claus that makes a town experience Christmas every day and a group of halloween fans that set out to stop him. Eventually Alejandro and his team want to turn the concept into an animated TV Show, but are going one step at a time. I met Alejandro Pina at a comic signing at Golden Apple in Los Angeles that we featured in an older post HERE, and he’s a really great dude. You can check out and contribute to their campaign by visiting their official Kickstarter page HERE.

Creative Migration is a non-profit that’s making documentaries about socially responsible artists who are creating works in order to change the world for the better. The duo started a documentary on the Green Patriot Poster Project earlier this year and recently launched a kickstarter campaign in order to raise enough funds [read more...]]]>

Creative Migration is a non-profit that’s making documentaries about socially responsible artists who are creating works in order to change the world for the better. The duo started a documentary on the Green Patriot Poster Project earlier this year and recently launched a kickstarter campaign in order to raise enough funds to be able to finish the film and travel with it to an international film festival in Stockholm, Sweden. I know for a fact that these guys believe in what they’re doing, since both are hardcore vegans and make sure everything they own and use is made in the most sustainable way possible. You can currently view their webisode project Where’s My Revolutionary Spirit and find out more about them on their official website HERE.

Welcome to the world of Karen M.C. Kane, a producer, writer, animator, and director. She’s always working on something cool in relation to video, so be sure to be on the lookout for one of her many websites. We had a long conversation on the recent radical infestation of turtles [read more...]]]>

Welcome to the world of Karen M.C. Kane, a producer, writer, animator, and director. She’s always working on something cool in relation to video, so be sure to be on the lookout for one of her many websites. We had a long conversation on the recent radical infestation of turtles in Los Angeles, but that’s not included in this piece. And yes, that’s her tattoo…

Daniel Rolnik: What’s Bad Ass Fever all about?

KK: Bad Ass Fever is a philosophy, a way of life and it also happens to be the name of my multi-media empire in the making! In a nutshell, Bad Ass Fever is an all-consuming lust for living life to the limit. You can recognize an individual who has the fever by their endless need to create, invent and otherwise make this wild world a better place and inspire others with their renegade ways. I only want to tell stories about people with Bad Ass Fever.

Daniel Rolnik: What do you think of artists who aren’t willing to tattoo their life philosophy on their arm?

KK: I think they are probably more focused and sane than I am. My tattoo is really a permanent reminder to myself because I am easily sidetracked by new and shiny adventures. Also, in case I get heat stroke in the wilderness and forget who I am, someone could find me and easily type Bad Ass Fever into google and help identify me.

Daniel Rolnik: What’s the best way to have fun in Los Angeles?

KK: The best way to have fun in Los Angeles is to open your eyes to what’s around you. From cool neon signs to the endless array of off-the-wall characters on every corner, this whole place is a constant playland. When I remember to do it, I share some of the fun I have found on this site http://thenameofthegameisfun.wordpress.com/

Daniel Rolnik: How did your documentary City of Lost Carts come about and how do people view it?

KK: I participated in a way cool film event where you have 5 days to make a short doc from scratch. I was already obsessed with shopping carts and when we got art as our category this amazing shopping cart photographer I had found online became the perfect subject. For me the funnest part is that the film ended up being selected to be on this educational film website where people take a quiz about the movie! I am hoping to get my hands on the answers and turn that into its own fun project.

http://learning.snagfilms.com/film/city-of-lost-carts

Daniel Rolnik: Out of all your jobs, what’s been the weirdest?

KK: I haven’t done anything weird like wrangling snakes or anything but an odd job that stands out is my one day stint at a theme park dressed as a french’s mustard bottle. There is a real thrill that comes from spreading spicy mustard goodness to young and old alike!

Daniel Rolnik: Why do you have so many websites haha?

KK: It’s an addiction and possibly a personality disorder. I experience these extremely excited moments where I come up with what I think is the most brilliant idea ever and I go buy a domain and get obsessed with it for days and then the high wears off and I forget all about it.

Daniel Rolnik: What program did you use to create the most awesome animation ever “Sunglass Lives”?

KK: It literally brings tears to my eyes that you like Sunglass Lives. It was one of my first experiments in flash. Also, it was my first time trying to play guitar from a lesson I found on the internet.

Daniel Rolnik: What are you planning on launching by the end of 2011?

KK: My number one project for 2011 is my plan to launch Bad Ass Fever with a kickoff event on September 16, 2011. That date will mark my five year anniversary of being in Los Angeles and it will be an event to celebrate all my favorite people whose Bad Ass Fever have inspired me!

Daniel Rolnik: And lastly, what’s the greatest arcade game of all time?

KK: Haha! Ms. Pac Man Hands down. In fact, I am such a fan I’d love to organize a Ms. Pac Man Super Conference! Maybe you can help me with that! ☺

Questions by: Daniel Rolnik
Answers by: Karen Kane