Film Categories: Portraits

  • Shadowy Encounters

    “An extraordinarily provocative film which draws the viewer in with its strange mesmerizing beauty.” – Brothers Quay The film “Shadowy Encounters” is an homage to the work of the Quay Brothers. The film is a synthesis of collaged moving and still images taken directly from the Quay Brothers’ 35mm films and recontextualized in order to metaphorically and responsively capture and reframe the Quay’s films’ qualities. The resultant richly textured and layered imagery delves the labyrinthine and secret realms of the Quay Brothers’ world. In itself, “Shadowy Encounters” is a complete, compelling, mythic and painstaking transcription of an inner journey. It…

  • Poppa (Toxic 2)

    “Poppa” is about the contradictions of fatherhood. On one hand, a man craves the control and predictability of mathematics. This part of the “job” is presented in the form of layered nursery rhymes, sung in numbers. On the other hand, control will always elude those who seek it. When control is lost, the joy of surprise, the essence of fatherhood, can be found. This is demonstrated in “Poppa” through the image, made up of film of my son William when he was 10 months old. The film is processed by hand in a plastic bucket and then chemically tinted and…

  • Broken Dreams

    “Broken Dreams” is a beautifully filmed, evocative look into and out of the world of depression. Filmed in Super 8 and 16mm with a hand-wind Bolex camera, it captures the essence of darkness and light, hope and despair. Experimental images take us through a series of landscapes including the bleak moon-like setting of White’s Pass in Alaska, the unendingly high office towers of New York City, the eerie facade of the Carlton Hotel all alight for the Cannes Film Festival and then fall beneath the surface of the ocean to the depths of another world filled with undulating sea grass,…

  • In Search of Joy

    A Celebration of the Human Spirit. This half-hour documentary takes the viewer on a journey into the lives of individuals of diverse ages, cultures, and occupations who offer their perspectives and experiences of joy. In the midst of their search, both filmmakers suffer within one month the sudden death of both their fathers. They unintentionally become part of the film as they discover through their loss that one cannot experience true joy without responding honestly to pain. “In Search of Joy” is an interweaving of interviews, evocative images, and original music of several traditions, embracing a broad range of the…

  • Memories That Sing

    “Memories That Sing” is how filmmaker Isabel Fryszberg captures the unsung stories and songs of her mother, just before her unexpected death. She reveals the songs and stories of her mother’s childhood in Poland just before the Holocaust. At the end Fryszberg becomes the song and story of her mother’s forgotten world.

  • Passing

    A poem about breaking the ties that bind, “Passing” allows the viewer her/his own experience of place, remembrances, love, and the present.

  • Yin Yin/Jade Love

    “Yin Yin/Jade Love” is a documentary about a granddaughter’s discovery of her grandmother after she has died. The film simultaneously explores the emotional impact of the filmmaker’s last visit with her grandmother, her death, what was subsequently discovered about her extraordinary life, and childhood memories surrounding her and her home. The narration, by the filmmaker, is supported by past (VHS, 8mm, historical stills), present (16mm) and recreated (Super 8) images that are woven together creating a rich, densely layered, reflective collage. “Yin Yin/Jade Love” hopes to capture a portrait of the filmmaker’s Yin Yin and convey insight into the experience…

  • Remedy

    Some kind of defense mechanism kept me from appreciating just how horrible he was. I had never been depressed before, sad – heartbroken – bored – yes, but not depressed. I guess it took me a few weeks to stop pretending that there must be some mistake. (LH)

  • My Mother at the Consulate

    “My Mother at the Consulate” is a montage-based exploration of absence and presence and the passage of time. It is an addition to a series of personal pieces about the filmmaker’s mother.

  • Undone Unsaid

    A catalogue of things I never did or said. (RK)