Inspired by the creation of Francis Ford Coppola and George Lucas’ American Zoetrope filmmaking collective back in 1969, some of Atlanta’s most talented, upcoming filmmakers have banded together under the moniker Poet Zero with the express aim of, pushing the limits of no budget filmmaking through the use of the tools of the digital revolution. The first of these to emerge is the impressive short Cerrado Al Publico co-directed by Takashi Doscher and Alex Shofner who join me on the show this week.

Showlinks
Poet Zero
A Fighting Chance
American Zoetrope
Canon XH-A1
Adobe After Effects
Sony Vegas
Vimeo

• Cerrado Al Publico – Poet Zero
• Miss D 2007 Top Ten
• DN LFF08: Tricks – Andrzej Jakimowski
• DN LFF08: Sugar – Anna Boden & Ryan Fleck
• DN LFF08: Ramchand Pakistani – Mehreen Jabbar

Cerrado Al Publico (2009)
A short film about a police officer and barriers of understanding – physical and otherwise.

• DN EP 137: Cerrado Al Publico – Poet Zero
• White Red Panic – Ayz Waraich
• The West Side – Ryan Bilsborrow-Koo & Zachary Lieberman
• The Shovel – Nick Childs
• The Patterns Trilogy – Jamie Travis

The field of animation is probably the most labour intensive means of filmmaking, but even by those standards most projects look like a breeze when weighed against the 6000+ digital paintings created by my guest Reza Dolatabadi for his sumptuous graduation film Khoda.

Khoda Materials
Image Sequences & Film Stills

Showlinks
Reza Art
Reza’s Flickr
Reza’s Blog
The Old Man and the Sea
In the Court of the Crimson King
Alias Maya
Adobe Photoshop
Vincent van Gogh
Edward Hopper
Ken Currie
Claude Monet
Stash

• Khoda – Reza Dolatabadi
• Filmstock #8
• DN EP 132: The Reason I Collect – Emma Curtis
• DN EP 128: Copy City – Denise Hauser
• DN EP 123: Place – Matt Clugston

Khoda (2008)
What if you watch a film and whenever you pause it, you face a painting? This idea inspired Reza Dolatabadi to make Khoda. Over 6000 paintings were painstakingly produced during two years to create a five minutes film that would meet his high personal standards. Khoda is a psychological thriller; a student project which was seen as a ‘mission impossible’ by many people but eventually proved possible!

Because Reza is such a decent guy, you also get to have an extra bonus film this week:

Octo-Dancing (2008)
Octo-Dancing is an experimental film, based on one of Hamed Mafakheri’s tracks and made in Reza’s downtime whilst at Ink Digital. Stop motion assistance provided by Rob Birchall.

• DN EP 136: Khoda – Reza Dolatabadi
• Moros Eros: On My Side – Jesse Ewles
• Ionisation – Flat-e
• Carlin – Brent Green
• Aanaatt – Max Hattler

Through her work with Canadian teenage girls, author Sharlene Azam discovered the emergence of teenage prostitution rings in affluent suburbs. “Attractive, white, high school girls – 13, 14 and 15 years old – who were having sex with up to 7 men a night, several times a week“. She joins me to discuss her documentary and book Oral Sex is the New Goodnight Kiss, in which the girls openly discuss their progression into this new middle-class phenomenon.

Showlinks
Oral Sex is the New Goodnight Kiss

• Oral Sex is the New Goodnight Kiss – Sharlene Azam
• Time Piece – Kat Mansoor
• Miss D 2007 Top Ten
• Keepintime: Talking Drums and Whispering Vinyl – B+
• INSIDE THE CIRCLE Breakin’ Convention Screening

Oral Sex is the New Goodnight Kiss (2009)
Oral Sex is the New Goodnight Kiss looks at the recent emergence of teenage prostitution rings in affluent suburbs. Attractive, white, high school girls – 13, 14 and 15 years old – are having sex with up to 7 men a night, several times a week, so they can go shopping. Other girls are selling their virginity for $1000. These are not street prostitutes. “They are the prettiest girls from the most successful families,” explains one expert. “Your daughter’s best friend is recruiting her right out of your house, right under your nose,” says Detective Randy Wickins of the Edmonton Vice Unit. Oral Sex Is The New Goodnight Kiss is a wake up call for parents, showing them girls who have been recruited, their mothers, their “friends” who recruited them (the new pimps), and the vice cops and experts who are trying to make sense of this new middle-class phenomenon.

• DN EP 135: Oral Sex is the New Goodnight Kiss – Sharlene Azam
• We Dreamed America – Alex Walker
• Trusted Computing – Benjamin Stephan & Lutz Vogel
• Tovarisch I Am Not Dead – Stuart Urban
• Tokyo Cowboys – Daneeta Loretta Saft & Patrick Jackson

This week sees us return to the Shooting People Film of the Month winners’ circle and an interview with BAFTA award-winning screenwriter Richard Smith, who stepped away from the keyboard to direct Mono, his self-penned story of a couple separated, yet connected by the wall that divides them.

I loved this charming tale about the awkward everyday experience of meeting someone new. So much is communicated through looks and smiles and music. In the space of just a few minutes I was totally drawn into the lives of these two lonely people and yearned to see them meet. This is very clever story-telling and a real treat to watch.
— Stuart Beattie

Showlinks
Richard’s MySpace
Mono
DigiCult
Cubs – Tom Harper

• Mono – Richard Smith
• Miss D 2007 Top Ten
• DN LFF08: Tricks – Andrzej Jakimowski
• DN LFF08: Sugar – Anna Boden & Ryan Fleck
• DN LFF08: Ramchand Pakistani – Mehreen Jabbar

Mono (2006)
Two lonely people – Emily and Jay – find themselves living on opposite sides of the same wall. As they become moved by the sounds of each other, they begin communicating through the wall. They engage and connect. After a terrible aural misunderstanding, the silence is deafening, and it’s up to Emily to break the divide…

Watch the full film over at Shooting People

• DN EP 134: Mono – Richard Smith
• White Red Panic – Ayz Waraich
• The West Side – Ryan Bilsborrow-Koo & Zachary Lieberman
• The Shovel – Nick Childs
• The Patterns Trilogy – Jamie Travis

Sometimes filmmakers come pre-recommended, which often brings the potential for huge disappointment when I eventually get to view their raved about work. However, since seeing the highly stylized films of director Jamie Travis, I too have become an evangelist for his films. Jamie joins me to discuss how dissatisfaction led to his trio of relationship shorts, The Patterns Trilogy.

Showlinks
Modern Family
The Patterns Trilogy
Toronto International Film Festival
Tegan & Sara – Back in You Head
Jan Svankmajer

• The Patterns Trilogy – Jamie Travis
• DN EP 117: Lovers – Carl Zhang
• DN EP 098: Seeking Wellness – Dan Schneidkraut
• DN EP 094: Das Dores – Gabriel Tupinamba
• DN EP 067: Four Eyed Monsters – Arin Crumley & Susan Buice

The Patterns Trilogy (2005/6)
A woman waits by the phone. A man watches a tea cup spin. Are they lovers? Yes, they are. Now let’s watch them sing and dance.

A suspense thriller, a love story, a dreamscape and a musical extravaganza, The Patterns Trilogy presents, in three parts, the epic anti-romance of Michael and Pauline.

• DN EP 133: The Patterns Trilogy – Jamie Travis
• The 12 Inch Pianist – War-rag
• Seeking Wellness – Dan Schneidkraut
• Lovers – Carl Zhang
• LIVE LOVE WORK PLAY – Thomas Atanazio

This week’s guest director Emma Curtis returned to the world of animation following the success of her 2005 installation piece Diary of a Hoarder and the repeated view that the obsessions of artist and collector Paul Escott were a ripe playground for a short film. Emma joins me to discuss the challenges of creating stop frame animation across multiple borrowed spaces…with wobbly floorboards.

The Reason I Collect Materials
Storyboards, Production & Film Stills

Showlinks
GoodEggAnimations
Norwich University College of the Arts
The Film & Video Workshop
London International Animation Festival

• The Reason I Collect – Emma Curtis
• DN EP 128: Copy City – Denise Hauser
• DN EP 114: The Life Size Zoetrope – Mark Simon Hewis
• DN EP 073: Moros Eros: On My Side – Jesse Ewles
• DN EP 072: 8 – Benjamin Ducroz

The Reason I Collect (2008)
An animation illustrating the life of a compulsive collector.

• DN EP 132: The Reason I Collect – Emma Curtis
• The Life Size Zoetrope – Mark Simon Hewis
• Sweet Salt – Katerina Athanasopoulou
• Moros Eros: On My Side – Jesse Ewles
• DN Ep 025: Sweet Salt – Katerina Athanasopoulou

The first episode of our collaboration with the mighty Shooting People and their Film of the Month series kicks off with Robin Bushell’s hyper-kinetic animation Zoo. A film selected by Mike Figgis of which he had to say:

Zoo is totally charming. It’s a film that is extremely inventive with its use of material – both audio and visual – and it has a stonking soundtrack. The film really reminded me of Polish 60’s animations; the way it just riffs off the narrators voice and then free associates. Subversive, quirky and loads of fun.

Zoo Materials
Production Stills

Showlinks
Treat Studios
Shooting People Film of the Month – Best in Show
Trunk Animation
Julia Pott on Etsy
ToDryFor
Gerald McBoing-Boing

• Zoo – Robin Bushell
• Filmstock #8
• DN EP 136: Khoda – Reza Dolatabadi
• DN EP 132: The Reason I Collect – Emma Curtis
• DN EP 128: Copy City – Denise Hauser

Zoo (2008)
A trip to the zoo ends in colourful chaos.

Watch the full film over at Shooting People

• DN EP 131: Zoo – Robin Bushell
• _grau – Robert Seidel
• ZOMBIE ZOMBIE: Driving Clip – Simon Gesrel & Xavier Ehretsmann
• What We’ve Found Out About Stem Cells – Richard Fenwick
• Virtuosi – Marcelo Garcia

Director Piers Thompson joins me this week to discuss the process of transforming the feelings of place and atmosphere the Isle of Sheppey evoked in him, into the story of a young girl trapped in a world she desperately wants to escape in his sixth short K.

K Materials
Script

Showlinks
Hector Films
K
Dazzle Films

• K – Piers Thompson
• Miss D 2007 Top Ten
• DN LFF08: Tricks – Andrzej Jakimowski
• DN LFF08: Sugar – Anna Boden & Ryan Fleck
• DN LFF08: Ramchand Pakistani – Mehreen Jabbar

K (2007)
The story of 15-year-old Kaylee who lives in a caravan park with her father. Ostracised by the community around her, the motherless Kaylee finds daily solace with the wild horses in the local marshland. In this at times challenging portrait, the resilient Kaylee’s encounter with an enigmatic stranger compels her to re-evaluate her future.

• DN EP 130: K – Piers Thompson
• White Red Panic – Ayz Waraich
• The West Side – Ryan Bilsborrow-Koo & Zachary Lieberman
• The Shovel – Nick Childs
• The Patterns Trilogy – Jamie Travis

Thanks to the Gut Check competition run by the fine folks over at Short of the Week, I got to see A.J. Bond’s smart time traveling short Hirsute and invite him onto the show to discuss his “Many Martys” theory and the folly of directing yourself…twice.

Hirsute Materials
Concept Art & Film Stills
Script

Showlinks
The Siblings
The Canadian Film Centre
Panasonic AG-HVX200
Logo

• Hirsute – A.J. Bond
• SotW: Unlocked
• SotW: The Autobiography of Tom Stern, Chapter Six: The New Science
• SotW: Snow Angel & Handmade
• Miss D 2007 Top Ten

Hirsute (2007)
Kyle, a young scientist, is struggling to build a time machine when he is confronted by an arrogant future version of himself. Shocked to discover that his future holds a preoccupation with body-hair removal and boiled eggs, Kyle vows to change the course of his life.

• DN EP 129: Hirsute – A.J. Bond
• White Red Panic – Ayz Waraich
• The West Side – Ryan Bilsborrow-Koo & Zachary Lieberman
• The Shovel – Nick Childs
• The Patterns Trilogy – Jamie Travis

Filmmaker, animator and illustrator Denise Hauser joins us to discuss how she stretched the creative limits of filmmaking with her mixed media piece Copy City, created as her final year project whilst at the RCA.

Copy City Materials
Production Stills

Showlinks
Denise Hauser
Royal College of Art
Copy Shop
Tricky Women Festival
Les E.magiciens

• Copy City – Denise Hauser
• DN EP 132: The Reason I Collect – Emma Curtis
• DN EP 114: The Life Size Zoetrope – Mark Simon Hewis
• DN EP 073: Moros Eros: On My Side – Jesse Ewles
• DN EP 072: 8 – Benjamin Ducroz

Copy City (2008)
Copy City is an experimental exploration into marginal worlds, having its roots in the new media development, Web 2.0 and real/virtual life.

• DN EP 128: Copy City – Denise Hauser
• The Reason I Collect – Emma Curtis
• The Life Size Zoetrope – Mark Simon Hewis
• Sweet Salt – Katerina Athanasopoulou
• Moros Eros: On My Side – Jesse Ewles

Esther May Campbell’s 22 minute short September was one of the highlights of my siege on the London Film Festival last year, but my failing detective skills meant I hadn’t got round to tracking her down for a DN appearance until now. I’m sure you’ll agree the interview, much like September itself, was well worth the effort.

Showlinks
Esther May Campbell
Shooting People Interview
Advance Party II
Met Film
Cinema Extreme
Specialten

• September – Esther May Campbell
• Miss D 2007 Top Ten
• DN LFF08: Tricks – Andrzej Jakimowski
• DN LFF08: Sugar – Anna Boden & Ryan Fleck
• DN LFF08: Ramchand Pakistani – Mehreen Jabbar

September (2008)
Caught in an in-between world of flyovers, grass verges and dead-ends, where the motorway hum serves as a constant reminder of the speed of other lives, Marvin is not going anywhere. Into this forgotten corner of English countryside and motorway services arrives an extraordinary adolescent, changing his world forever.

• DN EP 127: September – Esther May Campbell
• White Red Panic – Ayz Waraich
• The West Side – Ryan Bilsborrow-Koo & Zachary Lieberman
• The Shovel – Nick Childs
• The Patterns Trilogy – Jamie Travis

Rarely, the situation arises that for whatever reason (BBC refusing to give us permission to use any clips being an example!) I’ll record a great DN interview but can’t release it as our regular video/interview combo, meaning my guests’ words of wisdom don’t get to see the light of day. This week I’ve decided to right one such wrong by putting out an episode recorded back in May ‘07 and linking out to some clips I found online for the ‘video’ part. More work for you guys, but don’t worry it’s well worth the extra effort.

Way back in the mists of time when Directors Notes was still in its dead tree form, I wrote a piece about a then relatively new and extremely interesting animation studio called Trunk. Years later it was my pleasure to catch up with Richard Barnett and Layla Atkinson of Trunk along with director Sam Hobkinson to chat about the adaptation of Saki in Who Killed Mrs De Ropp? for BBC Four’s Edwardian Birth of Now season in ‘07.

Who Killed Mrs De Ropp? Clips
Trunk: 1 | 2
Julia Joyce

Showlinks
Trunk Animation
Saki
Adobe After Effects

• DN EP 102: Sun in the Night Time – Anne Wilkins
• DN EP 067: Four Eyed Monsters – Arin Crumley & Susan Buice
• DN EP 046: The Raftman’s Razor – Keith Bearden
• These Are Your Friends & Islands – Trunk
• Sun in the Night Time – Anne Wilkins

This week director Sébastien Abes joins me to discuss his creative and sometimes experimental approach to shooting and editing skate videos.

Showlinks
Sébastien Abes
Anagram Skateboards
Fisheye Lens
Rule of Thirds
Canon HV30
Panasonic AG-HVX200
Fully Flared
Alien Workshop: Mindfields
Sony DCR-VX2000

• Globe Street Video Challenge – Sébastien Abes
• Filmstock #8
• DN LFF08: The Betrayal – Ellen Kuras
• DN LFF08: Largo – Andrew van Baal
• DN EP 067: Four Eyed Monsters – Arin Crumley & Susan Buice

Globe: Street Video Challenge (2008)
Sébastien Abes’ entry for the Globe video challenge, shot and edited in six days in Montpellier. Featuring skateboarders; Raphael Brunis, Julien Merour and Julien Bechet.

• DN EP 125: Globe Street Video Challenge – Sébastien Abes
• Talk To Me – Mark Craig
• Happy Monday – Andrew Filippone Jr
• Four Eyed Monsters – Arin Crumley & Susan Buice
• Forest Murmurs – Jonathan Hodgson

This week’s guest directors Christine Molloy & Joe Lawlor join me to discuss how several years of honing their community based approach to filmmaking through their Civic Life Project series of films, culminated in the well regarded debut feature Helen.

Showlinks
Desperate Optimists
Helen
Civic Life DVD

• Helen – Christine Molloy & Joe Lawlor
• DN LFF08: Tricks – Andrzej Jakimowski
• DN LFF08: Sugar – Anna Boden & Ryan Fleck
• DN LFF08: Ramchand Pakistani – Mehreen Jabbar
• DN LFF08: Nights and Weekends – Joe Swanberg

Helen (2008)
An 18 year old girl called Joy has gone missing. Another girl called Helen is a few weeks away from leaving her care home. Helen is asked to play Joy in a police reconstruction that will retrace Joys last known movements. Joy had everything. A loving family, a boyfriend, a bright future. Helen, parentless, has lived in institutions all her life and has never been close to anyone. Gradually Helen begins to immerse herself into the role, visiting the people and places that Joy knew; quietly and carefully insinuating her way into the lost girl’s life. But is Helen trying to find out what happened to Joy that day, or is she searching for her own identity?

• DN EP 124: Helen – Christine Molloy & Joe Lawlor
• Sugarhouse – Gary Love
• Lovers – Carl Zhang
• Hotel Harabati – Brice Cauvin
• Garage – Lenny Abrahamson

Set a film to the sounds of the never far from my recent playlist Boards of Canada and you run the risk of provoking hatred if you fail to do the track justice or lavish praise if you pull off a seamless marriage of sound and vision. Place created by design studio Clusta falls easily into the latter camp. Co-founder and director Matt Clugston joins us to discuss how a walk in wilds of France became a lakeside trip complete with sky writing fairies.

Showlinks
Clusta
Clusta Blog
Plus+ International Design Expo
Boards of Canada
Adobe Photoshop
Adobe After Effects
Trapcode
Alias Maya
The Foundry
3ds max
onedotzero
Lewis Arnold
Video Copilot

• Place – Matt Clugston
• DN EP 042: Auto Pilot, Distortion, Ping Pong & Biker Mike – Mike Chan
• Filmstock #8
• DN LFF08: Largo – Andrew van Baal
• DN EP 136: Khoda – Reza Dolatabadi

Place (2007)
A bespoke video piece developed for the 2007 Plus+ International Design Expo by Clusta, set to Boards Of Canada’s In a Beautiful Place Out In the Country.

• DN EP 123: Place – Matt Clugston
• _grau – Robert Seidel
• Virtuosi – Marcelo Garcia
• To Shoot a Rurf – Shane & Paula Sheils
• The Reason I Collect – Emma Curtis

Given the amount of time I spend watching films on my laptop or iPhone it’s easy to forget role of cinema as a shared experience. Director/Writer/Stuntman Nash Edgerton and his short Spider provide a welcome reminder of why films are often improved when watched in groups and how a believable representation of relationships and the world sometimes has a far greater emotional impact than the most fantastical of tales.

Showlinks
Blue Tongue Films
The Square
I Love Sarah Jane
Mike Seymour
The VFX Show

• Spider – Nash Edgerton
• Miss D 2007 Top Ten
• DN LFF08: Tricks – Andrzej Jakimowski
• DN LFF08: Sugar – Anna Boden & Ryan Fleck
• DN LFF08: Ramchand Pakistani – Mehreen Jabbar

Spider (2007)*
It’s all fun and games until someone loses an eye.

*Stick around after the credits for a special vfx breakdown movie

• DN EP 122: Spider – Nash Edgerton
• White Red Panic – Ayz Waraich
• The West Side – Ryan Bilsborrow-Koo & Zachary Lieberman
• The Shovel – Nick Childs
• The Patterns Trilogy – Jamie Travis

After years of following their commercial work from a distance, it’s great to be joined by the animation director team of Smith & Foulkes to discuss their first personal project, the Oscar nominated This Way Up.

This Way Up Materials
Development Stills
Animatic

Showlinks
This Way Up
Nexus Productions
Royal College of Art
Monkey Dust
PLATFORM International Animaiton Festival Ident
The Animation Show
Motionographer Interview
This Way Up on BBC Film Network

• This Way Up – Smith & Foulkes
• Filmstock #8
• DN EP 136: Khoda – Reza Dolatabadi
• DN EP 132: The Reason I Collect – Emma Curtis
• DN EP 131: Zoo – Robin Bushell

This Way Up (2008)
A.T Shank & Son have a bad day at the parlour when a falling boulder flattens their hearse. Emotional and literal pitfalls lie in wait for the odd couple as they make their way cross country with just a coffin for company. This short animated caper puts the fun back into funeral as their journey and relationship unravel on an epic scale.

• DN EP 121: This Way Up – Smith & Foulkes
• _grau – Robert Seidel
• Zoo – Robin Bushell
• ZOMBIE ZOMBIE: Driving Clip – Simon Gesrel & Xavier Ehretsmann
• What We’ve Found Out About Stem Cells – Richard Fenwick

It’s rare (if ever?) that a short will take neo-classical economic theory as inspiration for its themes but this week’s director Jorge Caballero found the theory a perfect synergy for his experimental film The Arrow’s Paradox (La Paradoja de Arrow), one of five Manresa’s Hall Town commissions set to explore the relations between the factory and the city.

The Arrow’s Paradox Materials
Poster & Stills
Production Notes & Storyboards

Showlinks
Gusano Films
The Arrow’s Paradox
Apple Final Cut Pro
Adobe After Effects
Kenneth Arrow

• The Arrow’s Paradox – Jorge Caballero
• Filmstock #8
• DN LFF08: The Betrayal – Ellen Kuras
• DN LFF08: Largo – Andrew van Baal
• DN EP 136: Khoda – Reza Dolatabadi

The Arrow’s Paradox (2008)
At 6 a.m. it begins the day in Arrow’s house. Get up, take a shower, have breakfast, dress and leave. Day after day the same programmed actions.

The life is annotated and it’s impossible to escape.

• DN EP 120: The Arrow’s Paradox – Jorge Caballero
• _grau – Robert Seidel
• Weightless – Erika Janunger
• Virtuosi – Marcelo Garcia
• To Shoot a Rurf – Shane & Paula Sheils

I’m always pleased to catch up with past DN guests on the show as it means they’re still creating work I want to share, but this time round it’s made all the sweeter as returning director Max Hattler (DN074) is one of my favourite experimental animators. He joins us to discuss his latest project Aanaatt, an abstract, stop motion film collaboration with Japanese musician Jemapur.

Showlinks
Max Hattler
Robert Seidel
Max Hattler vs. Robert Seidel DVD
W+KTokyoLab
Noriko Okaku
Spin

• Aanaatt – Max Hattler
• DN EP 074: Drift – Max Hattler
• DN EP 073: Moros Eros: On My Side – Jesse Ewles
• DN EP 072: 8 – Benjamin Ducroz
• DN Ep 034: Carlin – Brent Green

Aanaatt (2008)
The ever-shifting shape of Analogue Futurism.

• DN EP 119: Aanaatt – Max Hattler
• Moros Eros: On My Side – Jesse Ewles
• Khoda – Reza Dolatabadi
• Ionisation – Flat-e
• Drift – Max Hattler

The music world has always been prone to focus on particular areas across the globe as hot spots of talent at a particular time and in doing so identify a ’scene’. We’re joined this week by first time feature documentary director Wojtek Bozyk who’s Rockin’ Brooklyn examines the Brooklyn music scene and asks what, if anything, binds the bands who live and play there together.

Rockin’ Brooklyn Materials
Stills

Showlinks
Rockin’ Brooklyn
TV ON THE RADIO
RADIO 4
THE NATIONAL
SEA RAY
VIETNAM
PELA
COCO ROSIE
THE BIG SLEEP
MOONRAKER
LA LAQUE
DIRTY ON PURPOSE
SAY HI TO YOUR MOM

• Rockin’ Brooklyn – Wojtek Bozyk
• DN Special: Joy Division – Grant Gee
• DN LFF08: Largo – Andrew van Baal
• INSIDE THE CIRCLE Breakin’ Convention Screening
• DN LFF08: The Betrayal – Ellen Kuras

Rockin’ Brooklyn (2006)
Everybody knows that New York City is the place to be, if you want to “make it”. Everybody comes to New York – world capital of music – with a dream; it’s just a matter of personal perseverance and stubbornness to make this dream come true. Bands like Ramones, Television, The Velvet Underground have achieved fame and success. But that was then. How about now?

In the past few years Brooklyn has become one of the most exciting places in the world for new music, trends and styles. Because of the commercialization angle of New York the heart of the “action” is shifting to the outer boroughs of New York – Queens, Long Island and especially Brooklyn. The community aspect of the city is disappearing. Yuppies killed the unique climate of life in downtown Manhattan. To survive, artists have had to move to more affordable places where they can create and survive. Brooklyn is in the stage of a renaissance and has become the hottest place for the artists. New styles of music and new bands are reemerging in different places like Red Hook, Park Slope and especially Williamsburg.

Rockin’ Brooklyn in documentary style explores the music scene and most importantly the life of the musicians: their inspirations, dreams and aspirations in Brooklyn, New York. What drives them to have a band? What does it mean? Does Brooklyn somehow influence their music? Is there a music scene? This film together with new voices in music provides insight into these questions.

• DN EP 118: Rockin’ Brooklyn – Wojtek Bozyk
• We Dreamed America – Alex Walker
• Tokyo Cowboys – Daneeta Loretta Saft & Patrick Jackson
• They Turned Our Desert Into Fire – Mark Brecke
• The Take-Away Shows – Vincent Moon

Well after a couple weeks of holiday slackness I’m pleased to kick off the new year of Directors Notes with an interview I’ve been looking forward to putting out.

Director Carl Zhang of The Style Embassy joins us to discuss his lifelong connection to film and the move into features with Lovers, an exploration of relationships as told through memory.

Lovers Materials
Stills
Location Breakdown

Showlinks
Lovers
The Style Embassy
Hana-bi
CineAlta
Peking Opera

• Lovers – Carl Zhang
• DN EP 067: Four Eyed Monsters – Arin Crumley & Susan Buice
• Four Eyed Monsters – Arin Crumley & Susan Buice
• DN LFF08: Tricks – Andrzej Jakimowski
• DN LFF08: The Betrayal – Ellen Kuras