Back in 2001 we selected Ari Gold as one of our "25 New Faces" on the basis of his great short films Helicopter and Culture.
Wrote Peter Bowen:
In the past few years, Ari Gold has been to the Sundance Film Festival more often than most established filmmakers. He arrived in 1997 with Frog Crossing, a short film that he co-directed with Jamie Babbit. Two years later he was back with Culture, a one-minute short that reel.com hailed as the "the best 60 seconds of film at Sundance." In 2000 he returned once more, not as a filmmaker but as an actor in the rave-scene romance Groove. This year he presented Helicopter, a 21-minute mixed-media short film on the death of his mother in a 1991 helicopter accident with her then boyfriend, rock impresario Bill Graham.
Having gone on to win numerous awards, Helicopter stands out for its striking difference from his earlier work. Frog Crossing, in which he also stars, is a charming romantic comedy, and Culture, in which Gold mocks both Dogme films and himself, appears more akin to video art than narrative film. But Helicopter is more ambitious by miles, telling its story of grief through a poetic structure of repeating themes and forms. Black-and-white animation gives way to a toy landscape that stands in for San Francisco and a funeral procession. For Gold, these abrupt shifts in style and form were simply personal reactions to his topics: "Helicopter was not coming out of any tradition of mixed media; it was just what was right for the project. I wrote it one night, in one sitting, and I didn’t go back and add any of these things. That is how I wrote it – first image: black-and-white animation; cut to …"
Now, Gold's first feature film, Adventures of Power, hits the theaters, and he has kindly given us the link to the first-ever internet screening of Helicopter, his student-Oscar winner. It's a fantastic short film that blew me away when I first saw it, and it would be on my list of films that all up-and-coming directors looking to make a mark with a short should watch.
From Gold, here's info on Adventures of Power.
Adventures of Power, Ari Gold's multiple-award-winning comedy about air-drummers and the American dream, starring Michael McKean, Jane Lynch, Adrian Grenier, Ari Gold, is being released starting October 9 in New York City, October 16 in L.A., and beyond! As an independent release, we encourage people to spread the word about this hilarious, epic, and spiritual rock-and-roll comedy! The movie features a soundtrack over over 20 original songs and an orchestral score by Ethan Gold (ASCAP).
Ain't It Cool calls ADVENTURES OF POWER "A crazy, hilarious, bizarre, insane movie--and in all the best ways possible."
Opens NYC on 10/9, LA on 10/16, and throughout the country starting 10/23. Be there! Find out more at http://adventuresofpower.com
Adventures of Power. March to the beat of your own drum. Even if you don't have one. BLOG ON FILMMAKING.
In addition, Adventures of Power is hosting charity events to raise money for music-education for kids, through the Bill Graham Memorial Foundation. Party, charity, and auction info at http://adventuresofpower.com .
