FIVE QUESTIONS FOR “THINK OF ME” DIRECTOR BRYAN WIZEMANN

One of the more sobering and even painful short films of recent years is Bryan Wizemann’s Film Makes Us Happy. In the 12-minute documentary, Wizemann argues with his wife about his obsession with filmmaking, with her challenging him to give up on his dreams in order to focus on his family — including his new baby. Wizemann’s synopsis simply states, “Film Makes Us Happy documents the last fight my wife and I will ever have about making films.”

I have no idea the aftermath of that film on Wizemann’s family life, but I am happy to report that the writer/director is successfully making films. Think of Me is his debut, the story of a single mom in Las Vegas fighting to stay above water while raising a child in our no-growth economy. It stars Lauren Ambrose, and, as Wizemann relays below, is inspired by elements of his own childhood. We talked about class, poverty, drugs, and the light in Las Vegas.

Filmmaker: What was important to you about the way Las Vegas was depicted in your film? I’m thinking of everything from the way the film represents a particular community that lives there as well as its landscapes, buildings, etc?

Wizemann: I grew up in Las Vegas, so many of the locations in the script were inspired by locations I wanted to film. It’s intentionally not an aesthetic that involves the strip, because that’s not really the experience of those who live there. Some of the great things you do get are slot machines in the 7 Eleven’s, strip clubs, large patches of desert, gun stores, casino diners, and the Freemont street motels. It was always a fight to keep this set in Las Vegas, given that Nevada has no tax incentives for film. Even though this project was years in development and I had to make many sacrifices to bring it together, I wouldn’t give that up. And I think what you get by filming in the place where it was envisioned isn’t always easy to articulate, some would say it’s the light, some the energy, but … Read the rest

BRETT HALEY, “THE NEW YEAR”

By Brandon Harris

A young woman works at the shoe counter at a Pensacola, Florida bowling alley. Having abandoned the ambitions of her youth, she takes care of her ailing father, who painfully struggles with cancer. With the return of a rival from high school into her long standing social circle, the stillness that has taken over her existence breaks, leaving her to consider the possibility of a new direction, one which seems tantalizingly close and yet ever illusive. This is subject matter than may be right within American Independent Cinema’s wheelhouse, but in thoughtful hands, even the most seemingly pedestrian yarns can contain multitudes. A mid season candidate for low budget wonderkind of the year, Brett Haley’s The New Year is a quietly riveting, old fashioned AmerIndie, a character driven slice of  Florida panhandle life made for four figures that marks the coming out party for Triste Kelly Dunn, who turns in a performance that harkens back to past breakthroughs by girl next door types mired with dead end circumstances amidst sunny, coastal locales: think Ashley Judd in Ruby in Paradise or Lauren Ambrose in Swimming.

Skipped over by Sundance and SXSW only to surface at respected regional fests such as Sarasota and Nashville, the film is a feature directorial debut for Haley, a Pensacola, FL native who financed, produced, directed, co-wrote and co-photographed. He even downloaded the P2 cards. Between takes no less. Despite cutting his teeth as an Assistant to the Director on studio subsidized, highly formal Indiewood projects like The Road and Reservation Road, Haley counts John Cassavetes as his primary aesthetic influence, which goes a long way toward explaining the low-fi immediacy of his film. The New Year opens at the brand new reRun Gastropub Theater in Dumbo, Brooklyn this coming Friday.

Filmmaker: What provided the initial concept and inspiration for the project? Did you always conceive of this film at such a low budget?

Haley: The inspiration came totally out of left field and yet somewhat naturally. I’ve told this story a few times, but its just what happened. I was on a Amtrak train … Read the rest