New York filmmaker Sarah Friedland took a trip across the Hudson to make a documentary about the Branch Brook Park Roller Rink, located in Newark, New Jersey, one of the few remaining urban rinks of its kind. Now, one might think how interesting can a documentary about a roller rink be, but Sarah digs way deep, and after almost five years of hard work, she emerged with “RINK” a film thats tells more than a story about a roller rink, but a space transformed and its symbolic representation to those who use it. In the documentary “RINK,” two main characters emerge: Bonesaw, a tough talking, tattooed member of the Garden State Roller Derby Team; and Graylen, a deeply spiritual, Gospel Night skater. On the surface these two characters are different, both ideologically and in their social and racial backgrounds. However, the film reveals a shared past of violence and drug abuse from which the rink provides a much needed refuge. 

We caught up with director Sarah Friedland at the 2013 Brooklyn Film Festival where she is screening RINK, to learn more about the film, and find out how did a New Yorker end up making a documentary about a roller rink in Newark, New Jersey.

VIMOOZ: First, congratulations on RINK being an official selection in the 2013 Brooklyn Film Festival … this is the NY premiere – are you ready for the NY audience?

Sarah Friedland: I am extremely excited to be part of BFF.  My first feature, “Thing With No Name”, premiered at BFF in 2009 and we had  great festival experience then.  The Rink is a film about Newark but New York City is my home, so I am thrilled to show it to the NYC audience.  

VIMOOZ: How was the World Premiere screening at the NJ International Film Festival?

Friedland: The NJIFF screening went very well.  We had a very receptive and large audience of folks from all over New Jersey.  It was great to be a part of a New Jersey festival and share the film with Newarkers and folks from the rink.

VIMOOZ: Tell us about RINK – the story? 

Friedland: The film is about Branch Brook Park Roller Rink in Newark New Jersey- one of the last remaining roller rinks in the tri-state area.  We use the rink as a microcosm for the city of Newark and, in doing so, the film dips into many facets of Newark’s rich history, including: urban renewal, the rebellion of 1967, and the current gentrification of downtown Newark. We follow two main characters: Bonesaw, a tough talking, tattooed member of the Garden State Roller Derby Team; and Gralen, a deeply spiritual, Gospel Night skater.  These two folks appear very different on the outside but have a shared past of violence and drug abuse from which the rink provides a refuge.  In many ways, their stories parallel that of Newark, which is often labeled as violent and crime ridden, while all of its good parts are ignored. The film also sees the rink as an endangered space of urban recreation.  There used to be hundreds of roller rinks in the tri-state area, now there is one.  So Branch Brook is a very important place, not just for Newark, but for the entire skating community, which has recently lost many key rinks to real-estate speculation and gentrification.

VIMOOZ: Where are you from? 

Friedland: I am from Hastings-on-Hudson New York, but I have lived in New York City for the last fifteen years.  When I was little growing up in Hastings, we used to skate in the basement of the high school.  It was something I looked forward to every week.  Most people seem to have some connection to skating from there childhood, even if they don’t skate anymore, and that is one of the great things about this film- we enter it from a point of nostalgia.

VIMOOZ: How did you find out about the rink in New jersey?

Friedland: My co-producer, Ryan Joseph, was living in Newark at the time and was the staff photographer for the Garden State Roller Derby team who practice at the rink. We originally thought that we would make a film about them, but when we spent time in the rink, it became clear that the space itself was so interesting and that the film should reflect Branch Brook as a whole.  

VIMOOZ: How long did it take to shoot the documentary?

Friedland: We shot for about three and a half years and edited for a year and a half.  It took us so long because we made a big effort to get to know the people we were following and make sure everyone was comfortable before starting to shoot. It’s very important to both Ryan and I that we have a certain level of intimacy with the folks in the film before pulling out the camera.  Ryan knew Bonesaw from working with the derby girls but I met Gralen after doing a series of pre-interviews with other Gospel Night skaters.  So that was a new relationship.  He and his family were really gracious with their time and let us into their lives openly. It was also a complicated film to put together because it was ricky to weave Newark in as a character.  We started editing and then realized we needed to shoot more to flesh out a few things, so it was a back and forth.

VIMOOZ: What’s up next for RINK? 

Friedland: We received a small grant from my union, I am an Assistant Adjunct Professor at John Jay College, to take the film on tour to roller rinks around the country.  I am currently contacting rinks and planning where to take the film.  We will actually be showing the film inside the roller rinks to create a more visceral response between the viewer and the space. If anyone out there knows any rinks that might be interested, send them my way!

VIMOOZ: What’s up next for you?

Friedland: This year I co-founded Perinspire, a production company with my long term film partner Esy Casey.  We are finishing a film called Jeepney, which she directed and I am co-producing.  The film is about the most popular form of transportation in the Philippines  beautiful, blinged out buses called Jeepneys.  These fascinating  handmade and designed vehicles have their origins in US military jeeps that were left in the Philippines after World War II.  The film speaks about Filipino history and culture through the Jeepney.  It will come out sometime this fall.  I have also been working as an editor on two feature docs: tentatively titled “Camp Kinderland” by Katie Halper, which is about a political, Jewish summer camp; and “Kate Bornstein is a Queer and Pleasant Danger” by Sam Feder, which is about the amazing gender theorist and performance artist Kate Bornsteim.  Both of those films are slated to come out this year.  After that, I will take a nap.

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Director Dan Eberle returns to the Brooklyn Film Festival for a second time, this time around with his new film “CUT TO BLACK” in which he again plays multiple roles – actor, director, writer, and producer. Eberle, who also lives in Brooklyn, New York was featured in the 2008 festival with his film, the critically acclaimed action thriller “THE LOCAL.” In his latest film CUT TO BLACK  which is shot in lavish black and white tones, and set against stark, gritty urban modernity, Eberle, plays Bill Ivers, a disgraced ex-cop, hired by a wealthy former friend to rid his estranged daughter Jessica of a stalker. We caught up with the super talented Eberle at the Brooklyn Film Festival to talk about CUT TO BLACK.

VIMOOZ: First, congratulations on CUT TO BLACK being an official selection in the 2013 Brooklyn Film Festival again … which time is better, the first or second time?

Dan Eberle: We were in the Brooklyn Film Festival in 2008 with an earlier feature called ‘The Local’. It it was a great experience for us, but it was definitely a looser, scrappier event back then. The Brooklyn Film Festival has come a long way in the intervening years. They now have their own swanky venue, indieScreen, the movie theater/lounge in Williamsburg–that alone gives the event a cool, nightclub-like experience. The theater itself is a great sounding room and excellent projection. As a filmmaker, you really couldn’t ask for a better screening venue. I’ve always liked the diversity in the film selections at the BFF. Marco and his crew are fearless in their programming! They are also among only a few established festivals that still program gritty crime films like ours–right along side introspective character pieces, documentaries, and international films. It really is about the quality of the films, and nothing else.

VIMOOZ: Tell us about CUT TO BLACK – the story?

Eberle: ‘CUT TO BLACK’ is about a depressed ex-cop named Bill, who is hired by a wealthily former friend to run off a peeping tom who is terrorizing his estranged daughter, Jessica. In the course of Bill’s investigation, he learns the stalker is the least of Jessica’s problems. As the stakes get considerably higher for everyone involved, Bill pins the sum of his life’s worth to the resolution of Jessica’s increasingly intractable situation.

VIMOOZ: Your film is stylistically different, was there a reason behind that/any influences?

Eberle: In some ways, ‘CUT TO BLACK’ is a throwback to classic film noir. We lean on some familiar character archetypes and setups, but that’s really just a point of departure. ‘CUT TO BLACK’ is deliberately mired in anachronism. Its a modern story, shot in Black and White, with high contrast lighting. There are present-day affectations like cell phones and new cars, but much of the architecture of Brooklyn is very old world. The characters listen to a mix of traditional jazz, but the score is overtly electronic. Because of these elemental contradictions, the overall experience of the film is transporting. ‘CUT TO BLACK’ becomes a world of its own.

VIMOOZ: You write, produce, direct and star in all your films – what do you not do?

Eberle: I may do all those things, but I do none of them alone. Every part of the filmmaking process is a collaboration of one kind or another. Even though I didn’t have a co-writer on ‘CUT TO BLACK’, many of the clever ideas in the script came from other people, both in and out of the production. For example, another filmmaker friend of mine, Jonathan Jacobson, actually suggested the one-way mirror at the strip club where Jessica works. He came up with the ‘confessional’ idea and I ran with it. I’d go on about how that idea actually became an integral story element, but I don’t want to get into spoiler territory! My co-producer, Danielle Primiceri, designed all of Jessica’s elaborate costumes for the dance sequences and Gayle Madeira choreographed all of Jillaine’s dances. Those scenes are some of the most striking imagery in the film. Obviously no part of the film would have worked without the executional brilliance of our director of photography, James Parsons, who I’ve collaborated with going back to my first full-fledge feature ‘Jail City’. James once said that he likes working on independent films because, out of necessity, the vocational boundaries are softer. Everyone is seemingly working in every department, pitching in where help is needed, or where a creative solution is required. For this reason, working in independent film is not for everyone. I’ve learned the hard way that you just can’t be rigid. The words ‘its-not-my-job’ have no place on an indie set. 

Eberle: I do, but not professionally. For now.

VIMOOZ: What’s up next for CUT TO BLACK?

Eberle: We’re thinking about what festivals we can do next before a theatrical run. We are planning a US release in the Fall or Winter of this year. 

VIMOOZ: What’s up next for you?

Eberle: I’ve got a new project called ‘The Interventionist’ that is right on the cusp of a greenlight, but we’re still ironing out some business there. It’s about an unconventional evangelical minister who performs Christian interventions. He comes to the big bad city to find a secular friend who has disappeared while working under his auspices. It’s not a comedy. 

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A WIFE ALONE, “a neo-noir thriller about an ill-fated marriage in the suburbs of upstate New York,” directed by Justin Reichman is having its World Premiere on Thursday June 6, at the 2013 Brooklyn Film Festival, in Brooklyn, New York City. We had the opportunity to catch up with the director, to talk about how he got into filmmaking , his new film A WIFE ALONE  and all about taking the ‘plunge.’ Justin Reichman should know a lot about taking the plunge, after all, he left a pretty stable job as a lab tech at an AIDS research facility on 21st street in New York City to pursue his dream. Now he’s back in New York, years later, to premiere his first major film.

[caption id="attachment_4039" align="alignnone" width="551"]Justin Reichman[/caption]

VIMOOZ: Congratulations on your film “A WIFE ALONE” being an Official Selection in the 2013 Brooklyn Film Festival. How does it feel being included in the festival?

Justin Reichman: It feels great to have a festival like Brooklyn on our home turf to premiere.

VIMOOZ: Is this your first film?

Reichman: Yes, it is. I did a few shorts, but nothing approaching the scope of A WIFE ALONE.

VIMOOZ: How did you get into filmmaking?

Reichman: I always loved to read and draw. When I was a kid I’d make stupid home videos with my siblings, but the decision to pursue filmmaking came about later in life after working a 9-5 job at an AIDS research institution in NYC and realizing that the sciences weren’t for me. I traveled around a lot after that, lived in South America for a year and started writing, doing some acting and working on sets.

VIMOOZ: Tell me about the film. What is it about?

Reichman: It’s about a ruthless young woman, a former prostitute, who infiltrates the upper echelon of suburbia through marriage.

VIMOOZ: By the way, are you also the writer?

Reichman: Yes, myself and Pete. We wrote the script while I was engaged to be married so a lot of it plays on the fears young people have before taking the plunge. Do I really know this person? Is our love real? That kind of thing. We created a noir story revolving around this collective psychological questions we all ask and then created the nightmare version of that. Infidelity, mistrust, sex tourism, years of misery tied to a lifestyle rather than love.

VIMOOZ: The film is set in upstate NY, whats the connection there?

Reichman: I grew up there. After traveling around a lot, I had a distant, objective affection for Rochester that I had fun playing around with in storyland.

VIMOOZ: What happens after Brooklyn Film Festival?

Reichman: We have a stunning theatrical release and sign a 3 project deal with a reputable studio. We all have agents and don’t have to worry about money ever again. I’d like to make a black comedy.

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Jeremy O’Keefe is the director of the new independent film SOMEWHERE SLOW, now playing at the Brooklyn Film Festival in Brooklyn, New York through Saturday, June 9, 2013. SOMEWHERE SLOW, also an Official Selection at Cinequest, Omaha Film Festival, Vail Film Festival and the Monadnock International Film Festival, is described by the Brooklyn Film Festival as “intimate, raw and funny,” and “a searing and complex portrait of Anna Thompson, a 40 year old skin care rep, coasting through an unfulfilled marriage and an estranged relationship with her family.”

 [caption id="attachment_4030" align="alignnone" width="550"]Jeremy O’Keefe[/caption]

We recently caught up with the Los Angeles native O’Keefe at the Brooklyn Film Festival to find about more about his film, SOMEWHERE SLOW.

VIMOOZ: First, congratulations on SOMEWHERE SLOW being an official selection in the 2013 Brooklyn Film Festival … this is the East Coast premiere – are you ready for the NY audience?

Jeremy O’Keefe: Thank you! I have been dying to screen a film for a NYC audience for a decade.  I used to live in NYC as I was just scraping together my first film, WRESTLING, and I loved nothing more than discovering small indie movies in the Village Voice and checking them out at the Quad or Sunshine Cinemas.   Screening in Brooklyn is a major personal feat for me! 

VIMOOZ: You’ve screened SOMEWHERE SLOW at other film festivals, is the NY audience really different?

O’Keefe: We’ve been fortunate to screen in a lot of various places around the country and the audience response has been passionate.   The Brooklyn Film Festival will certainly be opening up our film to an even broader cross section of people from all walks of life, and it’s really exciting for Jessalyn and I.   I don’t anticipate that the audience response will be all that different — people who go to see movies at festivals tend to be cut from the same cloth.   Should I be scared?? 

VIMOOZ: No, but New Yorkers are known to be very opinionated. Tell us about “SOMEWHERE SLOW” – the story?

O’Keefe: Plot-wise the film is about a woman (played by Jessalyn Gilsig, who produced with me) who breaks free of a boring, suffocating life and goes an adventure in New England with a teenage drifter  (played by Graham Patrick Martin of TNT’s Major Crimes).    Thematically, the movie is about taking risks and making the changes necessary to find the life you’ve been yearning to live.  It’s something I believe we can all relate to and a desire we all have at some point (or several points) in our lives.  The movie is funny and sexy, heartbreaking and provocative.

VIMOOZ: You have a very impressive cast for an independent film. How were you able to get such great talent?

O’Keefe: I, too, am impressed with who we were able to get to tell this story with us. I honestly can’t believe it.    Jessalyn reminds me that we were able to get talents like David Costabile and Robert Forster because of the script I wrote.  The film has become so much bigger than the 100 pages of paper I wrote it on  — with so many brilliant and creative actors, designers, producers and crew members all investing so much that I forget that it all began with an idea I had one day a few years ago.    I set out to tell a story that didn’t gloss over the imperfections and inconsistencies of real people.  I wanted to live in the nuance of life.  Actors are first and foremost warriors of the human experience.  I believe we were able to get the talent we did because they wanted to get down and dirty and explore some of the moments in life that are too crucial to be lost in a montage.  

VIMOOZ: You also wrote the screenplay, how did you come up with the idea? 

O’Keefe: Like most writers, we draw from our own experiences.  I wrote the script to explore a time in my life when I was living at the bare-minimum and floating through a kind of stasis.   I think we, as people, often look to external events to tell us whether we are meant to be happy or sad.  It’s human nature to look outside for change, but I’ve discovered that the best, sturdiest change comes when we look inside.  And that’s what I wanted to write about — a bunch of  external events taking my main character on a roller coaster that would cause her to take control of herself for the first time in her life. 

VIMOOZ: What’s up next for SOMEWHERE SLOW?

O’Keefe: Exciting things! We are playing in Brooklyn and at the Lighthouse International Film Festival in Long Beach Island, NJ this weekend, and we are signing our distribution deal so we can share everybody’s efforts with a worldwide audience.  

VIMOOZ: What’s up next for you?

O’Keefe: I’ve got a comedy short about hospice care called FINALE about to start festivals and am prepping two different features, a sex comedy and a 1940’s revenge thriller. I’m also shopping a pilot script based on the critically-acclaimed novel, BODY OF A GIRL, written by my sister-in-law, Leah Stewart.    I want continued success for Somewhere Slow and my other projects because it means I get to get another crew together, make a make-shift family again, and tell another story. 

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