USA Projects

We are seeking funds to support the premiere of my new film POE […and the museum of lost arts] at the Mayan Deren Theater (Film Anthology Archives, NYC) in the spring of 2012.  We are also fundraising to duplicate and distribute it to educational markets in the United States and beyond.

My most ambitious work-to-date POE […and the museum of lost arts] (aka POE/MOLA) is a performance/film hybrid based on the mythology of Edgar Allan Poe’s years in mid-19th century New York as interpreted by Charles Baudelaire, the audience's narrator and Poe’s beloved translator and advocate from Paris. This project has had a long research and development (2008-2009), and production period (2010-2011) and the premiere and distribution of the film (2012) will be a culminating point for the entire cast and crew. This film is the second in a trilogy of similar collaborative performance works base on the archeology of place: “Jocasta” (2008) filmed at a stone barn in upstate New York was the first, and a project slated for a premiere in 2014 will be the third.

In filming POE/MOLA, the play was performed both for camera and before a live audience at the 3LD Art and Technology studios in New York City, which happens to be one of the neighborhoods where Poe lived and worked in the early 19th century.  In viewing the POE/MOLA movie, the audience member is the final outer layer in an echo of “films within films.” An underlying theme of POE/MOLA is modern society’s loss of the physical aspect in human relationships. In all his dedicated years of translating and advocating for Poe’s work Baudelaire was never able to meet Poe in person. Baudelaire’s longing to meet Poe is heightened by Baudelaire watching mediated ‘projections’ of Poe’s life in New York, and ultimately, Baudelaire realizes that the only way that he can meet Poe in the flesh is for him to join Poe in the world inside the film.   This virtual connection mirrors real life: it is often through watching a film that we can feel our own emotions, our humanness, and our passions.

The all-star cast includes Rinde Eckert (Charles Baudelaire), Theo Bleckmann (Edgar Allan Poe) and Pamela Z (Techne-goddess of invention). These stellar singer/performers were joined by puppeteer/dancers Luis Tentindo (Roderick/Stage Hand) and Laurel Tentindo (Eliza and Virginia Poe). The music was written and performed by the above singers and Elise Kermani (electronics) in collaboration with instrumentalists Kevin James (trombone), David First (guitar) and Tom Chiu (violin).  Other important collaborators include: Stefanie Koseff (video design), Barbara Kilpatrick  (still photography), Melli Hoppe (unit director), Ivaylo Getov (cinematography), Solomon Weisbard (lighting), Alex Smolowe (editor), Natasha Kermani (director of post production), and Nashwa Zaman (sound editing), Vlad Kucherov (color) and Paul Geluso (sound mastering). Amelia Saul is our design manager.

With your financial help we can master, package, and duplicate the DVD, and market the film to a diverse audience across the United States. Your donation will allow us to screen the POE/MOLA film in art galleries, universities, experimental media and film festivals locally and internationally during the early spring and summer of 2012.  Please help take us to the finish line and help us achieve this long distance ‘artistic’ marathon! Thank you for your participation!