And the new Jim Gaffigan film Linoleum, from Columbus native Colin West, includes producers and several crewmembers from Columbus. Poser star Sylvie Mix’s next project, Obstacle Corpse, is a horror-comedy that recently wrapped shooting in Columbus. But nationwide attention for They/Them/Us and Poser - which was just named a New York Times ’ Critics Pick - is building the city’s reputation as a place where independent film can flourish. What comes next for Columbus cinema remains to be seen. “What is a family? What is a Midwesterner? What happens when you get a second chance at life?… Setting the film in Columbus really allowed us to play with a lot of expectations and stereotypes.” But what happens is that the film business doesn’t represent the vast majority of Americans who live elsewhere,” Sherman explains. “Every Netflix romantic comedy seems to be set on a coast. But at the end of the day, that’s exactly what They/Them/Us is: a tender analysis of human relationships that breathes life into a region rarely depicted onscreen. Sherman’s drama-comedy about two divorcees using kink and BDSM to navigate Midwestern life together might not be a premise that would appear in your average wholesome family film. The resulting project was the award-winning They/Them/Us, a feature film released earlier this year that surprised audiences by building a delightfully unconventional story in its small Columbus neighborhood setting. Everyone opened their doors to let us film, even in the height of COVID.” There is so much unexploited production value here…for low-budget filmmakers, it’s heaven. “When I started conceptualizing my next project, I wanted to create something of a love letter to my adopted city. “Seeing a city with fresh eyes that has neighborhoods as cinematic as German Village and Victorian Village meant I got excited about filming in locations that we haven’t seen on screen before,” Sherman reminisces. But as Sherman settled down to teach film at Kenyon College, he could sense the untapped potential lying right below Columbus’s surface.Ī scene from Jonathan Sherman’s They/Them/Us, shot in Columbus. His realtor worried that he might find the Midwestern scene “boring” in comparison to the global artistic hotspot that he’d left behind. The community is welcoming and supportive and players across the city are working hard to increase visibility and funding.”ĭirector Jonathan Sherman remembers well his move to Columbus from New York City 12 years ago. “The quality of folks working on films here are incredible. I couldn’t have been more wrong,” she tells MovieMaker. “Since my hiring in January, I have been on a mission to meet as many local independent filmmakers as possible, thinking there wouldn’t be many. It’s been great.”Īfter 20 years working for top Oregon film festivals, Molly Kreuzman recently moved back to America’s 14th largest city to become the coordinator of the brand-new Cinema Columbus Film Festival, which kicked off this year and is committed to showcasing the best of the city’s film scene. “But it’s sort of been this amazing thing where everyone who’s been watching it from around the globe is really digging this Columbus scene, which is something we didn’t foresee at all. We wanted to show that off, but also keep it a little ambiguous for anyone else watching,” says Segev. “I think that’s something that’s really special to Columbus and other Midwest cities. In many ways, Poser is a quiet dedication to the community that produced it: a collective of artists small enough that collaboration comes naturally, but big enough to make an imprint at exclusive film festivals around the world. Poser ’s cast is made up of real Columbus-based musicians: every band that audiences see performing onscreen is an actual group from the city’s independent scene. I think it definitely informs a lot of collaboration.” “There is such incredible talent here…the arts community is manageable enough that everyone knows, or knows of, someone. “When we first came to Columbus, we just immersed ourselves in the music and art scene, and were able to meet a lot of filmmakers,” Dixon says. After graduating from Denison University, outside Columbus, in 2014, the pair moved into the city, where they found a new home for their production company Loose Films - as well as a small but thriving arts community. Poser is the feature directorial debut of independent filmmakers Noah Dixon and Ori Segev, for whom the decision to shoot Poser in Columbus came very naturally.
0 kommentar(er)
