18th Jul2011

Useless Things on the CBC

by admin

CBC anthology program Canadian Reflections will be broadcasting the award winning (Writers Guild of Canada English script prize Festival du Nouveau Cinema) short drama Useless Things written, directed and starring Faisal Lutchmedial Sunday July 24th, 2011 at midnight. This will be the short film’s broadcast premiere, and it will be playing with a short comedy called King Chicken directed by Nicholas Bolduc.

Useless Things follows the thoughts of Shashin (played by writer / director Faisal Lutchmedial), a second generation immigrant struggling to find his identity following the loss of his parents (Ranjana Jha and Anshu Pathak) . His girlfriend Agnis (Erica Smith) pushes him and asks the hard questions while we follow his thoughts about his chosen path, memories of his family, and dreams of Hindu mythology.   As he goes through boxes Shashin begins to find meaning in the seemingly insignificant odds and ends that fill the cold house that once was his home.  Taking us backward and forward in time to follow his memories, Useless Things is a dreamily crafted journey of forgiveness, enlightenment, and self-discovery.

Useless Things was produced by Peripheria Productions, and supported by SODEC and the NFB FAP program.

Erica Smith and Faisal Lutchmedial in Useless Things

The short was also accepted into the NSI Online Short Film Competition, and will be playing in that series sometime in the next few months. More information on that soon. For now, enjoy the trailer for the film here.

Category : broadcast, film, short film, Useless Things
08th Jul2011

Dog Sitter to play at Fantasia Film Festival

by admin

Emmanuelle Francoeur in Dog Sitter

“Dog Sitter” (13 min, 2011) will be playing at the Fantasia Film Festival in Montreal on August 6th, at 9:30 pm at the Hall Cinema at Concordia University. The short was directed by Adam Reider and produced by Faisal Lutchmedial through Rail City Media. Look here for the details on the Fantasia site.

Synopsis: Kelly is a beautiful teenage girl trying to keep up appearances. When she gets a part time job babysitting the neighbor’s dogs, Kelly decides to help them become better dogs. After working on a World War II project for school, Kelly decides to take influence from her project to train the dogs to be more popular and make more friends.

 

Category : Dog Sitter, film, film festival
30th Jun2011

Dog Sitter playing at Mascara & Popcorn Festival July 6th

by Faisal

Montreal Mirror called the film “disturbingly funny” which I think hits the nail right on the head. Director Adam Reider to attend screening. Details found at the official website: http://www.mascara-popcorn.com/

 

Category : Dog Sitter, film, film festival
27th Jun2011

Making the Band wins big at ZIFF!

by admin

Making the Band, the second feature film by Ugandan-Canadian couple Phad Mutumba (director) and Xena Zandrah Bantarizah (producer) has won multiple awards at the prestigious Zanzibar International Film Festival. The film won the Chairman’s Award from chairman Martin Mhando who said of the film, “This is a Knock Out! Emotionally charged and that’s what Zanzibari / African audiences will resonate with… Absolutely a charm.”  This is the second year in a row Phaz Motion Pictures has picked up this award, the 2010 one going to the feature “My Policy”.

Making the Band also won the award for Best Score, awarded jointly to director Phad Mutumba and composer Jawad Chaaban. In addition to being an up and coming filmmaker, Mr. Mutumba is also a singer songwriter, and contributes many songs to the soundtrack, and worked with Chabaan to re-record some African classics with the rest of the cast.

The lighthearted drama follows four young woman trying to make it big in the music world with their Afro-pop band based in the most unlikely of places: chilly Montreal, Canada. When the girls unsuccessfully try to balance their day jobs, love lives, and band responsibilities, tensions flare and threaten to break up not just the band, but their close friendships as well.

Producer Bantarizah and lead actress Whitsa Jean were in Zanzibar to accept the awards. The Haitian-Canadian Jean, who has sung back up to Empire Isis, Catburglaz, and Mitsou to name just a few, also contributed to the soundtrack along with the other leads Kim Nelson and Linda C. Lerato.

Making the Band was produced by Simpli Phaz Entertainment, and produced in association with Green Dragon Productions, and Rail City Media.

Category : film, film festival, Making the Band, music
22nd Jun2011

RCI Digital Diversity Films – Going Through the Motions

by admin

My short film Going Through the Motions is again available to be seen on the RCI site. This project was an experiment of sorts, a documentary – fiction. We shot it in a couple of days and edited in one before sending it out, so looking back it’s pretty rough. But it has some nice moments. Shot about four years ago, it’s also the first fiction film I made with my HVX / Cinevate Brevis combo, somewhat before I knew how to use it.

Sydney Lutchmedial playing cricket

Category : culture, film, Trinidad
21st Jun2011

Making the Band Official Trailer

by admin

 

Happy Birthday to actress Helen Koya of MTB!

 

The screenings are from all reports going excellently all the way out in Zanzibar, which is great to hear (but only slightly dulls the pain of not actually being able to go out to Africa). Toiling away, in admittedly beautiful summery Montreal, Jawad (sound) and I put together a trailer for the film. Enjoy!

 

 

Category : editing, film, film festival, Making the Band
23rd May2011

Making the Band Photo shoot

by admin

Lynda Lerato as Christy, Whitsa Jean as Shabella , Kim Nelson as Annitah

Even as we rush the fine cut of the film, we took some time to take some promotional photographs of the cast a few days ago. Graphic Designer extraordinaire Jessica Burt of UrbanHanded Works is designing ours, and she is hard at work putting something together as I type. She also did the poster for “My Cultural Divide” for me back in ’06.

So here are a couple of the photos I took, but lots and lots more to come.

Lynda Lerato as Christy, Whitsa Jean as Shabella , Kim Nelson as Annitah

Category : film, Making the Band, My Cultural Divide
16th May2011

Making the Band to open Zanzibar International Film Festival

by admin

Director Phad Mutumba and Producer Xena Bantarizah just got word that their feature comedy / drama “Making the Band” will be the opening film to the 2011 edition of the Zanzibar International Film Festival. For those who are keeping track, I served many roles in this production: screenwriter, cinematographer, and editor, as well as playing a producer role in the background. Oh, and I even filmed myself in a cameo.

Actors Helen Koya, Lynda Lerato, Kim Nelson, and Whitsa Jean

It’s a great honor to be playing at this festival, the most important for East African films, as both Phad and Xena are immigrants from Uganda, right next door to Tanzania. They are obviously overjoyed, as is the cast and crew, and we look forward to having it screen to what I am sure will be a enthusiastic audience.

A lot of work remains to be done – we only sent them a very rough assembly cut, and the festival happens in about a month. Xena will definitely be going to present the film, and we’re looking into how we can get anyone else (including yours truly) there as well. It would be wonderful if we could present with as many people as possible involved, especially the talented cast who shine on screen.

More information to come on screening times, but we know for sure it will play on opening day, June 18.  Here’s the announcement from the festival.

Category : cinematography, film, film festival, Making the Band
02nd May2011

Tamara Scherbak’s “Only Sky & Water” premieres to sold out cinema

by admin

Director Tamara Scherbak answering an audience question

The cinema was packed, and from all accounts they loved Only Sky & Water, and especially liked how the two films (with The Pirate Tapes) worked well together. Two more showings next weekend – catch it while you can.

Speaking of which, the feature presentation The Pirate Tapes is a startling film that more documents a filmmaker putting himself into mortal danger than investigates Somali pirates. It’s questionable judgement perhaps on his part, but some parts of this life and death account are riveting.

Category : cinematography, film, film festival
27th Apr2011

Editing Making the Band

by admin

I’ve been editing the feature fiction “Making the Band” for Ugandan-Canadian filmmaker Phad Mutumba over the last couple of weeks, since we wrapped shooting. It’s a very tight schedule so we can get it out to festivals, which is a lot stressful, but the film looks great. It had better be, since I shot it…

Still doesn’t stop me from internally yelling at the DP for shaking the camera at the most inopportune moment, or not framing in a better way. But considering he had only a few lights and usually only 1 other person helping him with the equipment, not bad at all.

Here are a few stills from the shoot, enjoy.

Whitsa Jean as Shabella

Phad Mutumba as Deanno and Adam Reider as the as yet unnamed guitar player

Kim Nelson as Annitah and Shant Sarkissian as Zack in Making the Band

Whitsa Jean as Shabella

Mizinga Mwinga as Aydee and Helen Koya as Lillian from Making the Band

 

 

Category : cinematography, film, film festival, Making the Band
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