CITIZEN MINUTES

Here are two "Citizen Minutes" videos I made this year for the Northwest Film Forum. 

From their website:

Citizen Minutes is a community video initiative of Northwest Film Forum that explores what’s happening across our city. The project convenes local filmmakers, artists and community members to explore topical conversations through super short videos of all artistic styles and genres. We share the videos online and in our theater as weekly newsreels before film screenings.

These videos are refreshing to make because of the creative freedom that NWFF encourages. For this first video I was sent the following message from Courtney Sheehan (the ED at NWFF):

Nick Licata, Seattle's longest running city council member, is a ping pong lover and even had a ping pong table installed in city hall. His long tenure is coming to an end so we are making a CM to mark the end of an era in the form of a ping pong match on the city hall table.

I decided to shoot the match documentary style and then planned to make it an over-the-top ping pong battle in post as a sort of celebratory send-off to Mr. Licata. Here's what I came up with:

This next video was a little more specific in its direction. Courtney sent out an email to a handful of filmmakers asking if they'd want to help create a series of "Citizen Minutes" that revolved around affordable housing issues in Seattle. 

After attending a board meeting for Capitol Hill Housing, I met Nora. She was a longtime resident of Capitol Hill and I thought her story was fascinating. Despite all the current issues with affordable housing in Seattle her story was actually uplifting and one I wanted to showcase. The challenge was keeping it down to only a couple minutes. Here's her story:

SCORSESE & DEPALMA

"You have the most phenomenal speech pattern of anyone I've ever known."

- Dick Cavett to Martin Scorsese

Better days. Better Days. Back when a program would not be afraid to take two nights to interview two of the best American directors. This interview, by the great Dick Cavett, is candid and insightful. DePalma is more goofy and animated than I've ever seen, and Scorsese reminds us that he's been a badass since day one. 

KAUFMAN SPEAKS

"96% of the time I don't write. I stare."

- Charlie Kaufman

and there he is… staring.

Here is one of the better interviews I've seen with one of the most innovative screenwriters of our time: