Because of the unique nature of the film, in that it is being produced by Noon Pictures, a distribution company, it is guaranteed U.S. distribution. The film is lensed on 35mm Ilford black and white stock. David Barker is the screenwriter/director and Noon Pictures' Chris Hoover is the producer.
"This is an excellent opportunity", said AFFC Director Jaime Fowler, "for AFFC participants to complete a film that is not only artistic and emotionally challenging, but also guaranteed to be distributed. We're all very proud and excited to host Noon Pictures and look forward to cutting this film. David Barker's script is excellent, and this, along with a group of talented editors, will make for an outstanding motion picture."
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FABIENNE.......... NATHALIE RICHARD
DONNIE.......... DANIEL AUKIN
SARAH........... SARAH ADLER
35mm, Black and White Ilford
80 minutes
Expected completion date: March 1998
Afraid of Everything functions on the surface as a chamber drama about urban neurotics. Fabienne, the principal character, is a French dancer transplanted to the US who suffers a below-the-knee amputation as a result of an auto accident. She has not gone outside in the year since she returned from the hospital, and instead fanatically devotes herself to finishing the loft that she and her architect husband Donnie live in. Donnie has become repelled by her since the amputation, and they have had no physical contact during the past year. Into this charged environment comes Sarah, Fabienne's half-sister from Israel, a troubled but free spirit who sends the household into a crisis from which Fabienne and Donnie emerge transformed. Behind the narrative is a sub-narrative dealing with notions of exile, the construction and reconstruction of identities, and a narrative voice split completely between the subjectivities of the three characters.
Nathalie Richard, the actress paying Fabienne, describes the script as quicksand: as soon as you think you have found a stable ground from which to understand the relationships and to measure the world, it is pulled from beneath your feet. As these relations to each other and to the space ebb and flow, a concept of dramatic character and of human beings is developed. People are seen to exist as parts of the same continuum, not separately .
Nathalie Richard (Fabienne) is well-recognized as one of France's leading theater and film actresses of the past ten years. Since her debut in 1988, she has completed four films with Jacques Rivette, including Joan of Arc, and Up, Down, Fragile. Among the fifteen films she has made have also been Bar des rails by Cedric Kahn and two films by Olivier Assayas.
Her recent appearance as the costume designer Zoe in Irma Vep (New York Film Festival 1996) brought her rave reviews in the US.
Afraid of Everything wiII mark her English-language debut.
Daniel Aukin (Donnie) is a theater actor and director, who has appeared in numerous productions throughout the US. Recent productions include Plant#l and Digi-Glo (which brought him the Austin (TX) Statesman Theater Award), and his short piece Saucy Paperwas produced at the Soho Rep (NY) this past Summer.
His first film appearance was in The Slow Business of Going (Thessaloniki 1997), directed by Athina-Rachel Tsangari.
Sarah Adler (Sarah) lived her first eight years in Paris, her second eight in Tel Aviv, and has lived since age sixteen in New York, where she has studied at the Lee Strassberg Theater Institute for the past three years.
Afraid of Everything will mark her debut.
Benjamin Speth (cinematographer) shot a first feature by Ira Sachs, The Delta, currently in release by Strand Releasing. he was also the director of photography on numerous short films including Happy Hour by Jesse Hartman ( 1988 Berlin Film Festival) and Ira Sach's Lady (1994 Sundance Film Festival). Recently, he shot The Suicide directed by Gregg Bordowitz (Fast Trip, Long Drop) and completed The A.R.C. Players. He is currently shooting Roddy Bogawa's second feature film, Junk. Chris Hoover (producer) was born in Locarno, Switzerland in 1965 and moved to the US in 1976. He has worked in film and video distribution as Assistant Director for Video Data Bank and as director for Drift Distribution, before becoming a founding member of Drift Releasing and Noon Pictures. His production credits include Swoon (production manager) by Tom Kalin, Postcards from America (assistant director) by Steve McLean, Workers Leaving the Factory (co-producer) by Harun Farocki, I'll Be Your Mirror (production coordinator) by Nan Goldin, and as a producer for A Cloud in Trousers and The Suicide by Gregg Bordowitz and Junk by Roddy Bogawa.
Beyond distribution activities, Noon Pictures has expanded to develop and produce ground-breaking projects that complement their catalog.
IN PRODUCTION A Cloud in Trousers and The Suicide, by Gregg Bordowitz; Junk, by Roddy Bogawa (in production); Dresden, by Ben Speth (in production); Afraid of Everything, by David Barker (in production).
"Noon Pictures was formed to show important films that always seem to slip through the cracks and to show European films that Hollywierd doesn't understand. So while independent cinema becomes more mainstream, Noon Pictures is picking up a new kind of film, neither Hollywood, nor indie."
--Citizen K, Paris
"A distributor that often steps where others fear to tread."
--Brandon Judell, Critics Inc., America Online
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