China's Unnatural Disaster
Laura's Song
Cinecycle
Charlie Rose Tomorrow
Date Farmers
Change!
May 2009
China's Unnatural Disaster
On May 12, 2008, a major earthquake struck Sichuan Province in China. HBO's Sheila Nevins dispatched the director/producer team of Jon Alpert and Matthew O'Neill of DCTV to go and document the events that followed this disaster. Over 70,00 people died - 10,000 were children who were crushed while trying to flee their school buildings. It became quickly obvious that shoddy construction and local government corruption had contributed to the deaths of so many of these children. China's Unnatural Disaster: The Tears of Sichuan Province is a film that documents the parents of dead children after this tragedy and their quest for understanding and government accountability.
In May and June of 2008 I was hard at work for Jon and Matthew as an associate editor on a basketball film for ESPN. Just before returning to the States, Jon and Matthew were surrounded by 30 police and arrested - however they had had the forsight to ship out their footage the day before. When they did return they were unable to find editors able to speak the Sichuan dialect. So they asked me to join up with Dr. Ming Xia - a native of Sichuan and professor of Chinese Politics at CUNY - and we began a 6 month process of putting together this film.
Editing this film was a trying experience but I am pleased that it is finally done and can be shared with the world - I hope it makes some kind of a difference for the people of China. The film premiered on HBO on May 6th, 2009 at 8PM. Below is an interview with directors on Democracy Now.
Laura's Song
Earlier this month I teamed up with Director Marques Green (www.quefilms.com) to DP a music video for hiphop artist Donwill. We did it gorilla style - all over Brooklyn with just an HVX 200 and a couple lights here and there. It features Jasika Nicole of the TV show "Fringe" and was picked up by several top hiphop sites including Okayplayer and 2dopeboyz.
Cinecycle
A few weeks ago Dan Leeb of Cinecycle posted to Vimeo his latest tribute to urban cycling. This past fall he and Bill Winters shot this piece over the course of a week using a Varicam, some very nice lenses, a van and a three-wheeled work bike. Dan and I then spent several weeks editing the footage and developing the score with composer Alan Wilkis.
The resulting short became part of a marketing campaign for Hutchinson - a leading bike tire maker based in France. It will also play in this year's International Bicycle Film Fest. The file posted to Vimeo - www.vimeo.com/2989396 - allows for HD playback so I've included it below even though it is already a featured part of my edit reel. The response it has gotten online has been awesome - thanks to everyone who watched it.
It's Your Ride from Cinecycle on Vimeo.
Charlie Rose Tomorrow
Last year I shot and edited several segments for "Charlie Rose Tomorrow" - a series run by producer Charlotte Morgan at the Charlie Rose Show. Below is an example of one of these segments - a piece about a painter who prefers to do things the old way. For more check out - www.charlierose.com
Date Farmers
The Date Farmers are two artists from the Cochella Valley of California. Current TV was making a short film about them last year and asked me to cover their first openning in NYC. This piece was produced by Gavin Heslet and aired last fall.
Change!
Amid the inviting sounds of hissing radiators and still cloaked in an Obama related euphoria, I feel it is a fitting time to relaunch NativeResonance.com. Originally created as an online portfolio of my work in documentary film, this site will continue to be exactly that. However my hope is to make it a more dynamic page on which I can easily post works in progress, link to collaborations, and repost other peoples work that I admire and feel is reflective of my own personal goals in creating non–fiction video content.
These goals, though broad, are rather simple: Make work that does more good than harm. Strive for truth. Tell stories that engage an audience as entertainment but leave them with something more — a thought, a feeling, an action — that might possibly make the world ever so slightly better.
It's naïve to think that making a well–intentioned film will do anything to make change. It's also naïve to think that just because the number of screens capable of showing videos is growing that more and more people are watching. The competition for eyeballs and attention spans has never been fiercer. However I think the key to success is the same as always — tell a really good story and make it resonate with your audience.
I hope that with this website I can present not only the skills I have to offer but also the purposes with which I hope to use them. All the best in 2009 and beyond.
Adam
