Fri, 6 Nov 2009

WNYC

Friday, October 30th, 2009
THE HUFFINGTON POST

Tuesday, October 27, 2009
THE DITMAS PARK BLOG

Two sets of our neighbors have made the finals of the Organizing for America Health Reform Video Challenge, in which supporters of the president's health care plan are choosing among 20 videos selected by a panel of top Obama aides and celebrities.

The winning video will be put on the air.

Above, Franklyn Strachan Jr.'s submission featuring Angela Welch Stucker...

 

Tue, Aug 18, 2009
SPOTLIGHT ON

LAUREN KELSTON

by Christopher Borg

Lauren Kelston
It is thrilling to see our past nominees explore the boundaries of their art form and get recognition for it! Lauren Kelston, nominated in 2008 for Outstanding Actress in a Lead Role for her performance in Millfire with Retro Productions, has been nominated for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Musical in the Planet Connections Theater Festivity for her performance in Twin Towers, written by Damian Wampler and directed by Angela Astle.

She can also be seen at the end of this month in the screening of the movie "Last Night in Brooklyn" by Cypher Productions.

In the film, Lauren plays Allison Roberst, who suffers from schizophrenia and is so dulled by medication and isolated that her hallucinations become her only companion. After a terrible and embarrassing birthday night out, that results in Allison being mugged by a desperate thug, the con artist feels guilty for what he has done but in his attempt to make good, ends up involving her in his escape from mobsters, looking for stolen cash. Through a series of events, they begin to realize that their lives and the lives of everyone they knew have been deeply intertwined and dark secrets and family lies begin to surface as they are chased through what will be their last night in Brooklyn.

Lauren, on the transition from stage to film says: "I enjoy both theater and film but my heart is definitely on the stage. I love the thrill of a live audience and being able to live a character's complete story arc, and then see how it changes every night. My work Off-Off-Broadway and my theater training helped me immensely as I tried find the character of Allison. I was able to dig deep to find different emotions and live in the moment which luckily my director appreciated, having come from a theater background as well."

"I learned a lot about myself and grew a lot as an actor and faced many challenges throughout the filming, including having to film scenes with [the imaginary CGI'ed character] Moo with empty chairs. It's hard enough acting and reacting when you have a real live person to talk to, it's much harder when it's empty space and just a voice!"

You can catch the screening in New York on August 29th at 8pm at Anthology Film Archives, 32 2nd Avenue, New York, NY. For tickets and more information is available on the Cypher Productions website.
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Monday, April 27, 2009
The Ditmas Park Blog
"Last Night in Brooklyn"

Now that I'm writing about locally produced movies, here is another one: "Last Night in Brooklyn". Produced by Franklyn of Cypher Films, "Last Night in Brooklyn" is available for sale at Vox Pop and online. The short of it:
"If everything in your life was a lie...How far will you go to find out the truth?" Allison lives, with her imaginary friend Moo until she meets a young con artist who has them running for their lives.
Here is our quick Q&A with Franklyn:
Who/what is is Cypher?
Well I started Cypher Productions after I graduated from Purchase College in 1997. I had so many Artistic friends that all needed jobs and projects to do so we all decided to help each other make our project. We pooled all our talents to produce five feature films, many music videos, albums, live events and art exhibits.

How did you come up with the idea for "Last Night in Brooklyn" and what is it about?
In 2003 I moved to Boston and went to grad school at Emerson College and shot a film called "Fade" then wrote the screenplay for "Last Night In Brooklyn". I guess the idea came from missing Brooklyn and my constant curiosity about the role of strangers in our lives. In fact all my work deals with the importance of strangers and how they affect our lives. I also like to examine alternate realities. I personally feel that you learn the same way from dreams, thoughts and fantasies as you do from reality based interactions. The characters in my films usually travel through different realities guided by what would be considered and imaginary friend. In "Last Night in Brooklyn" Allison is guided through her life by her imaginary friend MOO who shows up as a 3 foot tall, cow man with a foul mouth, lol.
After coming back to Brooklyn I spent a bunch of years gathering the budget and the cast then started shooting. About the same time I started working with XM/Sirius radio's "The Ron and Fez Show" as well as "Unmasked" and "Ron Bennington Interviews". On "The Ron and Fez Show", I am a featured personality and they documented the process of making the movie for 3 years! Finally this November we finished the film.
Another movie night in the neighborhood ... ?
Posted by Liena at 11:15 AM
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THE BROOKLYN VOICE
2/09/2009

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NBC NEWS

PEOPLE AGAINST CENSORSHIP 2006

 

Saturday, April 28, 2007

The Gary Baumgarten Report

Journalist since 1969 (including a decade as CNN Radio's New York-based correspondent)

What about when those activists actually put down other minorities?

These Asian American demonstrators protested outside CBS to demand the firings of two radio shock jocks who placed a crank call to a Chinese restaurant.

The jocks have already been suspended. But the demonstrators are out for blood. They want WFNY's JV and Elvis fired. Arguing that because CBS fired Don Imus because of his comments offensive to blacks, it would be a double standard if these two aren't fired as well.

Debby Wolf, co-founder of People Against Censorship, whose members were counter demonstrating, says something very disturbing happened during the protest. She says one of the Asian Americans shouted out "Jews are racist" and was treated with cheers and applause.

So in the minds of these self-appointed regulators of acceptable speech, it's apparently wrong to make fun of Chinese people, but OK to make derogatory comments about Jews.

By the way, one of the radio personalities they want fired happens to be married to a Korean woman. This, in the minds of the organizers does not give him a pass, since his wife is an adult model with her own website.

So, not only are they limiting their support to Asian Americans, they further narrow it to those who fit their sense of morality.

All this hypocrisy speaks to their own personality deficits. The important question is, will CBS, and the rest of us, allow ourselves to play along with this game of trying to gag those with whom we disagree under the guise of civil rights?

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Photo credit: Franklyn Strachan

Posted by Gary Baumgarten at 1:19 PM 1 comments Links to this post