Joining Filmshop - NYC Filmmaking Collective

I am honored to join the ranks of Filmshop!

Founded in 2009, Filmshop is a nonprofit collective of independent filmmakers committed to developing new work through peer support and collaboration. Chapters in Brooklyn, Manhattan, Los Angeles and New Orleans meet weekly to workshop projects, offer constructive critique, and incubate new ideas.

Collaboration and teamwork are essential to me. The larger and more intimate my community is, the better the work I can do. I find the best way to enrich my community is to help with other productions. I am honored to join Filmshop, where I can throw myself into a community of diverse artists and activists, helping them as much as I can, learning from their insights, and growing our projects together.

Filmmaking is expensive, and this leads to a fear of experimentation and innovation; a group like Filmshop provides a safe space for artists to practice the experimentation that makes really great work. I am thrilled to join where this community, where I can help others and be helped in turn. One of the joys of working in The Acting Studio is helping new playwrights discover what is truly unique about their newborn projects. In my practice, I have learned to give feedback based on my experience of the artwork, rather than my opinion. Now I can bring that practice to the art that my heart lies closest to - filmmaking. When I think of great movements in storytelling, like the French New Wave or The Group Theater, I think of a community like Filmshop, gathering artists together and helping each other grow.

Training with Intimacy Directors & Coordinators begins

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Today marks the beginning of training with Intimacy Directors & Coordinators. As a director, I want to make sure that whatever I’m making, I’m fostering an environment of collaboration and discovery. The work I’ve already seen at their webinars shows me what a great tool the 5 Pillars of Intimacy is. Something I’ve thought about when I’ve worked as a technician on set, is that we could use the same sort of consent practices when we’re doing potentially dangerous work, as is being asked of for actors when they are approaching emotionally charged scenes. I work to make my sets fair, safe and consensual sets.

I first heard about Intimacy Directing and Coordinating in this article by Rolling Stone. Hope you enjoy.

Watching Terrence Malick & Reading Martin Heidegger

Did you know that Terrence Malick began as a translator of the German philosopher, Martin Heidegger, before he became a filmmaker? If you start to read Martin Heidegger, I think you will see the influence he has had on this most spiritual filmmaker — especially in the film The New World. The New World is, among many other things, an attempt to show an indigineous people becoming Westernized. One of the great tasks of Heidegger’s thinking is the deconstruction of Western philosophy, in order to expose Western thinking’s roots and to explore what was left unthought by Plato, Aristotle and even the initiators of Western thinking: Parmenides, Heraclitus and Anaximander. What Heidegger, and Malick, find is a more poetic way of being.

Aside from filmmaking, my great passion is to work through Heidegger’s thinking, particularly his attempts to translate the thinking of the Greeks from the Greek language into the German. Below is an attempt, guided by my mentor and friend, Professor Jim Bradford, to translate Heidegger’s German into English. This is no small task, because the ‘ideas’ here are so new and difficult to think through, that even a word like “idea,” which is loaded with the meaning of the Platonic ideal, cannot truly translate Heidegger’s thinking.

In the following video, Jim leads a consortium of people from both sides of the Atlantic through a few sections from Heidegger’s “Basic Questions of Philosophy,” which is a lecture course corresponding to Heidegger’s “Contributions to Philosophy.”

Duck, Duck, Goose premieres this Wednesday! Full schedule below

Duck, Duck, Goose premieres Wednesday, Oct 28th at 7:30 pm!

Tickets for Duck, Duck, Goose are available here as a part of Evening B.

Have you wondered what Charlie Kaufman writing narration for Terrence Malick would sound like? This is your answer.

Duck, Duck, Goose is directed by Chris Chirdon and features Michael Kowalski, Duke Williams and Alex Wade as “Hal,” a screenwriter pushing through writer’s block, trying to deliver you a play before the curtain falls.

It’s my most experimental piece yet, and I’m thrilled that it can be offered to a wide audience on an equally experimental platform. All performances of Duck, Duck, Goose will be broadcast live via Zoom.

Duck, Duck, Goose’s full schedule:

Eve B - Wed Oct 28 @ 7:30 pm

Eve B - Sat Oct 31 @ 6 pm

Eve B - Wed Nov 4 @ 7:30 pm

Eve B - Sat Nov 7 @ 9 pm

Tickets are available here

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Duck, Duck, Goose to premiere at the 2020FEST One-Act Play Festival

Michael Kowalski, Duke Williams and Alex Wade as “Hal.”

Michael Kowalski, Duke Williams and Alex Wade as “Hal.”

Duck, Duck, Goose will have its premiere with The Chelsea Rep Lab’s 2020FEST One-Act Play Festival!

Duck, Duck, Goose is an existential comedy that explores themes of authenticity, writer’s block, the nature of time, and the struggle of identifying as a writer versus being a writer, through fart jokes and the divine presence in the childhood game, Duck, Duck, Goose.

I am honored to have my close friend and collaborator, Chris Chirdon, directing.

This will be our first show on Zoom, and so we are experimenting! Chris has cast three actors in this one person show. I am thrilled to present Michael Kowalski, Duke Williams and Alex Wade as “Hal.”

The 2020FEST will run through late October and early November! The full schedule will be announced in the coming weeks!

A special shoutout goes to Jess Hinds’ Meditative Writing, where this play was composed and The Chelsea Rep Playwright LAB where Duck, Duck, Goose had its first public reading!

Judas joins Script Summit 3!

Judas is an Official Selection at the Script Summit Screenplay Competition! Script Summit is a 4 day gathering for screenwriters, sponsored by International Screenwriters Association. Are you coming too? Please let me know!

Judas is the story of an alcoholic ICE agent struggling with PTSD and his faith. When a boy he has separated from his sister challenges his actions, he starts to see that his worldview as a Christian and his role as an ICE agent are in direct conflict…

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Judas is an Official Selection at the HollyShorts Screenwriting Competition 2020

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Judas is an Official Selection of the HollyShorts Screenwriting Competition!

HollyShorts Film Festival is an Academy Award qualifying film festival devoted to showcasing the best and brightest short films from around the globe, advancing the careers of filmmakers through screenings, networking events, and various panel and forums.

Judas: An undocumented immigrant confronts a dogmatic ICE agent as he’s being taken to an ICE detention center, bargaining faith for his sister’s freedom.

Judas is in pre-production. Chris Chirdon (The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel and Luke Cage) is attached as the ICE agent.

See the full list of HollyShorts selections.

Duck, Duck, Goose selected for The Acting Studio's Playwright Lab

A One Act Existential Comedy for 1 M/F

A writer is onstage. The writer doesn’t want to write, but they want to have written. What to do?

This one person show explores spirituality, substance ontology, fart jokes and the divine in the childhood game, Duck, Duck, Goose.

I am honored to have my frequent collaborator, Jesse Hapke, directing Adam Johnson for the reading.

The reading will be held on Saturday July 11, between 4-7 pm.

For information about attending or inquiries about performing Duck, Duck, Goose, please email halcarltonford@gmail.com.

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