SquiggleBooth

Ajit says:

Another entry by Todd Tinkham, this short film is one of his early works. Like many of his films, there is an undercurrent of religion which normally reveals itself in unusual and surprising ways. Like it were prehistoric relic with a dark past waiting to return to its former glory.

Todd:

It’s strange looking back at your own films. One begins to see unplanned patterns emerging on the screen. Although I am not religious, religion plays a big part in many of my films, comedy and drama.

I grew up Catholic and attended parochial schools at a time when the vast majority of the teachers were still nuns. But very few of them were under 60 years old, and many were well into their 80s – which meant they were pretty worn out and more than ready to retire to wherever it is they send aged nuns. Some of the oldest nuns would literally fall asleep at their desks during class. Needless to say, all hell would break loose – until they opened their eyes. Punishment fell fast and hard at Saint Ann’s School.

Brutality was common among the Sisters Of Mercy that I knew. I witnessed severe beatings by gangs of nuns and was given more than one nosebleed for my quick and clever remarks. One day in the 5th grade, I was beaten by three nuns and then locked in a closet for the rest of the day. When my mother found out that I’d caused trouble at school, she beat me some more and grounded me for a month. A good Catholic, bless her soul.

AND THEN THERE WERE NUN, one of my earliest films, is mostly fun, but it’s also heavy and frightening, much like Catholic schools. Surprisingly, AND THEN THERE WERE NUN did very well on the festival circuit – screening at more than 30 film festivals in 2006 and 2007, including the Vienna International Film Festival in Austria and the Rebel Planet Short Film Festival in Hollywood.

This is a short film I completed more than a year ago but has received little love in terms of marketing. After the film premiered at the Annapolis Film Festival last fall, promoting this film fell behind other projects that were in production. It belongs on the big screen but it certainly works on the small one, so here it is.

I had been running a blog that was dedicated to the film but I am no longer posting there. However, you can find all the important information that is relevant to the film on that site.

Here are the important players from the cast & crew:

• Rosie – Nikki Alikakos
• Gordon – Steven Lock
• Stranger – Michael Teh
• Voice-Over – Kelly Cook
• Rosie’s Friend – Maryse Karunaratne
• Still Photographer – Carl Gunhouse
• Music Composer – Hunter M. McDermott

Some of you have shown in interest in buying a DVD copy of this film, I am still hoping to do this but it will most likely be part of a larger DVD set. However, you can support this and other SquiggleBooth projects by donating to us. Click here for more information on our simple donating method.

After filming a narrative short at Pete Wing’s castle in 1995, I returned to the castle to tape Pete over the course of several summers. Hours and hours of his ramblings were whittled down to this 10 minute documentary. I wanted to tape Pete until he finished the B&B extension but realized he was probably going to be working on the castle forever and I needed to wrap things up. Turns out, he discovered the taxes would be prohibitively expensive on the B&B so he and his wife, Toni, are trying to sell it and move to Montana. What will happen to Pete and castle is still undecided but here is a little artifact of this character and his folly in the meantime.

Synopsis:

At the age of twenty-one Peter Wing returned from Vietnam and started building a home for himself and his family using recycled materials. For thirty years he and his wife are proud owners of a medieval castle visited by hundreds of tourists every year. Wing’s Castle Documentary shares with us what a little perseverance and resourcefulness can accomplish and how one can draw inspiration from the most challenging of life’s experiences.

click pic to play, Flash version available here.

A music video for The Tourist (a.k.a Hunter MacDermut).

Credits:

Music by The Tourist
Directed by Ajit Anthony Prem
Him: Hunter MacDermut
Her: Lindsey Glass
Produced by Kelly Cook

Special Thanks to:
Carla Cherry
Jim McQuaid

Click To Play

A film that I shot in College but finished much, much later. By the time I had completed it, I had forgotten many of the full names of the cast and crew. My sincere apologies to them wherever they are.

This film is wonderfully and insanely abstract, I have a love/hate relationship with it. Many of the initial ideas I began with disappeared once production started. And what was already a pretty abstract plot became even more.

Read the rest of this entry »

Part one of a series of Blurring video podcasts. Everyday stuff, everyday conversations and all that drama it carries.

Credits:
– Her – Kelly Cook
– Him/Writer/Director – Ajit Anthony Prem

Click To Play

Part two of our look at Extreme Skipping — a sport that hasn’t recieved the recognition it deserves — and its biggest supporter.

Part one is here.

– Quicktime File [2:27]

This short was made a little while back, about one of the most underappreciated universal sports: extreme skipping. If you are a skipper and have footage of yourself skipping, make sure to submit it to us. We would love to check out your moves.

Miscellaneous notes:

• Music by Blink 182 – Buy their albums in iTunes
• We have a dedicated site for the short & the sport, check it out
• Directed by Marc Miller and Marc Levine
• Edited by Ajit Anthony Prem