I recently had the great fortune of attending the 57th New York Film Festival. To be selected for this festival is arguably one of the greatest honors to be bestowed upon a filmmaker and one day I’ll have that honor myself, not as a visitor, but as a filmmaker myself.
.One evening I attended a premiere for one of cinema’s singular female voices, Kelly Reichardt. She brought us Certain Women (2016), the wonderfully understated and intimate portrait of four women who's lives intersect in the modern American West.
On my way back from the Film at Lincoln Center, I wanted to return to a swanky and swarthy timbered bar that I spotted earlier that day. The Breslin on West 29th. I looked at the menu, intent on having a glass of chilled Chenin Blanc, but all I could afford was the cheapest beer on the menu… at four times the price I would pay in Cape Town.
My frosty craft beer arrived and along with it, two ghostly hands that dissolved into canvases for arms, an amiable and dallying smile and twin inky black orifices for eyes. I was immediately taken by her. She possessed a self-assuredness, a mystery and a tenderness, all at once.
Too bashful to strike up a meaningful conversation, but sufficiently confident in my camera’s gaze, I proposed a photo shoot. Melanie agreed (after careful scrutiny) and today and next week I present to you the result of my spontaneous collaboration with Melanie.
She styled herself, and selected the location… Chinatown, NY.
Thank you, Mel! We created magic.
