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 | CUTOUT
| World Premiere |
| Cast: | Dru Bass, Alessio Araujo, Peter Fox, Dahiana Torres, Pedro Castillo | | Crew: | Executive Producers: Kannan Ramasamy - Producers: Shyam Kannan - Screenwriters: Shyam Kannan - Cinematographer: Shyam Kannan - Editor: Shyam Kannan | | Email: | skannan2587 gmail.com |
synopsis
Red, a young man from Rockaway, New York, deals with the loss of a friend while coming to terms with the necessity for revenge.
director
Shyam Kannan lives in New York.
filmmaker's note
I was inspired to make Cutout by some of the students I taught at the High School of Graphic Communication Arts in Manhattan. Traveling from the outer boroughs, they were often missing. Even when present physically, they seemed absent and preoccupied, distinctly quiet in the raucous classroom environment. The cloud enveloping them became a mystery that obsessed me. I began to imagine the inner life of a student who rarely attended school and was inextricably involved with a gang. How would he react to a friend's death? How would he weigh the dictates of revenge against his own instinct? Early on in the writing process, I visited Rockaway, where a few of my students were from. The desolate beauty I found there was pivotal to completing the script and mining moods to anchor myself to during production.I made the film on a shoestring budget, almost all of which went towards shooting 16mm. Two of my students were involved in the production, serving at various times as script consultants, actors, and boom operators. Filming at a remote location with a small, inexperienced crew was nerve-wracking, and resulted in images and sounds both of beauty and imperfect technical quality. Post production was a drawn-out process, as I took a while to gain the perspective necessary to understand the value of the footage. I believe in the end that my final product evokes our humble means of production while still remaining true to the original moods and points of view that inspired my script. I couldn't ask for more.
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