Woods and Water

Inspired by the words of Werner Herzog in “Traveling Alone, on Foot“, Ian Soroka documents his journey by bicycle from Berlin to Istanbul. Follow the full travelogue here. We will also be sure to mirror his posts on the Mutually Made Blog.

“…this site is to be an audio/visual travelogue of the route, its trans-historical, political, and linguistic borders. Berlin to Istanbul, Bismark to the Pashas, I want to seek out crumbling monuments, memories, and culinary and musical inspirations…

I’ll be carrying a change of clothes, a sweater, a solo bivy tent, spare tubes, my toothbrush, my Hasselblad camera, a sound recorder, and Don Quixote as I’ve been meaning to read it”.

Travelling Alone, on Foot (p15)

Tell me about your ideal film school.

“…Actually, for some time now I have given some thought to opening a film school. But if I did start one up you would only be allowed to fill out an application form after you had traveled alone on foot, let’s say from Madrid to Kiev, a distance of about 5,000 kilometers. While walking, write. Write about your experiences and give me your notebooks. I would be able to tell who had really walked the distance and who had not. While you are walking you would learn much more about filmmaking than if you were in a classroom. During your voyage you will learn more about filmmaking than if you were in a classroom. During your voyage you will learn more about what your future holds than in five years at film school. Your experiences would be the very opposite of academic knowledge, for academia is the death of cinema. It is the very opposite of passion”.

Woods and Water

www.wandw.us

The Apple Miner Colony: Home is Wherever You Are

Vodpod videos no longer available.

Above is a 16mm animation from the feature documentary “Home is Wherever You Are”.

Home is wherever You Are is a feature length HD documentary that chronicles the 6-week, 7500-mile journey of the Apple Miner Colony, a 25-member, orchestral folk band, which sets out on the road just days after the collapse of their college and in the midst of the recent economic downturn.

Using the tour as a vehicle, traversing across an unknown America, the documentary will explore the dreams and fears of an up and coming generation faced with an uncertain future.

Coming Soon

For more information visit our website:
appleminercolony.com

If you would like to support this project click here. Home is Wherever You Are is fiscally sponsored by Fractured Atlas. Donations are tax deductible.

Gogol Americana

Gogol Americana (working title) is a portrait of the contemporary American landscape via the state of Nevada; a place historically desolate and notoriously superficial. The film will look to diagnose the death of the frontier through the case of Nevada, where beauty and silence coexist with cultural artifice and violence in a landscape that is essentially American.

Gogol Americana is primarily funded by a Princess Grace Foundation-USA undergraduate student filmmaking scholarship and the John H. Johnson film award for 2009

Gogal Americana is directed by Ian Soroka.

Coming Soon.

Housle

Housle is a short, award winning film shot in the Czech Republic by Mutually Made Filmmakers  Tristan Love and James Longmire.

The film follows the journey of an old man, played by Jiri Kabes of the famed underground Czech rock group Plastic People of the Universe, in pursuit of his stolen violin. The chase leads him to a dark forest where he is confronted by a vision his own death. The film features performances of the internationally renowned New Mexico based A Hawk and a Hacksaw and boasts a score comprised entirely of their music. A Hawk and a Hacksaw is a project of former Neutral Milk Hotel member Jeremy Barnes and Heather Trost and borrows heavily from both American and Easter European folk traditions. See the film here.

The star of the film, Jiri Kabes and Plastic People of the Universe, played a distinct role in the last half century of Czech history. Outlawed by communist authorities in 1974 Plastic People of the Universe was forced underground only to become the foremost representative of Prague’s underground culture during the later half of the communist era in Czechoslovakia.

Housle was awarded “Best New Mexico Film” at the 2009 Albuquerque Film Festival and recently screened at the Santa Fe film Festival. Housle has alos aired on PBS/WNET 13 in NYC as part of the program Reel 13.

 

Housle is a project of Mutually Made, a filmmakers network designed to support artists who are dedicated to making art and film the impassioned pursuit of their lives.