A Shorts Block presented by Narratively.
Full Run-Time: 45min
Playing By Ear
Directed by Daphnée Denis & Hoda Emam
5:30/2013/USA/English
Goalball may have been designed for the blind, but one group of Brooklyn players proves that the sport is as dangerous, fastpaced and competitive as any you’ll find.
The Caucasian Sensation
Directed by Alison Brockhouse
7:50/2013/USA/English
After decades spent leaping and spinning through the mountains of Dagestan, a homegrown dance legend reinvents himself in a New York City studio.
Loving the Bony Lady
Directed by Scott Elliott
6:28/2012/USA/Spanish with English subtitles
A transsexual Mexican immigrant living in Queens is perhaps the city’s most fervent follower of a
forbidden—and increasingly beloved—occult saint.
Karaoke Kills in Brooklyn
Directed by James Boo
6:22/2013/USA/English
Every Friday at midnight, two DJs known as Karaoke Killed the Cat unleash a show of dance, song, and the occasional pantsless exhibition at Union Hall in Park Slope, Brooklyn.
No Strings Attached
Directed by: Emon Hassan
8:01/2012/USA/English
A Brooklyn artist creates instruments out of old shovels, whiskey bottles and other forgotten curiosities.
Matron of Morbidity
Directed by: Joel Tozer and Ella Rubeli
3:53/2013/USA/English
An octogenarian Australian finds her life’s mission wrapped up in a rather ghoulish pastime: the preservation of human body parts.
Kung Fu Noodles
Directed by: Yihuan Wu and Xiaoran Liu
7:46/2013/USA/English
From a basement shop in New York, a TV star turned cook dreams of noodle notoriety on the silver screen.
Daphnée Denis (Playing By Ear) is a documentary filmmaker and video journalist for the AFP news agency, based in London. Her work has appeared on Slate, Slate France and Monocle magazine and radio.
Hoda Emam (Playing By Ear) Based in San Francisco California, Hoda Emam is currently producing a documentary called “Shot in the Dark”. The film focuses on a group of visually impaired athletes whose differences in eyesight and life aspirations are leveled on the playing field. In 2013, the abridged version of the film called ‘Playing by Ear’ was awarded honorable mention by the ‘Katherine Schneider Journalism Award for Excellence in Reporting on Disability’. Prior to that, Hoda worked as a news anchor/producer for Thomson Reuters where she hosted the daily business show ‘U.S. Day Ahead’ and as correspondent for City 7 TV in the Middle East. In addition she has contributed to The Guardian, ABC News, CBS News and the United Nations Population Fund. In 2013, she was chosen as ‘United Nations Foundation Press Fellow’ where she met with influential world leaders.
Hoda holds a master’s degree from the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism where she was awarded a Scripps Howard Fellowship and covered the influx of Libyan refugees in Italy following the 2011 Libyan revolution.
Alison Brockhouse (The Caucasian Sensation) is an artist and photographer living in Brooklyn. She is a member of the Meerkat Media Collective, which recently completed Brasslands, a feature documentary about Balkan brass music.
Scott Elliott (Loving the Bony Lady) is founder and creative director of 590films. He directs, shoots, edits 590films’ projects. His documentary Slumming It: Myth and Culture on the Bowery, about the history of the Bowery in New York City, aired on PBS in July 2005 on the seriesReel New York. Scott’s most recent documentary, Into the Gyre, about plastic pollution in the Atlantic Ocean, has won numerous awards at international film festivals, including Best Picture at the 2012 Scinema Festival of Science Film. He is currently in production on The Trees, a film about the National September 11th Memorial.
James Boo (Karaoke Kills in Brooklyn) is a multimedia journalist working most frequently at the intersection of food, culture, and economics. His documentary web series,1 Minute Meal, captures the lives of small business owners in the big city, doing whatever it takes to keep their own piece of New York tastefully alive.
Emon Hassan (No Strings Attached) is a New York-based filmmaker, photographer, and multimedia producer. He is the Director of Video & Multimedia at Narratively, and a regular contributor to The New York Times. Hassan is the Founder of Guitarkadia, a site devoted to telling Multimedia stories around guitars as well as the visual blog, Emonome. His radio dramas have been licensed by BBC America, as well as radio stations across United States. He is an active member of the Producers Guild of America, East.
Hassan is currently developing several television and film projects.
Joel Tozer (The Matron of Morbidity) is a television journalist and producer based in Sydney.
Xiaoran Liu (Kung Fu Noodles) was born and raised in China. She graduated from Columbia University with a major in broadcast and documentary in Journalism School. She is now working both in Beijing and New York as a documentary filmmaker. She produced documentary films, “No Sound,” in 2012, “The Noodle Guy” and “Crossroads of journalism dreams” in 2013. Her most recent film is “WaterSide”, a story about a Chinese village. She is also working on international documentaries as director for CCTV Documentary Channel. She used to work in Phoenix TV’s Beijing office as a program director and editor, responsible for over 150 episodes. Liu had a personal exhibition in Beijing in 2011, combining traditional Chinese art with modern art and video installations.
Ken Butler is an artist and musician whose Hybrid musical instruments, performances, installations, and other works explore the interaction and transformation of common and uncommon objects, altered images, sounds and silence.
