Sundowning Update

Frank Rinaldi is currently in post-production on Sundowning, his debut feature film. Please check out the Sundowning website for news and info about the film. Thanks for your interest!

LOWbASiC Screens at Philly/FM

LOWbASiC will screen at the Philadelphia Film and Music Festival, a four-day festival that brings together international music and film. LOWbASiC will screen on Saturday, September 25th at 11:30pm at Media Bureau. Philadelphians get your tickets and more info here.

Sundowning Update

Following a successful shoot in Singapore during the month of May, filmmakers Frank Rinaldi and Stephanie Bousley traveled to Bangkok, Thailand to develop the film, and Frank will travel to Los Angeles at the end of September to have the film telecined. Afterward, he will return to his hometown of Chicago, IL to complete Sundowning with his editor, Scott Laidlaw.

Please continue to check back for updates, trailers and clips.

Sundowning. The Party -- CD Track Listings

Hey everyone:

Thank you all for coming out to our fundraising party on Saturday night. We appreciate your support and hope that you had a blast! Below are the track listings for the free CD.

Thanks again,

Frank Rinaldi

1. Get Fucked (and Other Suggestions), Sleepies
2. Bro-Ectomy, Old Testament Heroes
3. Cromagnon, Meddle
4. Dark Eyes (Bob Dylan Cover), Dirty Projectors
5. Will U Be Here Tomorrow?, E Flat Eerie
6. Jellystar, The Analog Girl
7. Journal of Ardency, Class Actress
8. 15 to 20, The Phenomenal Handclap Band
9. Bastard Son, Magus
10. Skylight Boulevard, The Analog Girl
11. Taurus, Loose Shus
12. lol, SIDABITBALL
13. Let's Go To The Mall, Robyn Sparkles
14. Summer Bummer, Sleepies

'Sundowning' - Kickstarter Fundraising Account

In 1956, the godfather of Independent American Cinema, John Cassavetes, appeared on Jean Shepherd's late night radio show 'Night People.' Cassavetes was to begin production on his first feature film directorial effort. During the broadcast, he appealed to listeners for their support, positing the then radical idea of making a film funded not by studios and major corporations, but entirely by a consortium of private citizen-patrons. The tactic worked, and Cassavetes used the money to make 'Shadows.'

Fifty-four years later, The Technological Singularity is approaching, radio has evolved, and the internet exists. Housed somewhere inside the internet is the website www.kickstarter.com. Kickstarter is an online funding platform that supports independent artists. We (my collaborators and I) have created a Kickstarter account to raise funds for 'Sundowning,' our DIY debut feature film.

As writer and director of 'Sundowning,' I invite you to browse our Kickstarter page, and hope you are compelled to lend your support toward our efforts.

Thank you for your interest. Viva la Cinema.

Frank Rinaldi

Slug Magazine Film Critic Jesse Hawlish Reviews LOWbASiC

LOWbASIC
Slamdance Film Festival
Director: Frank Rinaldi
It makes me happy that filmmaker Frank Rinaldi understands the importance of Story. I’ve watched many a short at Slamdance 2010. Although I’ve enjoyed nearly all of them (a difficult position for a critic), any displeasure I feel comes from Experimental Films that are, to put it glibly, 100% experiment and 0% film. Funny Guy, Rinaldi’s previous short, received the Slamdance 2009 Grand Jury Award for Best Experimental Film. His films, while undeniably experimental, manage to provide just enough character and plot to instill empathy in the viewer – allowing for greater emotional payoff during the less rational material. LOWbASIC is a hallucinogenic collage of corrugated anxieties, truths, and emotions, folded over colorful, lo-fi visuals. It’s also about two men in a band who have a strong but troubled relationship. In composing this non-linear narrative, Director Rinaldi is adept at creating and dispelling anxiety, making LOWbASIC an engaging, emotional experiment.
-Jesse Hawlish

Click here for more of Jesse's Slamdance 2010 coverage.

Chad and Frank Talk 'LOWbASiC'

Frank and Chad (from behind)

Interview with LOWbASiC director Frank Rinaldi

Q: What is your film LOWbASiC about?

A: LOWbASiC is a movie about friendship and communication. Josh Intrator and Thomas Seely comprise the punk band LOWbASiC. They love each other, but are incompetent when it comes to expressing their feelings. They talk to each other via their creative connection, their music.

Q: Are Josh and Thomas real people?

A: Yes, they are close friends of mine. They play together in a Brooklyn based punk band with drummer Max ‘Tumblebottom’ Tremblay. Their band is called SLEEPiES, and they are excellent. Check them out at www.myspace.com/herecomethesleepies.

Q: What persuaded you it was the right decision to cast Josh and Thomas?

A: Well, I wrote this movie for them. As I mentioned before, they are two of my best friends. We went to college together. We are all artists, and much of our respective relationships revolve around making art together. We have a lot of similar ideas, listen to similar music, like similar movies and share a passion for professional football. I think they are beautiful, and saw LOWbASiC as the perfect opportunity to memorialize them, and to draw attention to their music. Filmmaking is one of the most important things in the world to me. Whenever I make a movie, I have to stuff it full of things and people I love. Josh and Thomas fall under this category.

Q: A large part of LOWbASiC takes place in what appears to be an apartment decorated by an interior designer really high on LSD. Discuss.

A: Yes, it was a lot of fun to build the apartment. It was designed by Shannon Fitzpatrick (who is also a producer of LOWbASiC). She has a wonderful eye for taking seemingly disparate elements and arranging them into a cohesive space. We modeled the apartment in the film after Josh and Thomas’s real life apartment in Bushwick, Brooklyn. I actually lived there myself before going back to school. The motivation behind the design was similar to that of casting the real Josh and Thomas. We took elements from our lives and exaggerated them in order to explore certain truths about relationships, perceptions of reality, things like this. The apartment in the film is sort of a prison of artifice, and a kind of obstacle that somehow gets in the way of Josh and Thomas’s ability to communicate with each other. It’s like a nightmarish vortex of confusion and narcissism, made all the more disorienting by the fact that it closely resembles something we all recognize, but is not quite that thing, you know?

Q: How did you first conceive of this movie?

A: Well, I suppose I’ll be repeating myself a little here, but I wanted to make a movie for Josh and Thomas that was my own accurate interpretation of our relationship (that is, the relationship Josh, Thomas and I share). So I flew them out to Singapore, and we made the damned thing.

Q: Singapore?

A: Yeah, it’s where I go to school. I’m working toward my MFA at NYU Tisch Asia. Ever heard of it?

Q: No.

A: Oh…that’s cool….

Q: I’m curious about the moments of LOWbASiC that take place on T.V. Josh and Thomas, as LOWbASiC, are scheduled to debut their music on FALSE MEDIA, which is a television show hosted by a character named Dr. Bob. What is FALSE MEDIA, and how does it work in the film?

A: FALSE MEDIA is a rock ‘n’ roll T.V. show. It’s like my own perverted interpretation of, say, Top of the Pops. I am a ‘rock star’ aficionado. There are few things in this life more exciting than watching Ian Curtis or Kurt Cobain perform on live T.V. In my mind, Josh and Thomas are great punk rock stars, and so I wanted to provide them an opportunity to play on an awesome T.V. show, so I built this idea into the story, that they are scheduled to debut their music on FALSE MEDIA, but they might blow it because they can’t get their shit together. It (playing on FALSE MEDIA) is something they’ve always wanted to do, and now that they have the opportunity, they are really, really scared.

Q: And who is Dr. Bob?

A: Dr. Bob is the nefarious host of FALSE MEDIA.

Q: I see. And who is the guy with the melting white head who shows up throughout the film, both on the television and in the apartment.

A: Oh, that’s The Glueboiler.

Q: ….

A: ….

Q: Well, thanks for your time, Mr. Rinaldi. Best of luck with the film.

A: Thanks, Chad.