JAY ROSENBLATT
The Films of Jay Rosenblatt Volume 1
A collection of 5 collage films (1990-2000)
(DVD NTSC) 30,00 euros
Produced and Directed by Jay Rosenblatt
Total Running Time: 85 Minutes
“An exquisite artist who makes beautifully crafted miniatures.”
— Atom Egoyan
"A transcendent channel-surfing passion play... Rosenblatt turns celluloïd water into wine."
— Time Out, New York
"Rosenblatt has the humanity of a Lubitsch... combined with the analytical sensibility of a Bergman. His films are not merely good. Rosenblatt is seriously gifted, a significant artist."
— San Francisco Chronicle
Jay Rosenblatt, who has been making short films since the early 1980s, makes films that deal with a variety of themes — from birth and childhood to religious faith, tyranny and death. Frequently screened on public television and film festivals, Rosenblatt ’s films are consistently recognized for their unique style and his commitment to taking risks.
"I had been making traditional narrative films using actors and found it stressful. (...) I happened to be working on a project -- it was a film sequence for a theatre piece -- that required some archival footage. The need to use existing footage led me to the optical printer, which is a machine that allows a filmmaker to manipulate existing footage in different, new ways. This was a real discovery for me and I began moving more and more toward the use of found footage to create my films.
(...) I wasn't trying to mask the found-footage aspect, to deliver a throughline but with the pieces in a kind of juxtaposition.
(excerpts from the SAN FRANCISCO EXAMINER-OCTOBER 29-30, 2005 & the MIAMI NEW TIMES - July 26, 2001)
Depuis les années 80, Jay Rosenblatt, à travers la pratique du found footage, aborde dans ses courts métrages une grande variété de thèmes (la naissance, l'enfance, la foi religieuse, la tyrannie, la mort).
Docteur en Psychologie, il a exercé pendant de nombreuses années le métier de thérapeuthe.
Jay Rosenblatt enseigne le cinéma à san Francisco.
"J'ai fait des films narratifs "traditionnels" avec des acteurs et j'ai trouvé ça fatigant.
(...) J'ai eu à travailler sur un projet - une séquence filmique pour une pièce de théatre - qui nécessitait de travailler avec des films d'archive. Le besoin d'utiliser des films déjà existants m'a mené à la tireuse optique qui permet de manipuler les films d'une façon nouvelle, différente. Ça a été une découverte pour moi et j'ai commencé m'avancer de plus en plus dans l'usage du found footage.
(...) Je n'essaie pas de masquer l'aspect found footage (le disparité des séquences, NDT), mais par leur juxtapositions d'obtenir une ligne directrice."
Jay Rosenblatt
(extraits d'une interview du MIAMI NEW TIMES - July 26, 2001)
Restricted (1999) 1 minute
Take a chance. Don’t do it. This is America. Do it.
Official Selection, Sundance Film Festival
Take a chance. Don’t do it. This is America. Do it.
Official Selection, Sundance Film Festival
Short of Breath (1990) 10 minutes
A collage about birth, death, sex and suicide.
Golden Gate Award, San Francisco International Film Festival
The Smell of Burning Ants (1994) 21 minutes
An exploration of gender, male socialization and boyhood cruelty.
First Prize, Locarno International Film Festival
Winner of 23 awards
Human Remains (1998) 30 minutes
A film about the banality of evil.
Jury Award, Sundance Film Festival
Winner of 27 awards
King of the Jews (2000) 18 minutes
A personal essay about Jesus, Jews and anti-Semitism.
Grand Prize, USA Film Festival
EXTRA FILM
Brain in the Desert
A film about relationships and insects.
