Jack Feldstein

Jack Feldstein
Born Sydney, Australia
Alma mater National Institute of Dramatic Art
Australian Film, Television and Radio School
Occupation Animator, screenwriter

Jack Feldstein is a Jewish animator and screenwriter from Sydney, Australia, now living in New York. He is the pioneer of Neon Films.

His trademark style is the "neonizing" of a combination of live action video recording and public domain material, particularly cartoons. "Neonizing" is a complex computer technique that renders the lines of an image to be like a neon sign.

Education

Jack studied at the National Institute of Dramatic Art (NIDA) course in playwriting and graduated from the Australian Film, Television and Radio School (AFTRS) in scriptwriting in 1992. Though before that he had obtained a degree in Pharmacy from the University of Sydney.

Career

Feldstein was a scriptwriter for many years before, as he puts it, he woke up one morning and began making neon films. In the 1990s he was instrumental in developing series for Australian television. He then went on to be Head Writer for Brilliant Digital Entertainment where he was involved in creating 3D computer animated multipath webisode series which included Xena-Warrior Princess, Superman and Ace Ventura.[1]

Neon animation

He describes neon animation, (neonism)...as a deconstructionist, post-modern animation filmmaking style that utilises appropriation and pop art techniques in a "Warhol meets Vegas" look. It is a stream-of-consciousness narrative with a cartoon aesthetic. Neonism takes modernist stream-of-consciousness filmmaking into a post-modern and humorous form.[2]

Metempsychotic (reincarnated) modernism is another description of Feldstein's neon animation aesthetic.

Neon animation has also been described as re-animation.[3]

Narratives

His rambling seemingly make-it-up-as-you-go-along, stream of consciousness ironic monologue narratives have been likened to Woody Allen and Spalding Gray but with an Australian twist.[4]

Recently Feldstein completed a six-part series called "The Adventures of..." in which he continued the ironic exploration of his theme of rescuing great literary characters such as Oedipus Rex and Gregor Samsa and playfully interfering in the lives of modernist writers like Virginia Woolf, James Joyce, Marcel Proust, JD Salinger and Jack Kerouac.

His narrative documentary neon animations "The Fantastical World of Scriptwriting" and "The Psychology of Scriptwriting" both exploring scriptwriting, have also now been released.

As an active participant and supporter of the Kino movement in Sydney, Australia, Jack used to often screen his neon animations at their monthly events.[5]

Current work

Currently, Feldstein is working on completing a neon animation adaptation of Fyodor Dostoyevsky's Notes from the Underground and has completed versions of HP Lovecraft's tales "Ex Oblivione" and "Memory". He is planning to create a third neon animation in his scriptwriting trilogy, which will be called "Confessions of a Scriptwriter". In collaboration with New York-based actor, Shane Baker he developed the neon animation " How to Break into Yiddish Vaudeville". "How to Break into Yiddish Vaudeville" had its world premiere in January, 2015 in the Walter Reade Theater at Lincoln Center as part of the 2015 New York Jewish Film Festival. Feldstein also created a neon animation with Shane Baker who recited Peretz Markish's Yiddish poem Brokshtiker (Shards) for the 60-year commemoration of the Night of the Murdered Poets, August, 2012. This premiered at the New York Jewish Film Festival 2013, Walter Reade theater, Lincoln Center, 10 January 2013.

In June, 2015, he completed a neon animation called "Plain Talk", collaborating with Deborah Starr, a graduate of the Narrative Medicine department at Columbia University. Feldstein intends to continue this series of neon animations combining medical issues and neon animation.

"You Might be the One" a song by Botanica, the New York-based band, is Feldstein's most recent music video neon animation. And one of his latest projects is neon animations to various New York spoken word poets including one of Walt Whitman's poems "Manahatta" performed by poet, George Wallace, the writer in residence at the Walt Whitman Birthplace, Huntington, New York. The "Manahatta" neon animation screened at the Angelika Film Center in New York City for two weeks and its European premiere was at the Zebra Poetry Film Festival, Berlin, in October 2012. As part of Curate NYC 2013, an open artworks competition which received over 1900 submissions from NY based artists, "Manahatta" was selected by Jan Seidler Ramirez, Chief Curator & Director of Collections, National September 11 Memorial & Museum in Lower Manhattan. It was also on display at the newly refurbished Queens Museum of Art as part of the artsCommon. "Manahatta" screened at the New York Transit Museum in Brooklyn in April 2014 as part of their Platform Series.

Jack is series co-ordinator for The Subway Poetry Film series. Six films by New York filmmakers interpreting six poems on the subject of the New York subway. Feldstein's neon animation contribution is to the poem "Subway Services" by Philip Dacey. The Subway Film Series premiered at the Queens World Film Festival, New York on 4 March 2012, and amongst many other venues and colleges around New York City. The Subway Film Series screened at the Queens Museum of Art for their "A Frame Apart 2" program.[6]

On 14 May 2011, a retrospective of Feldstein's neon animation films was screened as part of the Personal Cinema Series at Millennium Film Workshop in downtown Manhattan and subsequently at the Filmwax Film Series in Brooklyn, NY.

During 2011, Jack was the art/film editor for "Unlikely Stories" an online US literary publication for poetry, film, art and essays.[7]

For New York Fashion Week 2011, Feldstein co-directed with top New York designer, Norma Kamali, the 3D Fashion Film presenting the Norma Kamali Spring Collection 2012. The film was premiered at Lincoln Center, 14 September 2011. Included in the 3D film is Feldstein's first foray in 3D neon animation.[8] It was nominated for "Best Online Fashion Video" at the 2012 New York Fashion Awards 2.0. Jack continues to work with Ms Kamali on 3D Fashion films and various other projects. For New York Fashion Week Fall/Winter 2012, Feldstein helped Ms Kamali create two 3D fashion films launching her collections.

Feldstein was also involved in creating neon animations for the production of In Masks Outrageous and Austere, Tennessee Williams' last and unseen full-length play which had its world premiere at the 45 Bleecker Street Theatre, New York in April 2012.

Love and Sex Between Prime Numbers, a feature film script by Feldstein is currently being developed by Spotted Turquoise Films.[9] Feldstein has written the book and lyrics for the world's first theremin musical "Falling in Love with Dellamort" working with Dorit Chrysler, founder of the NY Theremin Society and composer Paul Doust.

As part of the Dream Up Festival August, 2013 at the downtown Theater for the New City, Feldstein's monologue about a young woman on a bender, "The Bender" is part of the Grand Guignol Danse Macabre series of plays.[10] In October 2013, "The Bender" was also be performed around New York City including at the Bronx Museum of the Arts.

A production of Jack's play with songs by Melanie Safka, "Three Months with Pook", was mounted at Dixon Place in Lower Manhattan in July 2014. "Three Months with Pook" was again invited to be performed at Dixon Place in February 2015.

Feldstein is a member of Workshop Theater Company at 312 West 36th Street in Manhattan and develops his scripts and musicals there. "Une Parisienne in New York", one of his latest work with 14 songs in English and French by songwriter Greta Gertler, is one of these projects. Another is "The Kingdom of Vincent Grapelli" with singer/songwriter Rivky Grossman. In March 2015, his play "Happy Chrismukkah", about a stressed out New York couple dreaming of escaping to Australia, was a winner in the NYC Playwrights "Save the Rom-Com" competition.

Festivals and honors

Feldstein's short films have been shown at film festivals around the world. Some of these festivals and honors include:

In 2009, Feldstein's full-length play "The Sparkling City Of Omar Mazen" received a "commended" by that year's BBC World Service International Playwriting Competition.[20]

Selected filmography

References

  1. ↑ The Multipath Adventures of Superman
  2. ↑ Montreal Jewish Film Festival "The Loser who Won" 2005
  3. ↑ Alex Deleon-Pevny, FilmFestivals.com, 2005
  4. ↑ Interview with Kitty Arends, Rotterdam International Film Festival 2007
  5. ↑ Music Feeds, Culture + Events: Kino #29 Robbie Gadsbey, 20 August 2009
  6. ↑ "A Frame Apart 2: Short Films on Queens". Immigrant Movement International. Retrieved 16 January 2013.
  7. ↑ "Jack Feldstein". Unlikely 2.0. Retrieved 16 January 2013.
  8. ↑ Binlot, Ann (15 September 2011). "How Werner Herzog's "Cave of Forgotten Dreams" Inspired Norma Kamali to Go 3-D". Artinfo. Retrieved 2012-09-12.
  9. ↑ If.com.au
  10. ↑ Dreamupfestival.org
  11. ↑ Moves09 Film Festival, UK.
  12. ↑ Noralil Ryan Fores, ShortEnd Magazine
  13. ↑ Interview with Miguel Escobar for Impakt Film Festival 2009
  14. ↑ Matt Ravier, Last Night with Riviera
  15. ↑ Lloyd Bradford Syke, Australian Stage, 9 October 2009.
  16. ↑ New York Theatre
  17. ↑ Qchron.com
  18. ↑ Midtownfestival.org
  19. ↑ Moderndaygriot.org
  20. ↑ "BBC World Service - Arts & Culture - Highly commended and commended plays". Bbc.co.uk. 19 August 2009. Retrieved 2012-09-12.
  21. ↑ "Elite Theatre Company". Elitetheatre.org. Retrieved 2012-09-12.
  22. ↑ Radiodramarevival.com

External links

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