Needle in a Haystack: UMFELD

Needle in a Haystack: a continuing look at low to no budget features, shorts and alternative cinema.





The movie in question today could be called experimental or avant garde, but please don't let that dissuade you. Musician Jochim Papp and video artist Scott Pagano have joined forces to create an extremly unique scape of sound and image with Umfeld.

Sometime early last year I stumbled upon a behind the scenes trailer and was quite intrigued. At that point the movie had not been released. I forgot to make any kind of note of it (besides a mental one) and thus Umfeld slipped away... until...
A few weeks back when I read about it again on the Dutch site, onderhond. By this time Umfeld had been released both on DVD and as a free legal download online! The trailer is definitly worth a look, if not the hour long film itself, so head on over to Umfeld.tv and enjoy!

Needle in a Haystack: FORGOTTEN PEACE

The second feature I'll try to keep up will be this one, currently under the monikier "Needle in a Haystack". I'll try to cover low to no budget indie features and shorts that might not get a lot of love other wise.
We will see how this works... This could feature trailers, posters, reviews or in the case of a short, the actual film itself. The bottom line: it is about spreading the word. I won't pretend to be the source for finding all these films and will give credit where credit is due. So let's get to it!

I'll start with a short film that was made by New Jersey based filmmaker, Michael Casperson. Over the course of a year living in Philadelphia, Mike captured the cultural current of Northern Philly with this short. I think Mike's words speak of it best:

Combining an experimental documentary with narrative storytelling, Forgotten Peace is a harsh and realistic view of society in North Philadelphia. Anger, rebellion, and violence consume many who reside in this troubled area. Seen from the eyes of an outsider, there is an undeniable struggle that exists. Beyond all of the chaos and fear, a hope for peace remains. While it may seem far away, it is buried right in the heart and soul for all those who choose to find it.

Forgotten Peace


For a series of photographs that accompany the film please visit Mike's myspace page.