Review of "One of Them" BY Steve Fesenmaier, West Virginia Library Commission

One of Them
by Jason Brown
7 mins. 19 sec.

Jason Brown, a long-time film activist in the Charleston area, who is now working at UNC-Greensboro, has made a very interesting short film based on his own amazing life history. The film is basically one take of a young woman talking about meeting, and marrying the love of her life. She meets the unnamed object of desire during a play. She eventually goes off to NYC for the wedding where some unfortunate events take place. I watched the film twice, enjoying the realistic presentation of a quite amazing story.

I found the reversal of the situation very interesting. Brown tells a story from the woman's viewpoint whereas in fact the events are based on his own male perspective.

The theme seems to be the slippery nature of identity. When the young woman is about to get married, she panics because she is asked for a photo ID - which she has left at her dwelling in New Jersey. The final surprise takes place when she sees her new husband getting arrested by local police. When she rushes to his aid, his only comment to her is,"Are you one of them?" This shows the extreme paranoia her lover always had toward her.

I was talking to Jason last night after watching the film, and recalled the most famous recent one-take film - Aleksandr Sokurov's "Russian Ark" supposedly made using digital equipment, taking a tour of the Heritage Museum. Jason said he was more inspired by the work of Rodrigo Garcia.

I greatly enjoyed the anti-MTV style of both his film and "Ark." It's nice to be able to look at a person without a jittery camera endlessly jump-cutting. It is also nice to watch a person express real emotion without resulting in extreme action.

The film was shown at the River City Film Festival in Marietta. http://rivercityfilmfestival.com/schedule.

I could use your support.

As much as I've tried to avoid this, I need to ask for your financial support.

While every film faces four stages (pre-production, production, post-production and distribution), everyone faces those financially differently. I have been paying for most of the production so far out of pocket, on credit cards and a couple small grants. Between now and when I will hear about the several grant proposals I have written, I need to raise a couple thousand dollars for travel to a couple different interviews I'm setting up.

Thanks to IFP, anyone can make a tax-deductible donation to "Them That Work" by filling out this form and mailing it back to IFP. It's not as easy as simply making a donation online - but they are working on it.

If you'd able to make a smaller donation right away, please feel free to donate through Pay Pal - which is NOT tax-deductible.

I appreciate all the support I've been given. I fill confident that all the financial support I need is available here. Thank you in advance.

j.brown

ACCEPTED - "One of Them" to premiere at River City Film Festival

Got the news today that my Spring Practicum "One of Them" will premiere at the River City Film Festival in Marietta Ohio. I just want to take a moment and thank those people involved with this project - Jaime Phelps, Jeffrey Lewis, Seamus Mulligan-Ferry, Michael Blair, Jerrod Smith - for all their help and determination to help this project come true.

Obviously, I need to thank the person who inspired this project. Thank you Erin.

There are so many good things happening right now. I just want to let everyone know how much I appreciate what they have done to help and put out as much good karma as possible.

j.brown

David-Strathairn.com interview

Somehow Andrea Weaver, who has a website dedicated to David Strathairn, found out about my little movie and wanted an interview. She even dedicated a section to my film.

I'm not sure how it turned out, but if you mosy over to Andrea's site, you'll at least find some nice information about a great actor.

And if you run across something from me, well, you've been warned.

j.brown

- - UPDATE - -
Here's a link to the interview