North By Current, An Adaptation
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A Feature Documentary Currently in Production, Estimate Completion: 2020
Log
Against the landscapes of addiction, trans identity and religion, North By Current traces, first person, the filmmaker's relationship with his family following his niece's unexplained death, and his brother-in-law's false incarceration for her murder.
Synopsis
Madsen returns to his family's small sawmill town in Northern Michigan, following the death of his two-year old niece and his brother-in-law's false incarceration for her murder. Through gripping Cinema Vérité, decades of home movies and seasonal landscape meditation, the film documents Madsen’s struggle to know his family amid the compounding traumas of incarceration, opioid addiction, legal and financial stress, religious fervor, and latent grief. With his mother, father, sister, and brother-in-law, Madsen is forced to confront the family’s understanding of his transition as a symbolic death as they process the loss of little girls.
North By Current uses genre-bending first-person storytelling that includes on-screen text, audio recordings, and sparse, ethereal narration to supplement crisp HD Cinéma vérité and dated VHS and super 8 home movies. The use of mixed-media and multiple formats brings aesthetic experimentation to the storytelling, as technology marks the passage of time, gesturing to the apparatus of filmmaking itself. Sweeping, wide video portraits of the town and the land act as an ecosystem to guide the viewer through interwoven narratives that explore multiple forms of loss. The family business, a sawmill, becomes a thematic symbol of collective memory and growth interrupted.
Through innovation in form and content, North By Current reimagines narratives about incarceration, addiction, trans identity, ruralness and the many intersections therein, to disrupt stereotypes and invoke intersectional empathies. In opposition to the current political regimes aim at dividing communities, this film demonstrates firsthand how we can engage in high-stakes conflict, struggle with ideological disparity, and yet for the sake of preservation, find common ground.
Total Run Time: 85-90 minutes, estimate
HD Video, Super 8 converted to digital
Documentary/Essay Film
http://www.northbycurrent.com
The film has been previously known as "At The River" and "At The Water"
Log
Against the landscapes of addiction, trans identity and religion, North By Current traces, first person, the filmmaker's relationship with his family following his niece's unexplained death, and his brother-in-law's false incarceration for her murder.
Synopsis
Madsen returns to his family's small sawmill town in Northern Michigan, following the death of his two-year old niece and his brother-in-law's false incarceration for her murder. Through gripping Cinema Vérité, decades of home movies and seasonal landscape meditation, the film documents Madsen’s struggle to know his family amid the compounding traumas of incarceration, opioid addiction, legal and financial stress, religious fervor, and latent grief. With his mother, father, sister, and brother-in-law, Madsen is forced to confront the family’s understanding of his transition as a symbolic death as they process the loss of little girls.
North By Current uses genre-bending first-person storytelling that includes on-screen text, audio recordings, and sparse, ethereal narration to supplement crisp HD Cinéma vérité and dated VHS and super 8 home movies. The use of mixed-media and multiple formats brings aesthetic experimentation to the storytelling, as technology marks the passage of time, gesturing to the apparatus of filmmaking itself. Sweeping, wide video portraits of the town and the land act as an ecosystem to guide the viewer through interwoven narratives that explore multiple forms of loss. The family business, a sawmill, becomes a thematic symbol of collective memory and growth interrupted.
Through innovation in form and content, North By Current reimagines narratives about incarceration, addiction, trans identity, ruralness and the many intersections therein, to disrupt stereotypes and invoke intersectional empathies. In opposition to the current political regimes aim at dividing communities, this film demonstrates firsthand how we can engage in high-stakes conflict, struggle with ideological disparity, and yet for the sake of preservation, find common ground.
Total Run Time: 85-90 minutes, estimate
HD Video, Super 8 converted to digital
Documentary/Essay Film
http://www.northbycurrent.com
The film has been previously known as "At The River" and "At The Water"
Previous Labs
Berlinale DOC Station, Berlin, Germany
IFF Boston, Boston, MA
North By Current is a project made possible by the following organizations
