Director: Jay Rosenblatt
Year: 2009
Country: USA
Language: English
Length: 85 mins
Format: NTSC | R0
Certificate: E

Synopsis

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 through line but with the pieces in a kind of juxtaposition." Jay Rosenblatt

"An exquisite artist who makes beautifully crafted miniatures." – Atom Egoyan

"A transcendent channel-surfing passion play… Rosenblatt turns celluloid 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

Film Listing

- Restricted (1999 | 1 min)
Take a chance. Don't do it. This is America. Do it.
- Short of Breath (1990 | 10 mins)
A collage about birth, death, sex and suicide.
- The Smell of Burning Ants (1994 | 21 mins)
An exploration of gender, male socialization and boyhood cruelty.
- Human Remains (1998 | 30 mins)
A film about the banality of evil.
- King of the Jews (2000 | 18 mins)
A personal essay about Jesus, Jews and anti-Semitism.
- Brain in the Desert (1990 | 5 mins)
A film about relationships and insects.