Open Films, lead by Mark Tchelistcheff, has been very busy with the start of year working on relief efforts for the earthquake disaster in Haiti. From setting up relief flights for doctors, nurses and medical staff into Haiti to organizing medical supplies, food, water purification systems and tents for those suffering from this horrific catastrophe. Mark Tchelistcheff spent almost three weeks on the ground in Haiti working with many of the underserved in the various slum areas of Port-au-Prince bringing in much needed medical support and supplies. We also worked with the Miami Medishare Hospital Haiti, Haiti General Hospital and St. Damien’s Children’s Hospital as well as the Haiti Village and General Hospital in Jacmel. Mark was instrumental in helping get SUNSPRING / GE Solar Powered Microbiological Water Purification systems into many of the above hospitals and is continuing to work with various groups on the on-going recovery efforts of Haiti.
Open Films continues to work on commercials, films and documentaries. Commercial clients have included Nikon and Nikkor to Grey Advertising to Malibu Rum and Lowe's Home Improvement Stores. Our documentary work has included the highly acclaimed Japanese series Song To Soul on such music legends as Roberta Flack and The Band for Tokyo Broadcasting Systems and work on various NHK series. Open Films screened a teaser of the André Tchelistcheff documentary in Moscow and is developing new shows and content - we were constantly on the run!
Among other work, Mark recently directed and DP'd content for 20th Century Fox, Slimfast, USA Networks and DP'd content for Lowe's Home Improvement stores with the Cine Alta camera. Mark also produced, directed and DP'd a spot for a New York high end dental facility which can now been seen here or on the web at www.eisdorferdental.com.
Open Films continues to produce, shoot and develop content for a number of companies here in New York and Internationally. We also have two sound stages with our partner in the heart of New York on Broadway and 18th Street right next to Union Square. If you need a stage, we have the place and the equipment. We also have amazing rooftop views of Manhattan from our Long Island City Studios!
Open Films Documentary Projects include a feature length documentary about the development of great wines in America told through the eyes of Mark's grand uncle, André Tchelistcheff, known as the "Winemakers winemaker" and one of the founding fathers of wine in America. Additionally, in development are two projects: one focussing on modern piracy in South East Asia and the other about an inward mirror into the culture, life and history of Japan.
Open Films Feature film Co-Produced/financed by Mark Tchelistcheff, Conversations with Other Women won the Special Jury Award and Best Actress Award for Helena Bonham Carter at the Tokyo International Film Festival and a great review by Roger Ebert:
“Conversations with Other Women” is another of the best films I have seen here. Directed by Hans Canosa, it stars Aaron Eckhart and Helena Bonham Carter in an idea that seems like a stunt and then deepens into the sadness of unrealized love. The stunt is that that entire film has been made in split-screen, so that we are always looking at two pictures. The left is usually occupied by Eckhart, the right by Bonham Carter, although they are free to enter each other’s frames and sometimes seem to be standing so close that the frame division is a formality; other characters sometimes enter either frame.
They meet at a wedding. She is a “substitute bridesmaid.” They talk. They flirt. They spend the night together. The nature of their complete relationship I will leave for you to discover. The movie is really about the passage of time and the finality of decisions taken and not taken -- about the loneliness of men, who seem condemned to regret what they have not had, and women, more content to accept what they have chosen. The two actors are talking for almost the entire movie, which depends on tone and pitch to sustain its deepening insights. The split screen comes to seem necessary”.
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