As many of you already know, we’ve launched a new film initiative entitled INTERPRETATIONS to support aspiring filmmakers. In a nutshell, you make a short film of no more than 3 minutes using the same script we provide (get all the info here). To help us launch, we commissioned several filmmaker friends to make their own shorts using our script and we’ll be featuring each one of them here (including a few words from the filmmakers themselves). Just a reminder that the deadline has been extended to 11:59 PM PST on Sept. 15. Also, check out our latest INTERPRETATIONS blogs including a Q&A with producer Dan Lin (Sherlock Holmes) and an edited transcript of the INTREPRETATIONS New York panel.

Today we present our final commissioned sample short Canvas by Mora Stephens and starring acclaimed artist James Jean:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jJ4KmONwHeA&feature=player_embedded

FILMMAKER’S STATEMENT:
I’m a huge fan of James Jean’s work so it was a thrill to be able to collaborate with him on this. Watching James through his process, starting from a blank canvas — and to see him paint in the styles of the two different characters — it was hard not to geek out just a little.

MORA

Mora’s debut feature film Conventioneers won the 2006 Independent Spirit Awards’ John Cassavetes Award (for Best Feature made for under $500,000). The film premiered at the 2005 Tribeca Film Festival and following an award-winning year of festivals, was released theatrically by Cinema Libre Studio.

An alumna of NYU’s Graduate Film Program and Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, Mora directed Breaking Bread, which aired on Showtime in September 2002 as part of the Reflections from Ground Zero series. She co-wrote the independent feature Devil’s Pond, released by Artisan in 2003, and Executive Produced Strictly Sexual, released by Arts Alliance America in 2009. She is currently developing Homeland with Heather Rae (Frozen River) on board to produce. Mora is a co-founder of Hyphenate Films. A participant in the Film Independent Directors Lab, Mora is the recipient of the 2009 Hearst Screenwriting Grant by the San Francisco Film Society and the 2006 PPP/ Overseas Koreans Foundation Filmmaker Fund prize.

For more information on how to get involved with INTERPRETATIONS, click here.

You can also see the commissioned shorts on our YouTube Channel. Subscribe to our channel be the first to see all our new videos.