Malcolm Murray’s CAMERA,CAMERA World Premiere at The Los Angeles Film Festival

Mekanism Director Malcolm Murray Presents World Premiere of  “Camera, Camera” For The Los Angeles Film Festival

Film to Also Enter Competition at Silverdocs Documentary Film Festival

New York, NY (May 27, 2010) – Malcolm Murray, independent filmmaker and director at San Francisco creative production company Mekanism, will be presenting his first feature-length documentary, “Camera, Camera” in competition at the Los Angeles Film Festival this June. An East Coast premiere will follow immediately afterwards at the AFI-Discovery Channel Silverdocs Documentary Festival outside of Washington, D.C.

“Camera, Camera” explores the idealized, beautiful, and sometimes treacherous world of Laos from the perspective of the country’s most prolific documentarians – Western tourists with digital cameras.  The film, Murray’s directorial debut, was written and features interviews by journalist and author Michael Meyer and was produced by The New York Times staff photographer Josh Haner.

Throughout the film, Murray and Meyer show viewers the fantasies and photographs of tourists, making it difficult to understand where fantasy ends and photography begins. The result is an innovative film populated by subjects who serve as unreliable narrators of their own journeys. Moving from the comical to the taboo, the film ponders the multifaceted and often ambiguous impacts of travel and photography on citizens of two converging worlds. The soundtrack features music from Godspeed You! Black Emperor, James Blackshaw, and Explosions in the Sky.

Upon graduating from Colorado College, Murray was awarded the Thomas J. Watson Fellowship which took him around the world with his camera. Murray now lives in Brooklyn, New York and works as a film director and director of photography. While at Mekanism, he has shot unique, award-winning, and entertaining campaigns for a variety of brands including Axe, Microsoft, Stella Artois and the International Olympics Committee. His next project is his debut narrative feature film, which is being produced by Neda Armian, whose credits include, “Rachel Getting Married” and will begin shooting in July 2010 in New Mexico.

 “I first traveled to Laos in 2006 and was immediately struck by all the flashes I saw going off. A few days into my journey, I began feeling I wouldn’t ever be able to understand the country I was traveling through, but that I needed to record some of my questions about it by making a film,” said director Malcolm Murray.

Shortly after Murray’s return to the states, he and Meyer began collaborating on short non-fiction films under the THIS productions moniker. In 2008, the two made their first production trip to Laos. 

Of those first five weeks of production, Meyer explains, “We set out to make a film about Westerners with cameras in Laos, and of course we were the Westerners with by far the biggest camera in the country. It was impossible to ask challenging questions of our subjects without asking them on an even deeper level of ourselves. This managed to sow a lot of self-consciousness but it ultimately resulted in a gentler, more complex film.”

 “Camera, Camera” is one of 10 full length feature films in the documentary category that will be in competition at this year’s annual Los Angeles Film Festival being held June 17-27th. In addition to a special press screening in Los Angeles on June 3rd at the SAG Foundation’s Actors Center,“Camera, Camera” will be shown at the following times at the Regal Theatre located at 1000 West Olympic Boulevard in Los Angeles, California.

• Saturday, June 19th, 4:00 p.m. PT at Regal Theatre #11
• Monday, June 21st, 10:15 p.m. PT at Regal Theatre  #9
• Wednesday, June 23rd, 5:00 p.m. PT at Regal Theatre #13

Additionally, “Camera, Camera” will be screened at Silverdocs in the Sterling U.S. Feature Competition on Thursday, June 24th at 5 p.m. and Saturday, June 26th at 1:15 p.m. at the AFI Silver Theatre and Cultural Center in the Washington, D.C. area.

For more information on “Camera, Camera” please visit: www.cameracamerafilm.com.

About the LA Film Festival:

For the past 16 years, the Los Angeles Film Festival has been a preeminent cinematic event, showcasing the world’s best independent features, including premieres of smash-hits The Devil Wears Prada and Sunshine.  The Festival connects the movie-loving public to critically acclaimed filmmakers, film industry professionals, and emerging talent in the heart of Los Angeles, the entertainment capital of the world.

The 2010 Festival will present 200 features, shorts, and music videos from more than 40 countries including the Pat Tillman documentary, The Tillman Story; Focus Feature’s The Kids Are All Right; and Revolución, a collaboration by ten renowned Mexican filmmakers.

The Festival features unique signature programs including the Filmmaker Retreat, Ford Amphitheater Outdoor Screenings, Poolside Chats, and more.  Additionally, the Festival screens short films created by high school students and has a special section devoted to music videos.

The Los Angeles Film Festival is produced by Film Independent, a 501(c)(3) non-profit arts organization dedicated to promoting and supporting independent films and filmmakers.  Film Independent produces the acclaimed Spirit Awards, honoring vanguard films that embody innovation and originality.

About AFI-Discovery Channel Silverdocs

AFI-Discovery Channel Silverdocs Documentary Festival is a seven-day internationally recognized event that honors excellence in filmmaking, supports the diverse voices and free expression of independent storytellers and celebrates the power of documentary to improve our understanding of the world. Now in its eighth year, the 2010 festival runs June 21–27 at the AFI Silver Theatre and Cultural Center in the Washington, D.C. area. The 2009 Festival featured 122 films from more than 60 countries and attracted over 27,000 attendees, including the influential audiences of the nation’s capital and media professionals from around the world. The concurrent five-day AFI-Discovery Channel International Documentary Conference presents thought-provoking presentations and engages a diverse group of over 1,000 filmmakers and industry leaders concerned with the future of non-fiction storytelling, production and distribution. For more information, go to Silverdocs.com.

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