Ashley Connor
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Web Series Trailer Watch: Let Me Die a Nun
A team of notables are behind a forthcoming independent web series about “the opposing but intersecting trajectories of a lesbian soon-to-be nun (Ana Fabrega), her Jewish stalker (Carl Kranz), and the object of her affection (Hari Nef).” In addition to the actors above, the cast includes Eleanore Pienta (star of Filmmaker favorite See You Next Tuesday) and 2015 25 New Face Zia Anger, and the series is written, directed and edited by Sarah Salovaara (the short Google Ambien and also a former Filmmaker Contributing Web Editor). It’s produced by Rachel Wolther — whose Snowy Bing Bong was a delirious highlight […]
by Scott Macaulay on Jul 11, 2017 -
Tribeca 2017: Five Questions for Flames DP Ashley Connor
Flames marks cinematographer Ashley Connor’s third feature collaboration with filmmaker, artist and performer Josephine Decker — she previously lensed Decker’s Thou Wast Mild and Lovely and Butter on the Latch — but this time there’s a twist. Decker “co-directed for a long time” (see the film and you’ll understand) with director Zefrey Thowell, and the movie bracingly, explicitly details the emotional, sexual and psychosexual gyrations of their turbulent eight-month relationship. The pair would often call Connor over to film a recreation of something that happened to them just a day earlier — like a bout of lovemaking leading to a […]
by Scott Macaulay on Apr 25, 2017 -
Stop Making Sense: Talking Music Videos at IFP Film Week
At today’s IFP Film Week panel, “Musical Approach to Visual Storytelling,” filmmakers Zia Anger, Celia Rowlson-Hall, Ashley Connor and David Svedosh will discuss their varying approaches to the medium of music videos; collaborations with the likes of Jenny Lewis, Angel Olsen, Mitski, MGMT, and Elliott Moss; and the benefits of working in a pipeline that’s a bit more streamlined than feature filmmaking. Prior to the discussion, the four shared a few thoughts on the experimental tendencies of the medium, its release strategies and much more. As a filmmaker, music videos can afford the opportunity to experiment with images and sound […]
by Sarah Salovaara on Sep 18, 2016 -
TIFF 2016: Five Questions for Tramps Writer/Director Adam Leon
Adam Leon’s fleet-footed Gimme the Loot was a giddy discovery out of SXSW in 2012. Winner of the Grand Jury Prize there, it went on to Cannes’ Un Certain Regard and announced Leon as a promising new voice in American independent film, one who married specificity of character and location with keen storytelling chops. Four years later, Leon has made a follow-up feature, Tramps, which premieres in Toronto in the Contemporary World Cinema section. Once more, there’s a man and a woman — in this case, rising stars Callum Turner and Grace Van Patten — and a peripatetic caper. Here, […]
by Scott Macaulay on Sep 9, 2016 -
The Reagans and Sex Parties: Recapping Female Sexual Fantasies in Film
“So many fantasies are fear based, so I can understand why you’d want Ronald Reagan shoving cake in your mouth,” said Amy Seimetz. She was responding to a particular fantasy from an anonymous audience member after a screening of Josephine Decker’s Thou Wast Mild and Lovely, nearing the midway point in its one week run at the IFP Media Center. Seimetz and Decker, along with Mild and Lovely d.p. Ashley Connor, Ry Russo-Young, Emily Carmichael, and Celia Rowlson-Hall were all in attendance for an interactive panel on Female Sexual Fantasies in Film. The filmmakers began with a discussion that centered on the […]
by Sarah Salovaara on Nov 17, 2014 -
“We Have to Make a Creepy Movie in These Woods”: Director Josephine Decker and DP Ashley Connor
Since premiering at the Berlin International Film Festival in February, Butter on the Latch and Thou Wast Mild & Lovely, the remarkably assured debut feature-length films from Josephine Decker (one of the 25 New Faces of Film of 2013), have received much praise and bewilderment throughout their international festival circuit run. It speaks to Thou Wast‘s uncategorizable nature that it played at the celebrity-touted AFI Fest, the indie stalwart BAMcinemaFest, and the heavily-genre-oriented Fantasia International Film Festival. Experimental narratives with an intense focus on the frightening extremes of sexuality, the musically-inclined films feature a remarkable blend of both visual and literary poetry; everyone from Onur Tukel to […]
by Erik Luers on Nov 13, 2014
