About Me
Many documentary filmmakers fancy themselves as the beaming lighthouse upon the rocky coast, warning sailors of impending danger. Jacob From Odessa Films is the rainsoaked and windblown curious visitor shining a cheap flashlight up through the structure's cavernous interior to determine who flips the switch.
From their committee tables and laptops they create the image of the unwashed masses that will remain. To be sure there have been decades of amazing work by dedicated artisits, bringing light to subjects not explored by the viewership-centric lawyer-fearing Hollywood types. Unfortunately, most modern film has been filtered through the lens of the upper classes, and this obviously has implications for how we are portrayed and by default view ourselves.
Name one positive or even remotely realistic portrayal of trailer park life.
Much of our shared history is told either by giant media conglomerates or private art funders, both of whom have broader considerations than the story itself. Both groups have their politics, desired messages and own requirements to either profit financially from the artisits product, or simply to use it for their own self gratifying political ambitions, adding another "common wo/man" story to their list of funded projects.
Only very recently, within the last few years, has an artist been able to control the total production of a film. For the first time we can direct all aspects of our product- capture, edit, distribute. This has of course been possible since at least the late 1980's with the advent of camcorders, but only recently has the process become affordable, high quality, and even more importantly, fast and efficient for the independent filmmaker. In other words, as artists we not only control the means of creating and distributing our films, but can be competitive and timely in the marketplace.
The dream of Karl Marx, that the worker control the means of production, has been delivered. Ironically, through capitalism...
Here at Jacob From Odessa films our focus is on the "untold story", but from the perspective of the forgotten. We look about at those we share our lives with and transform their words or actions into digital chapters within our collective cultural history. We are not the film company that is a collection of well meaning artisits fresh out of film school, searching for a heart wrenching tale. Rather we are the bottom class, telling the tales normally wiped out of the historical record; we simply record our surroundings. We have no party affiliation, although you may find that some of our material fits your political persuasion. We document and share the talents, stories and perspectives not always seen in the "mainstream media".
Currently we are producing a full length feature film about the December 2007 flood disaster in Vernonia, Oregon. The anticipated release date is the summer of 2009, with a trailer next spring.
We love to promote unique performance artisits and models, thus you will find firedancing and neo-tribal performers amongst our collection, alongside short films of photographers creating digital beauty with their muses.
We are continuing to develop short films that are comedic in nature while being critical of cultural trends, political nonsense and religious zealotry. Stay tuned for many more of these!
You may notice that our group utilizes and promotes the Prelinger Archives, and we hope you take the time to enjoy some of our more bizarre film experiments with these relics.
Thank you for stopping to take a look, we hope you enjoy your stay!
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