December 10th, 2015

I've just wrapped my final day on NEIGHBORS, a fantastic first feature film from the phenomenally talented, up-and-coming director duo of brothers Miki and Yoni Benyamini.

Here a quick synopsis: 

Neighbors follows the stories of ten different characters throughout a single day of their lives in New York City. Like the city itself, the film doesn't stop for very long - moving from a deli in The Bronx, to a high-rise in Manhattan, to the Coney Island boardwalk in Brooklyn. From Tamek, a Polish immigrant working at his janitorial job, to Malik, a realtor by day and an aspiring actor by night, to Justine, a Producer who shuttles about the city, putting together a news panel at a day's notice. Their encounters are fleeting and their impressions incomplete. Their days are informed by the constant flux of traffic and the multitudes of people entering and leaving their orbit.

And while our ten neighbors lead basically disparate, unconnected lives, their joint experience in and of the city becomes a unifying force, weaving a tapestry of their stories. Their professional and personal challenges, their self-reflection while in transit, their brief encounters with people of various walks of life - all conjoin to inform an urban experience that is at times profound and resonant and at times a mere cumulation of fleeting moments which simply pass us by on our way. 

I play one of the ten lead characters, a sound-man named Jacob Holloway. While my business is sound, my performance is entirely silent, allowing me to explore my character and tell his story using only non-verbal communication. It was a wonderful challenge, and one that I've been seeking for quite some time (to play en entirely silent character.) Ever since seeing THE COOK, THE THIEF, HIS WIFE AND HER LOVER where one of the central characters is silent for much of the movie, I've been drawn to the powerful potential of conveying meaning through silence. 

It also helped that the crew was, simply put, a dream-team of passionate and talented artists all working towards an artistic goal, and I can't wait to see the finished film, which is tentatively scheduled to be completed by the end of 2016.