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Interview with writer/co-director Joshua Cody
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Paul
Bozymowski, Director/Cinematographer Paul Bozymowski is a New York based director and cinematographer. He attended Northwestern University where he developed a multi-disciplined approach to filmmaking by directing, shooting, and editing his own films, and by experimenting with multimedia performance and presentation, as well as theatrical directing. In 1998, he joined the entertainment powerhouse @radical.media. As a director, he’s examined the impact of climate change on three separate occasions for Conservation International, the most recent of which featured a striking interview with Vice President Al Gore. His documentary on the closing of the Broadway musical Rent was called “marvelous” by the Washington Post. His most recent documentary film, In The Heights: Chasing Broadway Dreams, premiered on PBS’ Great Performances series in 2009. His first narrative feature The Standard Man with filmmaking partner Joshua Cody is hitting the festival circuit in 2009. In his role as a cinematographer, Paul has participated in a multitude of projects, including Iconoclasts for the Sundance Channel directed by Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky, the feature documentary Brotherhood directed by Academy Award nominated Lilibet Foster, and The Victoria's Secret Fashion Show on CBS. Joshua Cody, Director/Writer/Music Joshua Cody studied film and music at Northwestern University (bachelor's degree) and Columbia University (master's) and music and technology at the L’Institut de Recherche et Coordination Acoustique / Musique (IRCAM), Paris, France. After college, he wrote and conducted modern concert music. In 2005, his orchestral song L’Histoire d’eau was sung by Grammy Award-winning soprano Susan Narucki at Carnegie Hall; he conducted his score to Yonggang Wu’s celebrated silent film The Goddess at the Film Society of Lincoln Center; and he conducted his electric guitar concerto Black Fire in Central Park, a collaboration with French artist Pierre Huyghe. The film of the event, A Journey That Wasn't, was seen by tens of thousands at the Whitney Biennale, the Tate Modern in London, and the Musee de l’art moderne in Paris. His music is avaiable on Wergo (Germany). His modern music group that he founded with composer Kirk Noreen, Sospeso, launched by a gift from artist/musician Yoko Ono Lennon, produced many concerts and received many awards, including the prestigious 2003 DNA Award from Arts International; three consecutive Fodorprizes from the Siemens Foundation, Munich; grants from National Endowment for the Arts, Rockefeller Brothers Foundation, Mellon Foundation, New York State Council on the Arts, Cary Trust, and more. Sospeso found acclaim among the public and the critical establishment. The New York Times wrote of one of the performances "occasionally there comes along a concert that takes you by surprise and starts you listening all over again." Joshua stepped down from his role as artistic director of Sospeso in 2006 but continues to act as advisor. He’s completing his doctoral degree in music at Columbia University. A fellow of the faculty, he has studied film directing in masterclasses there with Wim Wenders, Oliver Assayas, and others, and he currently teaches music history at Columbia. His first short film, The Kiss, a collaboration with Paul Bozymowski, was praised by the New York Times as “alluring,” and his first feature as screenwriter/co-director, The Standard Man, is hitting the festival circuit in 2009. Jonathan Gray, Legal A partner in the entertainment law firm of Gray Krauss LLP, Jonathan Gray advises the production. He has served as legal council on dozens of studio and independent feature films including The Station Agent (2003), Teeth (2007) and the Nicolas Cage thriller Bangkok Dangerous. Gray, a former chair of the New York State Bar Association Committee on Motion Pictures, is also an award-winning producer of independent feature films. Jeff Pucillo (Ryan) is a native New Yorker currently in production on his second feature film collaboration with Cuban director Miguel Coyula. Their previous collaboration was the multiple award-winning feature Red Cockroaches. Jeff plays the son of Vincent Pastore (The Sopranos) in the feature film Spy, currently in post-production. Other recently completed feature films are The Now (supporting lead) and Running Down West. He has also performed in many of the major New York television shows, including Law & Order: Criminal Intent, Rescue Me and the CBS program Love Monkey. On stage, he has performed in readings, workshops and full productions at Abingdon Theatre, Adobe Theatre, Arclight Theatre, AMAS Theatre Lab, Blue Heron Arts Center, Ensemble Studio Theatre, Lark Theatre, Naked Angels, New Georges, and many more. In 1999 he performed at the Harold Clurman Theatre in the one-man show Felicien entirely in French. Jeff is represented by uberagent Meg Pantera. Jenah Pelley (Erica) has worked most recently with Italian director and actor Dario D’ambrosi in his New York feature production The Pathology of Christ, which was promptly accepted to the Venice Film Festival. She has also had the distinct pleasure of working with Terrence Mann in his off Broadway venture, Hidden Voices, along with choreographer Christopher D’amboise of the American Ballet Theatre, and writer/director Matthew Bennett. She later collaborated with Bennett in the making of a film based on her play Me In Ernest. Nurit Monacelli (Jennifer) has credits which include the title role in Strindberg’s Miss Julie (the culture project/NY Fringe Festival), The Merchant of Venice (American Repertory Theater, directed by Andrei Serban), A Midsummer Nights Dream (Riverside Shakespeare Theatre), Brecht’s Caucasian Chalk Circle (Shakespeare Festival of New Jersey) and On Golden Pond (South Carolina Repertory Company). She has also performed with the New York City based companies International Wow and The Rude Mechanicals. Film and television credits include All My Children (ABC) and As the World Turns (CBS), as well as numerous independent films. She received her MFA in Acting from American Repertory Theatre/Moscow Art Theatre Institute at Harvard University. Alexis Clemente (Anita) is a native of New Jersey. She studied at the Fashion Institute of Technology before subsequent studies at NYU. She began her acting training with Alice Spivak, and she is currently taking master classes with Jennifer Gelfer. Alexis has performed onstage in William Goins’ The Mashugena Bagel, among many others, as well as in numerous features, and she is also active as a commercial and print model. Nathan Dean (Andy) is a familiar presence on television’s Law & Order, and recent films include Thick as Thieves (1999) with Alec Baldwin, the 2000 comedy Company Man, and Along Came Polly, where he shared a hilarious scene with Ben Stiller. P. J. Sosko (Zach) has been praised for his theatrical work in New York and beyond. Feature films include Unbridled (2005), The Reunion (2004), Company K (2004), Jane (1999), and True Confessions of a Sushi Addict (1999). He has also appeared on Law & Order: Criminal Intent. Born in New York’s Spanish Harlem, Izzy Ruiz (Mikey) was protected as a child by guardian angels that included several notable gangs, including the Savage Nomads, the Savage Immortals, and the Savage Skulls. He attended Ithaca and Baruch Colleges, majoring in business administration but also acting. He then became a police officer, going undercover in the narcotics division of the Queens TNT unit. His experience and background helped him rise quickly within the unit, and he began working in The Bronx, Manhattan, and Brooklyn, and was awarded the Medal of Valor for an incident that nearly cost him his life. His real-life undercover roles - as a white collar business¬man, a junkie, an organized crime leiutenant, a small business owner, a city inspector, a welfare recipient, and many others - trained him as an actor. A chance meeting with actor and former cop David Zayas (Oz) led to Izzy’s acceptance in the William Esper Studio, where he studied with Esper. |