20 Ways
Â’20 WaysÂ’
A comic satire.
Winner of the New Mexico New Visions & Panavision production Awards for 2011. ‘20 Ways’ is a social justice comic satire.
Hymie, his family and their horse, are travelling along a country road when they are stopped by Marc, a border guard. Filmed in New Mexico, USA, our story was inspired by a US lawyerÂ’s advice on how to spot illegal immigrants. The story opens with a Jewish family fleeing 1930Â’s Europe but this is a story with modern echoes along the US border and globally, in several present day European countries.
Social commentary may be a significant component, but itÂ’s the gorgeous, humorous, absurd, emotional visual strokes that tell our story. Shot on Super 16 film we spent a lot of time looking at B&W 1930s German photography and printing processes to inform our use of lenses and to help create a cinematic look. Gone are the sharp high definition images we are so used to. Instead we have a much softer look and feel to the film using period lenses to create a drifting focus. I wanted the audience to feel as if they are looking back at something which is in fact very contemporary.
The filmÂ’s visual style and performance are matched by an original music score composed by Stanley KubrickÂ’s award winning composer, Gerald Fried (Paths of Glory, The Killing). Written & directed by International award winner Peter M. Kershaw the film was produced largely through crowd funding.