Work in progress

Jessica Oreck with Sloan Foundation's Doron Weber Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze

The Tribeca Film Institute and Alfred P Sloan Foundation Works-In-Progress Reading had Paul Schneider directing readings by Victor Slezak, Dascha Polanco, Tom Lipinski, Britne Olford and Marshall Factora of Emily Lobsenz's Invisible Islands; Eric Talbach, Olford and Lipinski of Thor Klein's Adventures of a Mathematician, and a clip from Jessica Oreck's One Man Dies A Million Times.

Jessica, the director of The Vanquishing Of The Witch Baba Yaga and cameraperson for David Byrne's Contemporary Color, directed by Bill Ross IV and Turner Ross, spoke with me at the cocktail reception. Amy Hobby, producer of Rachel Israel's Keep the Change, Ferne Pearlstein's The Last Laugh, and Treva Wurmfeld's Sam Shepard doc, Shepard & Dark, is the Executive Director of the Tribeca Film Institute.

Jessica Oreck's One Man Dies A Million Times at NeueHouse Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze

Sloan Foundation Public Understanding of Science, Technology and Economics Director Doron Weber introduced the Tribeca Film Institute Sloan Filmmaker Fund grantees works-in-progress program at NeueHouse, off Madison Square Park, on a rainy afternoon in New York City during the Tribeca Film Festival.

Anne-Katrin Titze: Is this the first time you show a work in progress?

Jessica Oreck: Yeah, I've never shown a work in progress before. I'm sort of guarded by nature about my process. So this is going to be definitely a step outside my comfort zone to show something that's not polished, not finished. There's still much work to be done. It feels a little bit that I'm jinxing it myself. I hope that's not true.

AKT: No, that's not true. People are putting out good energy here. Can you tell me a little bit about the project?

JO: Yes. It's sort of a wild thing. Coming from a documentary background, to me it's part documentary because it's a true story. The narration in the film is excerpts from journals and diaries written by women that survived this event but the story is actually set in the future. The film is set in the future.

AKT: Set in the future based on an event in the past?

Jessica Oreck was a cameraperson for David Byrne's Contemporary Color Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze

JO: Yes, so it's an interesting mix for me between truth and fiction. In a way, I think it's almost more true because it's applicable. Taking the story out of context and putting it in a context that I think people today can actually relate to. At least that's what I'm hoping.

AKT: Time and tradition and nostalgia have very much been the subject in The Vanquishing Of The Witch Baba Yaga. Now you are going in the opposite direction, mirroring this look back to the future?

JO: Yeah, I think in a way it's similar because it's also a timeless space. I don't put a label on what year this is, but it is an alternative reality. That could be the future or could be the recent past. It could be next year. The moment of timelessness I thought was similar to Baba Yaga.

AKT: I also noticed your name in the credits for David Byrne's Contemporary Color.

JO: I was just one of the cameras for Bill and Turner [the Ross Brothers]. It was a blast, we had a good time.

AKT: What did you mostly shoot?

NeueHouse - Tribeca Film Institute and Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Works-In-Progress Reading and Cocktail reception Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze

JO: I was - like they know me for - I was mostly process. So a lot of times I was like security guards, and the concession workers and the ticket takers and people that had the same job repetitive every night. For them this was just yet another thing happening at Barclays. That was my part. You know, I love those repetitive actions. I love sort of the ritual of motions.

AKT: Any rituals in this project? Any myth connections that you already have or that you are planning to make?

JO: Not myth connections necessarily but certainly the film is about every day - I don't want to say tedium, because that makes this film sound really boring - but just the really small moments of every day. And how those add up to create something that's so much bigger than what you think they are.

The 16th edition of the Tribeca Film Festival presented by AT&T runs through April 30.