Wallabout Movie

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Big thanks to the great crowd that came out to the Brooklyn Fire Proof Stages summer screening of the Best of the Bushwick Film Festival featuring the 2015 Winner WALLABOUT. Thanks to Kweighbaye Kotee, Joseph Willwerth, Kenneth Filmer & the BFP crew!

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More Reviews for @wallaboutmovie!!!

Télérama “Bien des scènes de ce premier film contiennent des idées qui s'entrechoquent pour en créer de nouvelles…Wallabout démontre le talent du réalisateur…il émeut avec l'errance de cette trentenaire qui peine à se réinventer.”

“Many scenes in this first feature contain ideas that collide to create new ones… Wallabout reveals the talent of the director…he moves us with the wanderings of this thirty-something struggling to reinvent herself.” -Pierre-Julien Marest

Le Canard Enchainé “Ce premier film du réalisateur franco-américain Eric McGinty brosse un portrait attachant et tout en nuance d'une jeune femme en plein passage à vide (incarnée par la charismatique Ivy Elrod).”

"This first feature by the Franco-American director Eric McGinty paints an engaging and nuanced portrait of a young woman in a full slump (embodied by the charismatic Ivy Elrod)."                                              -David Fontaine

Le Masque et la Plume - France Inter “Coup de coeur de la semaine” “The favorite film of the week” -Alain Riou

La Grande Parade “Ivy Elrod incarne avec sensibilité Alex, jeune femme pétrie de doutes et d’instabilité affective, Steve Ward s’avère un Franck attendrissant et séduisant. Une histoire touchante filmée en caméra réaliste...Un drame urbain qui ne laissera pas indifférents ceux qui ont la curiosité des destins singuliers…”

“As Alex, Ivy Elrod embodies with sensitivity a young woman steeped in doubt and emotional instability, Steve Ward proves to be an endearing and seductive Frank. A touching story filmed with a realistic eye…An urban drama that will not leave indifferent those who are curious about lives that are out of the ordinary…” -Julie Cadilhac

Culturebox (francetvinfo.fr) “Grâce à l'excellente Ivy Elrod, cette déambulation new-yorkaise se suit agréablement… La jeune comédienne a du chien, de l'énergie, et on a envie de la soutenir alors que le système lui réclame de rentrer dans le rang.”

“Thanks to the excellent Ivy Elrod, this stroll through New York is followed with ease… The young actress has sex appeal, energy, and we want to give her support even though the system wants her to toe the line.”                                  -Pierre-Yves Grenu

Un film indépendant qui est une belle déclaration d’amour à la ville de New York. “An independent film that is a beautiful declaration of love to the city of New York.” -Vocable

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Opening this week!

Another nice review:

“Wallabout by Eric McGinty is proof of originality…a New York independent film that leaves the beaten track…a beautiful stroll in a rather unusual New York.”

“Wallabout d'Eric McGinty fait preuve d'originalité…un film indépendant new-yorkais qui sort des sentiers battus… une belle balade dans un New York assez inhabituel.”

-Philippe Person

http://www.froggydelight.com/article-17371.html

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“Wallabout s’inscrit dans une généreuse ascendance de films indépendants américains émouvants.”

A very good review from @PublikArt

"A bittersweet atmosphere sets the rhythm of this intimate and invigorating urban odyssey."

"Une ambiance douce amère cadence cette odyssée urbaine intime et vivifiante."

-Stanislas Claude

http://publikart.net/wallabout-pepite-independante-americaine/

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Sortie le 13 Avril - PARIS

Bonjour tout le monde! WALLABOUT will have its theatrical première in Paris on April 13, 2016 at the legendary Cinéma Saint-André des Arts. Writer-Director Eric McGinty will be there for Q&A's after the screenings. Hope you can make it. 

Check out the trailer with French subtitles at: http://www.allocine.fr/film/fichefilm_gen_cfilm=245084.html

WALLABOUT sort à Paris le 13 avril 2016 au Cinéma Saint-André des Arts. Les projections seront suivies de rencontres avec le réalisateur, Eric McGinty.

Découvrez la bande-annonce avec sous-titres français:http://www.allocine.fr/film/fichefilm_gen_cfilm=245084.html

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Theatrical Opening on April 13!

WALLABOUT will have its theatrical run in Paris, France

as part of Les Découvertes du St André  at the Cinema St André des Arts.

And our Press Kit is also avail in French!

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WALLABOUT IN PARIS! We are thrilled to announce that Wallabout will have a theatrical release in Paris at the venerable Cinéma Saint-André des Arts.  Starting April 13, 2016! http://cinesaintandre.fr

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WALLABOUT wins BUSHWICK!

Great news! WALLABOUT won the Best Narrative Feature at the 8th Annual Bushwick Film Festival! Many thanks to the Jury and the team at the Bushwick Film Festival for this wonderful award. We are very proud to have been part of this amazing festival.

Congratulations to Ivy R. Elrod, Steve Ward, Jo-anne Lee, Jessica Kahler, Mark Reay, Victoria Guthrie, Michael Wiener and the rest of the cast. Kudos to Mónica-Tezla Solís Vega-Görsün, Christopher Raymond, Vernon Reid, Kaya Doran, Elizabeth Zephyrine Mcdonough, Eric Helmuth, Marta Michaud, Nadya Gurevich and the rest of Wallabout’s fantastic crew.

https://www.facebook.com/WallaboutMovie

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OPENING NIGHT FILM at BUSHWICK FILM FESTIVAL!

We are honored that WALLABOUT has been selected as the Opening Night Film for the Bushwick Film Festival on October 1st! Truly thrilled that WALLABOUT will play at a festival in Brooklyn, the borough where it all began. And especially in Bushwick, where a lot of the film takes place. Looking forward to seeing you at the red carpet reception/opening, screening, and Q&A with Writer/Director Eric McGinty. Get your tickets here:  

http://bushwickfilmfestival.ticketleap.com/wallabout/

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WALLABOUT at CANNES!

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Hello To All That? Ordinary New York & Wallabout

Jordan Dependahl, a Brooklyn-based writer, ruminates on Eric McGinty’s feature film WALLABOUT. 

In her infamous essay which bids an exhausted adieu to the city that never sleeps, Joan Didion writes, “That was the year, my twenty-eighth, when I was discovering that not all of the promises would be kept, that some things are in fact irrevocable and that it had counted after all, every evasion and every procrastination, every mistake, every word, all of it. That is what it was all about, wasn’t it? Promises? Now when New York comes back to me it comes in hallucinatory flashes, so clinically detailed that I sometimes wish that memory would effect the distortion with which it is commonly credited.”

Didion wasn’t alone in her frustrations and still isn’t, with 2014 a record year for NYC-living complaint. (Don’t quote it.) This isn’t an easy place to live. This isn’t an easy place to do more than live. It’s never been dubbed nor deemed otherwise. The promises are great but the returns can tend to be few, and lately there’s been an impressive cropping of personal essays and films, most recently the new indie flick, Wallabout, that remarkably admit as much - a collective stripping of New York’s glamour in terms of those promises and their actual payoff. Everyone seems to be getting tired of even the ironic glamour of surviving here as an artist despite the grit and shit, literal and figurative, and the self-congratulatory badge of honor one usually receives for doing so.

Rents have risen astronomically, Manhattan is starting to feel like the biggest mall in America, and Brooklyn becomes a parody of itself more and more each day. Conditions are strange. But with all of the critique, with the daily influx of fresh blood / new residents, comes an inevitable acceptance of reality. A place is only as great as the people who comprise it and maybe it’s healthy to accept how human we all really are, after all. We don’t believe in photoshop anymore, right? What made New York feel and look and seem so great before was maybe just in the editing, just what the handful of the coolest voices were telling us, the ones who found their golden ticket of success. Well, it’s 2015 and everyone else is speaking up. Cue the truer, or more realistic, or most common, New York story.

In Noah Baumbach and Greta Gerwig’s film, Frances Ha, viewers never get to see the protagonist’s New York dreams come true, be they personal or professional, because they don’t. None of them. We, along with Frances, come to terms with her mediocrity as a dancer and end up happy, at least, to see our charming klutz of a lead find her way into more responsible pastures. It isn’t the story of someone who “makes it.” It’s the story of someone who makes it despite, who moves on with an accepted amendment to self. Similarly, in the Coen brothers’ film, Inside Llewyn Davis, we watch as a solo musician in 1961 makes one hasty, ill-tempered decision after another, manifesting a destiny of repetitive failures for himself which by then end, we hope, he finally breaks. Like Frances, Llewyn’s skills aren’t viewed as marketable enough to endorse. He doesn’t totally have what “it takes.” Both Frances’ and Llewyn’s golden tickets are withheld, or, more realistically, were never meant for them in the first place.

On a no less poignant screen, Eric McGinty recently debuted his first full-length feature, Wallabout, which uncovers even more shitty city realities to the bare bones light. The film continues the trend of failure and dissatisfaction in New York, and the things the “city” can give and take away from a person. In this case, Alex, a malcontent young filmmaker, returns to New York after ten arguably wasted years in Paris. We meet Alex as the picture of irresponsibility, albeit one that is beautiful, modelesque. There are several reasons why Alex’s story sticks out from the multitudes of similar homeless, jobless others, however. By the end of the film, we get the impression, even if we do not see it from the portion of her life that we view on screen, that Alex, played by Ivy Elrod, is not ordinary, her work not mediocre. She is talented. She is strikingly beautiful, and this is partially where trouble finds her. Alex’s “wasted” time in Paris is charged to an affair with a world-renowned French filmmaker. The affair ends with her indirect accusations of his domestic violence, bribery, self-promotion sans actual work, and generally unattractive self-importance. When things are still good between them, we witness a blurry scene in which Jacques examines pictures of them and complains he looks old. Alex teasingly affirms that indeed everyone is only ever looking at her. Jacques laughs and then murmurs sarcastically, “Yeah, everyone’s looking at you. That might be the reason why you’re here.” Alex laughs in return, confident in their deeper connection. Cut to the future, when Jacques is still being lauded for his genius while Alex is looked at with suspicion and condescension from those formerly in her film circle, and those words become more ugly for their blatant declaration of Alex’s singular value to Jacques in the first place.

Wallabout is yet another film about storing one’s work and worth wisely, carefully, and consciously, and an increasingly relevant tale about what happens after you do all the “right” things and they don’t do anything for you. It’s a more common New York story than anyone would like to admit, and its nuance of wasted real talent adds a whole new layer of relatability to the misfortunes one can expect to meet. This is New York, where dreams are made! Alicia Keys’ voice rings more bitter than true now than ever. 


At the end of Wallabout (SPOILER ALERT!), we receive the divine gift of a “4 Years Later” cut-to, and there we find Alex, post-successful memoir, standing in Wallabout, Brooklyn. She explains to her friend that, much like the Prison Ship Martyr’s Monument behind them, her memoir enabled her to “put all the pieces of her messed up life in a safe place.” Bravo, Alex. All of her loose ends tie up into a rather ideal bow, but it isn’t without struggle, and it wasn’t without laying a major dream to rest. Throughout the film we witness the fallout and continuation of Alex’s personal “pathetic” era, and perhaps, through the process, can find the space to accept our own. To admit our own.

There’s a scene in the beginning of the film in which Alex is walking through a street fair, leaving voicemail after unreturned voicemail, looking for a new place to live. Just when she is coming to terms with her sudden current homelessness, we hear someone in the background performing a brassy rendition of the Star Spangled Banner. We stare at Alex’s fearful face as she closes her phone in defeat, and we hear, “…AND THE HOOOME OF THE BRRAAAAVE.” And that, out of everything, is possibly the truest sentiment about New York and it’s people. They are hopeful, and therefore they are brave.

More so than the acceptance of some rigid divide between the talented vs. talentless, these stories are due their time in the spotlight for their uncomfortable honesty about the struggles experienced by anyone making anything. New York was and is where many continue to flock to meet that struggle head on, and the doubts can be tremendous. But, like Alex, it’s what one does with that doubt that counts.

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WALLABOUT's writer/director Eric McGinty featured in New York Minute Magazine

NYMM: Filmmaker Eric McGinty

By

Hope Forman

In September, I covered the Beacon Independent Film Festival which screened a feature film called Wallabout by writer-director Eric McGinty. He and the producer much appreciated our coverage, and we at NYMM decided it would be a great idea to highlight the up-and-coming filmmaker who has made his home in New York for over 20 years.

Eric got his start in “the trenches of the film industry” as a crew member, starting as a production assistant after college and eventually moving up to first assistant director. He was born in Washington, D.C. - spending some of his childhood in the Maryland suburbs - yet also spending many years in Paris, France, his mother’s native city.

Personally, I find it interesting that filmmaking generally comes from a place of truth in some form. Eric’s journey has proven that with his first feature as pieces of his protagonist’s story reflect that of his own experience. In Wallabout, Eric has found a way to show the struggle of an artist originally from the suburbs, now living in New York who has run out of money after spending time away in France. 

The lead is a female named Alex who encapsulates a good amount of creatives who come to this city for an escape from their small-town lives. It reveals the many ups and downs that are quite real to life for people trying to succeed in the film industry, often having to make a living outside of it. It also impresses the reality that there are many New Yorkers trying to make it in any industry who have found themselves in a desperate financial place, despite having a college degree.

Eric divulged that raising money for films has always been the hardest part for him. Luckily, he was able to create Wallabout with the help of friends and the city of New York, despite being a small production. Because of his vision and resources, he was able to shoot in many locations all over the city - rather than being confined to just a few.

In addition, a big source of the inspiration he gains from working in New York is being able to collaborate with a culturally diverse team. He stated that, “At times, it’s a cosmopolitan mess, but it’s the strength of this city.” 

Eric is also working on two upcoming projects, one set in upstate NY and one in Paris. His current hope is to “depict the world we live in today,” which he believes will lead to a story that is at the same time “universal.”

He also has a place in his heart for those who are displaced or overlooked as well as a passion for historical and period pieces. Furthermore, Eric recognizes the “lack of portrayal of the older demographic” in the industry - especially in displaying women over 40 - and wants to be able to include that in his work. 

Among the many filmmakers out there who are consistently depicting popular trends and obvious stereotypical stories, it’s refreshing to know a filmmaker actively working towards sharing the story of those easily overlooked, especially in a land of well-to-do socialites like New York.

When I asked Eric to reveal his favorite part about his career, his response was, “meeting people from all walks and places of life.” His hope is to continue creating stories with a global reach as well as inspire people to think about things differently while still entertaining them and touching their emotions. Eric has also been fortunate to work with his wife and producer of Wallabout, Anna Sang Park, as well as his daughter Oona, who played a significant role in the feature. 

A great piece of advice Eric left me with that he believes has helped further his career is, “In the face of adversity, perseverance is the only solution.” 

You can see Wallabout at a special holiday screening on December 22nd at 8 p.m. at Videology, 308 Bedford Avenue in Brooklyn. Visit videology.info for more info.

http://www.newyorkminutemag.com/Nymm-filmmaker-eric-mcginty/

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Thrilled to announce our New England Premiere of #wallaboutmovie at the Northampton International Film Festival! WALLABOUT will be @NoHoIFF on Friday, October 10th, 2014 at 4PM!

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Winner of Best Personal Narrative Award!

WALLABOUT is thrilled to be awarded the Best Personal Narrative at the Manhattan FIlm Festival! Big thanks to @ManhattanFF and everyone who attended the full house screening @QuadCinema. Next stop: #newhopefilmfestival !

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Steve Ward "Frank" and Jo-anne Lee "Jenny" at MFF.

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Festival news....

We will be screening at the Philadelphia Independent Film Festival on June 27 and New Hope Film Festival on July 31. Please email to tell us you are going!

John Proctor, a Brooklyn writer for A CHILD GROWS IN BROOKLYN has written about WALLABOUT - check it out below!

Resident Dad: In Conversation with husband/wife filmmaking team Anna Sang Park and Eric McGinty

By John Proctor

I recently received an email from Anna Sang Park about the film project she’s finishing with her husband Eric McGinty, titled Wallabout after the industrial district between DUMBO and Williamsburg. She’s the producer and he’s the director, and the film is currently in the late stages of post-production.

I’ve been having some wonderful conversations with Anna and Eric over the last week about children (their four-year-old daughter Oona is in a few scenes of the film), art, making a living in the city, even death (Anna had seen a recent post on my blog about my grandmother’s death, and recounted their own experiences losing family and explaining these things to our children). And of course, we talked about their film. They had plenty to say, but perhaps the best summation was, “Wallabout is a film inspired by the idea of family—relationships with parents and children, the theme of the film: to survive—and especially to survive in New York City—you need love.”

Wallabout, while essentially a character study, also seems to be both a meditation on family and a love letter to our esteemed borough. Can you go further into what the film means to you, and your motivations in making it?

We started Veronique Films, our production company, a year after our daughter Oona was born. The company is named after Oona’s middle name. We started Veronique Films with the commitment that we were going to make personal films.  Although we had made short films together and written scripts together, we had yet to pull off a feature film of our own, which was our dream.

We met as crewmembers on the set of an award-winning indie film called Sunday. We share cinematic sensibilities and knew we wanted to tell stories together from the beginning. It was apparent from the beginning that we loved films that were set in New York, especially films from the 70’s, and with the varied backgrounds of Eric growing up with a French mother, living in Paris, France for many years and Anna, born and raised in Seoul, South Korea until she was eight years of age, New York made sense. And as Brooklynites – Brooklyn was calling us in cinematic terms and in our film, Brooklyn is more than a backdrop – we like to think of the borough as a character in the film.

We were always attracted to NYC, like millions of others.  NYC, as tough as it is, is also a city that embraces outsiders. Despite the fact that the Huffington Post has recently branded NYC the “income inequality capital of America,” it’s a city that makes you feel like you have opportunities and if you have the drive you can find your own ‘family’ here. And that’s what Wallabout, our film, is about.  It’s about a woman who comes back to Brooklyn after being away for a long time, and although she feels like an outsider with a lot of baggage – she stubbornly refuses to leave, makes it her home again, and finds love.

Even though we live in a time when it feels like the middle class is being pushed out of the city, and educated young people are underemployed or unemployed, Alex, our protagonist, persists in making Brooklyn her home. We wanted to tell a story of one woman who is a small representative of our times.

You are right in saying that Wallabout is a meditation on family. Not only is Alex at an age where she is under pressure to become a mother, like many of her friends around her, but she’s also dealing with an ailing father and a stepmother with whom she has fallen out of favor. In addition, she is still grieving the death many years before of her gay half-brother who was a victim of a hate crime. And, finally, Alex has just come out of a ten-year relationship with a famous European filmmaker. Even though this failed partnership was not exactly family-like, it has made her re-examine the meaning of family. In making Wallabout we, as a family unit of our own, found a way to continue to dedicate ourselves to our craft and that’s also what this film is about.

You both have a four-year-old daughter, which I admit, as the father of a four-year-old daughter, puts me in your corner. Would you care to discuss how your own experiences as parents have shaped the work you do, both practically and in terms of thematic influence?

When you and an Associate Editor of the film are pushing two sets of strollers up Kent Avenue – one stroller with a three year old in it and another stroller literally filled up with hard drives in pelican cases (hard drives with your film on it!) – you know this is low budget filmmaking and parenting on display! Practically, we are practicing the art of juggling…the art of parenting and filmmaking on a daily basis.

Some days, as challenging as it seems, things work out really smoothly because we as a unit have found a rhythm.  But on other days, it’s incredibly tough – because filmmaking has deadlines like everything else, takes up a huge amount of resources, time, money, and energy. But at the same time, it’s a craft that allows you to collaborate with so many people and we can see how that is already having an effect on our daughter.  She sees that ‘work’ is not one set of duties – ‘work’ is many, many different things – work could be with cameras on set, work could be editing on a computer, work is listening to music, work is sitting down and paying bills, work is a lot of writing and writing and writing, reading and watching and re-watching.

But being a parent shapes you daily as a filmmaker or an artist because that’s part of your identity.  And also there’ s the element that you want to make something to share with your child – perhaps our daughter won’t appreciate the whole film today (Wallabout is a drama for adults, after all), but someday, she will hopefully appreciate the work of her parents. And, in the meantime, she already enjoys watching the scenes where she appears in the film. Obviously, we are biased, but she’s a natural.

Anna’s father passed away twelve years ago, Eric’s father passed away in 1994 and last year Eric also lost his mother.  You examine the life-death cycle in a different way, and naturally ask yourselves – where does art fit in? It obviously fits in everywhere, because filmmaking is part of life for us.  A few years ago Anna was talking to D.A. Pennebaker, the legendary documentarian in his late 80’s and still making films! And he said he used to park his babies under the steenbecks (flatbed editing machines) before everything got digital. That sums up filmmaking and parenting – babies under edit machines. :-)

Thematically, Wallabout’s protagonist Alex wrestles with similar issues. How does one maintain a creative career telling personal stories and survive in this world, in this city, one of the most expensive and demanding in the world? How does one start a family in these circumstances? It’s a tough proposition that is constantly being reevaluated and Wallabout won’t give you the answer or the magic bullet. What you’ll see in Wallabout is Alex’s determination and persistence despite adversity. She has a checkered past, is plagued with financial problems, experiences plenty of social hiccups, but she soldiers on.