Momentum Visuals brings you Side by Side for an Exclusive One-Off Screening in Athens on Sunday, 24 February, 15:30 at Danaos Cinema.
Join Keanu Reeves on a tour of the past and the future of filmmaking. Since the invention of cinema, the standard format for recording moving images has been film. Over the past two decades, a new form of digital filmmaking has emerged, creating a groundbreaking evolution in the medium. ARRI ALEXA, RED ONE, EPICs, DSLRs. Reeves explores the development of cinema and the impact of digital filmmaking via in-depth interviews with Hollywood masters, such as James Cameron, Martin Scorsese, David Fincher, Christopher Nolan, Steven Soderbergh, Robert Rodriguez, Danny Boyle, George Lucas, David Lynch, Wally Pfister ASC, Michael Chapman ASC, Vittorio Storaro ASC, Michael Ballhaus ASC and many more.
Side By Side premiered at the 62nd Berlin International Film Festival. I would like to thank Side By Side's Producer Justin Szlasa as well as Maëlle Guenegues and CAT&Docs.
Side By Side:
Directed by Chris Kenneally.
Director of photography: Chris Cassidy.
Edited by Mike Long & Malcolm Hearn.
Music by: Brendan Ryan and Billy Ryan.
Produced by Keanu Reeves & Justin Szlasa.
Production Company: A Company Films, LLC production Los Angeles, California USA.
Released by Tribeca Film.
Running Time: 98 minutes (including end credit roll).
The One-Off Screening is supported by: Greek Film Centre | MC Manios | RentPhotoVideo | Cinema Mag | This Way Out Productions
Greek audience watching Side by Side in Athens
PRODUCER ’S STATEMENT FROM KEANU REEVES
In 2009, SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE won the academy award for best cinematography. It was a point of inflection for our industry. For the first time, the award for cinematography went to a movie shot almost entirely digitally and not on film. Over the last decade movies shot, edited and distributed digitally have become an acceptable alternative to a photochemical process with over one hundred years of history. At this moment in time, the digital world and the photochemical world exist side by side in the movie industry--from image capture to visual effects to color correction to exhibition. The master cinematographers and directors are now crafting work in both mediums.
I have seen this quiet revolution unfold in front of me on sets, in edit rooms and post- production facilities and on screens around the world. With that in mind I have embarked on a major documentary project directed by Chris Kenneally to explore how this change will impact motion pictures and the way stories are conceived, created and experienced. I am producing the documentary and have hands-on involvement both behind and in front of the camera. The goal is to examine the worlds of film and digital cinema as they exist side by side.
The documentary will investigate the history, process and workflow of both digital and photochemical film creation. We aim to show what artists and filmmakers have been able to accomplish with both film and digital and how their needs and innovations have helped push filmmaking in new directions. Interviews with directors, cinematographers, colorists, scientists, engineers and artists will reveal their experiences and feelings about working with film and digital, where we are now, how we got here and what the future may bring...
CHRIS KENNEALLY (Director)
Writer/Director Chris Kenneally was born in Hartford, Connecticut in 1970. He now lives in Brooklyn, New York and has been working in the film industry since 1998. He wrote, directed and produced the documentary CRAZY LEGS CONTI: ZEN AND THE ART OF COMPETITIVE EATING, which premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival and was broadcast on A&E and Channel-Five (UK).
His latest project is writing and directing the documentary SIDE BY SIDE with producer Keanu Reeves. Through interviews with some of the most renowned directors, cinematographers and artists in the world, the film explores digital technology’s impact on cinema. Chris is currently in pre-production on a narrative feature he wrote about a teenage graffiti artist in Coney Island called GREEN DOLPHIN. He is also developing an episodic series called CHEF—a dark comedy about a struggling cook in New York City’s cutthroat culinary world.
KEANU REEVES (Producer/Presenter)
Raised in Toronto, Reeves performed in various local theater productions and on television before relocating to Los Angeles. His first widely acclaimed role was in Tim Hunter's RIVER’S EDGE. He then starred in Marisa Silver's PERMANENT RECORD, and with Amy Madigan and Fred Ward in THE PRINCE OF PENNSYLVANIA. Yet another turn came when the actor was cast as the innocent Danceny in Stephen Frears' highly praised DANGEROUS LIAISONS, alongside Glenn Close, John Malkovich and Michelle Pfeiffer.
He joined other outstanding casts that year in Ron Howard's comedy, PARENTHOOD, and Lawrence Kasdan's I LOVE YOU TO DEATH. Audiences saw Reeves for the first time as the romantic lead opposite Barbara Hershey in Jon Amiel's TUNE IN TOMORROW, also starring Peter Falk. His additional credits include Tri-Star’s sci-fi thriller, JOHNNY MNEMONIC, Andrew Davis’ action film, CHAIN REACTION, and the dark comedy FEELING MINNESOTA, directed by Steve Baigelman for New Line Cinema.
Recent film credits for Reeves include: HENRY’S CRIME, which he both starred and produced, THE PRIVATE LIVES OF PIPPA LEE written and directed by Rebecca Miller in a supporting role opposite Robin Wright, the Fox film THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL, a remake of the 1951 classic sci-fi film, starring opposite Jennifer Connelly, the cop thriller STREET KINGS opposite Forest Whitaker, THE LAKE HOUSE, a romantic drama starring opposite Sandra Bullock and A SCANNER DARKLY, a highly stylized blend of live-action and animation.
Reeves also starred in the comic adaptation CONSTANTINE opposite Rachel Weisz, the independent film THUMBSUCKER, SOMETHING’S GOTTA GIVE, a romantic comedy in which he starred opposite Jack Nicholson and Diane Keaton as well as the highly anticipated THE MATRIX REVOLUTIONS, the final chapter in the blockbuster THE MATRIX trilogy and the follow-up to THE MATRIX RELOADED.
His long list of credits include HARDBALL, THE GIFT opposite Cate Blanchette for which he received critical acclaim, SWEET NOVEMBER, THE REPLACEMENTS, A WALK IN THE CLOUDS,= the hit thriller, DEVIL’S ADVOCATE, opposite Al Pacino and Charlize Theron; LITTLE BUDDHA, MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING, opposite Denzel Washington, Emma Thompson and Michael Keaton. Reeves was also seen in BRAM STOKER’S DRACULA, MY OWN PRIVATE IDAHO, POINT BREAK, the very popular BILL & TED’S EXCELLENT ADVENTURE and its sequel, BILL & TED’S BOGUS JOURNEY.
JUSTIN SZLASA (Producer)
Justin is a documentary filmmaker. He directed, produced and edited the critically acclaimed feature documentary 759:BOY SCOUTS OF HARLEM which aired nationally on public television stations in 2010. With Keanu Reeves, Justin produced the documentary SIDE BY SIDE about the science, art and impact of digital cinema which premiered at the 2012 Berlinale.
A business background led Justin to filmmaking. He started his career as a management consultant but quit in 1997 to start Hubbard One, a software and services company. Under Justin’s management, Hubbard became an industry leader and was named by Deloitte as one of the fastest growing businesses in the country for three years in a row. In 2004, Thomson- Reuters acquired Hubbard One.
Justin received a bachelor's degree in international relations from Johns Hopkins University, a master's degree in international economic policy from Columbia and has studied filmmaking at New York University and the School of Visual Arts. Justin grew up in Big Flats, New York, currently resides in Paris with his family. He is an Eagle Scout. Currently Justin is developing two documentary projects. One is about digital filmmaking in the developing world and the other is about the challenges of raising children in non-traditional households.
CHRIS CASSIDY (Director of Photography)
Chris Cassidy is a critically acclaimed cinematographer and photographer who has been working in the industry for over twenty years. Based out of Brooklyn, Chris specializes in documentary work and music video. His work has screened at dozens of festivals domestically and abroad. Chris also directed the MTV World Aids Day Film Festival Grand Prize short film titled DEAR BARBRA. Other projects include BIRD STRIKES, CHARGE FOR THAT, OLD SCHOOL, NEW SCHOOL, THE ROCKING HORSE WINNER, and WE WILL GO TO THEM TONIGHT: THE STORY OF THE BOGMEN.
MALCOLM HEARN (Editor)
Malcolm Hearn discovered his passion for film while interviewing a gravedigger for his first documentary, LIBERIA: THE SECRET WAR, in war torn West Africa in 1997. Since then, he has wandered the earth with this passion and continues to work on documentaries that often focus on the arts, culture and political issues.
In 2011 the documentary MAKE, an interwoven story of four American self-taught artists, was officially released. The film, which Hearn directed and edited, was completed with a grant from the American Visionary Museum in Baltimore and was screened at the American Folk Art Museum in New York, the Kohler Arts Center in Wisconsin and the Galerie Objet Trouvé in Paris. David Byrne described the film, “as high and fun and beautifully primal crazy enlightening as it gets.” Hearn’s video work has been exhibited in the New York galleries I-20 and White Columns. He is currently directing WITHOUT ART, a documentary fiscally sponsored by the Brooklyn Arts Council.
MIKE LONG (Editor)
Editor Mike Long was born in Okinawa, Japan and raised outside of San Francisco, California. After being invited to attend the New York Underground Film Festival to in 1999, he moved to New York City full time to pursue film and TV editing.
Over the last decade, he has worked along side directors and producers like Joe Berlinger, Keanu Reeves, Bob Ezrin and Jay-Z, on projects for the likes of PBS, National Geographic, Al Jazeera Kids and NASA. His directing work has been screened in museums and festivals in Mexico City, Amsterdam, New York City, and Los Angeles, and is part of the permanent collection at the Getty Museum in Los Angeles.