A contrasting view of new world cinema
UNITED STATES | 94 minutes | 2015
Johnny, a young man living on the Pine Ridge Indian reservation, is facing a dilemma. He’s just about to graduate and has to decide between leaving home to find happiness in a better place and staying behind to support his family. Moving to Los Angeles would give him an opportunity to find a job and make a clean break from his violent, criminal life at home, but would also mean abandoning his 13-year-old sister, Jashaun. News of their father’s sudden death only makes the decision more difficult. Screened at this year’s Sundance festival and as part of the Directors’ Fortnight at Cannes, Songs My Brothers Taught Me is strongly evocative of Terrence Malick’s work. Zhao, who spent four years on the reservation making the film, weaves flights of lyricism together with an intoxicating sweetness, and like Malick, uses wide open American spaces to set the stage for this intimate portrait of a marginalized community. Peter Golub’s melancholy score lends an additional tender note to the film, which also introduces the natural talents of newcomers John Reddy and Jashaun St. John.
Chloé is a Beijing-born, US-based filmmaker. Her feature debut "SONGS MY BROTHERS TAUGHT ME" premiered in US Dramatic Competition at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival and is having its international premiere in Directors’ Fortnight at the 2015 Cannes Film Festival. She was supported by organizations such as Sundance Institute, San Francisco Film Society, IFP, Film Independent, Cinereach and Time Warner Foundation. She was named one of the 25 New Faces of Independent Film by Filmmaker Magazine in 2013. Chloé received her BA in Politics from Mt Holyoke College and MFA in Film Production from NYU. She is currently developing her second feature titled “The Last Prairie” set in the Sandhills of Nebraska. When Chloé is not making films, she is working on a mobile cinema/film workshop project called “Tiny Film House”.AWARDS/LABS/FELLOWSHIP:2014 Gotham Spotlight on Women Filmmaker ‘Live the Dream’ Grant2014 SFFS/KRF Grant Winner2014 Sundance/Skywalker Sound Music and Sound Lab2014 IFP Narrative Lab2013 IFP No Borders Market2012 Time Warner Foundation Fellowship2012 Adrienne Shelly Foundation Grant2012 Cinereach Fellowship2012 Sundance Directors Lab2012 Sundance Screenwriters Lab2012 New York University Purple List Screenplay2012 IFP No Borders Film Market2011 Chris Columbus/Richard Vague Production Fund Winner2011 Film Independent Producers Lab2011 Film Independent Screenwriters Lab2010 Spike Lee Production Award
Director’s Selected Filmography:2010 DAUGHTERS (short)2009 THE ATLAS MOUNTAINS (short)2008 POST (short)
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