PRESS RELEASE: Documentaries Created with Nokia Nseries Devices

Nokia is collaborating with Academy Award nominated documentary filmmaker, and 2004 Tribeca Film Festival award winner Oren Jacoby to create a series of artist interviews shot using the Nokia N93. Jacoby will interview five artists of various disciplines about their views on film, inspiration and how leading-edge mobile technology is changing the art of film and mixed media. These artists, who include other past Tribeca Film Festival award winners, have already embraced various aspects of technology as part of their craft.

From the Nokia Website:

What happens when an Oscar-nominated moviemaker is challenged to experiment with new technology? As artists use new tools to articulate their creations and master those tools, it can lead to new techniques, their art gets different and, as the tools evolve, we start learning again and our creative product changes.

Mind you, for the artist, the idea, the challenge of expressing feelings remains the same. Now, how we do it, how accessible new technologies make it to the average person to communicate with the world, is a constant matter in our lives and makes us curiour. So, when this moviemaker met with a new capturing device, Downtown Stories is what happened.

Downtown Stories – 5 New York City Jam Sessions

Oren Jacoby:
The Tribeca Film Festival and Nokia invited me to direct five mini-documentaries, shot entirely on a new “device” called the N93. I guess some would say it’s a phone, a microcomputer, that comes with a really surprising camera. Well, I am a moviemaker: I’ll say it’s a camera that surprisingly comes with a phone and all the other perks. And it fits in my jacket pocket.

Like jazz, one of the best parts of movie-making is the collaboration. Unless something clicks between the people working together, it’ll never be there on the screen. Even when you have a “device” that lets you shoot a movie all on your own, you still need to get something going with whoever is on the other side of the lens—whether it’s your subject, in a documentary—or actors, in a dramatic film.

So we thought: why not make some short films that are about getting together with someone and makeing something happen—finding that connection— quickly, spontaneously.

The challenge: Shoot 5 short films in 5 days with 5 different filmmakers (only one of whom I’ve ever met before)—and shoot each one in less than an hour. In that short time we wanted to see if I could connect with them, the scene around us, and then—I’d hand off the camera to the other filmmaker so we could have a jam session—just the way you do in music.

Shot entirely on this camera-phone, this documentary series will introduce you to a range of fun people and some of their favorite places in Downtown New York. It is the result of an experiment, so you’ll be able to accompany me and watch as I try to get a handle on this new tool, discover its possibilities and share with you the result of my first excursion into the mobile video world. Watch closely and you’ll see the change, as I advance with this new camera and discover the opportunities it gives me. I’m sure you’ll enjoy meeting these people, seeing where they hang out and observing the results of our experiment. And, maybe, get curious enough to dive deeper into this new world, so you too, can get one of these and make your own movie.

From the Tribeca Film Festival Website:

MEET THE STORYTELLERS
Armed with his Nokia N93, acclaimed documentary director and Tribeca Film Festival winner Oren Jacoby hung out with five New York storytellers to discuss what makes them tick. Visit the Nokia Nseries website to watch these clips.

Visit the Nokia N Series website to watch Oren Jacoby’s Clips