views - Press | Sundance Institute

Press Contacts Jim Dobson !
323.896.6006 [email protected] !
!Nick Ducassi !
[email protected] 305.527.4231!
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present a film by Mayer\Leyva!
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Director!
Designer ! Jillian Mayer!
Producer !
Screenplay !
Co-Director! Lucas Leyva!
Editor !
Producer!
Executive ! Evan Rosenfeld!
Producer !
Co-Executive! Andrew Hevia!
Producers ! Dennis Scholl!
Co-Producer!
Associate!
Producers!
Nick Orsini!
Fro Rojas!
Evrim Oralkan!
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Life and Freaky Times of Uncle Luke is a modern Miami adaptation of the 1962 French short film La Jetée,
and recounts Luther Campbell’s (Uncle Luke of 2 Live Crew) rise to fame as he changes the face of hip-hop
and fights for First Amendment rights – and later as he ushers Miami into a golden era of peace and
prosperity as mayor. Everything changes when a nuclear meltdown at Turkey Point turns Miami into a
radioactive wasteland filled with mutants, and Campbell is the only survivor left unscathed.!
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run time: 12 min!
film:!
www.vimeo.com/29288768
password: mustard!
do not publish!
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trailer:!
www.vimeo.com/30804741 !
“Life and Freaky Times of Uncle Luke is undeniably entertaining, whether you get the cultural references or
not. It is a smart and intricately self-reflexive example of what cultural theorist Jim Collins has called ‘the
perpetual circulation and recirculation of signs that form the fabric of postmodern cultural life.’ Mayer and her
collaborator are quintessential bricoleurs. In Uncle Luke, street-credible slang and classic booty beats
reconstruct a landmark of film history. High and low, art and entertainment, fiction and reality become multiple
facets of an intellectually-integrated work that specifically depends on cultural quotation. The parallels are
both narrative and structural. Whereas La Jetée is constructed from stills, referencing the psychological
relationship between photography and memory, Uncle Luke draws from the nostalgia power of Mayer’s two
dimensional boards.”!
-  Art Papers Sept/Oct 2011!
Borscht Corp. and Rakontur Present !
a film by Mayer\Leyva!
!
Director/ Designer/ Producer: Jillian Mayer!
Screenplay/ Co-Director/ Editor/ Producer: Lucas Leyva!
!
Executive Producer: Evan Rosenfeld!
Co-Executive Producers: Andrew Hevia, Dennis Scholl!
Co-Producer: Nick Orsini!
Associate Producers: Fro Rojas, Evrim Oralkan!
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Starring Luther Campbell as Uncle Luke!
Scientists: Carlos Rigau, Eric Cade Shoenborn!
Eliza: Elizabeth Sky!
Mutants: Sterling Rook, Shira Abergel, Nick Ducassi, Sasha Vaziri, Orlando Estrada, Maurice Pierre!
Girls in White: Mabel Gonzalez, Lana Melisso, Shira Abergel, Taryn Lombardi!
Clown: Ana Trevino!
Judge: Richard Freedberg!
Reporter: Jennifer Lopez!
Bus Driver: Jillian Mayer!
Bus Rider: Shira Abergel!
Album Buttocks: Candy Molina, Ella Pia, Meho Latrina, Nancy Trevino!
2 Live Crew: Julian Yuri Rodriguez, Lucas Leyva, Sylvester the Kat Man, Ella Pia!
Stank Lady: Judy Freedberg!
Stank People: Nick Ducassi, Julian Yuri Rodriguez, Jessica Gross!
Stunt Doubles: Maurice Pierre, Sterling Rook!
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Director of Photography: Jonathan David Kane!
Assistant Camera: Juan Camilo Barriga!
Gaffer: Roberto Gonzalez!
Boom Operator: Tim Roach!
Post Audio: Cory Czjakowski, Diego Meza-Valdes!
Colorist: Oscar Martinez!
Art Coordinator: Orlando Estrada!
Project Coordinator: Ana Trevino!
Art Department: Kayla de la Cerda, Taryn Devereux, Jack Elder, Julian Yuri Rodriguez, Sterling Rook,
Madee Kuhn, Gabriel Rhenals, Oly Vargas, Inez Suen, Layla Bessiso, Rob Maya, Destin Jones, Zach
Bagnell!
Carpenter: Bill Landis!
Make-Up: Giselle Mendez!
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Special Thanks:!
Billy Corben, Alfred Spellman, Borscht Film Festival, New Art Miami, Nadia Bowen, The Internet, Shivers,
Canvas Lifestyle, HBKZ/Sesion31, Karelle Levy, Booty Bass, Pedro Urbina, David Castillo Gallery, Luther
Campbell for Miami-Dade Mayor Campaign.!
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Made possible by a Knight Arts Challenge Grant from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.!
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Commissioned by Borscht Corp.!
Miami, FL, USA 2011!
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LUTHER CAMPBELL !Actor!
As hip-hop's original bad boy, pop culture icon, and consummate businessman, Luther "Uncle Luke" Campbell, is one of
the few American celebrities who has had impacted the worlds of rap music, sex, business, law, and politics
simultaneously. Campbell made national headlines in the early 1990s as a part of The 2 Live Crew when he led one of
Hip-Hop's most noted victories in society -- the right of Freedom of Speech in our music—which led to the advent of the
“Parental Advisory” sticker. Luther Campbell is now Coach Campbell to the young players in the National Youth Football
League and The Liberty City Warriors, a youth football organization he co-founded in 1989 in his hometown to keep
wayward boys out of trouble. No matter what your personal views about Luther Campbell, you can't discount his influence
on the entertainment industry, his business acumen, and his place as the Godfather of Southern Hip-Hop.!
JILLIAN MAYER:
!Director
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!www.jillianmayer.net
!
! [email protected]
Jillian Mayer was born in and lives and works in Miami, FL. She has participated in exhibitions in the U.S. and Europe. In
2010, the artist’s work was one of the 25 selections for the Guggenheim’s Youtube Play “A Biennial of Creative Video.” As
part of the Guggenheim's Creative Video Biennial, Mayer’s work was exhibited at the Guggenheim museums in New York
City, Venice, Bilbao, and Berlin. Recent solo projects include Family Matters at David Castillo Gallery (2011) and Love
Trips at World Class Boxing, Miami (2011). !
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MAYER/LEVYA:
!Director + Writer !
!www.mayerleyva.com
[email protected]!
Mayer/Leyva consists of visual artist Jillian Mayer and filmmaker Lucas Leyva. Their video works have shown at
museums all over the world as well as several major international art galleries and collections, and their co-produced
short films have screened at Sundance, Cannes, Tribeca, and Clermont-Ferrand Film Festivals. Their music videos have
premiered on Stereogum, NME, Vice and Rolling Stone and have been named to various year-end Top 10 video lists,
including IFC. Their last online video, “I Am Your Grandma” became an unlikely viral sensation that has been spoofed on
various TV shows and was featured on the cover of Art Papers Magazine in September/October 2011. !
BORSCHT CORP
!Production Company
!www.borscht.info
!!
Currently in its seventh year, Borscht Corp. commissions and produces films by emerging artists that tell Miami stories
that go beyond the typical portrayal of a vapid party town. It also showcases them at a quasi-yearly event called the
Borscht Film Festival, which has been compared to "Sundance on psychotropic mushrooms” by the Miami New Times.!
RAKONTUR
!Production Partner!
!www.rakontur.com!
Rakontur is a Miami-based media studio founded by Alfred Spellman and Billy Corben in 2000. Rakontur created and
produced the documentary Cocaine Cowboys, which The New York Times called “a hyperventilating account of the
blood-drenched Miami drug culture in the 1970s and 1980s.” In addition to Borscht, Rakontur’s 2012 slate includes a
Cocaine Cowboys dramatic series for HBO with executive producers Jerry Bruckheimer and Michael Bay, the animated
comedy series Miami Cowboys with executive producer Pharrell Williams, and the feature documentary Square Grouper,
about the free-wheeling pot-smuggling era of South Florida in the 1970s. !
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EVAN ROSENFELD
!Executive Producer
!www.evanrosenfeld.com
[email protected]!
Evan Rosenfeld graduated from the University of Miami and currently lives in Los Angeles, California. Evan worked for
Miami based production company Rakontur from 2006-2011 as a producer on projects such as The U (ESPN’s 30 for 30)
and Cocaine Cowboys 2 (Magnolia Pictures). In 2012 Evan will be working on developing television projects at Renegade
83. The Rakontur documentary he produced, Dawg Fight, a brutal expose on underground backyard MMA fighting in one
of Miami's toughest neighborhoods, will be released in 2012. !
How did Life and Freaky Time of Uncle Luke come to be?!
The film was part of a series of collaborations between filmmakers and Miami musicians commissioned by Borscht Corp.
Filmmakers interpreted the music of local musicians into a narrative film (free to make anything but a music video). Barry
Jenkins teamed up with Millionyoung, Sean Metelerkamp got the Jacuzzi Boys, and Jillian teamed up with Uncle Luke.
No film series inspired by Miami musicians is complete without using Uncle Luke, but he can be difficult to get involved in
projects, particularly small indie ones. Evan Rosenfeld and Rakontur had worked with Uncle Luke when he created the
original theme song for their ESPN 30 by 30 doc “The U,” so they brought him on board.!
!
Of all the commissioned filmmakers, Jillian Mayer seemed the least likely to team up with Luke. Jillian is a visual and
performance artist, whose work is shown in galleries and museums (most notably the Guggenheim). It was either going to
be really awesome—or really awful. It turned out that Jillian and Luke have a lot in common (besides hip-hop
backgrounds) in that they are both performance artists of sorts that play with notions of identity and public personas.
Screenwriter Lucas Leyva had been developing a remake of La Jetée set in Miami for a while, and when he saw Jillian's
art installations, it clicked. The aesthetic led to the story.!
!
Tell us about the film’s specific aesthetic.!
The aesthetic for the film was inspired by a series of installation/performance art pieces by Jillian Mayer entitled "Getting
to Know You," an ongoing series that exists as performance, sculpture, and photographs. Participants position
themselves inside cut-out board scenes reminiscent of amusement park photo ops. The adopted milieu is often a
disconcerting domestic realm with an air of passivity despite the contortion of the participant's body. In regards to La
Jetée serving as inspiration, screenwriter Lucas Leyva struggled to figure out what the modern Miami equivalent of black
and white still photos would be. He wanted the aesthetic to be slightly updated with the story, and Mayer’s installations
provided the perfect fit.!
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Why did you pick Uncle Luke as the subject?!
Jillian Mayer: “Campbell is an interesting and occasionally controversial lead character and we wanted to address issues
that occurred in his public life. People judge and hold him responsible for performances and actions from his life in the
90's when he was in his twenties as a member of the hip-hop band 2Live Crew. The public has created an image of Mr.
Campbell that cannot be modified, so we wanted to play with that. In that respect, he became a cartoon character to us,
because the public wants him to be the same "pussy-poppin' Luke Skywalker" he was as a young celebrity on stage. With
a lead character as eccentric and determined as he is, how could anything be traditional? For us, the short became more
of a mash-up of different pop-references, energies, and cultures.”!
!
What was the filmmaking process like? How was it working with Uncle Luke?!
Jillian Mayer: “I had an amazing team of friends and peers that put all of their effort into this project. We worked and built
sets in a hot dusty warehouse with haunted stray cats and filmed in the middle of the night. Luke was awesome. He has a
great sense of humor, is very down to earth, and is incredibly self-aware. On set, he was always improvising, was always
a great sport about being shoved into sometimes uncomfortable wooden boards. He’s tops.”!
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Miami isn’t traditionally known for independent filmmaking, tell us about the independent film scene in Miami.!
Miami is going through something of a renaissance in all of the arts, and independent film is no different. Led by
organizations like Borscht Corp. and Rakontur, more talented filmmakers are electing to create work in the city, which has
created a vibrant, supportive community of artists telling Miami stories that have never been told. !
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Why do you think the film resonated with the Sundance jury?!
It has booty-bass music, community theatre-style acting, mutants, and all around weirdness. Even if you hate it, we hope
you are at least entertained.!
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Is Uncle Luke going to attend the screening?!
We are not sure if booty bass is legal in Utah. Actually, Uncle Luke may be banned from Utah, but regardless of the law,
Luke will definitely be here, and he may even host a booty-bass party on Main street!!
!
What’s up next for Mayer\Leyva?!
Jillian Mayer and Lucas Leyva are currently working on a feature length screenplay about existential puppets. They’re
also developing several potential television shows. Jillian has a solo art show up at World Class Boxing in Miami, and will
be in a group show at the Frost Art Museum in March and an Internet based solo-project at the Bass Museum of Art.
Leyva has another short he wrote and directed in competition at Slamdance.!
stay freaky y’all!
Jim Dobson !
323.896.6006 [email protected] !
Press Contacts!
!Nick Ducassi !
[email protected] 305.527.4231!