News and Projects

Back in March, we decided to enter the International Documentary Challenge, a timed filmmaking competition where filmmaking teams from around the world have just 5 days to make a short documentary film. All the teams must address the same theme, and each team is given a choice of two genres in which they must work. (For further information about the competition, check out http://documentarychallenge.org/.) This year’s theme was FAITH, and we had the option of doing a nature film or a social/political documentary. We opted for the nature genre, and came up with a 6 minute film titled Our Lady of the Horses. It’s a portrait of Lourdes Hernandez, the only female groom at the Los Angeles Equestrian Center, and horsewoman extraordinaire. The film explores the bonds of faith and trust between Lourdes and her equine charges. Gail did the shooting, Jill handled sound, our friend Lenny Feinstein did his usual magic in the editing room, and composers Andrew Gross & Gil Talmi provided music.

Our Lady of the Horses was screened on April 29 in Toronto at the Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Film Festival, and won an award for Best Use of Nature Genre. Was it fun to produce an entire film in just five days? Despite several exhausting days of shooting and 20 hours straight in the editing room, we had a blast. Will we enter again next year? We’ll see!