DOUBLEWIDE MEDIA, in collaboration with PLANET GREEN, is proud to present ANIMALS DISTRACT ME, a 47-minute documentary fantasia by Isabella Rossellini. The film premieres at this year’s Sundance Film Festival and will screen at the following times:
Saturday, January 22
3 PM Screening Room, Sundance Resort
Sunday, January 23
7:30 PM Broadway Centre Cinemas IV
Monday January 24
3:00 PM Temple Theatre
Wednesday, January 26
9:00 PM Redstone Cinemas 8
Thursday, January 27th
8:30 PM Holiday Village Cinema III
About THE FILM
ANIMALS DISTRACT ME follows actress and model Isabella Rossellini as she and her future guide dog Sweety visit Manhattan for the day. But even in this urban epicenter, animal life abounds. As Isabella goes to a photoshoot with photographer Fabrizio Ferri, discusses a fashion exhibit with Vogue editor Andre Leon Talley, and eats lunch with chef Mario Batali, she finds herself distracted… by the animals in the world around her. Whether it’s the microscopic demodex on her eyelashes, the crickets in Central Park, the rats in the subway, or her own dog, she is mesmerized — and full of questions. How do butterflies know to migrate south? How have pigeons adapted to city life? How do we prevent over-fishing? How did dogs become domesticated? Fortunately for her, she is visited by none other than Charles Darwin! Using the photography of Oscar Rejlander and Guillaume Duchenne, the history of abolitionism, and the art of acting, he is able to explain to Isabella his theory of evolution and the behaviors of the animals that fascinate her. Part auto-biography, part historical re-enactment, and part fantastic imagining, ANIMALS DISTRACT ME is about discovering the joys in nature and asking the deeper questions, the ones that don’t always have an answer.
CREDITS
Director Isabella Rossellini
Screenwriter Isabella Rossellini
Executive Producer Don Faller, Lynn Sadofsky, Jeff Hasler
Producer Rick Gilbert, Autumn Tarleton
Composer Andy Byers, David Tuss, Danny Tuss
Cinematographer Nicola Benizzi
Editor Stacey Foster
Production Designer Andy Byers
About DOUBLEWIDE MEDIA
Since January 2002, Doublewide has had its hands in documentary filmmaking, web content, and commercials.
Doublewide documentaries have ranged from unveiling the plight of children with diabetes in Nepal and the Democratic Republic of the Congo in the films “Life for a Child” and “In the Hearts of Africa” to exposing the effects industrial wind turbine development has had in upstate New York in the 2010 film, “Windfall“. “Life for a Child” premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival and won Best Short Documentary at Cinequest Film Festival. “Windfall” premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival and won the Grand Jury Prize in the DOC NYC “Viewfinders” competition.
Together with GQ magazine, Doublewide developed the award wining webseries “GQ Rules”, which was nominated by the Webby Awards for three consecutive years, receiving Official Honoree for Outstanding Caliber of Online Film twice. Doublewide also worked with Isabella Rossellini on her award winning comic web series “Green Porno” and “Seduce Me”.
Doublewide produced the Slater Bradley/Ed Lachman collaboration “Shadow” which is part of Slater’s Doppelganger series of art media. The project premiered at the Basel Art Fair and is currently installed at the Whitney Museum.