Brent Joseph

After selling out her first show in LA, artist Reine Paradis, embarks on a surreal road trip across the U.S. to complete her next body of work. It’s an all out adventure, an intimate story, and a bold look at what it takes to make art today.

Lebanese author, Raif Shwayri, travels to Louisiana to trace the life of his grandfather who once worked as a peddler serving the Cajuns on Bayou Lafourche. Alfred “Sweet Papa” Nicola spent nearly two decades, in the early 20th century, selling his wares to the French-speaking melting pot that was developing on the edge of civilization. His years of traveling to these isolated villages would eventually, and surprisingly, lead to substantial aid for tens of thousands of disabled and impoverished children in Lebanon. This film celebrates the rarely told story of early Arab-American immigrants and includes never-before-seen 16mm footage of South Louisiana and Beirut from the 1950s. It also includes rare photos of early Cajun life as well as an original Arabic score and a cover of a Cajun classic using Arabic instruments.

Lebanese author, Raif Shwayri, travels to Louisiana to trace the life of his grandfather who once worked as a peddler serving the Cajuns on Bayou Lafourche. Alfred “Sweet Papa” Nicola spent nearly two decades, in the early 20th century, selling his wares to the French-speaking melting pot that was developing on the edge of civilization. His years of traveling to these isolated villages would eventually, and surprisingly, lead to substantial aid for tens of thousands of disabled and impoverished children in Lebanon. This film celebrates the rarely told story of early Arab-American immigrants and includes never-before-seen 16mm footage of South Louisiana and Beirut from the 1950s. It also includes rare photos of early Cajun life as well as an original Arabic score and a cover of a Cajun classic using Arabic instruments.

A nameless scavenger finds a body in the swamp. Moss is set on fire. The horror of being alive leads to a loving embrace. We might be seeing the beginning of a new life or perhaps a nightmare that endlessly repeats itself. Starring Paul Soileau (aka Christeene, Rebecca Havemeyer) & Llywyn Máire. This dark fairy tale was filmed in glorious 16mm, in the late 1990s, and then remastered, with an original score by Curtis Heath, in 2019.

A nameless scavenger finds a body in the swamp. Moss is set on fire. The horror of being alive leads to a loving embrace. We might be seeing the beginning of a new life or perhaps a nightmare that endlessly repeats itself. Starring Paul Soileau (aka Christeene, Rebecca Havemeyer) & Llywyn Máire. This dark fairy tale was filmed in glorious 16mm, in the late 1990s, and then remastered, with an original score by Curtis Heath, in 2019.

In a distant galaxy, traveling carnivals feature famous mystics. The most popular of all is The Great Bazandini. Villagers clamor to see his act, but one person knows it’s a sham...his daughter, Mirza. She desperately wants to escape this world of swindlers, but standing in her way is the carnival’s ringleader, notorious conman, Dr. Leopold Rundy. MIRZA THE MIRACULOUS is a short lo-fi sci-fi experimental B-movie adventure incorporating dubbed gibberish voices, abstract art, remnants of Mardi Gras costumes, toy props, dustbuster spaceships, on-screen text and analog electronic music. It’s absurd, kaleidoscopic and homemade. The movie was originally shot on an abandoned Western movie set on the Texas-Mexican border in 1999, but was abandoned due to technical difficulties. 15 years later, the project was revived by a successful Kickstarter fund-raising campaign. The original footage was reimagined and re-edited with new technology to create a one-of-a-kind film.

In a distant galaxy, traveling carnivals feature famous mystics. The most popular of all is The Great Bazandini. Villagers clamor to see his act, but one person knows it’s a sham...his daughter, Mirza. She desperately wants to escape this world of swindlers, but standing in her way is the carnival’s ringleader, notorious conman, Dr. Leopold Rundy. MIRZA THE MIRACULOUS is a short lo-fi sci-fi experimental B-movie adventure incorporating dubbed gibberish voices, abstract art, remnants of Mardi Gras costumes, toy props, dustbuster spaceships, on-screen text and analog electronic music. It’s absurd, kaleidoscopic and homemade. The movie was originally shot on an abandoned Western movie set on the Texas-Mexican border in 1999, but was abandoned due to technical difficulties. 15 years later, the project was revived by a successful Kickstarter fund-raising campaign. The original footage was reimagined and re-edited with new technology to create a one-of-a-kind film.

While the young scientist, Julius, steadfastly researches the asexual reproduction of worms, his natural curiosity leads him to discover some inconvenient truths about those around him. He witnesses his mother's infidelity and suspects his grandfather for the same, all while he believes he is losing his best friend Shiley to a rival named Chase. These disappointments are forefront while he also wrestles with his father's mysterious departure years ago. Julius keeps a diligent eye, but unfortunately, all of his heartbreakingly acute observation seems to prove that no solution will restore the people he cares about to their appropriate roles. How can Julius hold together a family that seems as though none of its parts can stay intact? How can he build his own romantic relationships under the shadow of rumors about his father's homosexuality?

I was born under unusual circumstances. And so begins The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, adapted from the 1920s story by F. Scott Fitzgerald about a man who is born in his eighties and ages backwards: a man, like any of us, who is unable to stop time. We follow his story, set in New Orleans, from the end of World War I in 1918 into the 21st century, following his journey that is as unusual as any man's life can be. Benjamin Button, is a grand tale of a not-so-ordinary man and the people and places he discovers along the way, the loves he finds, the joys of life and the sadness of death, and what lasts beyond time.

Filmed in the immediate aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, Holdout is a portrait of a New Orleanian set against the helicopters and gunshots of a vacant Crescent City. Jimmy is a Mid-City resident who refused to evacuate for the storm. Despite being surrounded by floodwaters for two weeks, he insisted on staying home to take care of his eighteen pets. Shot on the one-year anniversary of the passing of his life long boyfriend, Harry, the film offers a glimpse into the ties that keep New Orleanians together. With engaging candor, Jimmy discusses his survival and shares a view of death that has characterized the city for centuries.

72-year-old Louis Harding returns to gut and rebuild the community center he opened one month before Hurricane Katrina struck. He discusses the importance of history, heroes and self-esteem for African-Americans in New Orleans and explains why re-opening his center after the storm is more important than ever before.

Ken Park focuses on several teenagers and their tormented home lives. Shawn seems to be the most conventional. Tate is brimming with psychotic rage; Claude is habitually harassed by his brutish father and coddled, rather uncomfortably, by his enormously pregnant mother. Peaches looks after her devoutly religious father, but yearns for freedom. They're all rather tight, or so they claim.

A pack of naïve teenagers conspire to murder a mutual friend, whose aggressive demeanor has proved too much.