"Helicopter" by Ari Gold

http://AriGoldFilms.com - Student Oscar winning short film "Helicopter." Music by http://EthanGold.com.

http://Twitter.com/AriGold - http://Twitter.com/EthanGold

"Hypnotic, beautiful, totally brave. The year's best short film." - FilmThreat

Learn more; download the theme song here: http://arigoldfilms.com/films/helicopter/

When I was twenty, my mother was killed in a helicopter crash with rock music promoter Bill Graham, whom she had recently begun dating after a nearly two-decades courtship. To many rock musicians and fans, Graham was a god; to my brother, my sister, and me, who hardly knew him, it seemed his death was so big it just took our mother with it.

"Helicopter" is a recreation of the emotional aftermath of sudden loss. Nothing could have prepared me for the loss of the person who knew me better than anyone in the world. Nothing could have prepared me for the absurdity of a "famous" death.

My sister Nina performed the answering-machine voice of our mother, and my twin brother Ethan composed the music for the film, but, not wanting a documentary, I used actors (actually friends of mine) to play the three of us on film. The movie combines re-enacted scenes--and a few photos and videos from reality--with several kinds of animation which are close to how I actually experienced the truth. I made "Helicopter" with so many different unreal elements in order to draw a chalk circle around a very personal event, in the hopes that by the last frame of the film, a viewer sees through the circle to his or her own life. I wasn't interested in presenting objective reality--I preferred the subjective reality of a young man, still wanting to talk to his mother about romantic troubles, who suddenly finds that his mother no longer exists. This is the reality of a person trying to comprehend death.

Finally, the film is about the way the mind can filter through any cacophony to find life's core, the one thing that matters: love.

"Writer-director Ari Gold's 21-minute short film, HELICOPTER, recounts in impressionistic detail the aftermath of his mother Melissa's death in the helicopter crash that also killed her boyfriend, promoter Bill Graham. The film has been making an uncommon stir at festivals everywhere, and with good reason--it's an effulgent burst of heartbreak. Employing a narrative pastiche that includes acted vignettes, a black-and-white animated re-creation of the crash itself, poignant answering-machine voice-over and personal photos, Gold deftly conveys the fractured nature of loss: how memory, despair, indignation and even elation surge and recede in the mourning mind." - L.A. Weekly (Pick)

Follow the director: http://Twitter.com/AriGold
Watch other films and contact director: http://AriGoldFilms.com
Join Ari's charity rebuilding music education for kids: http://PowerSavesTheMusic.com

Category:

Film & Animation

Tags:

• tqx0er98j
• helicopter
• anime
• adventures of power
• bill graham
• day on the green
• wolfgang grajonca
• helicopter crash
• jerry garcia
• neil young
• bob dylan
• ari gold
• gold brothers
• ethan gold
• KFOG
• janis
• jefferson airplane
• fillmore east
• fillmore west
• sundance
• oscar winner
• short film
• santana
• ari gold films
• wolfgang's vault
• student oscar
• death of mother
• mother's day
• Academy Award
• Grateful Dead
• bgp

[TopHatPsychopath]

Oh gosh this is beautiful. I don't really have any words to describe how amazing this is.

[nothingfunnyleft]

saw this mentioned in Modern Drummer and glad i came to take a look.

[kelzzycoster]

Thumbs up if your watching arigolds playlist!

[the62510000]

loved it

[godstomper]

I was watching Bill Graham in The door's film and read was reading his wiki and read about your mom being his girlfriend. I 'm glad to see you are able to express your feelings openly about this tragedy in your life.

[RidgeviewVG]

This film is incredible, it gets the audience in a chokehold and squeezes out so many tears an touches the hearts of all viewers, well done!

And i love the style of the film!

[annalisamc]

Still powerful.  Thanks for posting this.

[sfugarise]

great just great

[CisRundle]

Thank you for sending this to me I will pass it on and on.. I was married to Nils Lofgren and spent years on the Road . You have the spirit in your film.. And a Mothers love never dies., it's a beautiful well made film.. My best to you always. Cis

[AnasaziAl]

Powerful mixture of pathos and humor.