Brad Anderson

I first met Brad Anderson in the Spring of 1990, at an audition for his "A Short Film About Bowling", held at the Boston Film and Video Foundation. He'd set it up in the form of a table reading and I was reading the part of Tony, a street drunk. I decided to read in the voice of a former room-mate, someone I'd been doing an impression of for years. Brad looked intrigued from my first line and I was sure I'd be offered the role.

It was the beginning of a rewarding relationship. I did play Tony in the film, my first role in an "indie", above the student film level, which actually saw completion.

I'd eventually play supporting roles in his first two feature length films, "The Darien Gap" and "Next Stop Wonderland". Clips of my roles in all three films can be viewed on my film resume reel, near the bottom of this page. I've made it clear that I'd go anywhere any time to act in a film for Brad Anderson.

Brad Anderson's award winning 70 second film

"How I Saw The Light And Found The King" is Brad's 70 second long film about a young man's quest for and discovery of the correct path to follow. It was an award winner at the 1989 New England Film Festival.

I've had the pleasure to see it twice and it's funny and enlightening.

See it, if you can.

A Morality Tale

A recurring theme in Brad's films, the quest for the truth, is going on again here, individually and collectively, among Seth, the would-be charismatic guru, Bob, the wanna-be artist and Tony, the social philosopher drunk, who share a Cambridge apartment, while what goes around comes around when "it's time to make the donuts".

Confused? You ain't seen nothin' yet. Wait 'til you see the film! If you can find it, I highly recommend it.

The next to last clip in my resume reel at the bottom of the page is from the film.

In "The Darien Gap" the quest is by would-be videographer Lynn Vaus, a longtime Anderson colaborator, who co-wrote the screenplay of "Next Stop Wonderland" with Brad, as a down and out guy, who has traded his share of an apartment for a video camera and a dream.

"Frankenstein's Planet Of Monsters" was an experiment in low budget film making. Shot with a hand held mini-camera, mini-cassette recorder and using mainly available light, it bears a resemblance to the horror films of the 1950s.

No doubt, problems were encountered and conquered during this production that had their pay-off when it came time to shoot "Session 9" in HD with available light.

The title says it all. Try to see it.

1. He hasn't sold out.

2. His films are thought provoking.

3. He's blazing a trail!

In "Next Stop Wonderland", Hope Davis plays a Boston nurse who is abandoned by her boyfriend (Phillip Seymour Hoffman) and curiosity leads her to the blind-dating scene, when her mother (Holland Taylor) places an ad in the personals column of a local newspaper.

Meanwhile, Alan Gelfant plays a nice guy who keeps breathing her air and yet they continue to miss hooking up.

Good supporting cast. Co-written by Lynn Vaus of "The Darien Gap", who appears as a phone date.

The film was a hit at Sundance in 1998. Producer Mitchell Robbins' subsequent negotiations with Harvey Weinstein for sale of the film to Miramax are the stuff of legend.

See it.

... you'll automatically be making a donation to The Acumen Fund.

You'll be helping to solve the problem of global poverty and helping us all to imagine a brighter future.

Now, doesn't that feel good?

Marissa Tomei meets the perfect guy in Vincent Dinofrio, but could this be too good to be true?

When the other shoe seems to drop, her reaction is one of the greatest things I've ever seen on film.

This movie contains innovative greatness in a simple love story format. Definitely see it.

"Session 9" is the story of what takes place among a crew when the town of Danvers decides to reclaim and refurbish the old Danvers State Hospital, a notorious decaying mental hospital, long closed.

Sometimes, it's better not to try to save a piece of the past. It could come back to haunt you.

Shot in HD, with available light, Brad made one of the first feature length films for theatrical release here to be thusly shot.

Good cast. See it.

Brad further explores the idea of a character who can't tell if he's hallucinating, but is pretty sure he's not, which was a major device in "Session 9".

Christian Bale is outstanding at playing a man who hasn't slept in a year.

Yeah, try to imagine THAT. The film follows his waking nightmare.

Outstanding!

"Transsiberian" stars Woody Harrelson and Emily Mortimer as Roy and Jessie, an American couple who decide to head home from a visit to Peking, China via the legendary Trans-Siberian Railway.

They meet another couple from the West, Carlos and Abby (Eduardo Noriega and Kate Mara), and form a quick friendship, but soon they begin to question whether the new couple are what they claim to be.

Things get more and more complicated with the appearance of the cops (Ben Kingsley and Thomas Kreschmann), mob figures and various other Russians.

As the saying goes, it's a thrill-ride.

Vanishing on 7th Street, Brad's latest feature film, is a post-apocalyptic thriller. It stars Hayden Christensen, Thandie Newton, John Leguizamo and newcomer Jacob Latimore as a group of survivors trying to figure out how to sustain themselves in a world where everyone has inexplicably vanished.

The film doesn't have a traditional villain. An ambiguous "dark" entity engulfs anyone who doesn't have his or her own source of light, whether it be from, a candle, a lighter, a flashlight, a glowstick, or exposure to the ever-shrinking bursts of daylight.

Halle Berry gets a 911 call from a kidnap victim

In The Call Halle Berry plays a 911 operator who winds up dealing with a killer out of her past after a kidnapped young girl calls from the trunk of a car.

The screenplay was written by Rich D'Ovidio. Michael Imperioli and Morris Chestnut also star in the thriller due for release on March 15, 2013

In this four minute reel, clip 5 is from "Next Stop Wonderland", clip 9 is from "A Short Film About Bowling" and clip 10 is from "The Darien Gap".

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