Welcome To The Nut

Trish Clark presents at the kick-off event for last year's 48 Hour Film Project New Haven. (Thomas Breen photo)

Wednesday, Jan. 10, 2018 - 

What do John McClane, Brother Jimmy’s BBQ and New Haven’s filmmaking community have in common?

Starting in January 2018, the answer to that question will be the Nutmeg Institute: A new venture from local movie advocates Trish Clark, Patrick Whalen, and Michael Field to help encourage and organize the production and enjoyment of movies in the Greater New Haven area.

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One of the group’s first initiatives toward bolstering the city’s cineaste community is a new, monthly brunch-and-movie series to be hosted at Brother Jimmy’s BBQ, a North Carolina-style barbeque restaurant located at 196 Crown St. in downtown New Haven.

The series kicks off on Sunday, Jan. 14 with John McTiernan’s 1988 holiday/action fan favorite Die Hard, in which Bruce Willis stars as John McClane, a rakish off-duty NYPD officer who finds himself pitted against a cabal of German terrorists during a Christmas-time visit to Los Angeles.

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Right Space, Team To Make A Movie

Gavin, Blau, and Marra on set at Lyric Hall.

Monday, July 31, 2017 - The cameras were in focus, the actors in position, the lights and furniture in the antique barroom rearranged in preparation for the next scene of the movie.

But just as the various players on the set were about to launch into their respective roles, 9-year-old non-professional actor and assistant-director-for-the-day Isaac Blau shouted out to the group, “Wait, wait, wait! I forgot to say, ‘Action!’”

Director Anna Marra smiled at Blau and flashed a wink towards the cast and crew as she said, “Of course, you are right. Thank you so much, Isaac. Where would we be without you?”

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Filmmaking Tests A Marriage

Russ and Li Martin (Thomas Breen photo)

August 3, 2016 - Russ D and Li Martin spend most weekends simply as husband and wife. Last weekend, they tried on a new pair of roles for their decade-old relationship: competitive filmmakers.

From Friday through Sunday, each spouse led a team of colleagues, friends, and other eager volunteers through the sixth installment of the 48 Hour Film Project New Haven, an annual weekend-long competition that challenges participating teams to write, shoot, edit and produce a four-to seven-minute film in two days flat.

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In Binge Of Candy And Caffeine, 23 Films Made In 48 Hours

Thomas Breen photo

August 4, 2015 - Ryan Licwinko reached into a black baseball hat and pulled out a small piece of paper. After months of anticipation, he was about to discover the key to the short film he and his team would create within the next 48 hours. Trish Clark leaned over the edge of the stage to read what he had drawn. “And your genre is… holiday movie!”

Licwinko held the paper briefly, his eyes fixed downward, his mind firing with ideas for the weekend to come.

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One Weekend, 23 Movies

July 30, 2015 - Trish Clark couldn’t believe what she was reading. After she joined the 48 Hour Film Project’s newsletter in 2010, the product of a friend’s suggestion that she try to bring the festival to New Haven, words were appearing before her eyes that couldn’t be right. Yes: the Project’s organizers were amenable to bringing it to Connecticut. No: they weren’t thinking of the Elm City. 

“I saw that they were looking to have it in Hartford ... and I sent them a message and I was like, ‘I think that’s a typo. I think you meant New Haven’ … And they realized after talking to me that, oh yeah, we should do it in New Haven,” she said in an interview with the Independent, smiling at the possibility that the state’s political capital might be mistaken for its cultural epicenter.

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