American Nobodies
CSUMB creators to go to Sundance Film Festival. Everyone has a story.
Brad Boatwright, Copy Editor
bbaotwright@csumb.edu
Creating art from an old piano and a tree, trumpeting the National Anthem every year at the first high school home game or working as a fairy for young-girls birthday parties. Most everyone has a hidden talent, habit or uniqueness to them. But, how does one discover other’s quirks?
Two CSU Monterey Bay (CSUMB) alumni filmmakers, Rodrigo Ojeda-Beck and Robert Machoian, have been busy on such a project. Composed of two minute moving portraits, American Nobodies divulges the lives of average citizens doing fascinating things.
Started as a way to increase web presence and gain traffic for their short films, the venture soon developed into an online series of individual episodes. “We wanted to give recognition to people who don’t often get it,” said Ojeda-Beck, “Highlighting everyday people to revitalize Americana.” Current figures range from artists, poets and musicians to other more unusual situations. One is a couple with a strict relationship commitment, they kiss once a day and hug for no more than a few seconds. Another, a woman with a peculiar profession, works at young girl‘s birthday parties as a fairy or princess. Self-narrative is dubbed over images of the subject and scenes of their individuality. Every Monday a new chapter is loaded to the website, with a plan to continue multiple seasons in the future. As of now it is only a web series, but the team ultimately dreams to turn it into a complete piece in itself.
In addition, the pair was selected to screen their 10 minute film, “Charlie and The Rabbit”, the story of a boy's quest to imitate Elmer Fudd, at the 2010 Sundance film festival. This opportunity lends recognition and the ability to make connections with prominent members in the industry. The short is the second in a trilogy on youth, which, “Features aspects of youth and how they are carried into adulthood.” Ojeda-Beck said.
With significant experience under their belts and ideas flowing, Ojeda-Beck and Machoian have an agenda to build upon their repertoire, after the completion of season one of American Nobodies. “12 in 1” will consist of twelve short films, created while attending CSUMB, aimed to see how their filmography has grown. Along with brief films, the two are assembling feature-length movies. The first, a documentary on the Salinas Rodeo and the second, a narrative, whose script and funding are still in the works.
As American Nobodies continues to pursue the extraordinary in the mundane, they travel farther into the country, searching for the anomalous characteristics that lie secretly in each human. They may be distinct car enthusiasts, street performers, have anatomical surprises or who knows what else.
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