SPIRAL FARM
Cast: Teo Halm, Piper De Palma, Amanda Plummer, Cosimo Fusco
Crew: Producers: Alec Tibaldi, Michael Hoopingarner, Madeleine Tibaldi, Ron Bozman, Nikil Shyam Sunder, Ming, Eduardo M Escribano Solera – Screenwriters: Alec Tibaldi, Thomai Hatsios
Email: mailukifilms@gmail.com
Synopsis
When two outsiders arrive on an isolated intentional community, seventeen-year old Anahita begins to question her role at home, and what a future out in the world-at-large could be.
Director
Alec Tibaldi was born in Australia and has lived in Rome, New York and Los Angeles. He attended the prestigious LaGuardia High School of Performing Arts in New York and has studied at Stella Adler Studios and The Lee Strasberg Institute. His directorial debut, the short film Ride or Die, has screened at festivals around the world winning the award for Best Cast at Queens World Film Festival. His follow up short film, After School, premiered at the Oscar Qualifying Flickers’ Rhode Island International Film Festival winning the Directorial Discovery award. Spiral Farm is his feature length directorial debut.
Filmmaker’s Note
Having grown up in an environment that in some ways mirrors Spiral Farm, it was important to me to neither demonize nor glamorize this type of living, but instead to present the setting as a multi faceted entity, with both positive and negative aspects. Although Spiral Farm is suffocating and claustrophobic, there is also a close-knit sense of community, and its inhabitants are given a sense of purpose. In Spiral Farm I wanted to explore a dysfunctional family, further complicated by the commune that they inhabit. As traditional familial roles are altered by communal living, our protagonist Anahita struggles to find her own identity amidst the tranquil yet repressive environment she has always known. The dichotomy between the idyllic tranquility and the unconventional structure, further complicate the protagonist’s struggle to find herself. I was inspired by the work of Sean Baker and Lena Dunham, who were able to create compelling and cinematic experiences while working within the micro budget aesthetic. These filmmakers were able to use the limitations of their budgets to their advantage, shaping it into the aesthetic of their respective films. Spiral Farm was shot in a highly improvisatory shooting style, using the script as a mere blueprint for where the scenes could go. The result was an extensive and often times complex editing process, where the scenes were essentially re-written and re-structured during post production.
