Studio with a View
Film Screening & Ticket Information
When & Where to See this Film!
BLAME IT ON THE PANDEMIC: 2 films that remind us of what we just survived.
April 18, 2024 @ 6:30PM • Kaufman Astoria Studios – Zukor Theatre
Film Bloc Line Up:
Synopsis
“Studio with a View” is a short film chronicling the first two years of the Covid pandemic from the perspective of an apartment window in New York City’s Chinatown. The film captures life as it unfolds on the city block below, home to a police precinct and located in a neighborhood stigmatized during the pandemic.
Conceived as a visual poem, the film evokes themes both small and large, above all human resilience in the face of large-scale crisis.
Credits
Mara Wollong, Director
Talaya Grimes, Producer
Mara Wollong, Producer
Jason Yang, Original Music
Director Statement
What initially inspired me to make this film was the many and extraordinary ways in which New York became unrecognizable in the early days of the pandemic. As the city came to a standstill, my own perspective of it also shifted dramatically. Like most non-essential workers, I found myself spending a lot of time at home and experienced both the city and my immediate neighborhood in whole new ways.
This idea of shifting perspectives is at the heart of “Studio with a View” and the reason I chose to shoot it from one single point of view. As my apartment window became my window to the world, extraordinary things kept happening below, representing not only one city block but also the larger social, political, and economical crises currently unfolding.
I like to think of “Studio with a View” as a visual poem or a kind of dance and purposely provided little narrative guidance. Thus, I am hoping to invite the audience on a journey of their own making, one that reflects both their own experiences as well as the historical forces of our time.
Director Biography
Mara Wollong is a filmmaker and artist based in New York City. She is making her directorial debut with “Studio with a View,” for which she also served as cinematographer and editor.
An immigrant from Germany, Mara moved to the city to complete her education and never left. She works as a film editor and loves experimenting with different forms of storytelling. Mara also shoots, produces, writes, and creates art, mostly on found objects. Her current work in progress is a pop art series entitled “Monsters Everywhere.”
