Underground Orange
Film Screening & Ticket Information
When & Where to See this Film!
INTERCONNECTEDNESS: 2 films about blending imagination with reality.
April 19, 2024 @ 4:30PM • MoMI Redstone
Film Bloc Line Up:
Synopsis
A Californian backpacker becomes entangled in a polyamorous relationship with a gang of young actors who plot to kidnap the US Ambassador to Argentina.
Credits
- Michael Taylor Jackson, Director
- Michael Taylor Jackson, Writer
- Godfrey ReggioProducer, Director of Koyaanisqatsi (Telluride – 1982), Powaqqatsi (Berlin – 1988), Naqoyqatsi (Venice – 2002), Visitors (Toronto 2013)
- Joel Pincosy, Producer, Producer of The Foster Portfolio (Tribeca – 2017)
- Jimena Monteoliva, Producer, Producer of La Piedad (Karlovy Vary – 2022)
- Florencia Franco, Producer, Producer of La Piedad (Karlovy Vary – 2022)
- James Lefkowitz, Producer
- Michael Taylor Jackson, Producer
- Manuela Alewaerts, Producer
- Sofía Gala Castiglione, Key Cast, “Paty”, The Kingdom (Netflix – 2021), The Crimes That Bind (Netflix – 2020), Alanis (Berlin – 2017), @socastiglione – 341k followers.
- Vera Spinetta, Key Cast, “Frida”El Fin del Amor (Amazon – 2021), The Kingdom (Netflix – 2021), Soledad (Guadalajara – 2021), @veraspinetta – 209k followers.
- Kevin Johansen, Key Cast, “US Ambassador”, Kevin is a renown Argentine-American musician who acts for the first time in Underground Orange. He was born in Alaska, raised in San Francisco and has lived his adult life in Buenos Aires and NYC. @kevinjohansenoficial – 242k followers.
- Bel Gatti, Key Cast”, Goya”, Bel Gatti is a 26 year-old non-binary writer, producer and performer from Buenos Aires. In 2018, Bel developed the only trans DragKing spectacle in Buenos Aires entitled Los Reyes Del Amor. In 2020, Bel received the CCK Award for their work on #vidagattite, an autobiographical transhumanx fantasy film. @belgatti_
- Michael Taylor Jackson, Key Cast, “Yankee”, @michaeltaylorjackson
- Gianluca Zonzini, Key Cast, “Dante”, Si Yo Fuera El Invierno Mismo (Rotterdam – 2019), gianluz_
Director Statement
My name is Michael Jackson and I speak Spanish with an Argentine accent. It wasn’t always like that, however. I was born in Monterey, California to an English-speaking mother and to a father who died when I was nine-months old. Growing up with this name and without a “male” role-model left me with an identity crisis. The “Beat It” jokes got tiring and I struggled to feel unique living in the shadows of the King of Pop. I also failed at heterosexual monogamy, but hadn’t dug deep enough to ask myself why. It was under these circumstance that I arrived to Argentina as a young backpacker seeking to develop community in another language and culture.
Underground Orange is a personal story, but it also explores the themes of neocolonialism, Operation Condor and the Argentine Economic Crisis. It’s about a foreigner’s quest to make friends and integrate into a country that was devastated by his own nation only fifty years earlier. Why do Argentines call U.S. citizens Yankees? Given our increasingly interconnected world, how can we better understand our nationality and find humor in the ways other cultures perceive us? These are some of the questions that keep me awake at night and some that I’ve explored in my debut feature film.
Director Biography
Michael Taylor Jackson is a writer, director and a visual artist who attended art school in Buenos Aires before moving to New York City to complete an MFA in Film Directing from the Feirstein Graduate School of Cinema in 2019. While in school, his short films screened at the Cinequest, Sarasota, and Sonoma Film Festival where he won the Best Dramatic Short and the American Diversity Award. In 2019, Michael was a finalist in the Sundance Development Lab, and in 2020 he directed two music videos for Universal Music. Michael has worked with Godfrey Reggio, Cinereach and The Bushwick Film Festival. Underground Orange is his debut feature film.
