Directed by Ben Kalina
Temple University, USA
Eleven year-old Izzy and her mom Caroline live a modest existence while Caroline struggles to get by as a musician, playing gigs and waiting for a breakthrough. For weeks Izzy has been asking her mom for the ten dollars she needs to go on a science class field trip to a wild animal exhibit, but when Caroline gets fired from her last regular gig and can't come up with the money, Izzy is left to figure out how to get into the museum on her own.
Category: Narrative
Run-Time: 19:30
School: Temple University, USA
Year of production: 2006
Shooting format: DVScreening format: BetaSP (NTSC)
People/Crew
Producer Ben Kalina
Director Ben Kalina
Writers Ben Kalina and Tom Quinn
Camera Tom Quinn
Editors Ben Kalina and Tom Quinn
Filmmaker Bio
Ben Kalina
Directing, producing and editing documentary shorts and features as well as short fiction films, Ben Kalina's most recent fiction short, "Diorama", won the top prize for fiction filmmaking at the 2007 Sehseuchte film festival in Germany, Europe's largest student film festival, as well as the top prize for a fiction film at the Diamond Screen Film Festival. His feature documentary credits include co-director of "Leaps of Faith: Views on American Power, the Invasion of Iraq and Citizenship in a Time of War", associate producer and 2nd cinematographer of "Two Square Miles", and "A Sea Change" (in-production) and director/producer of many short form documentaries.
Director's Statement
When Tom Quinn and I set out to write Diorama our goal was to tell a story foremost through the visual elements of the medium of video, specifically 24P cinematic video. In order to capture the essence of our characters' struggles with their imperfect lives we hoped to create a world that was rich with emotion but not melodramatic. To achieve a realistic style we incorporated documentary footage with scripted interactions, mixed non-actors with actors, and employed improvisation throughout.
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