A PHONE CALL FROM MY BEST FRIEND
(short film, 13min)
Two white friends try to talk about race.
“A Phone Call From My Best Friend” feels unusually prescient and urgent, especially during this current political moment of reckoning in America, when people are scrutinizing ideas about silence, politeness, “color-blindness” and neutrality and how they fit into the perpetuation of racism.
As a result, the film is a true conversation piece — a meta-conversation if you will — and is provocative not in the sense of fomenting extreme emotion, but offering a jumping-off point of self-reflection and thought. “A Phone Call From My Best Friend” is in many ways a quieter than expected film — disciplined, naturalistic, almost like an episode of whatever the HBO young urbanite show of the year is — but its impact is much bigger than initial appearances. It leaves its final questions in the hands of the audience to answer, as well as an uneasiness that’s up to us to reconcile and reckon with.
– Kat Ascharya, curator
OFFICIAL PREMIERE: Booooooom.com
FEATURED: Shots.net + Shots Best of the Month: July 2020
SPECIAL PREVIEW: Filmmaker Magazine’s Rathaus Escapes
OFFICIAL SELECTION: 2020 Maryland Film Festival
OFFICIAL SELECTION: 2020 Sun Valley Film Festival
Follow @aphonecallfilm or visit aphonecallfilm.com for updates.
Director, Writer, Editor - Alexander Christenson
Cinematographer - Michael Belcher
Producer - Jeff Spivack
Madison - Celeste Arias
Chrissy - Auden Thornton
Rebecca - Emily Van Raay
Casting Director - Dayna Katz
Co-Producer - Miriam Naggar
Co-Producer - Christopher Hawthorne
Production Manager - Will Dennis
Gaffer - Emma Penrose
Steadicam Operator - Lisa Sene
First Assistant Camera - Jeffrey David Schultz
First Assistant Camera - Steven Tong
Second Assistant Camera - Noah Broch
Key Grip - Jay Warrior
Production Sound Mixer - Lily Bernstein
Script Supervisor - Alan Klassen
Costume Designer - Rachel Dainer-Best
Makeup Artist - Mary Chipman
Art Department Assistant - Persia Beheshti
Production Assistant - David Perez
Sound Mixer - Calvin Pia
Additional Compositing - Herculano Fernandes
Color - Nice Shoes
Colorist - Sal Malfitano
Color Producer - Andrew Pandolfino
Color Producer - Elizabeth Mitchell