NOISE, 9@Night Film#1

Ben Malafide (Robert Viharo), arrives in San Francisco by Ferryboat after 20 years in Federal Prison. He finds a world run by misdirection, euphemism, equivocation, downright lies and which avoids direct answers to any given question. Street raw meets digital glitz and Ben is transported...then thwarted.

• Winner: San Francisco Film Critic's Circle Marlon Riggs Award for courage and innovation in the cinema, 2008.

• World Premiere: Virginia Film Festival, 2002.

“If pressed, many cinephiles would admit a magnetic attraction to truly magnum opuses: whether crafted by Tarr, Rohmer, Rivette or Syberberg, the mere existence of such titanic features or multi-film cycles suggests an important artistic event. There’s nothing quite like the exhilaration of discovering a huge project that in cinematic terms reaches for the extra-wide narrative/cinematic embrace of THE BROTHER’S KARAMAZOV, Proust, even INFINITE JEST. But does anyone work with that kind of scope in contemporary American cinema? Meet Rob Nilsson, who with very little self-promotional zeal has spend the last dozen- plus years creating a fascinating collection of exquisitely shot digital features under the umbrella of 9 @ Night… a sprawling black and white tapestry of separate but overlapping feature narratives that encompass a broad character scroll of homeless, hustling and bourgeois types in San Francisco and environs.” – Dennis Harvey, Film Comment, Sept./Oct. Issue, 2008

• The first film in Nilsson's 9@Night Film Series: 9 feature films sharing characters and circumstance with dialogue improvised by the Players, received the San Francisco Film Critic's Circle Marlon Riggs Award for courage and innovation in the cinema, 2008.

• Praise from Ray Carney and the Academy Foundation:

https://harvardfilmarchive.org/programs/9-night-the-films-of-rob-nilsson-2/

• The World Premiere marathon screening of all the 9 @ Night Films took place at the Harvard Film Archive in 2007.

"The most aesthetically striking title among veteran American indie filmmaker Rob Nilsson's gritty vid-drama "9 at Night" series to date, "Noise" is an arresting mix of improv-based, streetwise storytelling and elaborate digital-graphic packaging." - Dennis Harvey, Variety, Oct 21, 2002

Directed by:

• Rob Nilsson

Story:

• Rob Nilsson

Improvised by the Cast:

• Robert Viharo – Ben Malafide

• Paige Olson – Angel

• Edwin Johnson – Johnny

• Bill Ackridge – Speed

• Dolores Aguilar – Hotel Clerk

• Corey Allen – Ulf’s Father

• Steve Burns – House Owner

• Jim Carpenter – Lover

• Domenique Lozano – Lover

• Don De Fina – Sets

• Kindra Martin – Woman to Vallejo

• Brette McCabe – Harbinger

• Rob Nilsson – Pool Player

• Phil Palmer – Liquor Store Clerk

• Josh Peterson – Ulf

• Johnnie Reese – Johnson’s Associate

• Madelon van der Tuin – Woman in Room

• Teddy Weiler – Harbinger

Cinematographers:

• Billy Corona

• Ethan Sing

• Mickey Freeman

Sound:

• Rand Crook

• T.J. Walkup

Production Manager:

• Mira Larkin

Music by:

• Daniel Feinsmith

Editor:

• Josh Williams

Producers:

• Chikara Motomura

• Rob Nilsson

• Kevin Michael Winterfield

Executive Producers:

• Carol Richards

• David Richards

Dedicated To: Bill Ackridge

Okunrin Meta - David Schickele