September 18 - Enduring Call will screen at 1:00PM in competition at the Napa/Sonoma Wine Country Film Festival as part of a special Eco-Cinema Series. Screenings at night will be over the vines... and under the stars... so grab a complimentary bottle of snappy, zesty HD and savor cinema at its very best. 
Fritz Feick of Aftershock Digital wins Gold Remi Award at Houston Worldfest"As a director, I found that working alone with the actors in such a remote and god-forsaken environment had the inverse effect of creating an unusual ease in bringing the two characters to life. I was acutely aware of the contrast between the vacuous physical elements of the terrain and the rich, raw emotional elements I wanted to capture in the characters." Feick was intent on accurately portraying the science behind the film, and researched techniques used by field scientists for water sampling. He enlisted several biologists to aid the production, and incorporated their ideas into his script based on their sobering accounts of the potential horrors that could go wrong in the field. Their input added a crucial credibility factor to the actors who were themselves actively collecting data as the plot thickened.
Katrina Nelson faced an enormous challenge depicting a woman caught in the crosshairs, who risks everything in an encounter with unpredictable forces. "Her performance worked on every level," claims Feick. "Katrina showed great flexibility as we raced from location to location-- never shooting the pages in order. And she wasn't just a trooper, she was an artist." "To say that it was always challenging and never boring is an understatement!" Katrina added. "I think Kayvon (Esmaili) and I had great chemistry. We all worked long, hard hours making this film guerrilla-style on little sleep and meager accommodations. One morning, we even ate pancakes at a church for $1... talk about low budget!" Kayvon Esmaili, who plays a faithful colleague and jilted lover, called it a one-of-a-kind experience. "We would film pretty much all day sun up to sundown, then start up all over again at night. I actually don't remember the sleeping part. Fritz seemed to know where everything was and drove us around to all of these locations he had mapped out. Well, we'd just get out and attempt to lose ourselves in this world." Composer Steven Sacco drew upon some of the world's best performers to deliver the provocative score. Steven Isserlis, CBE (Order of the British Empire), one of the world's most renowned living cellists, ripped an astonishing solo, which is the heart and soul of The Enduring Call. "The music for the film has a warm and sensuous patina, filled with passion, drama and rage," adds Sacco. "In the film, I love the extended time devoted to the abstract, the long stretches of beautiful, cinematic photography and the fast paced juxtaposition of distinct short shots. Fritz has a great affinity for music and his film leaves ample room for the composer to shine! My thinking was to create a score with strong narratives that would, in essence, create a counterpoint with his beautiful film." Sacco first met Feick at a screening for Fritz's first film Bulgare which also won a Gold Award at the Houston Worldfest, and went on to win the Bohemian Crystal for Best Drama at the Golden Prague International Television Festival. It would later become part of the collections of the Museum of Television in New York and the Center for Independent Journalism in Prague.
What's on the horizon for Feick and The Enduring Call? The film will be screening at the Short Film Corner at the Cannes Film Festival next month, and Feick looks forward to the European response. His toughest audience, however, still lies ahead. "When I show the film to my daughter, a very strict devotee to Criterion Collection black and whites, then I'll know if the film holds muster."
Contact Info Fritz Feick Aftershock Digital (323)658-5700 fritzfeick@gmail.com
