DIALOGUE? PROFILES
Dialogue? Profiles really started during HORATIO. There were people Ely played basketball with and against day after day, year after year. There were also people he sought out and interviewed: Bill O'Donnell, owner of the Corner Bistro; a Parks Department welder whose fabrication shop in Central Park made basketball rims for parks across the city; Barry Benepe, who helped start New York City's Greenmarket farmers markets; and many others.
Some were filmed. Others became characters and profiles in the HORATIO script. There wasn't always a great camera around, or the means to make a great film. There was always the desire to explore interesting people and give them a platform.
Years later, projects like Up Mountain Switchel and Forage & Press created opportunities to keep doing that alongside talented filmmakers with the equipment and experience to match. The profiles collected here are part of that continuing practice. Film, writing, photography, conversation. The form can change.
PEOPLE
ARE
WORTH
PAYING
ATTENTION
TO
WALI
Wali and Ely met as kids playing basketball at Horatio Street in New York's Meatpacking District.
They grew up together in the neighborhood and remain close friends today.
Wali's life took turns neither of them could have imagined when they first met on that basketball court. Years later, the opportunity came to make a film about him.
Produced and creatively directed by Ely with filmmaker Scott Soens.
JASON FRAZER
Jason Frazer's profile follows him into the world of fly fishing.
Originally produced through Up Mountain Switchel, the film was directed and filmed by Scott Soens, with Ely helping produce the project as Up Mountain's founder and CEO.
ANDREA NEU
Andrea Neu's profile grew from another relationship formed through Up Mountain and follows her work in movement, Pilates and wellness.
The film was directed and filmed by Scott Soens, with Ely helping produce the project through Up Mountain.
GABRIELLE BENZIE
Cedar Lake follows Gabrielle Benzie in her Forage & Press studio in Camden, Maine, as she creates a botanical piece from specimens collected from her family’s camp on Cedar Lake in Northern Maine.
The film is about the artwork, but also the place, family history and natural materials carried into it.
Filmed by Zach Hand of @hamediacreative with production and creative support from Dialogue? Projects.