Tsingtao

Tsingtao today
(rheinneckarblog)
no copyright infringement intended

It was hot and humid that July in Beijing. Warm tea and cold beer were recommended to get through. Jasmin tea was fantastic and I was drinking it all day long. For evenings it was the turn for beer. There was the Beijing Beer, with low alcoholic concentration, you could drink it like water. There was the Wusu Beer, this was strong, like brandy or something, really strong. And there was the Tsingtao Beer, that I considered the best. And so began my relation with Tsingtao. A very special relation, while also strange, as I didn't drink any kind of Chinese beer ever since. It was about stories and recollections, each one coming at very long intervals.

Almost twenty years had passed since the journey in China. My brother-in-law Wolfgang was in Bucharest for a month, shooting a documentary (Children Underground). One evening we went out to have a beer. I mentioned the Tsingtao as the best beer ever. And Wolfgang told me an interesting story: he had been in the city of Tsingtao, for shooting a documentary about the German traces there. It had been sometime in the middle of the eighties, and the movie was made for a German TV channel. So I learned that Tsingtao was not only a beer brand, but much more: a big Chinese city that had been for a while a German colony. The brewery had been founded by the Germans, and its quality was based on the original recipe. Wolfgang told me about the streets and the houses there: the city was still keeping an amazing Middle European allure after so many years (well, not the whole city to be more exact, rather the old downtown). It was a long talk that evening in the Bucharest restaurant, as Wolfgang was proving to have a gift in telling stories. I don't know, maybe his German accent was giving to his English a particular savor, a je ne sais quoi, maybe the blue flame sparkling in his eyes as he was recollecting the trip to Tsingtao, anyway his work as cinematographer had brought him virtually in any corner of the world.

And the history of this city was very interesting in its own right, with or without the story told by Wolfgang. You see, there is a Chinatown in every big American city, and here it was somehow the reverse: a Germaniatown in a Chinese city. Between 1891 and 1914 Tsingtao had been a German colony, and during this time it was intensively developed: wide streets, impressive buildings, electricity, modern sewage, drinking water supply, railroad, plus a large school network (as for the brewery, it was founded in 1903). The German administration ended in 1914 with the outbreak of the First World War. British and Japanese forces attacked the city, and after a fierce battle Tsingtao passed under Japanese rule, that lasted till 1922 when it returned to Chinese authority. Well, to make a long history short, suffice is to say that the German spirit had inoculated the city's DNA and was still there.

And just a week ago I discovered on youTube a German documentary from 2008 directed by Dietmar Schulz: Tsingtau - Auf deutschen Spuren in China. Very well made, very professional, using many photos from the epoch of the German colony, even footage from then. I found also another video documenting the Siege of Tsingtao. Good stuff! Maybe I deserve now a bottle of Tsingtao Beer. It would be the case. I was in my mid thirties while in Beijing, I'm now in my very late sixties, very close to my early seventies. Time is a mischievous deceiver.

Tsingtau (青岛/Qingdao) - Eine deutsche Stadt in China
(video by Map2Brain)

The Siege of Tsingtao - 1914 (Rare War Photo's)
(video by jmantime)

(Dietmar Schulz)

(Wolfgang Held)

The Lost Tribe of Eric Kamen

Eric Kamen
(http://www.mtv.com/artists/eric-kamen/discography/1580637/)
no copyright infringement intended

Were I to see only this 2 minutes movie from all movies created by the couple Rapaport/Held, I would know all about their movie universe.

Urban Flamenco. He plays the guitar. They dance, each one in her own world. Four dancers, four worlds in counterpoint, creating the paradox of unity in contrasts. And this unity of dance, against the sound of the guitar. The guitarist and the sound, minimalism at its best, superbly restrained to itself. The girls forcing the sound to let itself tell the tale - and the guy with his guitar, keeping the tale within itself. Dance and guitar flowing together, never attaining one another. The mystery of the lost tribe confined there.

He is Eric Kamen. They are Holly Googe, Pearrie Hammie, Shakiver Gordon, Cecile Klaus.

And the eye of cinematographer Wolfgang Held, together with the knowledge of cinematic rhythm of director Pola Rapaport, creating an incredible gem: two minutes concentrating the essential about Urban Flamenco. Nothing more needs to be said.

Eric Kamen, The Lost Tribe
(video by Eric Kamen Music)

(Pola Rapaport)

(Wolfgang Held)

KameraKollektiv NYC

KameraKollektiv NYC
(Wolfgang Held, Claudia Raschke, Thorsten Thielow, Martina Radwan, Axel Baumann)
source: Wolfgang Held
no copyright infringement intended

The KameraKollektiv is a group of established cinematographers based in New York City, passionate about cause-driven, social change projects, be it commercial, narrative or documentary. Their filming style combines a cinematic approach to storytelling and lighting, with spontaneous, freewheeling cinema verité (Wolfgang Held)



(Wolfgang Held)

LIFE IS WUNDERBAR

LIFE IS WUNDERBAR (1992)
a film made by Wolfgang Held and Volker Euler
(video by heldrap)

1992 humorous short film by Wolfgang Held and Volker Euler about their love-hate relationship with Sydney, Australia, as young German travelers. Title song, Life is Wunderbar, written and performed by the 2 filmmakers.

(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h3DvISx32k8)

It is an unexpected gem, this 14-minute movie, fresh and with an irresistible rhythm: a bit Expressionist (as the two guys came from Germany, with a deep understanding of the film universe there), a bit Commedia dell'arte (the two guys having a very sure taste in building the perfect environment for their story), and telling volumes about the pure joy in making this movie - two guys very knowledgeable in all cinema stuff, and absolutely happy that the camera was playing with them.

The two make an interesting couple. Volker Euler has a special kind of humor that calls in mind Tom Hanks, while Wolfgang Held is the Commedia dell'arte type, Buratino and Karabas-Barabas in the same time (if you know the story of Aleksey Tolstoy), enchanting, somehow naughty, and even potentially mischievous.

Wolfgang came firstly to Sydney and was charmed by the place: the cityscape was transforming his window into a picture postcard. So he persuaded Volker to come, describing Sydney as the city where everybody was driving in open cars, nobody worked and everybody had money. Volker came there, to find out that there were no jobs and and there were no money. In the following months the two guys kept on searching for a job, any job, while keeping spirits up (as it should have been at their young age). Eventually Wolfgang came out to the conclusion that they should go back to their country.

After some years Wolfgang came again to Sydney and found his old friend. He persuaded him in making a movie, to reenact their story.

Wolfgang Held and Volker Euler were producers, writers, directors, editors, and actors in this movie. Among the people who helped one way or another in the making of this film it was also Pola Rapaport. As an interesting detail, LIFE IS WUNDERBAR is the only movie of Wolfgang where he is not also the Director of Photography.

What happened with the two guys later in life? Twenty years passed since 1992, when the movie was made. I looked on the web to find information about Volker Euler. He remained in Sydney, where he is the North Sydney College Association Executive Officer. Among other responsibilities, he coordinates Worldly Soles, a charity organization. Wolfgang Held is now a well-known DP. He lives in New York and remained the same enthusiastic guy as he was in LIFE IS WUNDERBAR.

Wolfgang Held, now
(https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=470195084464&set=a.10150113718424465.314633.732224464&type=1&theater)
no copyright infringement intended

Did their adventure have a sense? Says Wolfgang, human beings cannot live without dreams; we need to venture to countries beyond the horizon; and though, our travels might never find the perfect place; keep on moving to this universe, until you find your final.


(Wolfgang Held)

(Pola Rapaport)

An Interview of Wolfgang Held

Wolfgang Held
(https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10151348896164465&set=a.10150850171464465.527512.732224464&type=1&theater)
no copyright infringement intended

An interview given by Wolfgang Held to ICG Magazine. He's speaking about his background, and his first movies. The guy cinematographed greatly some documentaries, and also some features. I met him firstly in Bucharest: he was shooting Children Underground. It was a great experience to be near him while Family Secret was made. I was playing in that film and we were continuously quarreling. But I realized what a great cinematographer he is. Unfortunately we don't cope each other. But he is great.


Here is the interview:

http://viewer.zmags.com/publication/4c2a2167#/4c2a2167/32

(Wolfgang Held)

Ben Sutherland: Skylight Kunming

Michael John Sutherland (1966-2007)
image by Isaac Hernandez-Herrero 
(http://www.independent.com/news/2007/dec/06/michael-john-sutherland-1966-2007/)
no copyright infringement intended

After watching the Portrait of a Bookstore as an Old Man of Ben Sutherland and Gonzague Pichelin, I looked for other movies made by these two authors. That's how I came to Skylight Kunming. This time Ben Sutherland was the main author, as director, screenwriter, and cinematographer, while his friend Gonzague Pichelin did the editing and released the movie through his own production oufit, Zag Zoo Films.

Actually the Portrait of a ... and Skylight Kunming are so far their only movies listed on IMDb. Ben is working on a new project (not yet titled). It is a documentary on the rise of private military companies for an emergent business: counter-piracy operations in the Red Sea and beyond.

I was fascinated by the Portrait of a Bookstore as an Old Man: it had a special rhythm that allowed the recreation on the screen of a whole universe, through a rapid transition of a huge number of persons - each one coming to give her or his testimony and leaving quickly to make place to the next one - each testimony being short, while percussive. It's the Parisian Shakespeare and Company: the movie pulls out from that bookstore a whole universe.

I recognized in Skylight Kunming the same qualities: a fantastic sense of the cinematic rhythm, allowing the rendering of the story through a rapid transition of quick and percussive testimonies. This time it is about a man whose personality is revealed as a whole universe. Director Ben Sutherland made Skylight Kunming in the memory of his brother Mike.

The biography of Mike Sutherland is amazing. To say only that he was an enthusiast of outdoor activities and green business, to say even that he had a a generous and adventurous way of life, would be a misnomer. It was much more. For him home was where his toothbrush was - and his toothbrush was constantly moving on.

During college years, he spent a semester in an intensive program where a small number of guys  were living in log cabins like the first pioneers (or rather like solitary anchorites), while reading, discussing, and analyzing classic texts. Another semester was spent in a floating university (Semester at Sea, ran by the University of Pittsburgh): circling the globe, attending classes while at sea, exploring the countryside while in the harbors. Then he moved to Evergreen State College in Olympia, WA, a liberal arts institution based on a student-directed curriculum. After majoring in Consciousness Studies, he started a solo bike tour of Asia: two years throughout Pakistan, India, Nepal and China.

Mike settled eventually in Kūnmíng, the capital of Yunnan, a province in the far southwest of China, bordering Burma, Laos, and Vietnam. Here he started promoting the off-roads biking (organizing bike clinics, rides, races, and tours) and soon made a lot of friends, who nicknamed him Bike-Mike (to make the distinction from Airplane-Mike, a guy earlier arrived at Kūnmíng, and working there for Boeing).

For me, all this calls in mind other two names. Firstly my brother-in-law Wolfi (Wolfgang Held), also an adventuresome spirit who spent a couple of years in his youth to wander through India, Australia, and also New Zealand, I think. He is a well-known documentary cinematographer whose contracts bring him everywhere on Earth, Romania and Mongolia, China and Germany, France and Italy, and all across US. He is a passionate kayaker and an enthusiast of guitar. This would be one name. Then, of course, Chris Doyle, who worked in Norway on an off-shore drilling platform, and in Israel as a shepherd, before settling to Hong Kong to become one of the greatest cinematographers nowadays.

Mike (or let's rather call him Bike-Mike, like his fellows were doing) worked in Kūnmíng as a free-lance reporter and photographer for COLORS, a quarterly magazine about the rest of the world. Also he discovered during his trips within Yunnan province the traditional hemp cultivation and became an enthusiast. He opened an echo-friendly business of hemp clothing (People's Hemp) that grew to become a full line with on-line catalog, US order fulfillment and international sales.

The life of Mike Sutherland ended abruptly in 2007. It was a whitewater rafting accident: Mike and six others had set out on Nanpanjiang River outside Kūnmíng. The group split: five on the raft, and two in a kayak. The kayak capsized, the raft came to rescue and overturned, too. Three people, including Mike and his girlfriend Li Limei, drowned.

Shortly after the accident Ben Sutherland and his other brothers came to Kūnmíng, to pay their respects to the memory of Mike. The making of the movie started those days: Ben wanted to discuss with all people who had known Mike, and shooting the film was also, for him and for them, a necessary therapy. It is an after the fact documentary. The image of Mike appears only once, by the end, very briefly, somehow in an iconic way - but he is all the time present in the movie, you feel him through the intensity of the testimonies about his life.  The movie was not intended for distribution - it was just a way to make justice for the memory of Mike. It was, however, well received: it got the Indie Award of Merit and the Best Short Documentary Award the film won at the Washougal International Film Festival. Ben hopes it will be aired on Sundance.

Skylight Kunming (2008) : Intro
(video by ezzerdamoose)

Skylight Kunming (2008) : Part 1
(video by ezzerdamoose)

Skylight Kunming (2008) : Part 2
(video by ezzerdamoose)

Skylight Kunming (2008) : Part 3
(video by ezzerdamoose)

Skylight Kunming (2008) : Part 4
(video by ezzerdamoose)

Skylight Kunming (2008) : Part 5
(video by ezzerdamoose)

Skylight Kunming (2008) : Part 6
(video by ezzerdamoose)

Skylight Kunming (2008) : Part 7
(video by ezzerdamoose)

Skylight Kunming (2008) : Part 8
(video by ezzerdamoose)

Skylight Kunming (2008) : Part 9
(video by ezzerdamoose)

Skylight Kunming (2008) : Part 10
(video by ezzerdamoose)

Skylight Kunming (2008) : Part 11
(video by ezzerdamoose)

Skylight Kunming (2008) : Part 12/a>
(video by ezzerdamoose)

Skylight Kunming (2008) : Part 13
(video by ezzerdamoose)

Skylight Kunming (2008) : Part 14
(video by ezzerdamoose)

Skylight Kunming (2008) : Part 15
(video by ezzerdamoose)

Skylight Kunming (2008) : Part 16
(video by ezzerdamoose)

Skylight Kunming (2008) : Finale
(video by ezzerdamoose)

(Benjamin Sutherland and Gonzague Pichelin)

Broken Meat now on Vimeo

I already talked about Broken Meat, the movie directed by Pola Rapaport and cinematographed by Wolfgang Held. I was saying, a beat poet, Alan Granville, as iconoclastic as New York is, as crazy, as miserable, as superb; wrapping the same way his misery in a plethora of words, in a myth built to seduce and to leave you puzzled.

Now the movie was published also on Vimeo, which makes it much easier to watch; first of all it is only one video, of 49 minutes.

And so I watched it again. It calls in mind Geography of the Body a seven minute short made in 1943 by the famous (sometimes infamous) couple of Willard Maas and Marie Menken: the same determined minutia in exploring the human flesh (here extended to the whole, encompassing body and soul, in all misery), in counterpoint with the same cri de guerre, cynical and pathetic (here the voice of Granville himself, hey, here I am, look at me, don't fake with me and don't pretend your bullshit any more, I am the holly one!) I would add here something that seem to be very Pola Rapaport style, treating the whole in tones of black comedy, also her passion in making the film a masterful edit, which is amazing: the scenes of the movie follow the chaotic mind of the poet in some kind of a devilish dance!

Add to this the image of DP Wolfgang Held: he got the real poetry of this New York to be hated and loved altogether. A New York resembling the poetry of Alan Granville, founding the holiness in its miserable failure.

Broken Meat
(video by Pola Rapaport)

(Pola Rapaport)

(Wolfgang Held)

Wolfgang Held: Vatis Geschichte

Wilhelm Held
(1924 - 2008)

Vatis Geschichte (Daddy's Story), a thirty minutes documentary cinematographed and directed by Wolfgang Held. Pola Rapaport also participated to the making of this movie.

I watched it with emotion: I know all personages who are in Vatis Geschichte. A film made by a son (Wolfgang) about his father (Wilhelm). And I felt the emotion of Wolfgang in making this film.

It is a very personal movie, while dealing with something that happened in so many German families. It is the final act of a painful conflict between two generations. The generation of parents, raised in a totalitarian regime, educated in a totalitarian ideology, sent to the front to fight for Nazism. And the generation of children, born after all this nightmare was over, raised in a totally different system of values.

It is not about criminals here. They were ordinary citizens, these parents, and their guilt mainly was that they lived during Nazism. A very subtle form of guilt, not totally understood even by them. Only when Nazism was over they could realize the whole horror of all that had happened. And for the rest of their life they carried in themselves the personal burden of a collective guilt. And they kept it secret, mainly because they were not able to explain what had happened to anyone else. You should have lived under a totalitarian regime to really understand how it was possible.

A conflict between these two generations, the parents and the children, each one raised in a totally different system of values, each one with very different parameters in their lives. A conflict that took sometimes dramatic forms.

And, after many years, when the perspective on those horrible times became free of too rapid judgments and of big pathetic words, when children became mature enough to understand, only then the parents felt capable to explain.

Wilhelm Held was eighty years old when he told his story in front of his children (who were then in their late forties). He was born in 1924, learned in classrooms decorated with swastikas, and when war came he was sent to the front. He could have been killed twice, firstly on the Russian front, then in Paris, he simply had chance. He was eventually captured by the Americans and stayed for a year and a half in a POW camp. He spent the rest of his life as a high school teacher of French and Latin.

And after so many years, he simply told his story, and his son Wolfgang filmed him. With emotion, with love, and with the memory of the acute misunderstandings that had been between the two of them long time ago.

Wilhelm Held passed away after another four years. He died suddenly, a heart attack while he was sleeping. I know them all, Wilhelm and his wife, Wolfgang and his two sisters, and the little granddaughter of Wilhelm. I watched this movie with great emotion.


(Wolfgang Held)

Broken Meat, a Film by Pola Rapaport

A beat poet, Alan Granville, as iconoclastic as New York is. As crazy, as miserable, as superb. Wrapping the same way his misery in a plethora of words, in a myth built to seduce and to leave you puzzled. To understand the spirit of New York one needs to understand guys like Alan Granville, a huge talent in battle with a Moloch mocking of any talent. He experienced homelessness, drug addiction, and mental illness. He fought them with humor and with a sense of what destiny means: I was in the land of nowhere and I found there holiness.

This is a Broken Meat, a movie made by Pola Rapaport in 1991. The image is signed by Wolfgang Held. A New York that opens to you slowly and pensively, seamy and superb.

I had the chance to watch this movie long time ago, and I am glad that it is now on youTube.

Enjoy!

Broken Meat: Part 1/6
(video by heldrap)

Broken Meat: Part 2/6
(video by heldrap)

Broken Meat: Part 3/6
(video by heldrap)

Broken Meat: Part 4/6
(video by heldrap)

Broken Meat: Part 5/6
(video by heldrap)

Broken Meat: Part 6/6
(video by heldrap)

(Pola Rapaport)

(Wolfgang Held)

Grace Paley: Collected Shorts - a Film by Lilly Rivlin

Grace Paley
(1922 - 2007)

Grace Paley: Collected Shorts is a visual parallel of Grace Paley's life and writings revealed in colorful shorts and told in her own voice.

Her life was extraordinary. She was a firebrand on the front line of protest (imdb). With her Bronx rough-around-the-edges accent Grace Paley opposed for all her life war and nuclear proliferation, and fought for the rights of women. She went often to jail for her political attitude. Her work (short stories, poems, essays) was translated in 92 languages. For Enormous Changes at the Last Minute she has been compared to Chekhov. Says Lilly Rivlin, Grace was a New York icon who captured the essence of the city she loved. I would add, she captured the essence of the extraordinary times she lived.

another photo of Grace Paley

The movie will have its world premier at the Castro, July 25, 11 am, and the Roda Theatre (Berkeley Rep Theatre) at August 1, at 12 noon. I will miss the chance to be in the attendance and this is unfortunate, because I know very well the wonderful personality of the filmmaker, Lilly Rivlin. She is courageous in all her movies, and each of them is interesting and relevant.

Now, there is another fact for which I should not have missed this film: Wolfgang Held is the Director of Photography (and it would be a great experience to watch all his movies!). The film editing is done by Pola Rapaport.

(movie trailer: video by Lilly Rivlin)

(Lilly Rivlin)

(Grace Paley)

(Wolfgang Held)

(Pola Rapaport)

Truth in Motion: The U.S. Ski Team's Road to Vancouver

Wolfgang Held worked last fall in Switzerland and Austria, together with a full crew of cinematographers, to make a documentary about the training of the US Ski Team. It's Truth in Motion: The U.S. Ski Team's Road to Vancouver, a movie telling the unique stories of these elite athletes as they prepare for the 2010 Winter Olympic Games.

The experience of filming this movie was also unique: it's so great to be so close to the ski team as they work out, to follow them with the camera, to immerse in their universe! I know now very well Wolfgang Held and I envy him for all his filming experiences, near the Olympic team, or on a carrier, or in Beijing in an old German neighborhood, or in Bucharest following the rough life of some kids... and all over the world!

(video by AudiUSANews)

The movie will air first January 30 at 8pm EST on NBC, followed by an appearance on the USA Network on February 6 at 5pm EST. It will also run three times in primetime on the Universal Sports Network.




(Wolfgang Held)

This Emotional Life at PBS on Jan. 4/5/6

Television at its best: This Emotional Life, a 3-part NOVA series, to be watched on PBS, on January 4/5/6 at 9 pm Eastern Time. Watch here a sneak-peek.

Says Director of Photography Wolfgang Held, I really loved filming for the 3 shows and these shoots always left me with food for thought and discussions for weeks afterwards. I hope the finished shows will reflect this.

Here is some info:

This Emotional Life explores the nature of the social relationships that are the key to human happiness; the obstacles to happiness—negative emotions – which we can’t live with and can’t live without; and the sometimes misguided pursuit of happiness itself. Each episode weaves together compelling personal stories of ordinary people and the latest research in psychology, along with revealing comments from celebrities such as Chevy Chase, Larry David, Elizabeth Gilbert, Alanis Morissette, Katie Couric and Richard Gere. Hosted by Daniel Gilbert, Professor of Psychology at Harvard and author of Stumbling on Happiness.


(Wolfgang Held)

Arctic Surfing

(video by First Ascent)

For Wolfgang, he loves extreme sea sports.


(Wolfgang Held)

Wolfgang Held in Black and White

(Wolfgang Held)

Wolfgang Held

- Wolfgang Held -

It was one evening in the early 80's, in Sidney. One guy was sitting on the sidewalk, playing the guitar. The other one was passing with an alert rhythm, mumbling lines from Shakespeare, as he was dreaming to become a classic actor.

That's the way Wolfgang and Achilles met for the first time.

I met Achilles for the first time just a couple of days ago, in Manhattan, and we started immediately to chat about Sidney (as the place that's too American) and Melbourne (as a place with an European style), about Cairo and Arabic literature (Achilles used to speak in his youth pretty good Arabic, as he had been born in Egypt). I had in front of me one of the finest fellows I have ever met.

I wanted to tell you all this about Achilles; he's one of the oldest friends of Wolfgang.

Wolfgang Held: born in Germany, spent a couple of years in his early twenties to travel around the world, in India, in Australia, in some other countries, doing in each place the most diverse jobs to support himself and playing in the evenings his guitar (he still plays the guitar; sometimes he meets with friends in some bar in Brooklyn, just to improvise).

He returned to Germany and studied American literature, then he entered the movie industry.

He's been living for many years in New York and became one of the very well known cinematographers. I will name just a handful of his movies, totally at random: Brüno, Carrier, Ripe, Criminal, The Tic Code, Children Underground, Teeth, Blind Light, Broken Meat.

And he traveled for his shootings all over the world again. I met him firstly in Bucharest where he was shooting Children Underground. And I remember he was telling me a story about him shooting in Beijing a documentary about an old brewery founded in China by Germans: Tsingtao. He's currently living in Brooklyn in a building that replaced an old brewery.

• Wolfgang Held in Black and White
• Teeth - a Movie Photographed by Wolfgang Held
• Arctic Surfing
• This Emotional Life at PBS on Jan 4/5/6
• Truth in Motion: The US Ski Team's Road to Vancouver
• Grace Paley: Collected Shorts - a Film by Lilly Rivlin
• Broken Meat, a Film by Pola Rapaport
• Broken Meat now on Vimeo
• Vatis Geschichte
• An Interview of Wolfgang Held
• LIFE IS WUNDERBAR
• KameraKollectiv NYC 
• The Lost Tribe of Eric Kamen
• Tsingtao

(Filmofilia)

(German and Nordic Cinema)

Teeth - a Movie Photographed by Wolfgang Held

Teeth will open on January 18 in New York and Los Angeles, and then nationwide on the weekend that follows.

This indie horror/comedy achieved instant cult status at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival. Exploring the vagina dentata myth, Teeth tells the story of high school student Dawn (Jessica Weixler, who won Best Actress at Sundance for this role), who is the head of her school's chastity program and a stranger to her own body. After being assaulted by her ideal guy, Dawn learns - in a shocking scene that has to be seen to be believed - she has a toothed vagina, says Wolfgang Held, the director of photography for this movie.

Here's the trailer:

And here are some comments from viewers: Laugh out loud, Brilliant film, brilliantly acted by Jess Weixler, Hilarious and satisfying, If you thought vagina dentata was a myth, you've clearly never been to the American Bible Belt, Not something to get your teeth stuck into, Great horror / comedy, Oh my God, etc, etc.

And you cand find also some less enthusiastic comments, as: Ehhh... mildly interesting... even Another Sundance Stinker (amateurish at best)

One of the folks who saw the movie is probably right anyway: Not a date movie. That's true, vagina dentata is not the kind of stuff to make you confident...

(Wolfgang Held)