Peter Sollett
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Peter Sollett | |
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| Occupation | Screenwriter, film director, film producer, cinematographer, film editor |
| Nationality | American |
| Notable work(s) | Raising Victor Vargas |
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Peter Sollett (born 1976 in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn, New York) is an American filmmaker known for his short film Five Feet High and Rising and its feature film sequel Raising Victor Vargas.
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[edit] Career
Sollett's first feature was Five Feet High and Rising, a 26-minute short film about the growth and coming-of-age of teenager Victor Vargas.[1] He and Eva Vives wrote Five Feet High and Rising as their thesis film in 1998 at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts and he served as the film's director, cinematographer and editor.[3] After he had the opportunity to work with professionals in the film industry at the Cannes Residence Programme,[4] the short film went on to screen on the festival circuit and won a number of awards at the Sundance Film Festival, Cannes Film Festival, Aspen Shortsfest, Valencia International Film Festival, South by Southwest Film Festival and Cinema Jove International Film Festival. Two years after the release of Five Feet High and Rising, Sollett and Vives reunited to collaborate on a follow-up project that became Raising Victor Vargas, originally named Long Way Home.[1][2] While Sollett says that Five Feet High and Rising was purely autobiographical and based on the Italian-Jewish neighborhood he grew up in in Brooklyn,[3][5] he and Vives decided to create another film directly about the experiences of the main characters Victor and Judy, continuing on two years after the film left off.[1] Using the same cast as the original short film, he wrote an action-and-dialogue screenplay which he did not give to any of the actors to encourage them to improvise and create a feeling of spontaneity and authenticity.[2][3] Raising Victor Vargas earned Sollett three Independent Spirit Award nominations in the categories of Best Film, Best Director and Best First Screenplay,[6] as well as other awards and nominations at the Viennale, San Sebastián International Film Festival, Online Film Critics Society Awards, Deauville Film Festival, Gotham Awards and the Humanitas Prize.
Sollett is currently a member of faculty at Columbia University School of the Arts.[7]
[edit] Personal life
Sollett grew up in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn in an Italian-Jewish neighborhood where he claims his childhood "was spent on one side of the street" because of racial tensions.[3] He says that the character of Victor Vargas is his fantasy of his teenage self and that Victor is boy he would like to have been, much more confident than his actual self, describing himself as "the kid in [his] neighbourhood who watched all that stuff going on between boys and girls but could never access whatever juice those guys had to do it."[3] His father is a newspaper photographer, which he says inspired him to pick up a camera.[1]
[edit] References
- ^ a b c d e f g Shyman, Carol & Gatto, Robin (January 16, 2003). Peter Sollett's Raising Victor Vargas. FilmFestivals.com. Retrieved on 2008-04-05.
- ^ a b c d Chambers, Bill (September 10, 2002). CIRCUS VARGAS: Film Freak Central Interviews Writer-Director Peter Sollett. Film Freak Central.
- ^ a b c d e Gilbey, Ryan (September 12, 2003). Peter Sollett and Victor Rasuk: Mad about the boy. The Independent. Retrieved on 2008-04-05.
- ^ Cannes Residence Program. FilmFestivals.com (May 15, 2002). Retrieved on 2008-04-05.
- ^ Dawson, Tom (September 15, 2003). Peter Sollett. BBC. Retrieved on 2008-04-05.
- ^ Susman, Gary (December 3, 2003). 'American' Beauties. Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved on 2008-04-05.
- ^ Faculty Biography: Peter Sollett. Columbia University School of the Arts.
