Post #1: The Beginning

If you all made it here, you are film lovers and intrigued. Welcome to South of Sunset, the film. We hope you enjoy what follows.

First, let’s have a peek at South Of Sunset, which delves deeply into the fateful trials and tribulations involving the human psyche. We all know about that. It’s said that the brain is the most complicated structure in the Universe. In South Of Sunset we have some of the proof of that: Desperate, on the run from a motley trio of Russian mafia thugs, Marina, beautiful and smart, a problem solver, bursts into a stranger’s apartment where a man, a part-time crisis manager, is about to hang himself. Of all ironies! And hardly a situation for love at first sight, don’t you think? That’s just the beginning of a psychological tete-a-tete between our two main characters that’s played out in SOS. The funny, even at times wacky, and entertaining screenplay, South Of Sunset, a black comedy, is the brainchild of Andrzej Kamrowski. who is good at imaging interesting, complex, psychological problems in his characters. At times the team wonders if he is struggling with some of these himself (Ha-ha)

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SOUTH OF SUNSET TEAM

Andrzej Kamrowski

Hi, I’m Andrzej the writer, director and producer. I welcome you to our site. As you go through our blog, I hope you will like the South Of Sunset film project, which is now in the initial stages. We appreciate all your feedback on our content, photos and videos, everything. We are always open to suggestions.

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Before I introduce the team members and the film, I would like to tell you some about myself, who I am.  I was born in Poland and fell in love with moviemaking at a young age. I then went to study all aspects of film production in the world-renowned Polish National Film School(PWSFTViT) in Lodz, Poland.

To all enthusiasts of filmmaking out there the camera in this picture above is the Eclair Cameflex 16/35-mm. This camera was designed for use with either 16-mm or 35-mm film negative, a change of film width required attaching of a different magazine and the insertion of 16-mm gate into 35-mm. For a shoot in cinemascope format, the camera in this picture above is fit with the Angeniieux 25-250mm T3.5 HR 35mm anamorphic lens. 
The picture above portrays preparations to shoot a master scene for short featurette drama ‘Naked I Came to this World’. The film’s story was loosely based on the biblical tale of Cain and Abel. We shot it in its entirety on an enormous city dump in cinemascope. We filmed there for three days, and it was scorching hot. The putrid odor made me retch several times a day. By the way that’s me behind the camera. To make me feel better, the hair person scissored of my very long hair around. It helped!

I was invited to the US by the late Gary Essert, the founder of FILMEX, the Los Angeles International Film Festival, and the American Cinematheque, to participate in the 1983 FILMEX. Since then and being an American citizen now for many years, I continue to be involved with film making as a writer and producer. I was a producer of several movies including “Good Luck” starring the late Gregory Hines and Vincent D’onofrio and “Grim Prairie Tales” with Earl Ray Jones for HBO.

Recently I began to revisit SOS. I took another look at the psychological dynamics between the two lead characters, MARINA, a Russian beauty hunted by her psychotic mafia boss boyfriend and JACK, a writer on the verge of committing suicide.

Aygul and I discussed the project while I was re-writing. As a result of her insightful comments and specifically about the female lead, Marina now became the protagonist, more cerebral, stronger, smart, as well as sexy. The screenplay morphed into something beyond genres, beyond stereotypes, a crime-thriller with many comedic overtones between two strangers from different worlds, in desperate situations, who come to understand each other emotional sensitivity. Now I very much look forward to directing my screenplay South Of Sunset.

Aygul Maksutova

We are lucky to have a sexy young woman, cute as a button, Aygul, who plays the beautiful, smart and tough main character, Marina, in South Of Sunset.

Here’s her colorful background and comment about South Of Sunset in her own words:

I am a Native Russian of Tatar descent born and raised in Republic Komi near the Urals and the Arctic Ocean. In the snow of the mountains of Komi, I spent a wonderful childhood digging tunnels, building houses of snow, playing with snowballs and making up stories with the other children. I eventually left Russia with 200 dollars to my name, I arrived with my best friend in New York to follow my secret passion for theatre and acting. I revealed this secret dream to my family only after I started my full-time training in famous HB Studio in NYC. They thought I left to study interior design. But now they are cool with me being a performing artist. After graduation I made my way to California and iconic Hollywood.

Turned out, nobody was waiting for me in Los Angeles with open arms so I had to get a waitressing job.

I met Andrzej at Warszawa, now called Solidarity, the Polish restaurant located in Santa Monica. I worked as a waitress and a bartender there while pursuing acting and dancing. One evening, he told me about his screenplay South of Sunset and that one of the main characters was Russian. Of course, my ears perked up and I asked to read the script. I read it the same night and truly loved the story right from the start, the characters were wonderful, complex, and psychologically funny. The woman’s role was strong. I liked that. I wanted it for myself.

The next day I texted him and asked “Why this film hasn’t been made yet?”. I think I lit a fire under him. And here we are and fortunately, I got the part of Marina, strong, smart, and sexy. Thank you, Andrzej!”

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Bartek Gliniak

Bartek Gliniak is a composer of music for films and television based in Los Angeles. His remarkable, expressive and innovative scores faithfully embody both story and character. He is a graduate of the Academy of Music in Cracow. In 1994 he received an award in the 22-nd International Electro-acoustic Music Competition in Bourges (France). Since 1996 he has been collaborating with the Experimental Studio of Polish Radio in Warsaw where he composed and recorded numerous electronic and experimental compositions. He is an author of soundtracks to over 30 films including the films numerously awarded at the international and national festivals.

For me, South of Sunset is like “symphony of acting” for actors.

Every character, both lead and supporting characters are like separate worlds built with the clear-cut, vivid, personal concept.

For example, Misha, a dangerous gangster, killer and crazy maniac whose ruthlessness is mixed with bohemian-like artistic fantasy and nonchalance. Or Olga, a humongous and strong woman, redoubtable and mysterious. For actors, it’s a vast and inspiring scope for action.

I always like all these creative talks with Andrew. I think we can inspire each other. Whenever we talk, we come to some exciting conclusion.


Wojciech Fry-Lewis 

Wojciech Fry-Lewis, Polish/American Actor and Filmmaker who has been based in the U.S. Wojciech has performed in numerous films, theater productions, musicals and voice-overs. Perhaps it all starts with his name: “Woj” means “warrior” and “ciech” stands for “joy.” So there you have it: Wojciech is one happy warrior, possessed by working hard, maintaining a positive attitude and indulging his admitted weakness for New York cheesecake. In Poland, Wojciech earned a Business Degree at Cracow Business School, and studied Acting at Warsaw Machulski Drama Studio. Later, departed Poland to study acting for 4 years at HB Studio in New York City with the renowned Austin Pendleton, Michael Beckett, Sam Groom and Eric Michael Gillett. Now, He is based in Los Angeles where he graduated from International Academy of Film and Television with the Diploma from Filmmaking. Also, graduated from Herb Alpert Music Academy with the specialty in classical and commercial singing. He constantly continues to chase his dreams and simply just tries to be better.

We are happy to have Wojciech on board on our project and are looking forward to show you more.

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 Let’s Make It Happen

We’re excited to launch the crowdfunding and to make magic happen. After all the misery and crazy events that are happening in this world, we need to create more art. We can’t wait to make this happen.

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