Between Extremes (April 08, 2009), Forth Worth Weekly
Arlington filmmaker Frank Mosley, who will debut his first feature, HOLD, in a couple of months, is finishing up a short called HOT/COLD but needs a couple of extra bucks to see his experimental narrative through. Which is where you come in. On Tuesday at Four Day Weekend Theater, Mosley is presenting a staged reading of HOT/COLD, narrated by drama instructor Jennifer Mazza-Nguyen and acted by cast members Danielle Pickard, Crystal Pate, Morgana Shaw, and John Elliott. Local photographer Paul Leicht has taken a series of portraits and abstracts that will be projected on three background screens during the performance, and local noir-folk singer-songwriter Clint Niosi will accompany the actors by performing a first draft of the film’s score. Admission is free, but Mosley hopes that theatergoers will donate to his cause. He hopes to have the money to produce his film by the summer.
Past, present, and future collide in this story “about disillusioned people stuck in a purgatory of uncertainty,” Mosley says. The narrative hinges on three women of three different ages who mirror one another’s failures and victories. The film’s non-linear structure encourages theatergoers “to determine whether [the characters’] fates are justified.” A live performance piece, a short film, an installation, triptych, a concert –– whatever it is, Mosley’s staged reading of HOT/COLD stands to be groundbreaking. Also, local filmmaker Shaun Hamill will be chronicling the evening for a documentary.
Staged reading of HOT/COLD is on Tue at 7:30 p.m. and 9 p.m. at Four Day Weekend Theater, 312 Houston St, Fort Worth.
***
Her Wilderness Arrives (April 02, 2014), Fort Worth Weekly
Frank Mosley, the Dallasite-via-Arlington actor/director and 2013 Visionary Award winner, and Fort Worth singer-songwriter/composer Clint Niosi are about to release one of the most ambitious multimedia experiences North Texas has ever seen. Her Wilderness will have multiple components, including live performance (called Hot/Cold), a looped installation triptych for galleries and museums (The Fairest of All), and a feature film, Her Wilderness. Mosley is shopping the movie around to festivals now.
The movie, a companion piece stylistically to his first feature, 2010’s Hold, is “a lot more operatic, wild, and epic but still has that intimacy of character relationships,” he told us last year. The score, composed entirely by Niosi at his home studio in the Fort, is truly minimalist and bleak a la Philip Glass, and we mean that in the best way. Also featuring ambient audio and dialogue from the movie recorded and edited by Roy Bennett, the moody but gorgeous soundtrack was mastered by Fort Worth’s Britt Robisheaux (The Theater Fire, Drug Mountain) and will be available on National Record Store Day (Saturday, Apr. 19) as a limited edition on CD (150 copies) and digitally on iTunes and Spotify through Fort Worth-based Orange Otter Records. “The soundtrack is in a way like a radio drama at times or a concept album in the vein of Pink Floyd,” Mosley said. “Though there are separate tracks, the whole thing weaves together.”