Nicholas Nazmi

Sofia works as a location scout for a TV pilot filming in New York City. It’s her job to find the homes, businesses, and exteriors where the show will be filmed. Driving around the city's different neighborhoods, she enters the private spaces of strangers to photograph their cozy apartments and eclectic shops, stepping into the fabric of their lives while trying to satisfy the demands of her erratic employers. Over a day filled with these encounters, Sofia witnesses moments of curiosity, vulnerability, and quiet tension until her work takes a sudden, personal turn.

Setting out to “make a movie” on the streets of NYC, a man recruits strangers to act alongside him in “movie scenes”. Using a hidden camera prank show format, “Cinema Brut” is notable for capturing the strange ways people respond when asked to perform, and for the highly committed performance by Bennett Clarkson beaming with manic energy and repartee.

Amid the high anxiety of post-9/11 NYC, a struggling post-production house is hired to remove a shot of the Twin Towers from the intro to a hit TV show.

Setting out to “make a movie” on the streets of NYC, a man recruits strangers to act alongside him in “movie scenes”. Using a hidden camera prank show format, “Cinema Brut” is notable for capturing the strange ways people respond when asked to perform, and for the highly committed performance by Bennett Clarkson beaming with manic energy and repartee.

Amid the high anxiety of post-9/11 NYC, a struggling post-production house is hired to remove a shot of the Twin Towers from the intro to a hit TV show.