kicking off the production blog for the film on Socalled!
The National Film Board of Canada and Montreal’s Beitel/Lazar Productions are getting ready to embark on a journey, a cruise even, to make a film about Josh Dolgin, aka. Socalled, the young, eclectic, and talented musician who through his love and creation of hip hop, discovered a whole new world of mixing possibilities with traditional Klezmer music, and his own diverse musical influences.
The “Socalled” King of Klezmer, directed by Garry Beitel, begins on a trip down the Dneiper River in Ukraine, on the Dneiper Princess cruise ship, aboard the first ever Klezmer Cruise, that will have other talented Klezmer musicians, and enthusiasts who are also re-discovering their Jewish history and roots, and getting a taste of the Ukrainian culture.
We weigh anchor on April 29th, and this blog will our way to keep you in know on the production. My name is Aisling Chin-Yee, the associate producer for the Quebec Centre of the National Film Board, and I will be posting videos of what’s going on on the production, words from Josh, the passengers, the director, the producer and the crew, as well as photos, and text about the film in process. I also encourage you to interact, give us your own Socalled stories, your ideas, since we are in the middle of production, we are open to your input while the story unfolds. Videos will be up soon, for you to consume almost as they happen, or at least as soon as we hit land, and I hit the “upload” button at the nearest internet cafe.
If anyone has any tips on Ukrainian internet cafes, I am all ears. Really.
This is the first, and hopefully if everything goes right, a rare post with no video – It’s an exciting adventure, and I am glad you are going to join us there.
I’m really happy to hear the news about this film, Josh is such a talent, and he deserved nothing less. Small story:
I remember when he and I were about 15 years old (we were in grades 7 to 11 together, first at Hadley Junior high (nee Hull School), then at Philemon Wright) we at his folks place in Chelsea one weekend. Josh was already extremely proficient on piano, was quite active with singing, acting and magic and his thirst for new instruments was growing (often found with signed out instruments from Band class, walking the grounds at lunch playing). That weekend he decided to really dig into the guitar. There we sat, on the Friday night in his room, and while we goofed around and listened to tunes, etc, Josh strummed away on the guitar. There was never an awkward moment on the guitar, you know, when someone tries to stretch out their fingers and haphazardly bleat out a cord…not Mr. Dolgin … by hour two he was better at it than most kids who had been jamming for months/years. By the end of the weekend he was able to play the theme song to the Godfather on it…perfectly. The man is a musical prodigy, a genius really. Well done! Looking forward to seeing video’s of the shoot and, of course, the final cut.
All the best, Elliott Gauthier
Hi Josh – we have now started editing the film and I agree with you that Josh is exceptional. Keep checking here and also the reframe website (www.reframe-films.com) for more regular updates.