A new short takes on the familiar story of an artist struggling with making her first moves in the music industry and, as it happens, it was shot somewhere familiar too.
“Bushwick really provided that atmosphere,” says Sophie Max, who recently decided to shoot that short in the neighborhood, with co-producer Marisa Cole, who Max says once lived in Bushwick. Called “New Age,” it runs at about twenty minutes and follows a twenty-something singer named Ronnie, played by acting newcomer Rae Larz, who Max used to roommate with.
It’s a short with visuals that lean a few on a few recognizable Bushwick locations — like the queer club 3 Dollar Bill and the Halsey J platform — that embody the neighborhood as the city’s modern day cultural nerve center.
“We felt that the mood and texture of Bushwick was key to Ronnie’s journey, so we wanted to work in a neighborhood that has character,” says Max. The short opens with Ronnie wrapping up a rehearsal on the stage of 3 Dollar Bill to poor reception from a handful of other musicians watching. Her problems are compounded when her partner abruptly breaks up with her the next morning, leading her to oversleep and lose her job as a barista.
With the help of her friend Mia, played by someone listed in the credits as “Solomé,” Ronnie learns to celebrate herself, her queerness and her musical talent. According to Max, she largely sketched out Ronnie as an autobiographical portrait of Larz herself, who used to live and play music in Bushwick at the time. Her music also appears throughout. If you want to listen to any of it, she puts it out on a label she calls “Jupiter’s Luck Records.”
“There’s something really unique about the neighborhood in that it does really feel like it allows everyone to be who they are, and in the deepest sense, that’s what the [short’s] about,” Max said. “There is a real sense of play and experimentation that is alive in Bushwick.”
Adam Ninyo, who worked as a DP on the shoot and currently lives in Bushwick, says he’s a New York native. For him, the short doubles as an effort to capture Bushwick as a thriving mecca for starving artists, even as as the rising cost of living and more local forms of gentrification increasingly push out newcomer creatives and locals alike.
“It’s so important to keep making art in the neighborhood — things that aren’t necessarily designed to turn a profit,” says Ninyo. “Being an artist in Bushwick, you stimulate the local economy with production, showcase the neighborhood and vibrant culture that exists here. It keeps it as an artists’ neighborhood that’s increasingly being consumed by corporate interests.”
Images taken taken from “New Age.”
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