About

#AnnieHall

@AnnieHallFilm

A 40 year-old neurotic comedy writer recalls his failed yet fun-filled romance with a millennial Jewish woman.

2014, Williamsburg, Brooklyn:
J.P. Porter
, a comedy writer and burlesque host (inspired by the real-life J.D. Oxblood) remembers his relationship with Minnie Wohl, a charismatic, vivacious young Jewish woman, a native New Yorker of Israeli extraction.

Inspired by Woody Allen and Marshall Brickman’s Annie Hall script, this film flips pivotal elements while updating jokes and pop-culture refs. A reporter for Rolling Stone becomes a photographer for Gawker. Hollywood is replaced by ascendant Palo Alto. Manhattan as the center of the universe?—in 2014, it’s Brooklyn.

This witty and self-conscious Rom-Com tackles the universal tale of love and loss and subverts the quirks of Allen’s iconic film.

Personnel

Starring Charly Bivona as “Minnie Wohl”

CharlyBivona
Charly Bivona

@CharlyBivona

Charly Bivona can be seen in HBO’s Girls, Michael Almereyda’s Cymbeline, and Richard LaGravenese’s The Last Five Years. She also worked with Nick Stoller on The Five-Year Engagement.

Recently she played a lovesick android in the NYC Fringe Festival production of Some Are More Human, played the leading role of Evelyn Nesbit in the dark off-off-Broadway comedy Dementia Americana, and starred in the indie feature In This Place (post-production). She was awarded Best Actress in short film at the Detroit Independent Film Festival and the Uptown Film Festival, and won best Best Lead Actress at the Made-In-Michigan Film Festival. She studied at the Purple Rose Theatre Company in Chelsea, Michigan, and the Circle In The Square Theatre School in New York. She is an intern at New York Actor’s Studio.


 

J.D. Oxblood — Writer/Director, “J.P. Porter”

JDOxblood_075-PhotoBy-Claudia Hehr
J.D. Oxblood

@JDOxblood

J.D. Oxblood is co-founder of the web magazine Burlesque Beat. He contributes regularly to New York magazine’s Bedford+Bowery, and has written for 21st Century Burlesque, Burlesque Magazine, Zelda, and the academic journal Borrowers and Lenders. He has hosted burlesque and literary salons, and has performed at storyteller series Lost and Found and The Moth. He was voted #10 in the Burlesque Top 50 2014 for non-performing men. (Photo by Claudia Hehr.)


 

Steve Loff — Producer

SteveLoff
Steve Loff

@SteveLoff

Brooklyn native Steve Loff’s producing work for Current TV earned him a 2008 Silver Telly Award. His first feature script, Lester, placed in the top 10% at the 2008 Austin Film Festival. His writing/directing debut, Desert Rain, premiered at the 2011 Cinequest Film Festival, and was nominated for Best New Filmmaker and won Audience Choice Best Feature at the 2011 Staten Island Film Festival. His short documentaries Pepsi Won and Eviction have played festivals all over the world. Loff is currently in development on a feature film based on the true story of boxing legend Willie Pep.


 

Bradley Spinelli — Producer

@13_Spinelli

Bradley Spinelli is the author of the novel Killing Williamsburg (Le Chat Noir, 2013), excerpted in Sensitive Skin and The Ampersand Review, winner of the Naked Girls Reading literary honors, and which The Awl called “the first visionary neo-Romantic novel of the 21st century.” Spinelli wrote and directed the experimental short film Kind of Blue (Dallas Video Festival, 1998), and was an associate producer and actor in the well-received indy film Home (2005, various festivals).


 

Claudio Rietti — Director of Photography

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Claudio Rietti

@ClaudioRietti

Claudio Rietti recently lensed Deep in the Darkness and 5 Senses of Fear for NBC/Universal as well as working second unit DP for Animal, produced by Drew Barrymore’s Flower Films. Rietti’s documentary & journalism work has aired on several major European (ITV, Channel 4, RAI Sport), South American (Globo, SBT, Record, Bandeirantes), and North American Television channels. He’s shot commercial spots and music videos, and his narrative work includes American Girl (2013) directed by Jason Shahinfar, whom he worked with on A Short Film about Ice Fishing (2011). Rietti studied at the London Film School and speaks English, Portuguese, and Spanish. 808, a documentary about the Roland 808, will hit theaters in 2015.


 

Craig Calamis — Editor

 

CraigCalamisPhoto
Craig Calamis

Craig Calamis is an independent filmmaker from Long Island known for his feature-film debut The Drifter, a micro-budget feature that he wrote, produced, and directed after graduating from The University of Central Florida. During his undergraduate studies, Craig wrote, produced and directed five short films that received awards at fifteen film festivals, most notably the Young Cuts International Film Festival in Montreal and the Aesthetic Film Festival in the U.K. The Drifter will debut at the Queens World Film Festival in 2015.


 

Cast & Crew

  • Written & Directed by
  • J.D. Oxblood
  • Produced by
  • Steve Loff
  • and Bradley Spinelli
  • Executive Producer
  • Bradley Spinelli
  • Director of photography
  • Claudio Rietti
  • Additional Photography
  • Andrew Trost
  • Sound Mixer
  • Matt Thomas
  • Assistant Director
  • Steve Loff
  • Gaffer
  • Walter Fuente
  • Film and Sound Editor
  • Craig Calamis
  • Associate Producer …. Will Kenton
  • Assistant Camera …. Matt Cutola
  • Key Production Assistant …. Danny Bellini
  • Production Assistant …. Hannah Loff
  • Hair/Makeup …. Sonya Tsuchigane
  • Craft Services …. Ronit Schlam
  • Still Photography …. Kimberlee Hewitt
  • Post Production Graphics …. Robert Everett Lee
  • Cast
  • Charly Bivona …. Minnie Wohl
  • J.D. Oxblood …. J.P. Porter
  • Matthew Holtzclaw …. Will
  • Melody Cheng …. Spanking Girl
  • Sarah Moliski …. Marta
  • Christopher Rex Stone …. Annoying Man in Line
  • Chelsea Ingram …. Nitehawk Bartender
  • Gal Friday …. Gal in White Dress
  • Background
  • Danny Bellini
  • Suzie Berkowitz & Hudson Mako
  • Colleen Gilbert
  • Hannah Loff
  • Bill Martin
  • Lazaro Rivero
  • Jacob Tomsky
  • Hubert Vigilla
  • Trumpet solo performed by
  • Brian Newman
  • From “Live From New York City”
  • www.BrianNewman.com
  • JP Porter montage photographs courtesy of:
  • Melody Mudd, Don Spiro, Nicola Bailey
  • and the family of J.D. Oxblood
  • Special Thanks:
  • John Woods and the Nitehawk Cinema
  • Laura Malvasi
  • Holly McLean
  • The City of New York
  • Shot on location in Williamsburg, Brooklyn