| Here is a little background information on the filmmakers who created PRESSURE DROP. |
Co-Writer/Producer/Director
Marc is happy to announce joining the company Stun Creative to kick off their DVD/New Media division. As Executive Producer, Marc will oversee titles that are brought into Stun. He will be working closely with Brad Roth and Mark Feldstein, the presidents of the company. Stun in owned by legendary talk-show host, Maury Povich. Before joining Stun, Marc spent three years working with Sparkhill Productions, directing, producing and editing DVD documentaries as well as web and mobile phone content for various studio titles. Most recently released 24: CONSPIRACY is the first original mobile series created as a spin-off of the hit TV show 24. Marc has also produced and directed the award winning and critically acclaimed documentaries and supplemental material for the last three seasons of 24 and THE SHIELD. Other DVD titles include the upcoming HAROLD LLOYD COLLECTION, SCHOOL OF ROCK, KING’S RANSOM, THE COMMITMENTS and DAREDEVIL among others. Marc’s second feature documentary, OPEN HEARTED produced with his own company, Ostrick Productions follows the filmmaker through his harrowing journey of preparing for, undergoing and recovering from his third open-heart surgery. The film is currently being broadcast in Europe and Israel and has been showcased at a half dozen international film festivals. OPEN HEARTED is currently being distributed through Fanlight Productions and Solid Entertainment. Prior to producing works with Sparkhill, Marc created programs with David Milch's Red Board Productions (creator DEADWOOD/ co-creator NYPD BLUE). Marc’s endeavors for the company was producing and directing the award-winning feature length documentary, WITHOUT A NET -- CREATING NYPD BLUE, a provocative portrait of the creative process of David Milch. Marc also created for Red Board a five part lecture series entitled THE WRITER'S SPIRIT: An Approach to Storytelling. Becoming one of the first filmmakers to be commissioned by the digital entertainment world to create original content, Marc crafted two series for the entertainment web site EVEO.COM.STUDIO VISIT, which documents the creative process of young visual artists in New York. LOCKOUT follows new bands from their rehearsal sessions to aggressive live performance.One of the bands featured in the Lockout Series, LINKIN PARK, went on to release a multi-platinum debut album and become one of the biggest bands in the world. Soon after moving to Los Angeles, Marc won 2 Gold Cindy Awards at the International Cinema in Industry Conference for writing, producing, and directing a twenty-eight part, international environmental documentary series, PRESERVING THE LEGACY. The episodes, funded by the National Science Foundation, feature some of the most prestigious names in the environmental field and examine such issues as air pollution in China, over-population, nuclear waste, and fuel cell technology among others. PRESERVING THE LEGACY is currently being aired on local and international PBS affiliates. A graduate of New York University's film program, Marc co-wrote, produced and directed a 16mm narrative thesis film, PRESSURE DROP, with Ezra Soiferman. The film was completed with a production grant from Warner Bros. Pictures, and went on to win several short film awards, including a Silver Medal at the Chicago International Film Festival, an Honorable Mention at the Columbus Film Festival, and a Short Film Award at the New Orleans Film Festival. Subsequently, the film completed a tour of twenty cities, opening for the feature film, WEED. The web site for the film, www.pressuredrop.com, has drawn worldwide and constant traffic. Marc currently resides in Los Angeles. e-mail Marc |
Co-Writer/Producer/Director
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Ezra Soiferman, 34, graduated from New York University's Tisch School of the Arts in 1994 with an honors B.F.A in Film and TV Production. There, he directed numerous short films and videos, including PRESSURE DROP, his senior thesis film. An 18-minute 16mm comedy, PRESSURE DROP, co-directed by Ezra Soiferman and Los Angeles filmmaker and behind-the-scenes DVD maven Marc Ostrick, won awards and appeared at over eighteen international film festivals. The film was the recipient of a Warner Bros. Pictures Production Award at NYU and in 1998 toured 20 US cities. While at NYU, Ezra held internships at Jim Henson Productions, Limelight Films, TeleVest and Turtleback. After graduating, he produced and directed videos in New York for companies including Reebok and Ralph Lauren Polo For Boys. Upon returning to Montreal in 1995, Ezra served as Assistant to the Director of Creative Affairs at Robin Spry's Telescene Film Group. In 1996, he left Telescene to co-found PERPETUUM PRODUCTIONS with filmmaker Adam Steinman. (Steinman left Perpetuum in 1998 and currently works in television in New York.) For Perpetuum Productions, Soiferman and Steinman produced videos for the Ottawa Board of Education, Canon, Travelodge and The March of the Living. Perpetuum's first documentary, TREE WEEKS, is a quirky 44-minute film produced and directed by Soiferman and Steinman and edited by Mika Goodfriend. It examines the obscure phenomenon of entrepreneurial young Quebecers who sell Christmas trees on the streets of Manhattan. The film had its premiere at the 1998 Montreal World Film Festival and aired on CBC Newsworld's "Rough Cuts" series, Radio-Canada, RDI and New York's MetroChannel. In 1998, Ezra was featured as a Quebecer of the Year on the cover of Quebec's L'Actualité magazine. Later that year, he was selected as the media category winner of the Tribute to Successful Quebec Anglophones sponsored by YES Montreal, The Montreal Gazette and CJAD Radio. In 1998 and 1999, Ezra served as Associate Producer and then Producer of Eat My Shorts!, the short film festival division of the Montreal Just For Laughs Comedy Festival. In 2000, he directed episodes of the Life Network/CBC/PBS documentary series DOGS WITH JOBS. One of the episodes he directed, about Willie Weber, a remarkable seizure prediction and response dog, was featured on OPRAH in June, 2000. MAN OF GREASE is an award-winning fifty-minute documentary profiling Tony Koulakis, owner/chef of legendary 11-stool Montreal greasy-spoon, Cosmos. The film, produced and directed by Ezra and edited by Mika Goodfriend, was shot in Montreal and follows Koulakis back home to Greece for his first trip back in nearly 30 years. It premiered to three sold out audiences and rave reviews at the 2000 Montreal World Film Festival. It subsequently was featured at eight other film festivals in Canada and the USA. To date, the film has shown nearly 100 times on TVOntario, CBC Newsworld's "Rough Cuts" series, the B.C. Knowledge Network, CBC's Country Canada Channel, CBC-Montreal's Distinct Docs series, CTV-Montreal and on Air Canada. MAN OF GREASE was nominated for Quebec's Jutra Award for Best Documentary. In 2000/2001, Ezra produced, directed and hosted BURLYVISION, 13 episodes about the world of short filmmakers. The show, edited by Mika Goodfriend, aired on The Burly Bear Network, at the time America's largest college TV network and owned by Lorne Michaels (Saturday Night Live, Conan O'Brien), and broadcast to over 550 US colleges. In late 2001, Ezra served as an Additional Director on three episodes of the Emmy and Gemini award-winning Global/BravoUSA documentary TV series, Cirque Du Soleil: THE FIRE WITHIN. In late 2002, in Quebec City, he filmed behind-the-scenes footage of Peter Gabriel for the documentary GROWING UP ON TOUR by Anna Gabriel. In 2003/2004 Ezra directed six episodes of the Global/Prime documentary series PAST LIVES which has Canadians retracing their genealogical roots. In April 2004, he served as cameraman on the behind-the-scenes DVD for the summer 2005 New Line comedy KING'S RANSOM. In fall 2004, Ezra directed VOILA MONTRÉAL, a short French-language documentary for the TV5 Network. The movie showcases Montreal from the point of view of an Iranian ex-architect cab driver. He also directed a 3-DVD set for Lipton and Just For Laughs called BOWL OF LAUGHS. In December 2004, Ezra's "art-news" short SLIDEWALK aired on CBC-Montreal's nightly 6 o'clock news show, CanadaNow. Part protest film, part ode to Charlie Chaplin, the silent film revolves around Ezra himself skating down a stretch of icy Canadian sidewalk that hadn't been cleared in close to a week. It has the distinction of being the first short movie to ever to air on the popular supper-hour news show. In January-June, 2005, Ezra served as a Segment Producer on 20 episodes of CBC Newsworld's AU COURANT, hosted by Quebec icon Mitsou Gelinas. The new, nationally broadcast English-language series examines the news and culture in unique Quebec, for the rest of Canada to see. In June, 2005, Ezra directed a series of 6 TV spots for Montreal's Saidye Bronfman Theatre. The ads air on CBC-Montreal throughout 2005/2006. Ezra is also the producer and director of COD HELP US, a new half-hour CBC/NFB funded documentary about the dire fishing crisis in St. Paul's River on Quebec's Lower North Shore. In January, 2006, the film premiered in the U.S. at the San Francisco Ocean Film Festival and is being distributed on DVD by the National Film Board of Canada and can be seen online at NFB's CitizenShift web site. In December 2005, Ezra joined a team of filmmakers to shoot TOO HOT TO HANDLE, a multimedia climate-change event hosted by Canadian environmentalist David Suzuki. In January 2006, Ezra and filmmaker Val Lonergan launched the website for the MONTREAL FILM GROUP, a collective of over 650 members of Montreal's active film & TV industry. Ezra lives in and loves Montreal where he is preparing new films, writing songs, creating picture-books and shooting and archiving the documentary photographs he snaps worldwide. His new photo site is EzraPix.com. Contact: PERPETUUM PRODUCTIONS, (514) 484-1881, e-mail |
