THE RENOVATION (2010), Documentary 18min.
Awards & Official Selections:
Awarded "Best Documentary" at DaVinci Film Festival 2012. Oregon
Gen Art Film Festival 2011. The SVA Theatre, New York NY
The Big Apple Film Festival 2011. Tribeca Cinemas, New York NY
Quadrangle Film Festival 2012, Kent, UK
New Filmmakers NY. Anthology Film Archives, New York NY
Brooklyn Film and Arts Festival. Brooklyn Historical Society (Fine cut), Brooklyn NY
Broadcast nationally in the UK on 20/9 and 27/9 2015 - Exposed on Community Channel.
Empty windows and a ragged American flag are features of a house that have mystified passers-by for decades in Williamsburg, New York. From an outsider’s point of view, the building seems abandoned with no signs of life. But behind it’s walls lies a human tale that is ready to be told.
The owner is Jim, a Vietnam Veteran and declared patriot, who was once born in this very building.
More than two decades after buying the house to try and renovate it, it still remains seemingly untouched. Sediments of the past are thickly layered in the house and as Jim sifts through the dust, the layers of his life begin to peel away.
“The Renovation” tells the story of house with a past and shows what happens when war follows a man from the raging battlefield to the inner space of his childhood home.
A film by Lea Hjort Mathiesen
Composer: Nikolaj Hess, Frederik Valentin, Mikkel Juul Jensen
Additional Photography: Adam Newport-Berra
Sound Design: Nick Heling
Sound Mix: String & Can
Color: Adam Mcclelland
