Today we’d like to introduce you to Chris Malinowski.
Hi Chris, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
I was born and raised in Delaware, the son of a nurse and a music teacher. I grew up playing/teaching guitar, but I wanted to study cinema in college. I went to film school at Ithaca College in Ithaca, New York. I made a 16mm short while I was there called “Son of a Fishlicker”, which got a bit of attention at the school for its innate oddness. I did my college internship work in Los Angeles and worked on “Phantasm IV: Oblivion” and “Mask of Zorro”.
I finished in 1997 and moved back to Delaware, knowing that I did not want to work in the studio industry. Rather, I wanted to make my own films regionally. I worked in corporate at Amazon and Wachovia Bank. As well, I went back to instructing guitar. In 2007, I directed a 16mm experimental featurette entitled “’Alms’ You Say” with severance money I received from my bank job after being laid off.
It got very little festival play, as the film is quite surreal and disjointed. I do love its imagery, however. This was my first film post-film school. I was 37. I’m a late-bloomer. I really wanted to continue to direct on film, exclusively, but a friend of mine convinced me to try digital video, so, in 2010, I directed my first digital music video “Fuck Yeah, Hollywood!” for my band The Collingwood.
I was okay with the look of the piece, so I wrote my first digital feature film “Yes, Your Tide is Cold and Dark, Sir.” as a follow-up to the video and received financing to produce the film from a local Maryland entrepreneur named Alan Burkhard. He is a family friend. “Yes, Your Tide…” is the story of a man searching for his eccentric, music teacher father who’s disappeared with three of his teenage pupils into the sand dunes of Cape Henlopen, Delaware.
I played the film’s lead character and directed the piece for 150K. The 2013 film is a streaming item on Amazon Prime. It did quite well on the festival circuit. “Yes, Your Tide…” was my first recognized project. Following, I’ve directed three music videos for The Collingwood: “White Deer”, “Confetti”, and “Jouissance”, which just won the Montreal Independent Film Festival’s Best Music Video award this past fall. Both “Confetti” and “Jouissance” were produced during the pandemic utilizing a guest singer named Jules Corridori.
She was one of my guitar students, and her voice is extraordinarily ethereal. “Jouissance” also played the Barcelona Indie Filmmakers Fest in Spain, and it was a semi-finalist at the Lulea International Film Festival in Sweden. The French airline Air Austral has included both “Confetti” and “Jouissance” on their in-flight entertainment program, which is a great honor.
Our videos are always rife with striking individuals, gorgeous practical locations, and occult imagery.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall, and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
In 2017, I wrote a follow-up feature to “Yes, Your Tide is Cold and Dark, Sir.” titled “The Last Time I Saw You Blessed”. The film centers around a teenage runner whose boyfriend is murdered. To cope, she isolates herself in a family cabin and is pursued by rival male runners and dark, ambiguous energies.
The film was line-produced twice by both Canadian and New York-based companies and budgeted at 750K. A friend/business associate of mine came on board as an executive producer and generously fronted me 50K, and I began my search for an additional 700K. I made two trips to the American Film Market in Santa Monica and numerous trips to Manhattan in an effort to find funding.
The outcome was bleak. We had an amazing casting director, Harley Kaplan. Through him, I was able to interview Mariel Hemingway, Robyn Lively, Amber Frank, and Evangeline Young, who was in “Yes, Your Tide is Cold and Dark, Sir.”, for possible roles. This was a highlight. The offers for funding that I was receiving always had a dismal catch.
Most of the companies reaching out wanted me to trim the 120-page script to 80 or 90 pages and convert the piece into a horror film, which I was not willing to do. “The Last Time I Saw You Blessed”, like “Yes, Your Tide is Cold and Dark, Sir.”, is a domestic drama, peppered with elements of surrealist cinema. With my crew shaping up and a start date looming, my executive producer offered to fund the film for 325K, if I would agree to make it for that amount of money.
I agreed, but, shortly after, he stated that he wanted the “final cut” of the film. Of course, this is something that I would not agree to, so I backed out of our agreement, maintaining the rights and the integrity of the film. We remain friends. I still own the script for “The Last Time I Saw You Blessed”, and I will eventually direct the piece when the right investors manifest.
It’s a woman’s story, an important story of strength and struggle fixed in a surrealist landscape. The fate of “The Last Time I Saw You Blessed” has been my largest struggle to date. However, in its harsh wake, I was inspired to direct the “Confetti” and “Jouissance” videos for The Collingwood and to begin writing my current feature film project “Gaches”. “Gaches” is the mysterious tale of two estranged sisters, a suburban cult, and an elusive prodigal son/nephew, who may or may not exist.
My plan is to direct the film adhering to the minimalist production blueprints of the brilliant filmmakers Hong Sangsoo and Shane Carruth. Their budgets (sub-100K) and crews are tiny, but their work is more poetic and strong than almost any contemporary cinema. I have a partnership with my cinematographer Ian Mosley-Duffy and my editor Colby Bartine to create “Gaches” in this fashion.
We are now welcoming partners/investors. So mote it be.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I am a filmmaker who specializes in domestic surrealism. I love crafting ambiguous, challenging scripts and capturing imagery that heightens the mundane. I set my work in practical locations, and I aim to examine the human condition and complicated characters via true, feeling-oriented dialogue.
To add, I enjoy pitting my characters against the mysterious dialectics of fate, coincidence, and the proverbial Mother Nature. I like to see how they fare in odd circumstances, either flowing or stunted. Whatever the case, I keep them rooted in the familiarity of waking life and steeped in an existential longing.
I am a guitarist/singer/songwriter for the atmospheric rock band The Collingwood. We’ve released several albums, including the rock soundtrack/score to my feature film “Yes, Your Tide is Cold and Dark, Sir.”. We’ll be releasing a new record this year titled “You Lust or You Rust”.
I’m most proud of my feature film “Yes, Your Tide is Cold and Dark, Sir.”. I wrote and directed the film, and I played the lead. As well, I love the music videos I directed for The Collingwood: “Fuck Yeah, Hollywood!”, “White Deer”, “Confetti”, and “Jouissance”.
To add, I’m a professional guitar instructor and have been for forty years, on and off. I love simplifying/demystifying the instrument for my student body. I’m also a still photographer, specializing in the oddness of the ordinary. I like to shoot on 35mm, and I don’t use Photoshop. I dig the principles of chance.
What sets me apart from others in my fields is that I believe in total, unbridled honesty when creating.
I only create what I want to create. Art is not necessarily a commercial venture for me, although I’d love to have the cash. Rather, I get high from knowing folks experience a touch, a smell, or a taste of their own unique human fabric/dilemma via my work. Narrative/Visual ambiguity is a big part of my craft, as is the idea of existential longing.
I think some audiences are thrown by the presumptuousness of my storylines, visuals, or song length, but I trust that the intended audience will find its way to my creativity. That’s all I can do.
We love surprises, fun facts, and unexpected stories. Is there something you can share that might surprise us?
I’m an obsessive runner. I do between 4 to 6 miles almost every day no matter how I’m feeling.
I spent over 10 years in talk therapy with psychologist Dr. John Snyder, a brilliant man who does not believe in drug therapy. I went to him because he was only interested in his clients experiencing their repressed feelings. He did not believe in prescribing drugs.
This organic method allowed me to release some buried sadness and trauma and free myself from labels and trapping mindsets. Hence, feelings of anxiety and depression are perfectly natural to me. I view them as my unique human condition, and I utilize these feelings to create or merely to feel more like myself.
I embrace my emotions rather than push them away. The work I did with John has been a quintessential influence on my life and art. I use something he taught me almost every day.
I’m a vegan.
I’ve never used drugs, but I do enjoy wine.
In the eighties, I was the leader of a shock-rock band named Freakshow.
I’m a liberal and an atheist, with an occult fascination.
I live at the Maryland/Delaware/Pennsylvania Mason-Dixon line with my wife Chrissy and our Chiweenie Dobby.
Contact Info:
- Email: almsyousay@yahoo.com
- Website: https://linktr.ee/thecollingwood
- Instagram: @thecollingwoodmusic OR @yesyourtide
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/filmdirectorchrismalinowski
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/yesyourtide
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCWHfGH8dRLbbSwIRymUdqaA
- Other: https://vimeo.com/user131817979
Image Credits
David Norbut, Ian Mosley-Duffy, Robert Stuart, Sean Capuano, and Chris Malinowski
