Indie filmmakers Zach Weintraub and Nandan Rao have made (just about) all their films available for free on their website, Newhard Entertainment, via Vimeo. These films comprise all the movies made by Rao and Weintraub between 2009 to the present day. Alongside these films are a host of extra features, so to speak, that consist of personal anecdotes and/or backstories about the production of a film, reviews, supplemental videos, and even other films from people involved with the Newhard productions. Films include:
BUMMER SUMMER directed by Zach Weintraub – 2010 – 80 minutes
A quiet teen spends the summer hanging out with his older brother – home from college – and the older brother’s ex-girlfriend. The three of them take an impromptu road trip and subtle, underlying tensions are revealed.
THE MEN OF DODGE CITY directed by Nandan Rao – 2011 – 94 minutes
A trio of idealistic suburban twentysomethings flounder as they work to convert an abandoned Detroit cathedral into a community art space, and struggle to decide what that even means.
THE INTERNATIONAL SIGN FOR CHOKING directed by Zach Weintraub – 2012 – 80 minutes
A would-be expatriate from the US takes his second stab at life in Buenos Aires. Watch as he drifts between half-hearted attempts at work, a feeble romance with his fellow North American housemate, and the fruitless search for a mysteriously absent ex-girlfriend.
HAWAIIAN PUNCH directed by Nandan Rao – 2012 – 68 minutes
A pleasantly experimental, “performed documentary” observing the lives of two Mormon college students spending a semester at the BYU Hawaii campus.
YOU MAKE ME FEEL SO YOUNG directed by Zach Weintraub – 2013 – 80 minutes
Justine moves to a small town with her boyfriend on account of his new job. Quick kisses and repetitive manual tasks ensue.
SLACKJAW directed by Zach Weintraub – 2015 – 70 minutes
A mildly absurd dramedic fable about the path to personal responsibility amidst the divisive fog of a politicized landscape.
GREEK YOGURT directed by Tor Kristian Anestad & Nicholas Boissonneault – 2016 – 27 minutes
Ever the mischief-maker when it comes to contemplative, non-narrative cinema, Nandan commissioned the stars of his own film HAWAIIAN PUNCH to make a movie about him. They are not filmmakers. The three travelled to Athens for the production, the city where they all first met as Mormon missionaries in 2007.
The result, though difficult to penetrate, is a surprisingly dark portrait of contemporary numbness and isolation on an international scale.
BOB TOLD ME FOUR JOKES directed by Zach Weintraub – 2017 – 19 minutes
An experimental short documentary about a visit to grandpa’s house in Florida.
马克来了 (WELCOME, MARK) directed by Zach Weintraub – 2019 – 25 minutes
Jia Ning, a Beijing fashion photographer, agrees to help translate for Mark, an amateur British journalist coming to China for the first time.
Two short films commissioned The Northwest Film Forum in Seattle in 2013
$500 OF PARTY directed by Nandan Rao – 14 minutes
A semi-crowdsourced craigslist experiment about what’s worth celebrating.
THE OWNER OF A SILVER HATCHBACK directed by Zach Weintraub – 8 minutes
A low stakes whodunnit shot at a show in the director’s basement.
All of these films sound really great. I especially interested in GREEK YOGURT.