RAINBOW
Written and directed by Dayna Hanson
Rainbow is the first feature film by Seattle artist Dayna Hanson. A modern-day musical, Rainbow centers on a gifted 16-year-old whose naivete is her only defense against the demise of her fractured family. Rainbow is being commissioned by NWFF through the Start-to-Finish program, which funds the film, provides in-kind services, and aids in every aspect of the production.
As with previous projects, Hanson will create Rainbow through an improvisational process with a tight group of collaborators. Maggie Brown (We Go Way Back) and Dave Proscia (Hanson's bandmates in Today!) co-star with Linas Phillips (Walking to Werner). Music by Today! (which also features Paul Matthew Moore, who composed the score for Zoo) drives the moody, minimalist tale of four interconnected characters struggling toward hope against the grim, seedy background of a Seattle winter. Development is scheduled to begin in Spring 2009.
Rainbow is being commissioned by NWFF with the new Start-to-Finish framework. Through Start-to-Finish, the organization provides $100,000 cash and $150,000 in in-kind services to produce the film.
Rainbow Synopsis
It's been three months since talented, beautiful, 30-something Daisy checked herself in to a psychiatric hospital. Back in Seattle, her 16-year-old daughter Iris drowns her worries in music, playing guitar with her uncle Curt when he visits. Her mom's troubled boyfriend, Victor, lingers in the apartment, barely holding down a job as a strip club bouncer and drifting through a series of minor flirtations in Daisy's absence. When Iris' close friend, Remy, becomes the object of Victor's attention, Iris' world begins to unravel, along with her belief that once her mother comes back, everything will be okay. When her birth father appears out of the blue with a proposition, Iris must put her childlike sense of hope to an adult test.
About Dayna Hanson
Award-winning director, experimental stage artist, musician and 2006 Guggenheim Fellow in choreography, Dayna Hanson has been creating film and video work for over fifteen years. In addition to integrating film and video into live performance in groundbreaking ways, Dayna has created and co-created numerous experimental and dance films, including Measure, which was the first dance film to be screened at the New York Film Festival and which can be found on First Run Features' Dance for Camera DVD. From 1999 to 2003, she was co-curator of New Dance Cinema, an international dance film festival based in Seattle. In 2005 she produced Walking to Werner, an award-winning feature documentary by Linas Phillips. Rainbow, Dayna’s first narrative short film, premiered at the 2007 Seattle International Film Festival as part of the Fly Filmmaking Program.
From 1994 to 2006, Dayna was co-artistic director of internationally touring dance theater company 33 Fainting Spells. Northwest Film Forum commissioned her multi-media solo work, Spirit Under The Influence, in 2005. As part of her 2006 performance commissioned by On the Boards, We Never Like Talking About The End, Dayna started a band called Today! with Maggie Brown, Paul Moore and Dave Proscia.
www.daynahanson.com
www.myspace.com/tod4y
Press release about RAINBOW
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