The King’s Pawn
20min, RED 4K
A former chess prodigy challenges the world champion with the supercomputer he spent his life designing.
Director: Jonah Bleicher
Writer: Darren Anderson, Jonah Bleicher
Producer: Rob Cristiano
Co-Producer: Josh Cohen
Associate Producer: Olga Goister
Director of Photography: Zachary Halberd
Editor: Jonah Bleicher
Production Design: Alexandra Regazzoni
Casting Directors: Jennifer Peralta-Ajemian and Robin Carus
Cast: Collin Ware, Shanga Parker, Jakob von Eichel, Logan Bruner, Julian Murdoch, Zenon Zeleniuch, Kelley J Jackson, Gary Littman, Ken Murphy, Ying Ying Li
Email: jonahbleicher@gmail.com
About the Co-Writer/Director
Jonah Bleicher grew up in Jerusalem, Israel. After three years of service in the Israeli Army, he headed to the US to pursue a career in the arts and attended the Rhode Island School of Design. His mixed-media, animated thesis film, Homing, about the last minutes in the life of a suicide bomber, went on to play in many festivals internationally. He received his BFA from RISD in 2004 where he also minored in creative writing. Prior to enrolling in Columbia University’s MFA Film Directing program in 2013, he worked as a freelance graphic artist and video editor in Northern California and New York. His films are characterized by their bold and distinct visual style, a heritage of his fine arts background. He is the founder of ZeneyRjoneS Films and has directed many shorts, music videos, and commercials. His previous short film, siren, based on a story by Israeli writer Etgar Keret, is in the midst of a successful run on the international festival circuit.
About the Producer
Rob Cristiano, a 2013 Columbia MFA Producing graduate, is a Brooklyn-born independent filmmaker. His credits include the upcoming indie features BOB AND THE TREES (Line Producer) and THE MEND (Prod. Coordinator), as well as the Broadway-themed web series UNDERSTUDIES (Producer). Cristiano has produced eleven short films that have screened in more than seventy film festivals in twenty different countries. They include PENNY DREADFUL (Audience Prize, Clermont-Ferrand Int’l Short Film Fest), THE PAINTER AND THE WIFE (Best Comedy Short, Bare Bones Film Festival), THE GLITCH (Milwaukee Film Festival), and MELON HEAD (Atlanta Film Festival). In 2013, Cristiano was selected to participate in the Making Waves producer’s workshop at the Berlinale. Later that year, the Producer’s Guild of America presented him with the prestigious Debra Hill Fellowship for Emerging Producers. Cristiano is currently developing several feature film and scripted television projects under his Inside Voices production banner.
About the Co-Writer
Darren Anderson’s path to becoming a filmmaker is wide and varied. Beginning in the New York Theater, where he wrote, directed, and produced several original theatrical works such as Rain Tree Crow and Danger Man (Or A More Beautiful Heaven) - a theatrical tribute to the films of Seijun Sezuki. He directed original plays by other authors, including “The Sacrificial King,” a play for John Lennon by Margaret McCarthy, and is also developing and performing in many experimental theater pieces. Darren is also a fine artist and painter, whose work has been included in exhibitions at Thread-waxing Space, Limner Gallery, and the Warde/Nasse Gallery in Soho. His short films, including A Coney Island Of The Mind, Home, and Same Ghost Every Night were all developed in the MFA film program at Columbia University School of the Arts. My Name Is Your First Love, which he wrote and produced, has screened in many film festivals – including Austin IF and Telluride – winning best narrative short in the San Francisco Indie, Napa Valley, and 2013 Florida Film Festivals. In 2011, Darren directed a holographic video installation, featuring Daphne Guinness, which screened in the Special Exhibitions gallery of the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York. He currently lives in Brooklyn and works as a screenwriter, developing two original feature films, Marion Clay and QUEST.
