"Seventeen"

Seventeen
2009 Shot and Edited by Brian Chillemi
16mm Reversal
Full Screen; 7:14 min.
Summertime teenage lust set to the aesthetics of New York City girl-groups of the 1960’s.


Comprised of four vignettes, 20th Century Girl tells the stories of four young women from different decades, set during each season of the year to show how drastically different their lives are despite being from the same country and century. The tone of each film is based on a musical aesthetic that is unique to the time period.

I have nearly completed three of the films and about to embark on the filming of the fourth installment. The final film in my series is set in Spring, 1955 on a farm in Tennessee and will be based on the classic country music sounds of the time. This film will be in full 16mm color and show a young woman begin her journey in fulfilling her duty as a “happy-homemaker” in Cold War America.

A filmmaker in Brooklyn, I strive for a minimalist cinema of pure tone and rhythm wrapped in the story-telling tradition. My films are inspired by antiques, American history and the sites and sounds of the 20th Century.