Director of Forged spills on Scranton, PA

by Elizabeth Seward on

Forged is a recently-released movie that explores the stories within deep family bonds and the quest for redemption. Directed by William Wedig, the movie was shot in Scranton, Pennsylvania in February 2009. According to Wedig, 2009 was actually the coldest winter in Scranton over the last 50 years. The cinematography in Forged nonetheless came out beautifully. The crisp and dreary shots of the naked trees sent chills down my spine when paired with the striking plot of the movie. I watched Forged in New York City just before it won Best Picture at the New York International Latino Film Festival. The New York Times just reviewed the film yesterday here. Check out this Q&A with Wedig wherein he dishes on what it was like to capture Scranton on film.

1. Who did the cinematography for your movie, Forged?

My cinematographer is a guy named Zues Morand. He does a lot of music videos and he’s super talented and really versatile. If you need somebody to shoot something, definitely look him up. Zeus Morand on shooting Forged: “The characters in Forged were all flawed and weathered. We tried to choose locations that were aged, rusted, and reflected the history they had seen.”

(That’s Morand, the cinematographer, in the green.)


2. Forged displays Scranton in a way I haven’t seen before. The footage of the landscape looked dreary, because it was winter, but simultaneously beautiful. How did you go about scouting locations for the shoot?

When we were trying to find our locations in and around Scranton, we wanted to make sure that we showed that duality between the dreary, lonely, cold nature of the place, and the beauty which exists in a place so rustic. We were originally going to make the film in Texas but it just seemed better to put it in a place that’s so cold and beautiful. It’s like the cloud that hangs over these characters because of the past never escapes them. It’s always a part of their world.

3. You shot in February 2009 and you say that was the coldest winter in Scranton in 50 years. How did your team cope with shooting outside for long hours at a time in this kind of weather?

Well shooting in those sort of locations was a challenge. I couldn’t feel my feet for about two months and we’d make fires in cans or find a nearby shelter so people could cycle in and out. Some places didn’t have heat like the Lace Mill which has been shut down since the late 80’s or so. It was gorgeous though and there was talk of converting them into studios which is a great idea. It made it hard with the snow, but when you believe in the story you’re telling, it really isn’t that hard to motivate yourself.


(That’s Wedig on the left and lead actor Perez on the right.)

4. I’m assuming that throughout the shoot, you and your team discovered a thing or two about Scranton. Have any favorite locations?

There’s a couple places in Scranton that I like. Lake Scranton is gorgeous and when I saw it I knew I had to shoot there. Russells restaurant is fantastic (and they even donated film to us), but they have amazing chicken and pasta, and the Mohegan Sun in Wilkes-Barre is always fun to hit up and spend a few dollars and maybe make some back. We had a great time there, and even had some interesting adventures with Zeus at Hardware Bar in downtown. We loved shooting there and really the whole town helped us out.

Forged has won more than the New York International Latino Film Festival. Forged received ‘Official Selection’ at the Los Angeles International Latino Film Festival, ‘Outstanding Film Award’ at the Providence Latin American Film Festival, and ‘Official Selection’ at the San Diego Latino Film Festival. Starring Manny Perez, Margo Martindale, David Castro, Jaime Tirelli and Kevin Breznahan, Forged opens tomorrow in NYC at Quad Cinema (34 West 13th street NY, NY). Forged is hitting the road, as well. Forged will be showing in Los Angeles tomorrow evening, in San Diego and San Antonio August 5th, in Dallas August 12th, in Miami September 9th, in San Francisco September 16th, and Chicago dates are coming. For more information, check out the the website: www.ForgedMovie.com. In the meantime, check out the trailer below.

Missing plane found 71 years after it disappeared

by Kraig Becker on

A Royal Canadian Air Force plane, missing since 1940, has been found at the bottom of a lake, ending a 71-year old mystery regarding the final resting place of the aircraft and its crew. The plane was lost on Dec. 13, 1940, but was recently discovered by a group dedicated to finding missing airplanes, who used sophisticated radar to guide divers to the site.

On December 12th, 1940, another RAF plane went down near Lake Muskoka in Ontario, Canada, due to a raging blizzard. The next day, two Northrop A-17A Nomads, carrying two man crews, were scrambled to search for the missing plane. With the weather and visibility still poor, the two Nomads had a mid-air collision, sending them both crashing into the lake. One of those aircraft was recovered a few weeks later, but the other, along with her crew, were never seen again.

Last fall, Matt Fairbrass, President of Lost Airmen in Muskoka Project, made it a priority to find the missing aircraft. He and a friend discovered that a family living on the lake at the time had witnessed the two Nomads collide and were able to give them a general idea of where the plane went down. Fairbrass says he spent “hundreds of hours” searching for the airplane, and using side-scan sonar, he was able to narrow its final resting spot down to three possible locations. Divers from the local underwater search and rescue team were able to take it from there.

When the plane went down it was carrying two pilots – Canadian Ted Bates and Brit Peter Campbell. The families of the two men were left to wonder what became of them and after more than seven decades, this discovery has brought those families a measure of closure. Bates’ younger brother Tom, now age 84, says he’s “glad they found the plane,” adding “My parents thought about it often.”

The Nomad was a big, yet versatile plane, that was commonly used early in World War II. The plane had a wingspan of nearly 48 feet and was primarily used as an attack bomber until retired from service in 1944. Finding one is seen as a rare event amongst aircraft enthusiasts. For Matt Fairbrass however, he’s just happy to recover the airmen who sacrificed themselves for the good of their country.

War and Travel: the Dubrovnik Gallery You Can’t Afford to Miss

by David Farley on
A Muslim man, on his knees, his hands up, his face creased with fear, kneels on the street, as firearm-brandishing Serb militiamen approach from behind. He has no idea what’s in store for him. And for the viewer of this arresting photograph, we never know the outcome of the event, though we might be able to guess.

Most people don’t go to Dubrovnik for reminders of the conflict that took place in the Balkans in the 1990s, or to remember the 1991 shelling of this walled gem of a southern Dalmatian town (the town has been so spruced up since then, only a keen eye might be able to spot scars of the conflict). In fact, the last time I was in this seaside Croatian town, the streets were filled with happy tourists, many of whom had just stumbled off cruise ships (much to the annoyance of the business-owning locals who claim cruisers never spend any money there).


But Wade Goddard, former war correspondent, has been on a mission to get tourists to think about the nature of war and what makes, as he put it, a guy pick up a gun and go shoot his neighbor. Goddard is the director and co-founder of the riveting War Photo Limited, a photo gallery in the center of Dubrovnik dedicated to war photography. It was in this space where I saw the photo described above and it (along with the entire permanent exhibition) changed the way I thought of travel a little. This is war and travel, the gallery you can’t afford to miss.
The gallery, the only such of its kind, features revolving exhibitions focusing on world conflicts, and a permanent display of photos is dedicated to the Balkan conflicts of the 1990s (which the New Zealand-born Goddard covered). And while many people don’t want to be “disturbed” on their vacations, visiting War Photo Limited is enlightening; in fact, it revealed to me the core of why we travel: to challenge and refresh our beliefs and perceptions about other cultures, our own culture, and ourselves. For travelers in Dubrovnik, a visit to the gallery seems especially important now, a time when the United States is fighting two wars, and revolutions are springing up (and, in some cases, being violently put down) throughout the Middle East.

“Too often nowadays, we’re presented with only a 15-second clip of the worst part of the day’s conflict,” Goddard said who sat down with me for a coffee in the alley across from the gallery during my last visit to Dubrovnik. “Here you have a better chance to see the reality of war. Governments tell the public about ‘limited collateral damage’ and ‘surgical airstrikes,’ made up words so we don’t understand the reality of war.”

Goddard said he wants spread the truth about war and conflict, to bring these relatively taboo topics to the breakfast table; to get people talking and thinking about them. And to do that, he puts much of the curating in the hands of the photographers themselves.

“In magazines and newspapers, there may be only one or two photos per story and sometimes the photos get mixed up in other stories or are used in ways that the photographer thinks is inappropriate. At the gallery, we don’t edit anything. The idea is for the photographers to bring their work directly to the public.”

Goddard’s done his time in the field and now wants to spread the word via the gallery.

“I had a choice,” he said. “I could retire from war zones and spend time with my family or ship myself off to Afghanistan and Iraq.”

If you’re in Dubrovnik soon, stop in and say hi to Wade. You may never look at war photography the same way again.

Nomadic Matt is giving away free airline tickets to readers

by Libby Zay on

Travel blogger Nomadic Matt is celebrating five years of globetrotting by gifting his readers with free airplane tickets – including one for an around-the-world trip. The transient sightseer accumulated 350,000 miles on American Airlines over the past year, and decided he’s going to give away the tickets because he wants to make other people’s dream a reality.

One lucky winner will get a ‘Oneworld Explorer‘ round-the-world ticket, which has a stipulation that the traveler must touch down on at least three continents. Not bad! A second place winner will get a roundtrip business class ticket to anywhere in the world, while a third place winner will receive two economy class tickets to the destination of their choice (again, anywhere in the world).

The best part is that contest entrants don’t need to make a fancy video, write a blog, or go through a time consuming voting process. All you have to do is become a fan of Nomadic Matt on Facebook, which will allow you to see a contest form. Fill out the form and choose where you want to go, and if you win (a winner will be chosen at random), Nomadic Matt will send you there! It’s that easy.

[Photo courtesy Nomadic Matt]

Australian Cadel Evans wins 2011 Tour de France

by Kraig Becker on

The 2011 Tour de France came to an end yesterday on the Champs Elyesees in Paris, where Australian Cadel Evans rode to victory in the race’s famed Yellow Jersey. After more than three weeks of racing, Evans emerged from the pack as best rider in this year’s event, and became the first man from Australia to win cycling’s premiere event.

With a course designed to challenge the riders in unique ways on every single day, fans of the Tour expected this year’s race to be an exciting and wide open one. They got everything they wanted and more, as the 2011 Tour de France featured all kinds of dramatics, particularly when the race entered the high mountains of the Pyrenees and the Alps. During the three weeks of racing, there were daring breakaways, brilliant individual performances, and cringe-inducing crashes, including a nasty incident with a media car that sent Dutch rider Johnny Hoogerland flying into a barbed wire fence.

Before the race started back on July 2nd, the pre-race favorites included not only Evans, but also defending champ Alberto Contador of Spain and the brothers from Luxembourg, Frank and Andy Schleck. Contador was bogged down with crashes early in the race, injuring a knee in the process. Those mishaps cost him precious time, and despite a spirited attempt in the final days of the Tour, he never quite got into the rhythm that has won him the Yellow Jerseys on three separate occasions in the past.
Heading into Saturday however, Andy and Frank Schleck sat at first and second in the standings respectively. Working together, the two men had managed to claim a small lead over Evans coming out of the final mountain stages. Saturday’s stage was an individual time trial however, which is not a strong point for those two riders, and is a particular strength of Evans. The Aussie rode one of the best rides of the day, and left the two Schlecks in the dust, claiming the victory. The two brothers slid to second and third in the final standings.

As is traditional in the Tour de France, Sunday is mostly a ceremonial ride into Paris. While the Peloton will joust for the final stage win, and the sprint specialists duel for the last available points of the race, no one attacks the Yellow Jersey. As a result, Evans’ ride to the finish line in Paris was essentially a 60 mile long victory lap, one that he particularly enjoyed after two second place finishes in previous Tours.

Cadel’s big win is expected to open the door for more Australian cyclists to leave their mark on the sport, much the way that Greg LeMond and Lance Armstrong inspired young American cyclists. Australia already has a proud cycling tradition, but this win will give the sport yet another boost in the country.

Congrats to Evans on the amazing win.

[Photo courtesy of AFP]