A Phone Call From My Best Friend

Short Film

Two white friends try to talk about race.

“Powerful”
John Biewen, Seeing White Podcast

“Utterly captivating”
Serafima Serafimova, Short of the Week

“A Phone Call From My Best Friend” feels unusually prescient and urgent, especially during this current political moment of reckoning in America, when people are scrutinizing ideas about silence, politeness, “color-blindness” and neutrality and how they fit into the perpetuation of racism.

As a result, the film is a true conversation piece — a meta-conversation if you will — and is provocative not in the sense of fomenting extreme emotion, but offering a jumping-off point of self-reflection and thought. “A Phone Call From My Best Friend” is in many ways a quieter than expected film — disciplined, naturalistic, almost like an episode of whatever the HBO young urbanite show of the year is — but its impact is much bigger than initial appearances. It leaves its final questions in the hands of the audience to answer, as well as an uneasiness that’s up to us to reconcile and reckon with.”
Kat Ascharya

“Coming at a time when questions like these need to be asked the most, this is a film that encourages us not to be complacent about our occupation of the moral high ground.”
Nigel Morgan

 

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FEATURED: Shots.net + Shots Best of the Month: July 2020

SHORTLIST: 2020 1.4 Awards

SPECIAL PREVIEW: Filmmaker Magazine’s Rathaus Escapes

REVIEW: Cameo Launch

FEATURED: Palo Alto Weekly

OFFICIAL SELECTION: 2020 Maryland Film Festival

OFFICIAL SELECTION: 2020 BendFilm Festival

OFFICIAL SELECTION: 2020 Sun Valley Film Festival

 

Director, Writer, Editor

Alexander Christenson

Producer

Jeff Spivack

Madison

Celeste Arias

Chrissy

Auden Thornton

Rebecca

Emily Van Raay

Cinematographer

Michael Belcher

Casting Director

Dayna Katz

Co-Producer

Miriam Naggar

Co-Producer

Christopher Hawthorne

Production Manager

Will Dennis

Gaffer

Emma Penrose

Steadicam Operator

Lisa Sene

First Assistant Camera

Jeffrey David Schultz

First Assistant Camera

Steven Tong

Second Assistant Camera

Noah Broch

Key Grip

Jay Warrior

Production Sound Mixer

Lily Bernstein

Script Supervisor

Alan Klassen

Costume Designer

Rachel Dainer-Best

Makeup Artist

Mary Chipman

Art Department Assistant

Persia Beheshti

Production Assistant

David Perez

Sound Mixer

Calvin Pia

Additional Compositing

Herculano Fernandes

Color Services Provided by

Nice Shoes

Colorist

Sal Malfitano

Color Producer

Andrew Pandolfino

Color Producer

Elizabeth Mitchell

Samsung

Role Play

Commercial

00:30

Jiant Hard Tea

Chace Crawford

Commercial

00:60

Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation

Our Work

Promo

08:41

A Phone Call From My Best Friend

Short Film

Short Film

13:30

The New York Times

Sotheby's

Branded Content

00:15

The Arrivals

Made For

Commercial

00:60

This Always Happens

Short Film

Short Film

14:09

Memorial Sloan Kettering

Rob Lowe

Commercial

00:60