Something Other Than Other

Jerry A. Henry
Andrea J. Chia

Jerry A. Henry
Andrea J. Chia

Experimental
Short Film

More About Something Other Than Other from Director Jerry A. Henry

Andrea and I started to film a video diary on the day we found out that she was pregnant. We would sit down in our bedroom or living room and tape our conversations about our plans for the future, baby names, the progress of the pregnancy etc, etc. We did this so that Quin will be able to dig out these tapes later in life and see what we were really like when we were both in our early 30s. Thinking back on it now, I would have loved to have seen what my parents sounded like, looked like and how they interacted with each other when they were the age that I am now.

We decided that we wanted to film Quin’s birth in an unconventional way. Instead of using video, we decided to shoot it on Super 8mm and to shoot it frame-by-frame — like an animation. We then constructed the narrative by recording audio of ourselves having a conversation and adding the imagery. Similar to when two people have a conversation — free flowing and unbound by structure — we wanted the film to have the same feel. So that’s how we chose the style. We wanted the film to make the audience feel like they were in our home listening to one of our many candid conversations. We recorded audio for a couple of hours and then pieced together segments to tell our story. We wanted the audio to feel seamless but in contrast, we felt that the imagery could feel disjointed. The families in the film are Super 8mm home movies from the 70s and 60s that I acquired over the years. They are included to give examples of the “traditional American family” and for juxtaposition with our families.

The film started out as a literal documentary with images matching the words exactly, but when we saw that that was rather mundane, we scraped that structure and reproduced the film as it exists right now. We shot it on Super 8mm to give it the texture of traditional home movies and like an animation to give the film a rigid feel. We wanted the audience to feel the tension and anxiety that we felt the night our son was born and throughout the first months of his life. This is our first child so the anxiety will probably never leave us.

The film was born from the incident at the hospital when the nurses thought our baby had jaundice and the incident with the social security application. This was the first time we had even considered any of the thoughts or questions we raise in the film. We wanted to make the film mostly for Quin so that when these issues do come up; and they will, it will help us as parents answer any and all of them. We think that if we are honest with ourselves then he will in turn be honest with himself, and then he can truly appreciate how beautiful he is.

FILMMAKER BIOS

Andrea J. Chia, Director/Producer

Andrea Chia was born and raised in Singapore. Ever since her move to Los Angeles at 16, she has immersed herself into the art, music and film subcultures. At 30, her diverse experience includes film, photography, music composition and sound design. She has done the music and sound for various independent short films, and her photography has been featured in art shows in Los Angeles. Her most monumental project to date is producing KEEPINTIME. Spanning over 2 years, she produced the film KEEPINTIME: A LIVE RECORDING. Based off the documentary KEEPINTIME: TALKING DRUMS AND WHISPERING VINYL, this film brought together music greats from two different worlds for a live, unrehearsed jam session between yesterday’s beat makers, like Paul Humphrey and James Gadson, and today’s beat jugglers, including Babu, J.Rocc and Cut Chemist. The film was released in the Spring of 2005 on DVD, alongside a CD of remixes by various artists such as DJ Shadow, King Britt, and Cut Chemist. She also produced the film BRASILINTIME: BATUCADA COM DISCOS which was shot in Brazil with the LA-based DJs and drummers of KEEPINTIME, as well as with Madlib, Derf Reklaw, Mamao of Azymuth and Joao Parahyba of Trio Mocoto. This highly-anticipated feature-length documentary has a tentative release of Summer 2005. She has given birth to her new definition of “the meaning of life,” Quin Henry-Chia, and he is the inspiration of many more works to come.

Jerry A. Henry, Director/Producer

In August 1999, Jerry A. Henry was selected as one of 6 aspiring young filmmakers to serve as a unit Director/Videographer on the PBS documentary series Senior Year. He spent a year documenting the lives of 3 of 15 senior high school students at Fairfax High School in Los Angeles. The 13-part episodic, critically-acclaimed, documentary series aired on PBS in 2001. Immediately after completing the series he returned to the University of California’s prestigious MFA Production Program and completed his third year with an emphasis on digital media and cinematography. BRAVO Networks employed his talents again for the second season of the hit reality series The It Factor. He served as Unit Director/ Cinematographer for 11 months for the 13 part reality series that follows 9 actors living in Los Angeles. The series goes behind the scenes as actors audition for film and TV roles.

During the tragedies of 9/11, Jerry was in a rural village in Kenya documenting HIV positive orphans resulting in his award-winning documentary I Promise Africa. Jerry’s short documentary I Promise Africa has premiered in over 30 film festivals around the world and has won many prestigious awards; among them being a Directors Guild of America Student Award. In November 2002, Jerry traveled to Sao Paulo, Brazil to shoot and edit the upcoming film BRAZILINTIME by renowned photographer B+, Director of KEEPINTIME. This documentary is a visual essay that combines modern hip-hop turntabalism, jazz instrumentation and traditional Brazilian percussion together on one stage. He has recently completed an experimental music video for and artist named Koushik on Stonesthrow Records.

His credits also include Monster Garage for the Discovery Channel and Hopelessly Rich for VH-1. He recently completed the behind-the-scenes videos for the new Terry Zwigoff film Art School Confidential and director Ham Tran’s Journey from the Fall in Thailand. He is now shooting an experimental video diary with the Academy Award Winning director Sam Mendes for his film Jarhead starring Jaime Foxx and Jake Gyllenhaall. He continues to explore the beauty of experimental Super 8mm filmmaking while enjoying new fatherhood.