Staff Pick Premiere: "Charlotte" by Zach Dorn |

In this episode of the Staff Pick Premiere, forgotten folk musician Lena Black discovers her fifty-year-old song "Charlotte" was remade to become a popular pop tune. In the aftermath of the song's release, director Zach Dorn explores how the influence of the original song has on Lena, her daughter Diane, and her 11-year-old grandson, Eli.

In her letter to the pop star, Lena writes: "There is something far worse than forgetting in the first place, which is to be not understood." This theme is embedded throughout the film, as the track's recent triumph reveals past hurts. Weaving a collage of isolated conversations - Lena's letter, Diane's phone call, and Eli's cassette tape - Dorn draws a moving depiction of a family that begins to connect with each other via the music.

When asked about his unique design for the film Dorn shared: "I loved the conceit of exploring these connections and not seeing the entire family members interact. In presenting the narrative through distinct monologues, I wanted the audience to appear as though the characters were each creating their own version of the same song. The story is divided by generation, geographical, and emotional spaces, but hopefully, something at the core of their worries is able to be merged into the same song."

The tune may be familiar for audiences that have felt their families drift apart however "Charlotte" is unlike any other family drama that we've seen on the . Utilizing hand-crafted puppets as well as stop-motion animation, Dorn draws us into their lives, memories, and imaginations, for an incredibly emotionally charged experience.

 Prior to the publication the release, we spoke to Dorn to find out more about his influences as well as his process and design. Check out the interview to learn more details about "Charlotte."

 The film's source of inspiration:

"In 2019 I created an animated show about the world's largest sponge and the TV program Gilmore Girls. One day, while buying some mini-craft supplies in the fake flower aisle of a Michael's craft retailer, Carly's version of Joni Mitchell's "Both Sides Now" was played on the loudspeaker. It's a wildly upbeat cover and a wonderful bubbly pop tune, which is odd because the original version is difficult and empathetic. This was an amazing feeling as I loved this Carly Rae cover so much. I personally felt that the pop song version even though it was more fake it still had all the emotion from Joni Mitchell's first. I was a bit embarrassed and conflicted by this idea, but I kept thinking of Carly Rae Jepsen and Joni Mitchell's renditions of "Both Sides Now" in conversation. The conversation evolved into the script for "Charlotte ."

 On writing the script:

"I thought of the first version of "Charlotte" as radio plays, in the form of a Joe Frank voyeuristic drama, set inside footage of miniature landscapes without any puppets. I composed the story from the viewpoints of eight characters that all experienced a professional or personal relationship that revolved around the theme of "Charlotte." When spending time getting to know these characters, Diane and Eli felt the most interesting which is why I kept them on the same page with Lena and pop singer T.Y.M. After I had figured out this, I spent a lot of time trying to determine how I could make their tales interspersed."

 The music collaboration:

"When I was writing "Charlotte," I always imagined the musician Jenna Caravello in mind. As I was writing the song, I began sending Jenna's fictional Rolling Stone interviews with Lena Black and some of fake diary entries. With this data, Jenna wrote the folk tune.

 Jenna's track was sent to Zhenya Golikova who I met online. In the year 2020, Zhenya covered these voice memo melodies I wrote to a friend, silly and silly songs about cats and marshmallows and missing someone in another place, and the following year, Zhenya transformed my songs into incredible ballads. It has that Magnetic Fields vibe, like it was written by the sea by horny marine monkeys.. I gave her Jenna's tune and she came back with her own version of the song a week later ."

 On the talk-show segment:

"So many female folk musicians in the 60s and 70s were largely ignored. The likes of Vashti Bunyan, Karen Dalton, Linda Perrhacs, And The Roches were ignored or relegated to categories such as "freak folk" and were not taken as seriously as their male counterparts. It's an interesting contradiction, where folk music has been attributed to the ideals of progressivism, but are bogged in a certain kind of subtle misogyny.

 In the mind of these musicians I was imagining Lena at this strange moment in her career, where in order to stay relevant, she'd have to participate in the 70s Laurel Canyon lifestyle, party with the right kind of people as well as take the appropriate drugs , and live in a world created and governed by men. But I don't believe she'd feel up to it. Maybe because she was a mom, or maybe she saw through It all. It's hard to say. It was just her sorrow - which spanned the course of a lifetime, mourning for a career. What does she do with the anger of her? What happens to her grief? out for her daughter? In thinking about these concerns I decided to try writing Lena's interaction with Sam as the prologue for the relationship she has with her daughter."

 On developing his unique visual style:

 "In my early 20s I was a puppeteer, but I was never any good at it. I am missing an eighth part of my brain. I believe it has led to a lack of spatial awareness. Making or manipulating things with three dimensions was out of the question. However, I did stumble upon Toy Theater, a type of two-dimensional puppetry once popular in late 19th century England. I started building miniature dioramas from matte boards and acrylics these sort of makeshift pop-up book, and used live-projecting digital cameras within of them while I told stories about my landlord or my dog who had died.

 I obsess over the details of everything, no matter the bar code of a Doritos bag, or the form of the shape of a McDonald's Happy Meal box. Maybe because of the missing brain, I'm unable to cut in straight lines, or design anything too realistically - so, I have this style that is a mix-up of something falling apart and obsessed.

 In order to create the puppets I worked with stop motion animators Oliver Levine and Lily Windsor to create a slightly gritty and textural quality that fit the film's hand-painted world. Because I created the film during the period of lockdown, we traveled across the country, Lily from Chicago, sending small boxes of llamas as well as Oliver leaving head sculpts at my front door in Burbank ."

 On what's next:

 "Currently, I am independently creating a short film about the CGI Livia Soprano from the third season of The Sopranos, as well as this genetic defect known as BRCA2. I was born into an Italian American family filled with many eccentric customs and characters, however in my 20s, the BRCA2 derailed these familial connections due to the early deaths of family members.

 In the year 2020, I viewed The Sopranos for the first time. Every episode made me feel like that I was in conversation with my family again. Today, I'm creating a film about this experience where I recreate home videos in stop-motion and analyze Livia Soprano's performance posthumously in connection to my own grieving experiences. ."