NO1
Based on a true story, NO1 recalls the life of a human. Is it a special life? Is it the life of a hundred? No1 can say until they know the whole story. A man faces his deepest traumatic experiences and fights all his demons. Telling someone's story is challenging as the truth is not always pretty. In this feature film, the main character (NO1) is going over a major life changing experience and he decides to make of his tragic life story, a beautiful visual art project about recovery in front of adversity. How does someone survive and thrive after the death of a parent, abuse, humiliation, torture, alcoholism, addiction, accidents that leaves him with disabilities, an incurable illness? This is how he did it. One day at a time.
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SabaDirectorSherry's Kitchen, SAM the VAMP, Snow
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SabaWriterCruising, About A Week, SAM the VAMP
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SabaProducerCruising, About A Week, SAM the VAMP
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SabaKey Cast"NO1, Mean, Candid and 31 more"
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Project Type:Animation, Experimental, Feature
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Genres:experimental, drama, comedy, animation, true story
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Runtime:1 hour 28 minutes
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Completion Date:February 14, 2020
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Country of Origin:United States
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Country of Filming:United States
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Language:English, French
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Shooting Format:4K Digital
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Film Color:Black & White and Color
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First-time Filmmaker:No
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Student Project:No
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Genreblast Film FestivalWinchester
United States
September 5, 2020
World Premiere
Won Best Actor. Nominated for Best Feature Film, Best Director, Best Screenplay, Best Cinematography, Best Special FX, Best Score and Best Poster
Saba, the founder of Cloudy Sky Films, was born in Nimes, France. He studied acting at the Conservatory of Dance and Drama in Cannes and performed in France for many years before moving to the United States in 1996 to become a member of the Martha Graham Dance Ensemble. After presenting his own productions with Saba Dance Theater for five seasons and receiving the Bessie Audience Award for best performance in 2004 for "The Four Seasons," he decided to pursue his dream and passion as an actor. Since 2006, Saba has appeared in many independent movies, television shows, and major productions such as Cédric Klapisch's "Chinese Puzzle" and "Men in Black 3," directed by Barry Sonnenfeld. In 2010, Saba started Cloudy Sky Films, an independent film production company based in New York City, in order to create roles for himself and other actors by writing, directing and producing various shorts. Sherry's Kitchen (a five-episode series), SAM the VAMP (Short comedy) and About A Week (Short Dramedy) are available on Amazon. In 2013, Saba created a YouTube series "A French Guy Named Saba" where he performed songs through original videos. Between his films, screenplays and shows, he has received many awards around the world. Saba has been training as an actor and director at the New York City Lab directed by Bill Hopkins, his mentor and friend.
NO1 is a movie about my life. After writing my life as a book and realizing that most of my friends wouldn't read it, I thought I should make it into a film. After making a few movies the right way, with a large team of people and a descent budget, I was not ready to beg around for money. Fast I was facing the fact that no one would work for free and I decided to try to re-write the script for less actors playing several roles. Even faster I decided that I would play all the roles myself and little by little embraced this project as a one man show. From writing, to producing, filming and editing, sound and special effects. even the animation was all done by myself in my one bedroom apartment in Los Angeles, and in a few locations given to me by dear friends. Though making this movie alone was the most challenging thing I have done in my life, every day I woke up excited and looking forward to work on it.
This is not something I would recommend to try, as we all have different paths, but it was a very humbling life lesson and a great therapeutic exercise.
Looking at my life and trying to share it with the most uplifting way I could come up with.
Hopefully you'll get something out of it, NO1 is meant to touch anyone and is not made for a particular audience, even though I am gay and it can help LGBTQIA youth to open up their mind to life, it is about a life spent fighting demons and recovery in front of adversity.