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Strangers

A young love-struck New Yorker proposes to his girlfriend in Chinatown but ultimately discovers something more important.

  • Slav Velkov
    Director
  • Slav Velkov
    Writer
  • Tommy Espinal
    Producer
  • Azaan Haider
    Producer
  • Curtis Dorval
    Producer
  • Frederick Bredemeyer
    Key Cast
  • Claire Mack
    Key Cast
  • Yuri Lemeshev
    Key Cast
  • Azaan Haider
    Key Crew
  • Jasiel Louison
    Key Crew
  • Jose Urena
    Key Crew
  • Curtis Dorval
    Key Crew
  • Matt Gioia
    Key Crew
  • Sofia Abela
    Key Crew
  • Tzipporah Goins
    Key Crew
  • Katie Heaton
    Key Crew
  • Raquel Skylar
    Key Crew
  • Isabel Suschitz
    Key Crew
  • Helen DiPietra
    Special Thanks
  • Project Type:
    Short
  • Genres:
    Drama, Romance
  • Runtime:
    5 minutes 26 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    June 1, 2023
  • Production Budget:
    8,000 USD
  • Country of Origin:
    United States
  • Country of Filming:
    United States
  • Language:
    English
  • Shooting Format:
    Digital: Arriraw
  • Aspect Ratio:
    4:3
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    No
Director Biography - Slav Velkov

Slav Velkov is a Bulgarian filmmaker whose work has reached 1M+ people and has been screened at international film festivals. In 2021, his short A New World premiered at the Big Apple Film Festival in New York and was a semi-finalist at the Academy-Award qualifying Flickers' Rhode Island International Film Festival. His short documentary Change Bulgaria had 1M+ views and 4,549 shares on Facebook and inspired young people to stand up against governmental corruption. Most recently, Slav interned for The Wall Street Journal's video team, where he wrote, shot, and edited under very tight deadlines.

Slav has appeared on Bulgarian National Television, Bulgaria on Air TV, and other prominent media as part of his films' marketing campaigns. Slav holds a BA degree in Film & TV and Visual Arts from Fordham University, where he graduated summa cum laude and received the James Storey Award for artistic excellence and the William F. DiPietra Film Award.

Slav's quest in art is finding an honest and universal beauty, starting with the individual but ultimately hinting at a transcendent formal truth. He references the past millennia's three major artistic and ideological movements: monotheism, humanism, and paganism. Similarly to Early Renaissance art, he depicts humans in a dimensional and idiosyncratic way. However, he places his subjects in larger and often abstract formal structures to reconcile humanist anthropocentrism with Medieval asceticism.

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Director Statement

My inspiration for Strangers was Chinatown in New York. I found that the street market’s chaos exposed the overabundance and arbitrariness of big-city life. The loud vendors, rotting food, and wet walkways reminded me of a war in which morality was ambivalent. Thus, my protagonist sought to escape ambivalence by clinging to love. At the film’s end, however, he discovers that love is beyond romance and desire. The primary technique I used to express my ideas was dissonance between the film’s genre, cinematography, and story. I stayed in the romantic genre in my subject matter but veered towards the war film through handheld camerawork, high shutter speed, and rapid editing. In the end, genre conventions weather away to reveal a story of compassion. As the sound design and color grade nearly disappear, my protagonist gains the clarity and knowledge necessary to navigate the ambivalence of contemporary life.