Sharad Patel

Unique traits: One man band. Funny. Weird (is good?)

• work
• music
• book

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  Avalanche (2016)
  Film by Todd L. Green (Comedy and Drama) Cinematographer A librarian, his wife, and her lover become trapped in a house together and are forced to navigate the chaotic fallout of their indiscretions.

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  Domestic Protocol (2015)
  Film (short) by Sharad Kant Patel (Action, Family and Thriller) Visual effects, Editor, Director, Producer, Sound department, Writer The Norman Rockwell-esque fabric of a small town is wrinkled when a woman crosses into dangerous intrigue.

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  Somebody's Darling (2015)
  Film by Sharad Kant Patel (Fantasy, Horror, Mystery, Romance and 1 More) Visual effects, Editor, Director, Sound department, Writer, Animation department, Composer, Makeup Department A fraternity president becomes obsessed with a young coed and hopeful courtship decays into sinister pursuit while his brotherhood's elite misogyny is driven by some unknown factor beyond peer pressure and rape culture.

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  Lotus (2014)
  Film (short) by Shiva Ahmadi (Animation and War) Editor, Producer, Sound department, Animation department Lotus is my first single-channel animation and marks an important shift in my practice. I appropriated the image of the Buddha as the representation of a wise, forgiving deity to illustrate the devolution of a pure and well-intentioned ruler into an irresponsible and corrupt despot under the influence of absolute power. Bombs, grenades, and other explosives evocative of the accessories of war slowly infiltrate the narrative, serving as a metaphor for the volatile political atmosphere of our contemporary time. This narrative springs from my own experience of war, political corruption, and global instability, first encountered during my childhood in Iran in the 1970s and later as an adult in the 1990s. Written by Anonymous

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  The Bubble (2013)
  Film (short) by Sharad Kant Patel (Comedy, Drama and Sci-Fi) Visual effects, Editor, Director, Producer, Cinematographer, Writer, Animation department An elderly couple wander an art museum as the husband tries to jog the fading memory and mind of his dear wife. Something magical and spectacularly cosmic unfolds.

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  Bindlestiffs (2012)
  Film by Andrew Edison (Comedy) Visual effects, Cinematographer, Camera and Electrical Department, Actor, Makeup Department, Miscellaneous Crew Three high school virgins, suspended from school on a bogus graffiti charge, flee to the inner city in an attempt to live out the plot of The Catcher in the Rye - a book they neither have read nor understand. BINDLESTIFFS documents their struggles along the way as they surrender their virginities to vagrants, prostitutes, and crack fiends. Hot on their tail is Charlie, the deranged school security guard. Under the impression that the boys are planning a school shooting, he takes the law into his own hands to stop them and save America. Written by Millard Pearlman

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  An Apple a Day (2011)
  Film (short) by Sharad Kant Patel (Comedy, Fantasy and Sci-Fi) Visual effects, Editor, Director, Sound department, Cinematographer, Composer, Actor In a surreal, comical, hyper-saturated dream world, a naive, lonely, couch-potato bumpkin falls for an infomercial beauty product with blistering results. This extremely short film plays like a silent Charlie Chaplin-esque short with a whimsical music score sans dialog. It was also written, directed, shot, acted, edited, and scored solo by one single filmmaker/musician who would set up the camera and then jump in front to act. Written by Anonymous

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  Fruiting Bodies (2011)
  Film (short) by Sharad Kant Patel (Documentary, Biography, Fantasy and Mystery) Visual effects, Editor, Director, Producer, Sound department, Cinematographer Hundreds of mushrooms form rings around unmarked graves in the old Waupaca County Poor Farm Cemetery. This is an experimental short documentary about a sculptural installation in August 2011 by artist Lily Cox-Richard (Michigan Society of Fellows and University of Michigan faculty member at The College of Art and Design) at the The Great Poor Farm Experiment III in Little Wolf, Wisconsin. Written by Anonymous

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  Mark Dion's Waiting for the Extraordinary (2011)
  Film (short) by Sharad Kant Patel (Documentary, Biography, Fantasy and Music) Visual effects, Editor, Director, Producer, Sound department, Cinematographer, Camera and Electrical Department, Special effects, Composer This is an extremely short film that documents the creative process of world famous artist Mark Dion in a formalistic style that then suddenly transitions to a recreation of the experience of his finished installation. It wavers in between dramatic fiction, stylized design, and documentation. Written by Anonymous

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  Ritual Echoes of North Korea: The Process of an Artist (2011)
  Film by Sharad Kant Patel (Documentary and Biography) Visual effects, Editor, Director, Producer, Sound department, Cinematographer Cinematic, short documentary portrait of the development of David Chung's art installation, Pyongyang: During a rare escorted visit to North Korea, David was always greeted to the sight of the Pyongyang statue outside of his hotel window. The Pyongyang statue is a communist iconic monument in the capital of North Korea. Religions like Buddhism are actively discouraged in North Korea. In South Korea, the annual paper lantern lighting ceremony is practiced where the community puts together handmade lanterns and lights them. David designed a large paper lantern in the shape of the North Korean torch. A team of volunteers was employed to help build the lantern in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

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  Midsummer (2011)
  Film (short) by Renee Edd (Drama, Fantasy and Romance) Special effects, Miscellaneous Crew A young human woman meets and falls in love with a man from the Realm of Faerie. They meet every year, once a year, on Midsummer's Eve. She ages as all mortals do; he doesn't.

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  Lazarus (2010)
  Film (short) by Sharad Kant Patel (Fantasy, Horror and Mystery) Visual effects, Editor, Director, Producer, Sound department, Cinematographer (Warning: this description might be a spoiler for the revelatory nature of this extremely short 3 minute film) Combining both constructed, contrived imagery with secretly scavenged footage of a real medical procedure, a mysterious progression from darkness into consciousness is created, and, ironically, the authentic footage contains the most overt iconic symbolism. This is a brief example of the cinematic potential of reality mixed with fiction: of combining a chance recording of an interesting moment in reality with constructed, manipulated imagery into a lyrical poetic concept that invites narrative speculation. Written by Anonymous

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  News from the Art War Front: Conflict Theory (2010)
  Film by Sharad Kant Patel (Documentary, History, Sport and War) Visual effects, Editor, Director, Producer, Sound department, Cinematographer, Writer, Animation department, Camera and Electrical Department, Special effects, Art director, Self A slightly tongue in cheek mini-documentary profiling the installation 'game' by artist Chris Sperandio of Kartoon Kings while he was a guest artist in residency at the University of Michigan School of Art and Design. Some of the styling of the piece imitates the tone and look of old war newsreels or propaganda films. Written by Anonymous

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  Heart of Mold (2009)
  Film (short) by Andrew Edison (Comedy, Fantasy, History, Horror and 1 More) Visual effects, Editor, Producer, Sound department, Writer On a historical grave site, a teenage girl with low self-esteem, a white rapper, and the ghost of a confederate soldier become entangled in a love triangle.

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  Horroreah Double Feature (2009)
  Film (short) by Sharad Kant Patel (Comedy, Horror and Musical) Director, Producer, Writer A double feature horror comedy that covers ghosts in a graveyard and Bigfoot to a rap star wannabe and public service announcement.

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  Inebriatus Rex (2008)
  Film (short) by Sharad Kant Patel (Mystery) Editor, Director, Producer, Writer Within a paranoid psychogenic midnight episode, a young, drunk professional stumbles out into a back alley. He flails around in anger, cursing those who have jettisoned him. He seems like a solitary scarecrow caught in a muffled desperate nightmare. His only sense of calm comes when he sits and meditates over a tiny photo he produces from his wallet. The image appears to calm him, in an almost longing but weary way. Of course, this fleeting spell of rest is broken by a backwards-cap, t-shirt wearing instigator who snatches the beloved photo and wanders away into the empty city. A chase follows. One filled with surreal twists and visions. His tormentor is always ahead, always out of reach, always eluding him. His sense of reality lapses... "I'd catch that thief but there's a freakin' dinosaur in the middle of the street!" Finally, sick from the chase, our hero sulks back to his car only to find the thief inside, sleeping in the driver's seat. In a last twist, and apparent awakening, ... Written by Sharad Kant Patel

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  Snail (2007)
  Film (short) by Sharad Kant Patel Visual effects, Editor, Director, Producer, Cinematographer, Writer A disturbing grainy film of the recollection of a murder ties together a backwards movement outward as the context of exhibition keeps changing for the viewer. This is intended to create a slowly spiraling outward feeling of realization in the viewer (symbolized by the title "Snail"). At a most basic level the protagonist in the films is also experiencing increasing realization. The emotional distancing that happens to the viewer from the murder narrative is also a comment on how viewing context is evolving, even though at it's core the stories are all the same. Written by Anonymous

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  Sexless (2003)
  Film by Alex Holdridge (Comedy and Romance) Camera and Electrical Department, Art department, Production designer Two twenty-something couples are entwined in a gut-wrenching and sex-crazed last month in Austin, Texas. Having made plans to leave town, they all seize fleeting opportunities and reexamine their relationships.

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  The Tashkent Files
  Producer

• University of Texas - Austin

• American Film Institute Conservatory