SynopsisA Japanese trumpet player on a cultural pilgrimage to discover New York City jazz experiences a hell of a night after being lost in Brooklyn.

17’15’’ / DCP / Dolby 7.1 / Switzerland / 2020

Kevin Haefelin+1 917 704 4299

info@kevinhaefelin.com

Kumoshika Productions Sàrlinfo@kumoshika.ch

Director’s Statement

Trumpet focuses on issues related to cultural boundaries, communication, integration and sense of belonging.For many tourists and immigrants, the USA still represents a land of opportunity where dreams come to life. And yet, the reality doesn’t always live up to these blissful expectations. As we’re often reminded these days, contemporary America is a nation increasingly marred by racial tensions and the fear of ‘the other’.

TheThe story of our film unfolds in this distrustful climate. We wanted to show that, in what initially seems like an unwelcoming part of one of the world’s most recognizable cities, hope and humanity can be found through the binding power of music. The counterweight is given by Chioki our main protagonist, lost far from home, and his take on the situation with romantic and dreamy eyes.

HisHis nocturnal wanderings are punctuated by Jazz, the music born in America by oppressed people which take us into different universes on the edge of wonderland unifying people and breaking walls. That’s what lies at the core of Trumpet: it doesn’t matter if you don’t speak the language: communication and acceptance go beyond words. Just like Jazz.

How did this project come to be?KevinKevin - Trumpet was created as part of my Film MFA at Columbia University under the aegis of Amos Gitai whose approach is to set a current thematic and political context to anchor the films in reality. The story is set in Trump’s America but I wanted to tell a story based on my first impressions when I discovered New York City, the feeling of being overwhelmed lost and free. I wanted to pay tribute to the city, its people and also Jazz, which is intimatelyintimately linked to NYC. The character of Chioki has to adapt and be creative, find his way just like I did when I first got here. It was important that Chioki came from a totally different culture, far from New York, but full of dreams and fantasies about what he would find there. He is a brilliant jazz trumpet player, fan of the New York Jazz scene but he has also never experienced it in real life – that was a key aspect of the character that I wanted to captucapture. As the saying about New York goes, ‘if I can make it there, I’ll make it anywhere’.

Mao you are a non-professional actor and real life trumpet player. What interested you in this project?MaoMao - Well it’s a film about Jazz and the universal appeal of music. Many musicians brought up outside of the US have their own unique culture and language. Each and every one can bring ideas and elements and create something unique thanks to the space they share with others. In Trumpet my character Chioki finds his own space as he holds his trumpet expressing himself with his Japanese background. He belongs to NYC even though hehe doesn’t speak English. New York City is a melting point of cultures and languages and that’s what makes it crazy interesting.

Kevin tell us about your choice of casting: why cast a non-professional actor like Mao?KevinKevin - When we worked on casting, we immediately knew that we wanted to work with a real trumpet player, a real jazzman who would not only bring our character to life, but also his music and background. So we looked for our lead among the rising stars of Japanese contemporary Jazz. We found Mao Sone and luckily for us he was willing to try it out. It turned out to be an outstanding collaboration, as Mao brought a refreshing candor toto the role that is romantic, poetic and kind-hearted. He also composed the original music for the film, so the project is a beautiful collaboration between film and music. Mao the musician knew exactly how to translate his character Chioki. Personally, it was hard to tell who was playing that solo at the end; I cried.

How did you like playing Chioki? To what extent are you similar?MaoMao - I loved playing Chioki. Honestly it made me quite emotional as it reminded me of myself ten years ago when I arrived to study at Berklee College of Music in Boston. I spoke almost zero English. I needed to improve as soon as possible. Everything went so fast and I felt quite overwhelmed. I felt that I had a disadvantage not only because of the language barrier, but also because of the cultural one. For instance, in Japan we don’t havehave the same way of dancing and expressing ourselves. The groove and the rhythm didn’t come to me naturally and it took me a few years to accept my own background. One of my mentors Danilo Perez said to me "There is no scene in Japan where Japanese players express their own jazz. They only play stuff from the '50s or the '60s". I started questioning myself, searching for my culture, and I found a way to combine music that has its rroots in Africa (like jazz, Latin, pop, and rock) and sounds from Japan. I imagined Chioki to be an outstanding young player in his hometown, dreaming to find what "the real jazz" in New York City is all about. I believe his struggles to overcome adversity made him empty his mind and find the resources to play his heart out. I think by the end it’s not me playing but Chioki.

Interview with director Kevin Haefelin & actor Mao Soné

The Brooklyn we see is not the one we see often on-screen. What were your intentions?KevinKevin - I wanted to film a side of Brooklyn that you wouldn’t expect. During the day it’s a very busy hub with drivers and trucks, but during the night it’s a deserted, whimsical industrial place where anything could happen. We follow Chioki in his introspective wanderings with the almost musical squeaky wheels of his trolley bag and the white noise afar reminding us of his desired destination. Through his eyes we discover that this seeminglyseemingly hostile and distressing environment can in fact be an oddly romantic place. Images, sound and music translate this by creating a sort of bubble detached from reality and time. It is only at the end when he breaks through this bubble that a new day starts with the real sounds of the city. The metamorphosis is complete.

Interview with director Kevin Haefelin & actor Mao Soné

Mao, you're also the original music composer, how did you approach this challenge? MaoMao - Kevin and I were looking for some creative and contemporary music that would make this film special. To reflects Chioki’s journey I composed six songs for this film and I used the same melodic motif for the first three songs. As the character’s journey develops, so do the songs. For the end trumpet solo, I improvised as we were shooting. It was a peak moment as we only had one shot in a long take, I knew I could onlyonly do it once so all the crew had to be ready to capture it! Thankfully it turned spectacular. Music, like a good script, should always be character driven and that’s the approach we took for Trumpet.

Kevin Haefelin // Writer, Director, Editor

KevinKevin is a Swiss filmmaker based in New York. He graduated from the Geneva University of Art and Design (HEAD) with a  BFA in film and is finishing an MFA in Directing at Columbia University. His film mentors include Ramin Bahrani, Eric Mendelsohn and Amos Gitaï. His award-winning short films have been invited to over 120 film festivals worldwide, including LocarnoLocarno Film Festival, Max Ophüls Preis, Short Shorts Film Festival & Asia and Rhode Island Int. Film Fest. In 2019 he was nominated for the IMDb New Filmmakers Award and won the Best Directing Award at Kyiv Film Festival. Chosen as a script reader for the 2020 Sundance Institute's Screenwriters Lab, he is now writing his first feature film.

Mao Soné // Lead Actor, Composer

MaoMao is a trumpeter, pianist, and composer. Having received a full scholarship from Berklee College Of Music, he studied with Tiger Okoshi, and Danilo Perez and graduated with a Master’s degree in 2016. He collaborated with internationally recognized artists, such as Danilo Perez, Joe Lovano, and John Patitucci. In 2017, he led his group to perform at NYC Blue Note andand Blues Alley in Washington DC. He has received a series of accolades and honors: the 1st prize at International Trumpet Guild Jazz Competition, being chosen as the semifinalist at the Thelonious Monk Jazz Competition, and the 1st prize at Keep An Eye international jazz awards. In 2019 he made his acting debut in Kevin Haefelin’s film Trumpet in the leading rrole and composed the original music soundtrack.

Youmi Haefelin-Roch // Producer

YYoumi is a multicultural Ecole hôtelière de Lausanne (EHL) alumn with a major in Marketing. With a keen interest in arts and aesthetics, she studied in New York at the Gemological Institue of America (GIA). Ever since meeting director Kevin Haefelin in 2015 she keeps an eye on his productions and took an active role in the development stage of Hiatus and Tight SpotSpot, the latter was selected in over 75 international film festivals (RIFF, Short Shorts & Asia, DC shorts, etc). Her growing interest in the film industry led her in 2019 to produce Trumpet in partial fulfillment of Kevin’s MFA at Columbia University.

Leandro Monti // Cinematographer

LeandLeandro is a cinematographer based in Lausanne, Switzerland and Buenos Aires, Argentina. For 20 years he has been working as 1st AD on various feature films and documentaries with renown DoP such as Greig Fraser (ASC, ACS), Carlo Varini, (AFC), Renato Berta (AFC), Jean–François Hensgens (BSC, AFC) and  Caroline Champetier (AFC). He served as a DoP on ElenaElena Hazanov’s feature Sam and collaborated on four short films by Kevin Haefelin: The Last Cigar, Hiatus, Tight Spot and Trumpet. He won multiple awards for Best Cinematography in film festivals worldwide, such as the 17th Hyperfest Bucharest, Atlanta Comedy Film Fest, Around Int. Film Festival Berlin and the HBO Award at the IE Short Film Fest in Madrid.

Technical details

17’15’’2020SwitzerlandNew York CityMedium Format D-CinemaDCP, ProRes, H264ColorColorDolby 7.1 / Dolby 5.1 / Stereo1:1.85English, Japanese, SpanishEnglish, French, Japanese, Spanish, ItalianAll Ages0000-0005-8D80-0000-6-0000-0000-J

DurationYear of completion

Country of ProductionShooting locationsShooting FormatScreening Format

ImageImageSound

Aspect RatioLanguagesSubtitles

Age RatingISAN

Film SchoolCOLUMBIA UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF THE ARTS2960 BroadwayNY 10027New York USAT: +1 (212) 854 2875

Production CompanyKUMOSHIKA PRODUCTIONS SàrlGenevaSwitzerlandinfo@kumoshika.chhttp://kumoshika.ch

Promotion AgencySWISSFILMSSylvain Vaucher16 Rue du Général-Dufour1204 GenevaSwitzerlandT: +41 (22) 308 12 40svaucher@swissfilms.chsvaucher@swissfilms.ch

CAST

© 2020 Kumoshika Productions Sàrl. All Rights Reserved.

CREW

Chioki Mao Soné Driver Didier Flamand MiguelMiguelMarco Antonio Rodriguez LuisEmmanuel Maldonado

KidsGerardo Garcia, Jayden Martinez Translator voice Satoko Takahashi Intercom VoiceDwayne Grant

Written, Directed, Edited byKevin Haefelin Produced byYoumi Haefelin-Roch Associate ProducersAssociate ProducersCody Sherrill, Leandro MontiGiorgio D’Imperio CinematographerLeandro Monti

SoundAnder Agudo Original MusicMao Soné Unit Production ManagerUnit Production ManagerAlex Yarber Production CoordinatorJon Mitchell Assistant DirectorHowie ShawkiHowie Shawki Production DesignerKevin Haefelin GafferDennis Ly Assistant CameraYuri Semenyuk Key GripCody Sherrill CostumesCostumesDeanna Andes WigmakersFrédéric Zaïd, Micki Chomicki Casting AssistantConder ShouConder Shou PropsYoumi Haefelin

Production AssistantsScott Garraud, Sparks AlexanderAllen O’Brian Color Grading / VFXBoris Rabusseau Editing ConsultantsEric Mendelsohn, Elizabeth Kling Music RecordistKatsuhiro Tajima Sound Design / MixerSound Design / MixerLoïc Gourbe Foley ArtistFlorian Penot MusiciansMasato Mori, Mao Soné, Masato Mori, Mao Soné, Itsumi Komano, Kensuke MiyakiMarty Holoubek, Takafumi Nikaido Mixing AuditoriumElgo Live (France) Film LabFilm LabFreestudios SA (Swizterland) Foley StudiosDigital Factory (France) Music Recording StudiosStudio TLive (Japan)Studio TLive (Japan) Equipment Rental VendorsScheimpflug (USA)Adorama Rental (USA)