This is the trailer for the half hour experimental documentary that is currently making the film festival circuit.

Sam Holden shot most of his work on a Hasselblad making the prints by hand.

So how do you do a documentary about an artist who died just as he found new levels of success? The obvious tact would be to do interviews and utilize footage offered by family and friends. But with the Sam Holden project, we wanted to steer clear of the pitfalls of being a praise singer. Also, we were dealing with the controversially- charged fetish photos and how it would play during this period of reflection on sex and gender roles. The strength and the real reason to make this film is Donna Sherman’s point of view. She reveals her conflict. The film captures her wrestling about whether the fetish work should be considered high porn or art or if it even maters. At the same time, she reveals her personal struggle with why a successful photographer would forgo his day rate to shoot women for years. How much more was going on? And how much of that should be shared? As writers, we killed many a line that seemed bombastic or too personal that would cheapen the piece. We had to remind ourselves that Heel on Red was about the work and yet the power of the film was Sherman’s conflict with imposed- monogyny values and her shared excitement about the work that was being created in their home. We decided to allow the work to speak for itself. No interviews. No talking heads. No other voice but Sherman, a trained actress with a DJs delivery. We never see her speaking, opting to live through her words only, making the piece deeply personal. Although her photos are revealed in the montages, they are not identified overtly only subtly with rhythm to clue the viewer. And other than two shoots, one in an empty gallery, the other at the site where Holden had his heart attack, all the footage was found on their cellphones left in the heady days before his death. We are currently in the middle of this short film, which is projected to be finished by early Spring. Holden was well known and it’s a risk to pull his work from storage for such public display. I knew Sam Holden. He shot almost all my stories for the City Paper and I knew he had potential that will never be realize. But that wouldn’t be enough to make this film. For me, it’s always about the story. We are excited by the tact we are taking to use the photographs and his life and death to find meaning or a point of view seldom scene.

This is a link to the full film. (for some reason this site wouldn't accept some of the vimeo links) https://vimeo.com/280476361 password Flash Please don't post.