Rafe Friedman interview back in NYC

A while back I was contacted by the maverick Rafe Friedman: director, producer, actor, musician and family man. He's creating a television show called "Shoot The Three" where he collects artists of any kind to come on his show and represent themselves. Basically a meet and greet soiree pot luck stew of artists for the world to see :)

This was the episode that I was so fortunate to be apart of. It's the rough cut as of right now, but I HAD to put it up because I was so excited. When the final one comes out, I'll of course post it.

Shoot The Three

I'm the last segment of the episode :)

Cheers!

Soon to be transferring blog

I recently just purchased my domain name. I know that sounds vain, but it had to be done, haha. I am working with the very talented Steven Gomez who will be helping me create my professional website.... since I don't really know all that technical stuff. Thank goodness for Steven! So eventually I am going to be transferring this blog to merge with my website so I'll have everything all nice and organized. I love things nice and organized :) So stay tuned for news about the website! The website is addressed as www.minamirkhah.com So excited!

Here's the scoop

I have been MIA for a couple of weeks because I've been on the move. Went to a baby shower for my best bud and then hung out with my expecting sister, then had Thanksgiving and here I am now back on the radar.

Before Thanksgiving, I did some ADR work with Nathan Phelps for the film "Presumed Dead" that we wrapped earlier this month. I had never really done ADR work so it was definitely interesting, to say the least, and way more challenging than I thought it would be. Having to sync with oneself is not easy! However, it was tons of fun and an experience that I am grateful for. I saw the rough cut of the film so far and whoa....Nathan and his crew are RIDICULOUSLY talented. The film is soooo saturated and moody. It's really beautiful to watch. I can't wait to hear it with full audio now :)

A belated Thanksgiving wish

Since I was too busy gobbling my gobbler, I didn't get a chance to wish everyone a happy, merry Thanksgiving. I had a wonderful and tryptophan'ed evening :)

Another film screening for Ey Pari Kojai

Hey folks, the film I shot last year called "Ey Pari Kojai" is now screening in various places in NYC. This upcoming Thursday November 10th, the film will be screened at DMAC (Duo Multicultural Arts Center) which is located at 62 East 4th Street East Village, NYC starting at 8pm. You can get your tickets at the door for $12.

It's also screened at the Hamptons International Black Film Festival Sun on September 17th, where it received accolades and appraise from the audience, so come on out and support a great film.

Check out the Ey Pari Kojai page on Facebook here:
FB page for Ey Pari Kojai

You can also check out it's IMDB page here:
Ey Pari Kojai IMDB page

Children Of The Dust commences

Before I go into talking about Children Of The Dust, I want to quickly recap on the audition I talked about a few posts ago. I was contacted to come back in for callbacks, which lasted about 2.5-3 hours where we rotated between the other actors and took pictures to see whom looked more matched and what not. Now all that's left is to find out whether I got it or not. It'd be rrrrreeeeaaaalllllyyyyy amazing to have gotten this role, but if not, I'd be okay with it because some of the other talent there was really qualified. Good for Arizona :)

OKAY! Now onto C.O.T.D. First of all: I love the cast and crew. They are just super down to earth chill people. Always a great recipe for a fun time. Secondly, I totally love how demented the script is. It highlights characteristics between Quentin Tarantino, Robert Rodriguez, Gregg Araki and since Chris Wilembrecht, the director, loves John Waters, there's a splash of him in it too. However, the script is entirely from the mind of Chris, morphed from years of being a cinephile.

We began filming on the fresh Friday morning where we, Carrie Fee Rapp and myself, had hours of make up done. We were demons in the starting scenes and David Weideman, aka Mad Scientist, had made demon masks with a fleshy molded substance. He's insanely talented with his department and I'm SOOO stoked to have been able to work with him on this project. He made us look legit. I was afraid to even look at myself! We had blood oozing from us, demonic eyes, teeth...the whole shebang!

William Hightower who plays Vincent was a real trooper too. He went through hell and back with his character, literally, haha. It was a strong vibe as we filmed all day through to the night, but was rudely halted when it began raining outside. So a few of our scenes had to get postponed.

The next day was epic. More blood, more gore and Carrie even did her own stunts. Take that Hollywood! Then on Sunday, that's when things got cccrrraazzzyyyyy. No more demon make up, however, I got to drive a badass manual muscle car....and I looked gggggoooooodddddd. In fact, it inspired me to save money to eventually purchase one, haha. Then we drove to the desert, where we were all pyromaniacs. I can't go into detail because I don't want to spoil the surprise, but it's going to look AMAZING. Carrie and I did get a work out and poor Will acquired A LOT of bruises. Luckily he can handle it ;)

Here are some pics from this weekend.


Carrie getting her face did. David the Mad Scientist and Desirae Sawyer, who also did makeup


My turn




Rrraawwwrrrrr


My version of a micro-dermal peel


Vincent's morning blunder


It was an accident...I swear


Desert maniacs

Happy Halloween!

Last week in the spirit of Halloween Travis Mills, Spencer W Carey and myself filmed a short about the tale between Errol Morris, Werner Herzog and Ed Gein. Ed Gein is the story behind the cult classic film Psycho, where he claimed to have dug up his mother's grave and kept her "living" with him. Errol Morris and Werner Herzog are brilliant filmmakers and they decided to investigate Ed Gein's story about digging his mother's body up from the grave and seeing whether it was true or not. Herzog and Morris planned on meeting at the grave, Herzog arrived first to only wait in vain for Morris.

This short is based off that historical tidbit, with a lil' twist in the end.

Augusta: The Plainfield Ghoul

Premier a success!

On October 27th, the premier for The Big Something took place and let me tell you, it was phenomenal and a packed house! I was honoured by the amount of people who showed up and gave their support! Everyone raved about the film afterward when they poured into the lobby to have a meet and greet with the actors and crew members of the film. It was like being on cloud 9, truly. I got to meet many amazing fellow actors, fellow cinephiles and just downright good people. I thank everyone who came out to support the film and I am so glad you all have a fantastic time :)

Here are two more reviews about The Big Something:

This article was written by Pete Petrisko from magazine AZ Kaos: Pete Petrisko's Review on T.B.S.

This article was written by John Gaspard interviewing Travis Mills: John Gaspard's Interview

We also had another review by Chris Coffel via a podcast: Podcast Review of T.B.S.

Again, thank you everyone for your support and admiration for our work! Also if anyone has any pictures floating around from that night please forward them to me :)

Cheers!

Reviews on The Big Something

Hey everyone!

I'm so pumped about this! TWO reviews came in about the movie The Big Something, which premiers this Thursday October 27th at Tempe Pollack Cinemas. If you are in Arizona, please get a ticket and come out to see this hilarious film! You can purchase your tickets at http://www.runningwildfilms.com/store/ and click on the golden ticket for $5 or purchase the night of at the door for $8.

Please come out and support local AZ work so we can build up this market!

*Trivia question* Did you know that Flagstaff was originally meant to be the original "Hollywood"? According to the popular myth, Cecil B DeMille's wanted to shoot in Flagstaff, but there was a storm so relentless, the cast and crew decided to continue out west until they settled in Hollywood.

It's never too late to get this back!

Chris Coffel's Reivew on T.B.S.

William Pierce's review on T.B.S.

Arizona Action

I recently watched a film called “The Last Lullaby” and ever since I’ve watched it I can’t get it off of my mind. It was an amazing film in all categories. The mains actors in this film noir psycho-thriller are Tom Sizeman and Sasha Alexander and it was directed by the very talented and visionary Jeffrey Goodman. I don’t want to give away any information, but the story bounces between a hitman, his target and their interaction between each other as stories unveil themselves around them. The subtle acting between Tom and Sasha kept me on the edge of my chair the entire time. They’re sooo unbelievably talented at acting it was refreshing to watch. The story line was ‘messed’ up, but it’s my style of writing; a mix between Tarantino and the Coen brothers with its own twist. The locations used in this film were also spot on. Whoever did the scouting for this film deserves two thumbs up.

The world works in a mysterious way. Let me explain. I heard this film via a recommendation of my friend/director Travis Mills. He’s an encyclopedia with films and I trust his judgment. Watched it, was blown away. Then the very next day, I’m looking at film breakdowns and I see an audition for an upcoming hitwoman psycho-thriller. My heart skipped a beat because I have been so pumped about this whole genre and felt it was serendipitous. I sent in my headshot and resume for consideration and within hours receive contact to come in the next day for an audition.

I receive the sides and prepared. I don’t like to go into details about auditions ahead of time in case I don’t receive a call back, but I felt so excited about this one that I feel it’s acceptable to break my rule. I met up with the director, the producer and the DP in a quaint studio in the heart of Phoenix where I was warmly greeted. There I went in with my A-game about the character (which, like many characters has aspects of myself in them) and performed to my fullest. Everyone was very positive and very kind, which is a great environment to audition in. It would be a real treat to be able to earn this role because it would yet again challenge me in a new way and…well….it’s just a lot of fun to have an action/murder/spy/thriller role. I’m lovin’ the projects happening in Arizona. We are living in fortuitous times.

Untitled film shoot with Nathan Phelps

As I mentioned previously I'm in the middle of an untitled film shoot with talented director Nathan Phelps. He actually found me through another director I worked with on the music video for Hollywood Yates, Brandon Smith. After he watched the video he asked Brandon who I was and then contacted me explaining the script and vision he had and, well, here we are today. I like stories like that.

The story is sort of about a love that is lost and it's shown through the eyes/mind of the male lead, and I play his wife. It shows the pain from both sides of the characters and it's dealt with inner monologues and letters written. It's really good, I'm not going to even sugar coat it.

I love Nathan's style of directing too. He's very soft spoken and has a calm demeanor, but he knows what he wants. His products are full of life and colour and are very eye appealing. When I saw his work, I was flattered he contacted me to be honest!

This was the Hollywood Yates' music video Nathan found me on:

Hollywood Yates: Like Father, Like Son, Like Hell
Music Video

This was the short by Nathan that sold me on working with him:
The Poet And The Lynx

Here are some of the photographs taken during our film shoot. It was taken place at the beautiful and secluded location of the Xeros Residence and all the photographs were taken by D.P. Zach Smif








Brandon Smith (actor/cinematographer)



Nathan Phelps, thee director

Shooting from outside through window





There are tons of other pictures from the shoot that you can check out on my Facebook if you want to see more:

Mina Marie Mirkhah FB

A Stray wrapped

Howdy friends, how is the Fall treating you?

Since the last blog, I've wrapped filming for the project A Stray and have begun working on another untitled film project with director Nathan Phelps and his crew. However, before I go into details about that project let me discuss filming for A Stray. As I expected, it was fantastic and challenging! Everyone (cast and crew alike) were so kind and so professional is was a breeze to be on set. Working with Joe Flowers, the male lead, was the best because he's a) talented b) professional c) fun and d) knows how to bring out what's needed from the scene and that my friends is a coveted trait!

All in all it was a wonderful experience and I am sad that the project has wrapped, however I am excited and eager to see the finished project. From what I saw in the play backs, we've got a killer story.

Here are some pics from the shoot:


From left to right: Hayden, David, Jarrod


Joe, David, BJ


I love how epic this pic looks: BJ, me, Yessenia, Joe, Colleen


Yessenia, Colleen, David, BJ

All these photos were captured by either Brad Garner, Mandie Smith or Brittany Blades.

The Big Something official premier

Hey folks,

The day has arrived with the set your date on the calendar! The Big Something's official premier in theaters will commence October 27th, at the Pollack Tempe Cinemas at 7pm. So bring your friends, bring your pearls and cuff links because it's going to be a real amazing party!

Naturally, you can purchase your tickets at the door, or if you want to guarantee your seat you may order your tickets online at this link: Buy Tix Here Click on the golden ticket and voila! The rest you know what to do.

Here's the official movie website in case I didn't post it earlier, where also here you may purchase the tickets as well:

The Big Something official website

Thank you for all of your support :)

A Stray

The film A Stray written and directed by Hayden Blades begins filming tomorrow. Needless to say I and the cast and crew are VERY excited for this project. The production company Synthetic Human is truly a talented group, within filming and outside of filming. I know they won't let us down and I know that I won't let them down-it's going to be an amazing product. If I haven't posted this already, here's the website about the cast/crew of A Stray:

Synthetic Human:

A Stray film

Here's the official website for A Stray:

A Stray official movie website

I play the character Evelyn, the wife of Gabriel Althaus and mother of Katie. The film is going to oscillate between the past and the present in vivid and sharp lens and lighting. I can't go into too much detail because I don't want to give anything away...but it's going to come out amazing!

Blessed once again!

So after booking "Children of the Dust", I auditioned for another project called "A Stray". I got a call to come back and re-audition with a more selective group i.e. working with a man and a child. First we started with pictures, trying to arrange and take pictures of us with each man and each child. Then after that was finished, the auditions commenced. I auditioned with three of the five male actors. Each was very interesting in their own way-all very talented. However, after four scrupulous days, I finally got that phone call that I heartily desired. I booked the part! I am so honoured, blessed and excited!

Rehearsals begin very soon and the cast and crew meet and greet is just around the corner. More details when I get them :)

Here's a link to the film and the prologue of the characters and actors:

Pics from the cast and crew meet

Here are the promised pics from the cast and crew sesh!


Kyle, Tommy P and Chris (el jefe)



Chris, Dave (he'll be doing the fun make up stuff) and Will who will be playing the male lead



Chris and Geoff


Chris the director explaining how excited he is


Everyone getting into their characters


Will as Vincent

You can take the girl out of the country, but can't take the country out of the girl

Finally! The music video I shot with country artist Hollywood Yates is out! I'm very excited to be apart of this project and am even more excited to see my face (as well as his handsome face) up on the screen airing on CMT!

Hollywood Yates' "Like Father, Like Son, Like Hell" music video

Paradise in the Desert

My wonderful director amigo Travis Mills won best 48hr IFP Beat The Clock Challenge, which only gives the Running Wild Films production team a paper merit to their genius. Not to mention publicity and fame, which is well deserved. Makes me proud to have worked with them for The Big Something.

Speaking on Running Wild Films, I also helped out, with a walk on cameo, (literally a walk...photographing my heels) for their newest short Night Train To Phoenix. I'm excited to see how it turns out because on playback it looked really attractive to the eyes.

Since then, I auditioned for another short feature film being shot in Phoenix area and I booked it! It is called "Children Of The Dust". The director, Chris Wilembrecht, is a suave, savvy gent with a hint of provocative tease in his style of writing and filming. The story line follows a young man whom is under the thumb of a very religious single mother until one day he meets a beautiful seductress that turns his world upside down. Things go from bad to good to extremely bad and the sister of the beautiful girl is forced to come into the picture to set things straight. I play the sister, Lena, that must clean up the mess. It's definitely a drama/thriller and I am super excited to be able to tap into this side of myself for the role!

A couple of days ago the cast and crew had an official meet and greet where we all mingled, relaxed and had a table reading. I can honestly say we all clicked pretty much right away-which is fantastic and fortuitous! I'm excited because we will have two make up artists on set: one for our natural look and the other for our super natural look ;) Can't go into much more details about that, but this is going to be a rrrrreeeeeaaaaaallllllllyyyyyyyy fun role.

I'll post pictures later of the meet and greet and introduce you to the cast :)

The Big Something: Trailer 2

Hey all, this is the second trailer that was made for the film. It's querky, it's cute, it's something!

The Big Something Trailer 2

Go on Facebook and support The Big Something page as well as the production company Running Wild Films! Oh...and if you are feeling generous, me as well :)

Who doesn't like vids?

Click Me

This is a short film noir I did a wwwhhhiiilllleeee back with the very talented Travis Mills.

Five Things a Detective Does in the Dead of Night

Here's a rehearsal footage from a scene in "The Big Something":

Rehearsal Footage

And lastly...the video I've been re-watching over and over because it's sheer awesomeness:

The Big Something Trailer