Very Semi-Serious
TFI Suppport
TFI Documentary Fund 2011
Logline
(2011 TFI/HBO Fellowship)
Very Semi-Serious takes an inside look at the colorful personalities behind the celebrated New Yorker cartoons. A stylized blend of documentary and animation, the film transforms the iconic black-and-white images into a vibrant comic world. Along the way, the film explores the evolution of the cartoonists’ humor and how it reflects the changing social and political landscape of urban life.
Leah Wolchok
Director
Leah Wolchok is a San Francisco-based filmmaker who recently co-produced the documentary Ask Not, which aired on the Independent Lens series on PBS in 2009. Her award-winning short films have played at festivals worldwide, including the HBO Frame-by-Frame Documentary Film Series and Silverdocs. She received a BA in English from Yale and an MA in Documentary Production from Stanford. And despite all that name-dropping, she really does like to laugh.
Davina Pardo
Producer
Davina Pardo is a New York-based filmmaker. Her short documentaries Birdlings Two and Yesterday In Rwanda premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival and went on to screen at dozens of other festivals including Tribeca, Slamdance, and Silverdocs. Davina associate produced the 2008 Academy Award-winning documentary Freeheld. A Toronto native, she received a Masters in Documentary Film from Stanford and a BA from Amherst College.