Lev Kalman

Twin Snakes

An absurdist surreal comedy combines ghost-hunting television, in-camera 16mm effects, workout apps, and architectural tours. Two young women investigate a house of plundered treasure while from across the astral plane they are observed by their therapists: one physical, one mental.

Q&A

Fellowship Cohort: Spring 2023

Why did you choose this project?
It is the project my fellowship supported.

How was this fellowship meaningful or impactful to you?
After completing a five-year-long feature film production (Dream Team), "Twin Snakes" has allowed me to work more intuitively and playfully, taking risks and developing techniques I'd never tried before. Funding from the Suraj Israni Center for Cinematic Arts fellowship was critical in my being able to take such chances.

What future plans do you have related to this work, if any?
It is currently a work in progress, intended for film festivals in 2025.

Lev Kalman (b. 1982) has been making films together with his collaborator Whitney Horn since 2003. Their distinctive style blends lo-fi 16mm photography, dreamy electronic music, philosophical musings and steady bursts of absurdist humor.

Their feature films "Blondes in the Jungle," "L for Leisure" and "Two Plains & a Fancy" have played at festivals including International Film Festival Rotterdam, BFI London Film Festival and BAMCinemaFest. "L for Leisure" was named among “The 100 Best Films of the Decade” in Little White Lies magazine. The New Yorker’s Richard Brody called "Two Plains & a Fancy," “The most imaginative and visionary recent addition to the [Western] genre.”

Coming soon: "Dream Team," which weaves together psychic coral and utopian basketball leagues in a 1997-set cyber thriller, and "Twin Snakes," a comedy about the structure of the psyche. Since 2012, Kalman has been based in San Diego. He is on staff at the UC San Diego Media Teaching Lab, and is a programmer at the San Diego Asian Film Festival.