Need (2005) | Stream

NEED, 9@Night Film#7

Petite robs johns in order to support Tyrone, a failing pool hustler. Jane works as a stripper in a Tenderloin club. Lou, Jane's mother and a heroin addict, is a renegade aging prostitute who works the streets in defiance of the pimps. Francesca manages an escort service and does phone sex. In a profession which thrives on fantasy and martyrdom these women struggle to hold onto their reasons for caring for each other.

• Winner: San Francisco Film Critic's Circle Marlon Riggs Award for courage and innovation in the cinema, 2008.

“If pressed, many cinephiles would admit a magnetic attraction to truly magnum opuses: whether crafted by Tarr, Rohmer, Rivette or Syberberg, the mere existence of such titanic features or multi-film cycles suggests an important artistic event. There’s nothing quite like the exhilaration of discovering a huge project that in cinematic terms reaches for the extra-wide narrative/cinematic embrace of THE BROTHER’S KARAMAZOV, Proust, even INFINITE JEST. But does anyone work with that kind of scope in contemporary American cinema? Meet Rob Nilsson, who with very little self-promotional zeal has spend the last dozen- plus years creating a fascinating collection of exquisitely shot digital features under the umbrella of 9 @ Night… a sprawling black and white tapestry of separate but overlapping feature narratives that encompass a broad character scroll of homeless, hustling and bourgeois types in San Francisco and environs.” – Dennis Harvey, Film Comment, Sept./Oct. Issue, 2008

• Praise from Ray Carney and the Academy Foundation:

https://harvardfilmarchive.org/programs/9-night-the-films-of-rob-nilsson-2/

• World Premiere: Mill Valley International Film Festival, 2005.

• The World Premiere marathon screening of all the 9 @ Night Films took place at the Harvard Film Archive in 2007.

"Need depicts the fragile friendships, the familial struggles, the competition as well as the solidarity between four women who work in the sex business in San Francisco's Tenderloin district. It is also a personal look at four distinct people and the people they love, deceive, endure and seek to know" - Nilsson, IMDB, 2005

Director:

• Rob Nilsson

Story:

• Rob Nilsson

Improvised by the Cast:

• Diane Gaidry – Petite

• Marianne Heath – Jane

• Brette McCabe – Lou

• Mira Larkin – Francesca

• Cory DuVal – Bid

• Bruce Marovich – Qually

• David Fine – Salowitz

• Anya Luchitskaia – Masha

• Richard Ira ‘Chaka’ Jones – Chaka

• Terry Forgette – Jason

• Burns Ellison – Burns

• Marion Christian – Big E

• Vernon Madeiros – Blackie

• Johnny Holiday – Homeless Man

• Irit Levi – Homeless Woman

• Dean Adams – Henry

• Maria Mastroyannis – Maple

• Teddy Weiler – Phil Berkowitz

• Armand Blasi – Thomas Ethan Lovell

• Jerome B. Sims – Fireman 1

• Joe Buono – Fireman 2

• Dave Dumanis – Fireman 3

• Sue Rolovich – Cop

• Pat Wallace – Security Guard

• Constance Taylor – Hooker 1

• Jessica Levai – Hooker 2

• Emily Sims – Cindy

• Rob Nilsson – Photographer

• Susan Bremer – Leone

• Crister De Leon – Gang Guy 1

• Juan Sandoval – Gang Guy 2

• Devin Qualls – Gang Guy 3

• Chris MacDonald – Walt

• Myron ‘Peachy’ Bennett – Peachy

• Brian Danker – Bridge Guard

• Billy Aguero – Golfer

• Mason Waqar – Mason

• Liz Harris – Candy

• John Hunsaker – Chuckles

• Chris Kaikinger – Junkie 1

• Kevin Woodruff – Little F

• Dennis Somera – Junkie 2

• Adan J. Faudoa – Voice of Gang Guy 2

• Kirsten Long – Exotic Dancer

Cinematography:

• Mickey Freeman

Additional Cinematographers:

• Steve Burns

• Chikara Motomura

Still Photographers:

• Margot Duane

• Trudy Fisher

• Kristy Severance

• Robert Unsworth

Grip:

• Quinn Costello

Gaffer:

• Eric Blum

Sound Recordist:

• Claudia Katayanagi

• Mike McGovern

• Chikara Motomura

Set Decoration:

• Liz Harris

• Aiyana Udesen

Costume Design:

• Megan Earsley

Makeup Artist:

• Kira Lee

Production Manager:

• Mira Larkin

Caterer:

• Bridget Burch

Editor:

• Chikara Motomura

Sound Designer:

• Al Nelson

Producer:

• Beth LaDove

Executive Producer:

• Kevin Michael Winterfield

Thanks:

• Michelle Anton Allen

• Deniz Demirer

• Carol Richards

• David Richards

• Gail Schickele

• Robindra Unsworth

Dedicated to the Memory of Edwin Johnson

Okunrin Meta - David Schickele