“The films of Brian M. Cassidy and Melanie Shatzky find life and persistence within dismal surroundings. Cassidy and Shatzky not only take us outside our comfort zone, but help us understand the friction between our isolated / isolating daily landscapes and our mental health in a way rarely addressed on film. The results generated by their singular body of work are always engaging, and frequently revelatory.”
The films of Brian M. Cassidy and Melanie Shatzky have premiered at the Berlin, Sundance, Toronto, Locarno and Rotterdam film festivals, and exhibited at The Museum of Modern Art, The National Gallery of Art, Le Musée de la Civilisation, ICA London, The Museum of the Moving Image and Lincoln Center in New York. Their feature debut, Francine, starring Academy Award winner Melissa Leo, was called "raw, intimate and observed with penetrating acuity" by The Hollywood Reporter and was selected as a New York Times Critics' Pick. Their documentary, The Patron Saints, was called "one of the most powerful Canadian documentaries of recent years" by POV Magazine.
Cassidy & Shatzky also maintain an active photography practice and have had their work featured in GUP Magazine, Der Greif, Wired, Zeit Magazin, It's Nice That, FlakPhoto, and Slate, among others. In 2015, The Montreal International Documentary Festival (RIDM) invited the duo to guest curate "A Photographer's Eye: Photography & The Poetic Documentary", a special program about the intersection of photography and documentary film, which was showcased at La Cinémathèque Québécoise. They have held fellowships at the MacDowell Colony and Yaddo. Both Cassidy & Shatzky hold an MFA from The School of Visual Arts in New York.
For more information visit Pigeon Projects