2010 | 98 minutes | NR | IMDb
Directed by Lena Dunham
Cinematography by Jody Lee Lipes
Starring Lena Dunham, Laurie Simmons, Grace Dunham, David Call, Alex Karpovsky, Jemima Kirke, Amy Seimetz & Merritt Wever
Premiered at the 2010 SXSW Film Festival
New York Times review | New Yorker review | Rolling Stone review | NPR interview
22-year-old Aura (Dunham) returns home to her artist mother's TriBeCa loft with the following: a useless film theory degree, 357 hits on her Youtube page, a boyfriend who's left her to find himself at Burning Man, a dying hamster, and her tail between her legs. Luckily, her trainwreck childhood best friend never left home, the restaurant down the block is hiring, and ill-advised romantic possibilities lurk around every corner. Surrounded on all sides by what she could become, Aura just wants someone to tell her who she is.. (Google Play)
"Choosing to shoot on the Canon 7D was a bold move on [director] Lena [Dunham's] and [d.p.] Jody [Lee Lipes's] part. At the time of production there were few (if any) rental houses in New York supporting the new hybrid-SLR cameras as movie cameras."
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Joe Anderson, Filmmaker Magazine