Frank Habicht: Actor and primary bathtub skype advisor

Frank is Florian’s Father, brother and best friend. Frank is Florian’s filmaking ‘coach’ in Love Story. Frank was super excited about his son making a film in NYC, and would regularly check the weather in NYC from his home in the Bay of Islands during the shoot and offer advice and ideas via skype.

Frank taught Florian b&w photography and has acted in his sons films Liebestraume, Rubbings from a Live Man, and played Santa in Kaikohe Demolition. (Not the Santa the kids attacked one year…)

Born in Hamburg in 1938, Habicht began his career as a photographer in 1960 attending the Hamburg School of Photography, from which he graduated in 1962.

He quickly became established as a freelance photographer and writer in Europe submitting works to be published in magazines including Camera Magazine, Spigelreflex Praxis, Twen, Jasmin, Esquire, Hoer Zu, Die Welt, Sunday Times (UK) and The Guardian.

Habicht also gained employment working as a stills photographer for film directors, Bryan Forbes, Roman Polanski and Jules Dassin (1965-68), as in-house photographer for the Playboy Club in London (1970) and as a freelance photographer for Top of the Pops (1969). These encounters provided Habicht direct access to international pop idols and film stars who became subjects of his most celebrated photographs and included Mick Jagger, the Rolling Stones, actor/director duo Jane Birkin and Serge Gainsbourg, actors Vanessa Redgrave, Marty Feldman and Christopher Lee, director Roman Polanski and photographer Lord Lichfield.

Habicht’s images capture the uninhibited spirit of the 1960s offering a glimpse into the heady period that still manages to arrest the imagination some forty years later. His book Young London, Permissive Paradise, a social document on London's youth, was published in the late sixties. Another photographic book, In the Sixties (Tandem Press & Axis Publishing London 1997), juxtaposed those who achieved international fame with the unnamed people not recorded in history books. Florian Habicht’s new film project Permissive Paradise is inspired by Frank’s experiences as a photographer in London during the sixties.

In 1981 Frank left a successful international career to reside in New Zealand’s Bay of Islands, drawn to this unique country for its beauty and tranquillity. He now spends much of his time devoted to creating images that celebrate the landscape and community in and around the Bay of Islands where he lives. His two books, Bay of Islands Where the Sunday Grass is Greener an acclaimed satirical pictorial on New Zealand’s Bay of Islands with Kiki and Helme Heine and his recent Bay of Islands A Paradise Found with Bob Molloy (Totara Press, Paihia 1995) capture the fun and friendship to be found in this stunning part of New Zealand.

In October 2004 Frank exhibited his Karma Sixties collection at the Colette Gallery in Paris. In July 2007 Random House published Frank & son Florian Habicht’s photographic book I DO .
Frank’s Auckland exhibition in June 2007 Hightide and Green Grass attracted nationwide critical acclaim and New Zealand’s current affairs TV show Sunday paid homage to his work of this immortal decade.
A party in the spirit of the 'The Sixties' was held in Moscow on April 18, 2008 at the exclusive Arterium Gallery to celebrate the opening of Habicht's exhibition. Paris Hilton was one of the celebrity guests. Funds were collected by the charitable foundation Peace Planet in aid of orphaned children.

www.frankhabicht.com

Maria Ines Manchego: Director of Photography (drama)

Aucklander Maria Ines Manchego is a photographer, cinematographer and director living in hipster ground zero - Brooklyn, New York’s Williamsburg.

She studied Film and Philosophy at Auckland University and then went on to complete a one year certificate programme in General Studies at the International Centre of Photography in New York City.

Maria Ines has worked in the New Zealand film industry for several years. She assisted Vincent Ward on River Queen and Armagan Ballantyne on The Strength of Water. She has worked in a film production company in Sydney and on small independent films in Los Angeles and New York such as Breaking Upwards.

Maria Ines now works as a director at The Colony, a New York based collective made up of directors, designers, animators and artists set up to pool resources and create advertising. To date she has made commercials for Vietnam Airlines, Hangar One Vodka and HBO.

She is part of and exhibited with BADCAT Collective (Brooklyn Association for the development of Camera based art theory). Her video installation Doorsien Cast was exhibited at the International Center of Photography and her solo photography project Civic Haze was selected in 2010 (when it was still in development) for the Summer Staged Competition, a group show in Chelsea NYC.

Maria Ines is currently working on a music video and short film script. Love Story is the first feature she has shot.

Maria Ines’ website
www.mariainesmanchego.com

Maria Ines on Love Story:

Working on Love story was a different, interesting and at times demanding experience. When we shot it was a very hot summer in New York, most of the time it was just the three of us moving around the city with a melting cake.

We shot this unscripted and as guerrilla style as you can get from attaching the microphone with sticky tape to my shoulder mount, dealing with NYPD, and relying on the interaction and unexpected results you get by shooting in a city full of characters who aren't camera shy!