A Film by the Pander Brothers
The brainchild of legendary comic book creators Jacob and Arnold Pander, this gripping drama takes viewers on a relentless journey into a brilliant young architect’s helpless descent into a reality where, technically, he no longer exists. As the story opens, Dylan Gray, a rising star in the ‘green’ architecture movement, is flying high from winning a prized high-rise commission when he unwittingly plants the seeds of his own destruction during a chance encounter with a deadly stranger. While waiting to board his plane home, Dylan sketches an unflattering caricature of fellow passenger Wesley Stone to impress an attractive flight attendant. As Dylan soon learns, the stranger he innocently ridicules is a convicted identity thief who has just made Dylan his next target.
Calling it “stylish, smart and compelling,” the Oregonian noted that “the Panders clearly adore Alfred Hitchcock films, and it’s not hard to imagine the master himself devising this protagonist and the way he’s done in.” Filmed in Portland, Oregon’s trendy Pearl District, “Selfless” took top honors, including the “Best Feature Award,” at the BendFilm Festival, and was nominated for both the “Red Star” award sponsored by Heineken for “new visions” in filmmaking and the “Film for Change Producer’s Award” at the Santa Fe International Film Festival.
Joshua Rengert portrays the architect, October Moore plays his fiancé, and Jen Hong assumes dual roles as both the flight attendant living in his building and her twin sister who is smuggled into the country illegally. Based in Los Angeles, Gallini’s portfolio of unforgettably menacing villains includes supporting roles in John Singleton’s 2 Fast 2 Furious; End of Days, starring Arnold Schwarzenegger; and David Lynch’s Mulholland Drive. Rengert has appeared in national commercials for Nintendo, Vonage, and Regent’s Blue Cross, as well as local spots for the Oregon Lottery. Moore, a graduate of the New Actors Workshop in New York, where she studied under director Mike Nichols, recently appeared on the TNT series, Leverage, and co-stars in the upcoming movie, Something Wicked, with Britney Murphy in her final role. Hong, who makes her feature film debut with Selfless, also recently co-starred in Leverage.
Selfless marks the feature film debut for the Pander Bros., whose previous collaborations include such blockbuster comics as Batman: City of Light and Batman: Apocalypse Girl and graphic novels as the cult hits, GRENDEL: Devil’s Legacy and XXX (Triple X). The sons of prominent Northwest painter Henk Pander, the Pander Bros. were encouraged to explore their creativity from the time they could hold a crayon. Their early shorts played in downtown Portland nightclubs, even though the brothers were too young to be admitted. Around the same time, they landed their first nationally-published comic series, GRENDEL: Devil’s Legacy. The 12-issue series set a new sales record for an independent comic book (on a par with Marvel and DC Comics), merited nominations for the coveted Eisner and Manning Awards, and scored the industry’s top fans-choice award for the duo.
Among other notable projects, the Pander Bros. created the Secret Broadcast comic book/companion audio CD tribute to pirate radio (which included electronica producers from throughout the U.S.); the first comic book designed to be read in any order: the Dark Horse mini-series, Exquisite Corpse; and their own epic Amsterdam thriller XXX, also for Dark Horse (which Mondo 2000 hailed as “a comix masterpiece”).
After studying 16mm filmmaking at the Northwest Film & Video Center, Jacob launched his career as a director with the Frontier Records’ music video, Light in You, for Dharma Bums, which received extensive play on MTV. Among others, the Panders conceived, directed and produced Hitting Birth’s Drive On, winner of a Oregon Cascade Award, and several electronica videos featured on MTV’s Amp. Soon after, they were hired by LA-based Palm Pictures to create a series of music videos, featuring such international electronic artists as Howie B., Fantastic Plastic Machine, Spacer, and DJ Miku in a narrative through-line to tell an audio-visual story. Wired magazine called their talent for raw storytelling “a knack for cinematic suspense.”
Jacob’s 1995 cult classic, The Operation, created in collaboration with visual artist Marne Lucas, took first place at the New York Underground Film Festival, 2nd place at the Chicago Underground Film Festival, and honors at festivals in Berlin and Copenhagen. Film Threat noted that The Operation was “the most unusual, inspiring and crowd-pleasing piece” in the NY Underground Film Festival. Wired described it as “the kind of video that can rewire your neural net,” and Northwest Film & Video Festival judge Dan Ireland told Willamette Week: “It’s like a 16mm version of going over Jupiter in 2001: A Space Odyssey!”
The Pander Bros.’ last comics collaboration was DC’s Batman: City of Light – which, coincidentally, featured Batman pitted against a mad, ego-driven architect. Their most recent graphic novel was Accelerate from Image Comics, and Arnold’s Manga thriller, Tasty Bullet, in collaboration with conspiracy theory author Jon Vankin.
For more of the Pander Brothers’ wide range of media projects visit: www.panderbros.com
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Lyla Foggia
Foggia Public Relations LLC
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