Andrew Repasky McElhinney

Andrew Repasky McElhinney is an American film producer, writer and director born in Philadelphia in 1978. He grew up in Chestnut Hill, Pennsylvania and lived in Manhattan in New York City in the late 1990s before returning to his home city in 2000. McElhinney holds advance degrees from The New School for Social Research (NYC) and The European Graduate School (EGS) in Switzerland. In 2011, McElhinney defended his PhD dissertation, "Second Takes—Remaking America: A Psychoanalytic Reading of English Language Cinema, 1931–1998."

McElhinney is an active theater and film director as well as a scriptwriter specializing in rewrites and dialogue polishes. He has been an instructor at Rowan University and Rutgers-The State University of New Jersey teaching Screenwriting, Cinema and American Studies. In addition, he is the film programmer who runs the non-profit screening series Andrew's Video Vault at the Rotunda sponsored by The University of Pennsylvania. He is also a multimedia video installation performance artist and director specializing in burlesque and cabaret.

Early works

In 1994, while in high school, he formed "ARMcinema25.com", a company devoted to producing movies.

In 1994, McElhinney released the short films, The Scream and Her Father’s Expectancy. A baroque tale of incest and mutilation, Her Father’s Expectancy caused controversy upon its release.

In 1995, McElhinney made a silent musical entitled A Maggot Tango. It won Best Feature at the Chestnut Hill Film Festival.

Feature films

McElhinney’s first feature Magdalen was well-reviewed in 1998 for its fresh concept, black and white camerawork from cinematographer Abe Holtz and its cast led by Alix D. Smith.

In 2000, McElhinney' sophomore feature was released. It was an 1807 period thriller A Chronicle of Corpses starring soap opera diva Marj Dusay. Jeremiah Kipp of Filmcritic.com gave A Chronicle of Corpses four stars and remarked: "What's most impressive about McElhinney's highbrow period film is its ability to satisfy snobbish cultural aesthetes while simultaneously fulfilling slasher film conventions. . . . Think of it as a caveat to those who secretly wished that Jack Nicholson (in wild-eyed mode from The Shining) had wandered into The Remains of the Day wielding a mallet. [A Chronicle of Corpses is] the art film from hell."

His next film was Georges Bataille's Story of the Eye released in 2003. Dennis Harvey, reviewing Georges Bataille's Story of the Eye in Variety said the film was "A punk-pornocopia equivalent to Last Year at Marienbad."^[1]

McElhinney's fourth feature film, Animal Husbandry (2008) is a word-for-word modern dress production of a romantic comedy from the 1930s with the subtext reexamined to explore issues of race, class gender/sexual identity in contemporary America.

McElhinney's fifth feature film is "Christmas Dreams" (2016). An children's holiday musical fantasy, the movie was a shot over six weeks entirely on a soundstages and features extensive special effects and CGI, making it the largest, truly independent movie ever produced in Philadelphia.

Publications

McElhinney has contributed to publications such as Ritz Film Magazine ("Ask the Ritz"), Filmmaker Magazine; San Francisco Bay Guardian; The Chestnut Hill Local; and Philadelphia Weekly (aka, 'PW').

Between 2004 and 2009 McElhinney wrote hundred of (mostly) unsigned liner notes, essays and back cover blurbs for "Gotham Collectibles".

In 2009, McElhinney contributed the monograph, "A World Destroyed By Gold: Shared Allegories of Capital in Wagner’s ‘Ring’ and Ulmer’s ‘Isle of Forgotten Sins’" to Scarecrow Press’ anthology, "The Films of Edgar G. Ulmer".

In November 2013, "McFarland and Company" published McElhinney's monumental book-length survey of 20th Century English Language Cinema, "Second Takes: Remaking Film, Remaking America."

Other Short Movies and Documentaries

October 6, 2006 McElhinney shot the ten minute short, The Things We Do For Love: A Cinemagic at the Cinemagic 3 movie theater, Walnut Street, just prior to the multiplex's demolition.

McElhinney chronicled the European Graduate School's tenth anniversary in residence in Saas-Fee, Switzerland in the hour long direct cinema documentary, "European Graduate School: Digital Video Diary-August 2008".

Installation Work

In 2003, McElhinney used footage from his feature film, "Georges Bataille's Story of the Eye" to create, direct and design "Untitled Video Installation#1" for the Philadelphia Live Arts and Fringe Festival.

In 2003-4, McElhinney's eight part multimedia juxtaposition of musical theater and motion pictures called "Jukebox/Peepshow" is installed in monthly sequences at The 700 Club (Philadelphia) and then The Werepad (San Francisco).

In 2009, McElhinney created the video projections for Brat Production's Haunted House, "Haunted Poe" and created two short films for the event, "The Tell-Tale Heart" and "Poe's Last Train Ride". The Philadelphia Inquirer praised his work as "Hitchcockian" on October 13, 2009.^[2]

Theater Work

Since 1993, McElhinney has directed theater productions including "The Visitor" (McElhinney) – 1993, "Oleanna" (Mamet) – 1996, "The Artificial Jungle" (Ludlum) – 1997, "The Malady of Death" (Duras) – NYC 1999, "The Peek-A-Boo Revue Burlesque Show" – 2003–2007, "Who Milk Dat Was?" (Wildau) – 2007, "Death and Devil" (Wedekind) – 2009, "Blue Movie: A Film By Andy Warhol" (Warhol) – 2010, "Macbeth" (Shakespeare) – 2010, "The Cowen Bridge Girls" (Giovanni/McElhinney) – 2011, "Rent" (Larson – musical staging only) – 2011, "Timon of Athens" (Shakespeare) – 2011, "Q+C" (Cook) – 2012, "Titus Andronicus" (Shakespeare) – 2013, "Troilus and Cressida" (Shakespeare) – 2015.

External links

• – page for McElhinney's book, "Second Takes: Remaking Film, Remaking America"
• Andrew Repasky McElhinney at the Internet Movie Database
• Andrew Repasky McElhinney at Rotten Tomatoes
• ARMcinema25.com — Andrew Repasky McElhinney's own website
• A Chronicle of Corpses Reviews at Metacritic
• Georges Bataille's Story of the Eye Reviews at Metacritic

References