Watch Helicopter

Winner of a Student Academy Award®, this autobiographical work relates a wrenching chapter in writer/director Ari Gold's life. Kevin Abrams, Margie Stokley and David Creamer play siblings reunited for a free concert commemorating the life of legendary rock promoter Bill Graham and the two people who perished with him in a 1991 helicopter crash. Among the latter was Melissa Gold, Graham's spouse and the mother (by prior marriage to novelist Herbert Gold) of Ari, his sister and brother. As their limo crawls through traffic to the all-star music show, the oblivious, party-hearty atmosphere surrounding the three grieving young adults further traumatizes them. Meanwhile, our narrating protagonist also mourns a simultaneous relationship breakup. Upon returning to New York, he experiences a most unlikely visitation from the spirit world. Gold mixes animation and model work as well as documentary and dramatic elements in this imaginative exploration of personal pain. - Dennis Harvey