Followed by a pre-recorded Q&A with filmmakers Ari and Ethan Gold
From Executive Producer Francis Ford Coppola
Inspired by Francis Coppola’s concept of Live Cinema, “Brother Verses Brother” is a radically personal musical odyssey. Combative twin musicians (Ari and Ethan Gold) hunt for their dying poet father, in an improvisation performed by the director’s own family, in a single unbroken shot through the streets of San Francisco. One brother seeks love and excitement, while the other seeks to disappear into his music. But as night falls and their father remains missing, their frantic safari leads them from the secret haunts of the Beat poets into the heart of their family. Their tale becomes a testament to the power of music, brotherhood, & the lifeblood of a city — experienced by the viewer in real-time.
“What Brother Verses Brother manages to put on screen is nothing like any film I’ve seen .… A ninety-minute single-take musical that does more to levitate the spirits of the viewer than a hundred Wickeds ever could.… Rarely do I feel privileged to have seen a film, but after watching Brother Verses Brother… I am honored.” – Screen Anarchy
“Brother Verses Brother is about those nights we all have when everything seems a little heightened, when we argue a little more vehemently and love a little stronger, when memories of our childhood fuel visions of our future. It’s a sweet, smart movie that’s not only unlike anything I saw at SXSW this year, but anything I’ll see anywhere all year.” – Brian Tallerico, RogerEbert.com
Ari Gold is a movie director, poet, musician, & founder/president of Grack Films. His third feature film, Brother Verses Brother, executive produced by Francis Ford Coppola, just premiered to rave reviews at SXSW. Brother Verses Brother is a one-shot musical odyssey, and companion to Ari’s first book of poetry (Father Verses Sons, Rare Bird Lit, 2024).
Ari is in post-production on his fourth feature, Helicopter, which expands on his student-Oscar-winning short film about his mother’s death, & features legendary director Alejandro Jodorowsky.
His previous films have screened at Sundance, Telluride, Karlovy-Vary, & hundreds of other festivals, & he has won over fifty prizes, including best film at SXSW (twice) and the Student Oscar. His romantic drama The Song of Sway Lake played 52 international film festivals, winning Best Feature at over a dozen of these. It features Rory Culkin, Robert Sheehan (Umbrella Academy), & Mary Beth Peil. His first feature, air-drum cult comedy Adventures of Power, was called “One of the funniest films in recent years” by NY Magazine, played Sundance and Karlovy-Vary, and features Jane Lynch, Michael McKean, Nick Kroll, and Adrian Grenier.
Ari has a dozen other film & TV projects in various stages of development, and also hosts a podcast about drumming called HotSticks, featuring some of the biggest rock stars on the planet. Ari’s most unusual distinctions include a High Times Magazine “Stoner of the Year” award (for his performance as a drug dealer in the rave film Groove), and a Guinness World Record for commanding the largest air-drum ensemble on earth.
