BROTHER VERSES BROTHER
A Live Cinema Musical Novella from 4-Time Sundance Filmmaker Ari Gold
91 Minutes • Color • 2025
Inspired by Richard Linklater’s films along with Francis Coppola's concept of Live Cinema, Brother Verses Brother is a radically personal one-take musical film. Based on the director’s own family - and performed by them - it is a story of combative twin musicians hunting the streets of San Francisco for their dying poet father.
Brother Verses Brother is also a rare vision of American culture, taking the audience on a safari through the secret haunts of Jack Kerouac & Allen Ginsberg - and co-starring the last Beat poet on earth, 99-year-old Herbert Gold, in a role performed just weeks before his death.
It features original music by the Brothers Gold (Ethan Gold & Ari Gold), along with local jazz legend Lara Louise, Brian Bell (from the rock band Weezer), & San Francisco’s Poet Laureate, Tongo Eisen-Martin.
Made in the tradition of intimate tales like Once and Before Sunrise, Brother Verses Brother is a funny and moving tale about the power of music, the bonds of brotherhood, and the life of a city - experienced by the viewer in real-time.
Sound will be mixed at American Zoetrope.
A companion book of poetry, Father Verses Sons, is being released in 2024 by Rare Bird Lit.
A companion film, Helicopter, which features Alejandro Jodorowsky and expands on Ari’s student-Oscar winning short film about his mother’s death, will be completed in 2025.
Private Screener may be viewed on company website.