St. Paul filmmaker David Ash says his movie “Twin Cities,” which was filmed in the towns of its title and screened at the 2017 Twin Cities Film Festival, is available on Amazon Prime.
“Twin Cities” is the story of a troubled marriage, a very pregnant wife struggling with writer’s block and a book that’s due, a depressed husband haunted by something in his past who quits his job and then is diagnosed with terminal cancer. In a 2017 interview, Ash said despite all that, there’s a lot of comedy in the movie.
“Twin Cities” has been distributed by Summer Hill Films and won five “Best of Fest” awards out of the eight festivals it has been a part of, Ash says, most recently winning the Grand Jury Prize last month at the Amsterdam Film Festival.
Dave Ash lives a double life. The 48-year-old treasury director for Ecolab moonlights as a filmmaker. No wonder that his third feature, “Twin Cities," debuting locally Wednesday at the Twin Cites Film Fest, brims with dualities: life and death, health and illness, faith and godlessness, perseverance and letting go.
A troubled marriage, a very pregnant wife struggling with writer’s block and a book that’s due, a depressed husband haunted by something in his past who quits his job aaaaaand then is diagnosed with terminal cancer.
St. Paul filmmaker David Ash concedes the storyline for his movie “Twin Cities” sounds heavy. Really heavy.
“But there’s a lot of comedy in it,” Ash says, “more than you would think.”
Twin Cities Film Fest red carpet interview with Writer / Director David Ash before the local premiere of the film.
Three minute promotional interview with Writer / Director David Ash for screening of "Twin Cities" at TCFF.
How does a composer write music that doesn’t draw attention to itself? How can a director convey scoring ideas if they’re not a musician? Why is temp music important for an editor? When should sound design reflect the real world, and when should it be from a character’s psychological perspective? Will the dialogue editor choose the lavalier or boom mic recording, or both?
In 2021 and its sequel, TWIN CITIES, Clarence Wethern plays a frustrated programmer tasked with creating an AI that can pass the Turing Test. The film, sets its sci-fi elements up as a foundation on which a subtler, more personal story stands. According to filmmaker Dave Ash, the film seeks to ask questions about how the creation of a true artificial intelligence would impact our beliefs, and to examine them through the relationship and arcs of Wethern's character, John, and his love interest, Emily.
