(NORTH ADAMS, Mass.) – Williamstown resident Jeff Kleiser supervised 800 artists for over two years to create the visual effects for science-fiction superhero Bollywood film, Ra.One, which will be shown at MASS MoCA on the largest movie screen in New England on Thursday, August 22, 2013, at 8pm. Over 125 of the most complex shots were produced on MASS MoCA’s campus, where Kleiser’s Sythespian Studios is a long-time creative tenant.
A co-presentation with the Williamstown Film Festival, Ra.One will be celebrated at MASS MoCA with Bollywood dancing and DJ before the screening. Indian food will be available before and during the screening, which will take place outdoors in MASS MoCA’s campus-center courtyard.
Kleiser, whose firm boasts an impressive list of projects, including visual effects for films such as The Fantastic Four and the X-Men series, worked for six months on location in India and for three months with effects teams in London to create 3,000 shots turning lead actor and Indian movie icon Shah Rukh Khan from human to robot form. Bringing that work home to the Berkshires and on campus at MASS MoCA, Kleiser would look at shots and Skype with an international team of artists to mold these shots into a film that was not only set in, but looked like it was made in, the future.
Ra.One earned national accolades throughout the Indian film world, including “best visual effects” honors, while breaking box office records in the country. Beneath the Bollywood dancing, super-hero action, and futuristic special effects, Ra.One addresses common themes accessible to audiences the world over. Says Kirk Honeycutt of The Hollywood Reporter, Ra.One “is gloriously silly, with stunts, CG animation and music numbers bursting out all over yet its beating heart lies in a commonplace story of a family and most especially a father and son who don’t understand one another.”
Tickets for the show are $12 for adults, $8 for kids. MASS MoCA members receive a 10% discount. Tickets are available through the MASS MoCA Box Office located on Marshall Street in North Adams, with summer hours from 10am to 6pm daily. Tickets can also be charged via phone by calling 413.662.2111 during Box Office hours, or purchased online at MASS MoCA