Palisadian Stars in ‘Strutter’

Aspiring thespians come from around the country with the hopes of starring in a film and most never realize their dream.  Elyse Hollander, 23, grew up right here and has not only starred in her first film, “Strutter,” but also wrote directed and edited a 15-minute film, “Nikolai,” that will be screened at the Cannes Film Festival this month.
“Nikolai,” the story of a gypsy boy trying to find his way in the American consumer culture, is entered in the Court Métrage short films category. Hollander plans to attend.
“I always knew that I wanted to do film,” said Hollander, who grew up in Pacific Palisades. “My parents, Doris and James, raised me on movies like ‘Annie Hall’ and I love storytelling. I’m also a very visual person; I draw, paint and do photography.”
When Hollander was a fifth grader at Marquez Elementary, she performed in teacher Jeff Lantos’s U.S. history musicals, which were her only acting experience before “Strutter”. From there she moved on to Paul Revere, Renaissance Academy and Concord High School.
When Hollander was attending the film school at UC Santa Barbara in 2010, her teacher Allison Anders, was conceptionalizing “Strutter,” the third film in the professor’s trilogy about the Los Angeles music scene.
“Strutter” takes its title from the Kiss song and is based on the hipster scene in Silver Lake. Anders used Hollander and Hollander’s boyfriend at the time, Flannery Lundsford, as inspiration for the main characters, Cleo and Brett, and later asked them to be actors in the film.
When Hollander transferred to UCLA in her junior year, she continued to work on “Strutter” on the weekends.
“I never wanted to act,” Hollander said. “I always wanted to be behind the camera directing, writing and producing, but ‘Strutter’ was so true to life, we even had to wear our own clothing. Cleo was a nerdier version of myself. We got my best friend (Sara Ashley) to play my best friend in the film but it was weird because my ex-boyfriend played the love interest and I had to pretend that I was really shy and crushing on him. In real life, I was the kid in class who never raised her hand and always called out.”
“Strutter” recently premiered as a sneak peek at the Egyptian Theater in Hollywood and was screened at the Munich Film Festival, which enabled Hollander to visit Germany with Lundsford and co-director Kurt Voss.
“It’s my first trip to Germany and I got interviewed by the French and German television networks,” Hollander says. “The audiences loved the film and it got rave reviews.”
“Strutter” is now being shopped around to Video on Demand dealers.
Hollander currently works at Anonymous Content in Culver City as a production and talent assistant. “In 10 years,” she said, “I hope to be producing feature films, commercials and music videos and living in the Palisades Village.”