Robbins-Pianka Premieres at Sundance

Orson Robins-Pianka, a Middletown native, and graduate of Wesleyan University will be in the Yarrow Hotel Theater, in Park City Utah when the film he helped produce, and for which he was the director of photography debuts Friday night.

The film, Armless, a dark, dark comedy about a man with Bodily Integrity Identity Disorder, an actual psychological disorder in which the victim desires to have a limb amputated unnecessarily, was directed by Habib Azar.  The screeplay is written by Kyle Jarrow who has written an award-winning play by the same title.  The film is being featured in a new segment of the renowned festival called NEXT, which includes eight low or no-budget films selected for their innovative and original work.

Here's what Azar said about his collaboration with Robbins-Pianka in an interview for ION Cinema:

Can you discuss the collaborative process you had with your DP Orson Robbins-Pianka?
H.A: Orson was one of the only people on the crew who understood me and how I wanted to work. Like Sarah, Orson and I have worked together on every single project I’ve done since school. He was a great middleman between me and the crew, mediating my, ‘just hang a fucking light and let’s go!’ aesthetic with everyone else’s, ‘we need 2 hours to make this 15 second shot work.’ Knowing that he understood the value I put on story and character let me relax and listen to him when he told me that it was important to spend 2 hours figuring out the exact type of ND to put in each of the seven windows so the character looked good walking down the hallway for those 10 seconds of the movie. And he was always right.

Robbins-Pianka's entire family, including his mother, Barrie Robbins-Pianka, and his father, Martin Robbins-Pianka, flew out to Utah for the premiere.