By Vanessa Zimmer
Instant Life is a saga of showmanship, stubbornness, and the love of Sea Monkeys.
Showing in a three-hour block in the Indie Episodic section of the 2022 Sundance Film Festival, the docuseries follows the life of Harold von Braunhut, magician, entrepreneur, and mad scientist, and the woman who became his wife and business partner, Yolanda Signorelli.
Harold, we learn, walked into a pet shop one day and admired the tiny brine shrimp wriggling in the aquarium. The cute critters with big heads and long tails would make good pets, he observed. The store owner scoffed. They're fish food, he said. They only live a couple of days.
Harold, the maker of such novelty toys as Invisible Goldfish and X-Ray Specs, went home determined to find a way to make the creatures thrive. And by 1960 or 1961, he was selling Amazing Live Sea Monkeys from ads in the back of comic books. They were a hit.
Along the way, Harold met and married Yolanda, an actress in exploitation movies, and he taught her the secret formula and instructions for making the monkeys. Harold died in 2003, and she took over. She continued supplying the powders and food packets, and a manufacturer put them all together in kits.
But come 2012, the manufacturer stopped paying her and outsourced to China. Yolanda sued. Whether they like it or not, I am the mother of the Sea Monkeys, she says.
Four years since her last royalty check, the electricity at her Maryland home has been cut off for nonpayment. Still, she continues fulfilling the Sea Monkey guarantee. With wood ablaze in the fireplace and candles lit, she meticulously responds to letters and sends out replacement kits at her own expense. The counterfeits from China are inferior, she says.
She is hard and stoic in fighting for the Sea Monkey business, but soft and loving to the creatures in the woods surrounding her home, property that she has turned into a wildlife refuge. She mourns the death of her soulmate, the parrot named Josephine, who died in her arms - a loss she blames on the situation she's been thrust into. She feeds crackers to the birds, cookies to the raccoons. She contrived a bug collector that allows her to scoop up insects inside the house and release them outdoors.
We need to protect animals because they don't have a voice, and they can't collaborate like people do, she says adamantly. In her mind, that extends to a Sea Monkey: Even though it's considered a toy, it's a living being.
Yolanda agreed to let directors/producers/cinematographers Mark Becker and Aaron Schock tell her story. She let us into her world, and it's been an incredible experience, Becker said in the recorded Q&A following the screening.
Yolanda didn't shy away from the darker sides of the story, including a disturbing aspect of Harold's history. Sometimes you live with someone a long time and you don't know them she says in the film. There was a side he never revealed to me.
Becker and Schock intended to make a 90-minute documentary film, but in the editing process had to face the fact that the story was too complex to pare down that radically. They have the three episodes shown at the Festival, and more to come.
Said Becker: You are going to be hearing about our Sea Monkey family for some time to come.
North America Stories
21/05/2022
TORONTO At a time when broadcasters are facing increased security risks, the World Broadcasting Unions (WBU) has issued updated cybersecurity recommendations fo...
21/05/2022
EXTON, Penn. The Society of Cable Telecommunications Engineers (SCTE) has unveiled some of the key content themes for Cable-Tec Expo 2022, chaired this year by ...
21/05/2022
NEW YORK New forecasts from Kagan, the media research unit of S&P Global Market Intelligence, suggest that the ongoing move from console gaming to cloud-based g...
21/05/2022
Can You Write an Uplifting Song About the Climate Crisis? Student Zitong (Selina) Zhang talks about the inspiration behind her new song Life, a meditation o...
20/05/2022
--
By Stephanie Ornelas
No question, drones are impacting the way many filmmakers approach cinematography today. Whether in television, biopics, documentar...
20/05/2022
--
By Stephanie Ornelas
Streaming services have become one of the most popular ways to watch films. The convenience and flexibility that streaming offers,...
20/05/2022
Tragedy is often accompanied by triumph, on scales both big and small. As the wo...
20/05/2022
DALLAS AT&T and Dish have announced an internet distribution agreement that will allow Dish to offer AT&T Internet services, including AT&T Fiber with Hyper-Gig...
20/05/2022
CANNES The 75th edition of the Cannes Film Festival is for the very first time hosting a virtual production space, a development that marks a new milestone in t...
20/05/2022
INDIANAPOLIS NTT and Penske Entertainment have announced that they will be providing an enhanced, more immersive experience for INDYCAR fans in time for the 106...
20/05/2022
The Paramount upfront presentation at Carnegie Hall largely focused on its new streaming platform, but it was a broadcast staple that offered the event its them...
20/05/2022
Streaming grew 10% globally in the first quarter, with consumption continuing to shaft to big screens, particularly smart TVs, according to a new report from Co...
20/05/2022
Nielsen said it is now including more streaming devices and providers in its deduplicated connected TV viewing measured by its Digital Ad Ratings....
20/05/2022
Streaming's share of television viewing rose to a record 30.4% in April from 29.7% in March, Nielsen said....
20/05/2022
The CW has released its fall schedule, with new shows The Winchesters, Professionals and Walker Independence, among others, in the lineup for the first time....
20/05/2022
Viamedia, an independent ad company serving local cable operators, said it launched its Parity Ads Platform, which simultaneously inserts regionally targeted ad...
20/05/2022
Digital entertainment and games executive Andrew Schneider was named president of Genvid Entertainment and CMO of its parent company Genvid Holdings....
20/05/2022
The CW will air The Black Pack: Excellence, a special celebrating Black excellence, the network said, and commemorating Juneteenth, Sunday, June 19. The CW wi...
20/05/2022
Cinedigm's Digital Rights Management unit said its AsianCrush unit has been launched on Comcast platforms including Xfinity X1, Xfinity Flex and XClass TV....
20/05/2022
The CW presentation began with a bang, as Stevie Wonder opened things up. Wonder slid in a few CW is the way! calls during Superstition , then gave way to Ma...
20/05/2022
NEW YORK Nielsen's The Gauge is reporting that streaming reached another record high in April, capturing 30.4% of total TV viewing and surpassing its previo...
20/05/2022
LONDON Amazon's Prime Video has announced that it has invested more than £1 billion ($1.25 billion) in the U.K. on TV programming, movies, and live sport si...
20/05/2022
WASHINGTON D.C. The National Association of Broadcasters Leadership Foundation (NABLF) has announced that renowned actor and television personality Mario Lopez ...
20/05/2022
NEW YORK The cross-media local advertising company Viamedia has launched its new Parity ADS Platform....
20/05/2022
BURBANK, Calif. The content localization and distribution services provider Pixelogic has announced that it has reached an agreement to acquire Korean dubbing s...
20/05/2022
Advances in extended reality have already changed the way we work, live and play, and it's just getting started.
Extended reality, or XR, is an umbrella ca...
20/05/2022
Behind the Mic: Dan Orlovsky Joins ESPN's No. 2 Commentary Team for Monday N...
20/05/2022
FCC Denies Wireless-Microphone Makers' Plea for Vacant Spectrum Availability The action also spotlights new WMAS spectrum-efficient wireless technology By...
20/05/2022
MLB, ESPN Take Player-Miking to a New Level Ballplayers on the field are happy to share what's on their minds By Dan Daley, Audio Editor
Friday, May 20,...
20/05/2022
PBR Caps Epic Season With World Finals in Fort Worth, Preps for Inaugural Team S...
20/05/2022
Back to All News
Fares Fares Makes His Directorial Debut With A Day and A Half for Netflix
Entertainment
20 May 2022
GlobalSweden
** Group photo and indivi...
20/05/2022
Back to All News
Heartstopper Will Return to Netflix with a Second and Third Season
Entertainment
20 May 2022
GlobalUnited Kingdom (Great Britain)
Netflix ...
20/05/2022
News | May 20 2022
Working together to build primary school children's soft skills
A new generation had fun learning about working together when volunte...
20/05/2022
On the surface, Mai Tai is an easy-to-program, fine-sounding virtual analog subtractive synthesizer. But let's dig deeper-and unlock its unique FM synthesis...
20/05/2022
Building next-generation intelligent vehicles requires an AI infrastructure that pushes the cutting edge.
Electric vehicle maker NIO is using NVIDIA HGX to bui...
20/05/2022
The Radio Television Digital News Association (RTDNA) has honored WRAL News with three Regional Edward R. Murrow Awards, including one for Overall Excellence. T...
19/05/2022
As the U.S. military looks to arm small teams and individual operators at the edge of the battlefield in remote, austere environments with better access to the ...
19/05/2022
SAN JOSE, Calif. Roku and Element Electronics have announced the launch of their first-ever outdoor TV, offering consumers the chance to stream content for outd...
19/05/2022
Google is teaming with one of the nations largest local TV station owners, Scripps, to help create local news content....
19/05/2022
Ryan Seacrest kicked things off at the Disney upfront presentation, at Basketball City on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. Only one company has a century'...
19/05/2022
YouTube moved its Brandcast presentation to upfront week and took on the television networks....
19/05/2022
B+C has partnered with always-on TV ad measurement and attribution company iSpot.tv to bring you a weekly chart we call Promo Mojo: exclusive data showing TV...
19/05/2022
After decades as the head of ad sales for CBS, it s hard to picture Jo Ann Ross returning after COVID to Carnegie Hall and pitching streaming....
19/05/2022
CBS has shared its 2022-2023 schedule, which features new dramas East New York, Fire Country and So Help Me Todd, and competition series The Real Love Boat....
19/05/2022
The Republican Senate primary race in Pennsylvania is still too close to call, with TV doctor Mehmet Oz with a slight lead at 402,629 votes to David McCormick s...
19/05/2022
Eric Meyrowitz, executive VP and group head of Hearst Television, has been named chairman of the NBC affiliates board. He succeeds Emily Barr, Graham Media Grou...
19/05/2022
HBO Max and Discovery Plus, brought together when Discovery acquired WarnerMedia...
19/05/2022
NEW YORK A new report from Nielsen has found a significant increase in the representation of Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander in streaming T...
19/05/2022
PITTSBURGH NEP Group has announced that its U.S. Broadcast Services team has released a new mobile unit, Supershooter 6, powered by NEP's Broadcast Control ...
By Vanessa Zimmer
