Meet the Family

Filmmaking Style: A Merging of Vaudeville and Avant-Garde

 

April Hava Shenkman’s filmmaking is a whimsical and charming journey that merges old-school Hollywood showmanship with experimental absurdist art, all deeply rooted in her creative origins within Los Angeles’s independent art and underground comedy scenes. Beginning her artistic path in 2002 with original theatrical performances and shaped profoundly by studying with avant-garde theater icon Rachel Rosenthal from 2004 to 2007, Shenkman honed an approach steeped in extreme improvisation, body awareness, and boundary-pushing performance art. Her evolution from live theater into multimedia video art and independent film—often in creative partnership with her husband, multimedia artist Jared Whitham—has resulted in projects such as Hava Calendar and Garage Sale Documentary, reflecting her inventive spirit and collaborative energy. Shenkman’s filmmaking style infuses every project with playful energy and mischievous delight, embracing high-energy theatricality, frequent structural subversion, dialogue deconstruction, and physical comedy. Her unique “Fellini-Garland” aesthetic, vivid and dreamlike, is brought to life through hand-crafted puppetry, claymation, and colorful, imaginative sets. Blurring the boundaries between reality and performance, her films often process personal milestones—like turning forty or experiencing late-stage pregnancy—through surreal, puppet-filled storytelling, creating a heartwarming blend of avant-garde impulses and the timeless charm of classic show business. In recent years, she continues to bridge live Vaudeville with cinema, writing and producing variety spectacles and acting in independent dark comedies, making her filmmaking a singular celebration of creativity, humor, and heartfelt artistry.

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• Dialogue Deconstruction & Physicality: Her work heavily prioritizes physical comedy, often utilizing speed talking, operatic impromptus, gibberish, and silent-era slapstick over traditional punchlines. This is highly evident in her dialogue-free short films like Pizza.

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• The "Fellini-Garland" Aesthetic: Reviewers frequently categorize her aesthetic as a chaotic intersection of a classic television variety hour mixed with European art-house cinema—frequently localized as "The Judy Garland Show directed by Federico Fellini". Her frame composition relies on vivid styling, high vocalizations, and colorful, dream-like sets.

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• Puppetry and Claymation: Her filmmaking heavily integrates tangible, physical media. She regularly relies on hand-crafted visual textures, from independent clay animations to full-scale cinematic collaborations with the Bob Baker Marionette Theater.

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• Blended Autofiction: Her films deliberately blur the lines between reality and performance art. Projects like The Marvelous Mrs. Shenkman focus on raw, personal milestones—such as turning 40 and navigating a late-stage pregnancy—but process those real-life anxieties through a highly surreal, puppet-filled lens.

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Creative History & Evolution

Shenkman's creative background is rooted deeply in the Los Angeles independent art and underground comedy scenes.

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• Foundational Roots (2002–2007): Shenkman began creating and staging original theatrical performances in Los Angeles in 2002. A foundational pillar of her history was studying and performing with the legendary avant-garde theater icon Rachel Rosenthal and her company from 2004 to 2007. This training in extreme improvisation, body awareness, and boundary-pushing performance art directly shaped her approach to the screen.

• The Multimedia Transition & Collaboration (2012–Present): Over the years, her work seamlessly shifted from purely live, physical spaces into multimedia video art, web series, and indie films. Much of this expansion is tied to her creative partnership with her husband, multimedia artist Jared Whitham. Together, they built a hyper-localized creative orbit based in Los Angeles, leading to experimental video-art anthologies like Hava Calendar (2012) and producing feature-length works like the Garage Sale Documentary (2013) starring comedy icon Phyllis Diller.

• Recent Years: She has continued to bridge live Vaudeville with cinema, frequently writing and producing family-friendly variety spectacles like The Gatz Benny Show while acting in independent dark comedies and features.