While walking through a popular Salt Lake City mall, Ali Stephens was approached by an Elite Model Management scout, whisked away on a plane to Milan and soon thereafter walked the runway for Prada. Following up her debut in Milan, Ali opened the Spring 2009 Calvin Klein show and shot the CK Jeans campaign with world-renowned photographer Steven Meisel, securing her place in model history.

Possessing a welcoming beauty and radiating presence, Ali has taken the fashion industry by storm appearing in campaigns for Prada, CK Calvin Klein, Chloe, Gap, Uniqlo, Lacoste, Bergdorf Goodman, Neiman Marcus, George Rech, Karen Millen, Alexander Mcqueen and shooting for publications such as Vogue (US, Italia, Paris, Nippon, China and UK), V, Numero (France, Tokyo), W Korea, Allure, French, Dazed & Confused, Another & POP.

Besides modeling, Ali cares passionately about the environment, focusing on raising awareness of the human impact on the worlds’ oceans. Currently she is working with the nonprofit group Oceana. Ali also enjoys spending time with her friends and family, playing sports and traveling. Ali is a supporter of the David Lynch Foundation and as she mentions in her interview with DLF.TV, has been practicing Transcendental Meditation for 10 years.

Ali is representd by Elite Model Management

More than just a debut album from a gifted young storyteller, Ariana Delawari’s “Lion of Panjshir” is a psychedelic folk journey with a very interesting story behind it. Recorded in both Kabul and Los Angeles, Delawari’s own guitar, piano, and vocal melodies are soaked in classical Afghan rhythms and echoes of Laurel Canyon rock & roll. Delawari delivers a fresh and impassioned sound that exudes a universal spirit.

Delawari’s choice to record “Lion of Panjshir” in Afghanistan came with a phone call in February 2007: “It was my mother from Kabul telling me that the Taliban was starting to gain power again,” she says. As part of a reconstruction effort, Delawari’s parents had returned to Afghanistan in 2002; she herself had been going back and forth since then, diligently documenting her travels in photographs and film. The call though, signaled what might be a last opportunity for her: “At this particular moment I had a feeling that things were shifting- that I may never have the chance to record there again.” Three months later she and her bandmates Max Guirand and Paloma Udovic found themselves at her parents house in Kabul. Under the protection of two guards (AK 47s), they recorded the album right in the Delawari household. They collaborated with three Afghan Ustads: a tabla player, a rabab player, and an 88-year-old dilruba player, the last living master of his instrument. Under previous Taliban rule these talented musicians had once dismantled and hid their instruments due to a ban on music. Delawari and her band spent several days rehearsing and recording with them. The album was then finished in Los Angeles, featuring additional guest musicians and mixed by David Lynch. The album also includes one song “Suspend Me” produced by Lynch himself. The name “Lion of Panjshir” is an homage to the Afghan revolutionary Ahmad Shah Massoud.

Her previous recordings include the song “Crazy for You”, part of a Madonna tribute released by Manimal Vinyl. Delawari is also a member of the LA Ladies Choir, whose first album will be coming out soon on Teenage Teardrops. Delawari both sings and plays guitar on the album.

Delawari is a multi-media artist; in addition to her music she is also an actress, photographer, and filmmaker. A graduate of USC Film School, she’s currently co-directing a documentary about her family’s involvement in Afghanistan, and the making of her album there with Emily Lynch.

-David Lynch

Music by Stephen Michael Hogan. StephenMHoganAudio@gmail.com

This was a rare treat, as new paintings from Mr. Lynch have not been on display in the U.S. for over a decade. With the most recent piece completed just 2 months prior to the opening…it is in fact, the most recent example of Mr. Lynch’s artistic vision as a painter. The artist has also found a new medium to work with that he is very excited about. Cardboard.

Rich – “What was it about cardboard that caught your attention?”

Lynch – “Cardboard for me, it’s a texture, it’s a color, and it takes materials in a most organic way…and I like it very, very much.”

Monumental is an appropriate term for the six paintings at the core of this exhibit, as they are truly that, both in imagery, scope, as well as size, weighing around 300 pounds each. They are each displayed in a shadow box that was inspired by the artist Francis Bacon, a key influence on Lynch’s artistic life.

Rich – “I heard through the grapevine, that even these frames were Bacon inspired.”

Lynch – “I went to the Marlborough gallery in New York City in the 60’s. I don’t know if it was ’67 or ’66 … I think it was 67, I don’t know, Marlborough gallery…I walked in, I almost passed out. The work was so incredible…and it was framed in a similar way to this. Glass floating in front of the paint… gold leaf frames… And it just, the whole presentation just shot me through the roof and I said, if I ever get any money…I wanna frame my stuff like that. They were destined for this kind of frame. And the thing is, they’ll live in this frame now. Whatever happens to ‘em, they’ll live in this frame. It’s like their house. “

When asked what will happen to the paintings after the exhibition, Mr. Lynch responds with a laugh, “Um…they’re close to 300 lbs each…the paintings…and I need a crane to get’em in my house… you gotta help me sell these things.”

Incidentally, if you’d like to buy one of the Lynch pieces…they are for sale.

• Brian Rich
• brich@conltrolledburnfilm.com

Producer/Director – Brian Rich

1^st A.D./Editor – Flavia Zanini

Cameras  – Mike Ansbach, Michael Dean

Sound – Evan Freeman

Music provided by Danger Mouse, Sparklehorse, and The Flaming Lips

Special Thanks:

Laura Dern, Roger Corman, Martha Levacy, Steve Cole

http://www.unicef.org/index.php

http://www.dangermousesite.com/

http://www.sparklehorse.com/

http://www.flaminglips.com