Either/Or Films

Either/Or Films is an independent feature film production company based in New Hampshire. Formed in 2004 by Producing Partners Buzz McLaughlin and Aaron J. Wiederspahn, the company proceeded to produce “The Sensation of Sight” as its first feature and is currently in development with a second feature, “Someplace Like America.”

McLaughlin and Wiederspahn met in Orlando, Florida, where Wiederspahn was a producer at a theatre company, Trilemma Productions, which had decided to stage McLaughlin’s award-winning play “Sister Calling My Name.”

“When I first read Buzz’s script,” Wiederspahn says, “I was so moved by the characters’ emotional arcs and what the piece was saying. When I read another script of his, ‘Traverse des Sioux,’ I found his experience was uncannily similar to mine, despite the difference in our ages.”

The two became friends, staying in touch for several years before Wiederspahn decided to move to the metro New York City area where McLaughlin lived. During that time they shared scripts they’d written–McLaughlin’s for the stage and Wiederspahn’s for the screen, although earlier in his career McLaughlin and wife Kris had written screenplays as well as several television shows which had aired on the Family Channel.

Admirers of each other’s work (“I had been teaching writing for decades,” McLaughlin says, “and Aaron was the most talented writer I had ever come across”) the idea began forming to create a film company.

“Aaron also became my ‘film professor,’ bringing me up to speed on the masters of world cinema, whom he had known and loved for years, like Tarkovsky, Bresson, Dreyer, Kieslovski, and Angelopoulos. I was familiar with some of his favorites, like Bergman and Fellini, but had never even heard of Maji Majidi, Zhang Yimou, Walter Salles, or the Dardenne brothers. Aaron, however, is a total film geek, and regularly watches his favorite films over and over again while searching out new filmmakers and cutting edge directors.”

In 2004 the two formed Either/OrFilms, leaving metro New York for the wilds of New Hampshire, where McLaughlin maintained a summer getaway. “Both of us had grown tired of the hectic pace in metro regions, ” he says. “New Hampshire provided us a place of beauty and simplicity, a place suited for running our new business while maintaining quality surroundings for our family.”

Meanwhile, Wiederspahn had already written their first feature: “The Sensation of Sight.” Once their move was complete, they set about figuring out a way to make it all happen…

Their story continues on the blog. Also check out the Either/Or Films website~