Talmage Cooley's DIMMER was commissioned by the band Interpol to accompany the release of their album Antics. Interpol's moody music perfectly fits the film's subject: a group of blind teenagers hanging out in Buffalo, NY's crumbling nieghborhoods and factories. The film's stylish black and write photography and playful camera moves infuse it with an energy and dignity that echoes the personality and perspective of its subjects who are living in a permanent darkness with a lot of character and humor. - INDIEWIRE

The idea of kids wreaking havoc in Buffalo, New York, hardly raises an eyebrow. But blind kids wreaking havoc - now that's interesting. Or so thought Talmage Cooley, who heard rumors about a blind gang of teenage criminals and made them the basis of a two sentence music video pitch for lnterpol. The band was intrigued, and soon the based filmmaker was on a plane headed east to the outskirts of the blighted city. He spent three days searching for the gang's leader, who had recently been anested for riding a dirt bike in a field. The result, which won't be airing on TRL anytime soon was a short documentary titled Dimmer. Cooley first gained notoriety at Sundance 2004 with his short comedy Pol Pot's Birthday, which chronicles an imagined surprise party thrown for the grim Cambodian leader. Cooley (whose resume includes co-writing, with Andy Spade, Public Love, a photo-driven account of sex in public places.) studied avant-garde theater in New York City before moving into film. He made Pol Pot's Birthday in part to experiment with comedy. "When you make somebody laugh," he explains, "you're winning their trust. It's a amazing experience and film provides a unique medium to create that opportunity." Humor returns in Dimmer, which is powerful because the kids have such a wry take on their situation. Indeed, Cooley says he gradually realized his film wasn't about blind kids behaving badly. "The story is about all the things that go into being any teenager," he says. "Rebellion, isolation, longing, frustration." These themes resonate most for the main subject, Mike, who breaks up with his girlfriend halfway through the film because she's been cheating on him. To purge his misery, he and a friend whale on empty barrels in a vast, abandoned steel factory. The hollow, ringing cacophony perfectly embodies teen angst, as does the image of the kids, dwarfed by the gaping architecture of urban ruin. Before long, though, Mike's back to normal, riding his bike along a bumpy sidewalk with his friend on the back. Musing on his unfaithful ex, he says, "I'm blind, so I don't judge people by looks. But that bitch was ugly, dude." - NERVE MAGAZINE