La Vie en Bucket Rouge

The guys at Red Bucket Films will never pay for a hot dog in this town again. Not if the co-star of one of their latest films has anything to say about it. Said co-star is a food vendor named George who peddles his wares at the foot of the Brooklyn Bridge in Manhattan. The film is Kate Spade's Ice Cream Soup which debuted during fashion week at a breakfast in the designer's showroom and will later be available at select Kate Spade and Jack Spade stores. And Red Bucket is made up of five of the nicest guys that could ever happen to the film industry.

"The thing about us is we're all really curious and we get extreme pleasure out of standing on the corner and looking at people," says Alex Kalman (son of designer Tibor and illustrator Maira Kalman). He and Brett Jutkiewicz, Sam Lisenco and brothers Benny Safdie and Josh Safdie started making films together in college. Since they range in age from 21 to 23 years old, it hasn't been that long (Benny is still a senior at Boston University). Although these guys form the group's core, Josh says they like to think of Red Bucket as a community and encourage all of their friends to participate (filmmaker friend Ariel Schulman used to be a regular member).

How did five friends working in a former storage closet end up shooting high-end handbags? Call it serendipity, but Andy and Kate Spade have championed young filmmakers before. Mike Mills, Serge Leblon and the Neistat Brothers (who introduced the Spades to the Buckets) are all involved with katespade.com. "The [Red Bucket] guys are really poetic and knowledgeable and the music is always great," gushes Andy Spade. "They're like a one-man band."

Much of Red Bucket's work blends documentary and fantasy with a generous sprinkling of "Hey, kids, let's put on a show!" naïveté (to navigate through www.redbucketfilms.com, users click on handwritten Post-its). For this film, the team built a cart big enough to hold ice cream and a piano player. While George the vendor pushes, Alvarado, an Ecuadorian former symphony conductor, rides along playing La Vie en Rose and other classics on a child's piano. A rainbow coalition of moms, carrying the latest Kate Spade bags, line up with their kids for ice cream soup.

Red Bucket and Spade are now collaborating on a story called Swimming with Polar Bears featuring live animals at the Central Park Zoo. Says Kalman: "We like question marks."

Photograph Courtesy of Red Bucket Films