With little more than two weeks to go, the 6th Ithaca Fantastik (IF) taking place November 3 to 12 in Ithaca, NY, unveiled its full features and short film lineup of 37 films from 20 countries.
In LET THE CORPSES TAN, Belgian duo Hélène Cattet and Bruno Forzani pay visual homage to Italian gangster films. Marc Meyers’s award-winning MY FRIEND DAHMER, based on the graphic novel of the same name, follows the teenage years of the budding serial killer. Ryan Prows’s mesmerizing and gritty LA tale LOWLIFE takes viewers on a high-energy organ-harvesting misadventure. And Deborah Haywoods’s beautifully disturbing and deeply personal PIN CUSHION explores intergenerational bullying in a small but toxic English town.
Playing to a full range of IF6’s retrospective theme—Italiano Psichedeliko—with a contemporary eye, Rupert Jones’s murder-mystery, KALEIDOSCOPE, mesmerizes with lush visuals and amazing performances from Sinead Matthews and Toby Jones. Rainer Sarnet’s NOVEMBER plunges vanguard film-lovers into a surrealist maelstrom of faith, witchcraft, and love, while German tale FREDDY/EDDY ushers in a doubled and troubled soul from the mind of Tini Tüllmann.
Any pure horror lovers in the room? Giddens Ko’s MON MON MON MONSTER blows minds with its thoughtful subtext on bullying dressed with gory violence. A Taiwanese echo to Haywoods’s PIN CUSHION, this film takes no prisoners. The same can be said about Gabriela Amaral’s FRIENDLY BEAST: What starts out as a classic social drama makes a sharp turn into more graphic territory demanding self-reflection. And for undead action, Robin Aubert’s LES AFFAMÉS – an art house Zombie film full of deep social commentary—is a brilliant homage to maestro George Romero’s ghoul metaphor.
Sometimes, real life is more Fantastik than fiction. Brad Abrahams’s documentary, LOVE AND SAUCERS, tells the improbable story of David Higgins’ intimate love for an alien and the art that followed. For sheer genre joy, Australian mockumentary TOP KNOT DETECTIVE is Aaron McCann and Dominic Pearce’s madcap love letter to late-night Japanese television—from Lone Wolf and Cub and Mute Samurai to Message from Space and Space Sheriff Gavan.
IF completes this year’s smorgasbord with the crazies: Adolfo Kolmerer and William James’s SNOWFLAKE, the prodigal son of Pulp Fiction and Synecdoche NY, with producer Eric Sonnenburg here for the sceening; Thomas Berg and Frederik Waldeland’s super-weird, laugh-out-loud VAMPYR VIDAR; and Jimmy Henderson’s JAILBREAK with its roots in HK martial arts cinema, Jean Paul Ly’s choreography, dynamic camerawork, and the incisive power of a Tony Jaa elbow strike.
IF also shines a spotlight on BLUE UNDERGROUND, Bill Lustig’s distribution company, with the 4K restoration of Gary Sherman’s DEATH LINE, a direct transfer from the camera negative—as close as you can get to a director’s true vision! Another new 4K transfer, Bob Clark’s DEAD BY NIGHT, offers a deep meditation on the effects of war …with a zombie trope.
Along with this incredible lineup, IF will also present its 2017 art show: THE STRANGE COLORS OF GILLES VRANCKX featuring the work of the Belgian poster genius behind art for Amer, The Strange Colors of Your Body’s Tears, LET THE CORPSES TAN, and more.
INTERNATIONAL COMPETITION
THE ENDLESS (Ithaca Premiere)
Aaron Moorhead & Justin Benson, USA
THE CRESCENT (Ithaca Premiere)
Seth A. Smith, Canada
I REMEMBER YOU (Ithaca Premiere)
Óskar Thór Axelsson, Iceland
PIN CUSHION (East Coast Premiere)
Deborah Haywood, UK
VAMPYR VIDAR (East Coast Premiere)
Thomas Aske Berg & Fredrik Waldeland, Norway
FREDDY/EDDY (East Coast Premiere)
Tini Tüllmann, Germany
FRIENDLY BEAST (US Premiere)
Gabriela Amaral, Brazil
LES AFFAMÉS (East Coast Premiere)
Robin Aubert, Canada
SNOWFLAKE (East Coast Premiere) With producer Eric Sonnenburg in attendance!
Adolfo J. Kolmerer, Germany
Opening & Closing
TRAGEDY GIRLS (Ithaca Premiere)
Tyler McIntyre, USA
A DAY (East Coast Premiere)
Sun-Ho Cho, South Korea
Cinema Pur
HAGAZUSSA: A Heathen’s Curse (Ithaca Premiere)
Lukas Feigelfeld, Germany
INFLAME (East Coast Premiere)
Ceylan Özgün Özçelik, Turkey
LET THE CORPSES TAN (East Coast Premiere)
Bruno Forzani/Hélène Cattet, Belgium
NOVEMBER (Ithaca Premiere)
Rainer Sarnet, Iceland/Estonia
TIGERS ARE NOT AFRAID (East Coast Premiere)
Issa López, Mexico
TOP KNOT DETECTIVE (Ithaca Premiere)
Aaron McCann & Dominic Pearce, Australia/Japan
Fantastik Documentary: FOREVER LOVE!
BIGHT OF THE TWIN (Ithaca Premiere)
Hazel Hill McCarthy III, USA
LOVE AND SAUCERS (East Coast Premiere)
Brad Abrahams, USA
Midnighters
BRAVESTORM (North American Premiere)
Junya Okabe, Japan
SAMURAI RAUNI (North American Premiere)
Mika Rättö, Finland
ZOMBIOLOGY (Ithaca Premiere)
Alan Lo, Hong Kong
Festival Favorite
KALEIDOSCOPE (East Coast Premiere)
Rupert Jones, UK
JAILBREAK (East Coast Premiere)
Jimmy Henderson, Cambodia
LOWLIFE (East Coast Premiere)
Ryan Prows, USA
SEQUENCE BREAK (Ithaca Premiere) With director Graham Skipper in attendance!
Graham Skipper, USA
MY FRIEND DAHMER (Ithaca Premiere)
Marc Meyers, USA
BLUE UNDERGROUND PRESENTS with Bill Lustig in attendance!
DEATHLINE (Ithaca Premiere) With director Gary Sherman in attendance!
Gary Sherman, UK 1972
DEAD OF NIGHT 4K Restoration (North American Premiere)
Bob Clark, 1974
SHUDDER PRESENTS
Mon Mon Mon Monster (New York Premiere)
Giddens Ko, Taiwan
ITALIANO PSICHEDELIKO: Retrospective
AUTOPSY
Armando Crispino, 1975
BABA YAGA
Corrado Farina, 1973
DEADLY SWEET
Tinto Brass, 1967
LE ORME
Luigi Bazzoni, Mario Fanelli 1975
SUSPIRIA
Dario Argento, 1977
BLOW UP
Michelangelo Antonioni, 1966
DANGER: DIABOLIK
Mario Bava, 1968
SHORT FILMS
Born of Sin
William Boodell – USA
Jenny Secoma In: The Blind Spot
Jack Warner – USA
No Man’s Land: A Folktale
Ty Turley – USA/Sierra Leone
Popsy
Julien Homsy – France
Night Encounter
Ludovic de Gaillande – France
Bestia
Gigi Saul Guerrero – Canada
Sol
Carlos G. Gananian – Brazil
Oh, Dear
Raquel Fogel – USA
Evocation of a Nightmare
Wally Chung – USA
Waiting for Pascale
Guillaume Harvey – Canada
Breaker
Phillippe McKie – Japan
Bon Appétit
Erenik Beqiri – Albania
Zoey And The Wind-Up Boy
Marica Petrey – USA
I Am The Doorway
Robin Kasparik – Czech Republic
Miriam is Going to Mars
Michael Lippert – USA
Ink
Ashlea Wessel – Canada
It Began Without Warning
Jessica Curtright & Santiago C. Tapia – USA
Amy
L. Gustavo Cooper – USA
Killing Klaus Kinski
Spiros Stathoulopoulos – Colombia/Netherlands
What Comes From a Swamp
Tyler Macri – USA
Viola vs. The Vampire King
Kevin Fermini – USA
Standby
Daumon Khakpour & Travis Pulchinski – Canada
Sherry
Eliane Lima – USA
Jules D.
Norma Vila – Spain
Signal to Noise
Jarret Blinkhorn – USA
Holiday Fear
Nicholas Santos – USA
A Father’s Day
Mat Johns – UK
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tMxp2BMuHFk
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