Onur Tukel’s Scenes from an Empty Church will world premiere as the opening night film of the 2021 Chattanooga Film Festival, set to run again as a fully virtual event from June 24-29th. Jacob Gentry’s SXSW alum, Broadcast Signal Intrusion will close the festival.
From writer/director Onur Tukel (Catfight), and featuring Kevin Corrigan, Max Casella, and Thomas Jay Ryan, Scenes from an Empty Church is described as a uniquely timely and timeless spotlight on the search for life’s meaning, told with Tukel’s trademark wit and wisdom.
In a locked-down NYC, two priests open their church doors to those seeking salvation during the most isolating of times. From the commonplace to the truly metaphysical, their visitors reflect the full spectrum of personal crises of spirituality. Throughout their encounters with the city’s sweetest, wildest and weirdest, the two priests learn the importance of connection, empathy and open-mindedness. Sometimes a little faith is all you need to make it through the bad times.
Watch the trailer for Scenes from an Empty Church.
Jacob Gentry is a filmmaker whose work CFF programmers have been following ever since his SXSW screening of The Signal in 2007. Closing out this year is his newest film, Broadcast Signal Intrusion. Gentry’s latest juggles genres with ease and will conjure up the same sort of mysterious and paranoid conspiracy-driven thrills as classic films like Blow-Up and Videodrome while offering up truly nightmarish imagery sure to please horror fans.
For three years, James (Harry Shum Jr.) has been haunted by his wife’s sudden and inexplicable disappearance. His best distraction is work—specifically, archiving old videos. While watching decade-aged TV news footage one night, he sees a video interference that’s deeply disturbing. And it’s not the only interference he’ll see. As his obsession over these strange clips increases, and he submerges himself into their mysteries, James discovers troubling connections to his missing wife. Which will these broadcast intrusions bring him, though: long-desired answers or a never-ending nightmare?