Colin Trevorrow more known for blockbusters like Jurassic World and Safety Not Guaranteed, is taking a detour and directing the upcoming indie film The Book of Henry starring Academy Award nominee Naomi Watts
Independent Film
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Poster + Watch Official Trailer for Indie Film THE BOOK OF HENRY Starring Naomi Watts
The Book of Henry
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Bette Gordon’s Psychological Thriller THE DROWNING Starring Julia Stiles, to Open in Theaters on May 10th | Trailer
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The Drowning[/caption]
Bette Gordon’s psychological thriller, The Drowning, based on Border Crossing, the controversial novel about violence in children by noted Booker Prize-winning author Pat Barker will open in theaters on May 10th, 2017.
The Drowning, starring Julia Stiles, Josh Charles, Avan Jogia, Tracie Thoms and Leo Fitzpatrick, is the story of a forensic psychologist who is haunted by his expert witness testimony that sent a young boy to prison for a chilling murder. When the boy later reappears in his life, he is drawn into a destructive, soul-searching reinvestigation of the case. An erotic thriller with no let up in tension, The Drowning celebrates the genre with electrifying performances. Complex, riveting and unafraid to tread deep, murky psychological waters, this is a story of shifting identities that will keep you guessing until the very end.
The Drowning premiered at the most recent Woodstock Film Festival and went on to screen at film festivals around the world including Warsaw, Sao Paulo, Napa Valley and Savannah. The Drowning marks Gordon’s second collaboration with producer Jamin O’Brien and Paladin which also released her film Handsome Harry featuring Jamey Sheridan, Steve Buscemi, Aidan Quinn and Campbell Scott in 2010.
A pioneer in American Independent Cinema, Bette Gordon is known for her bold explorations of themes related to sexuality, violence and power including her feature length debut from her own original screenplay, Variety (1984), a beautifully seductive film about voyeurism and pornography, that Film Comment calls “a unique feminist thought experiment that doubles as a love letter to Fear City-era New York.” Luminous Motion (2000) was produced by Ted Hope and Anthony Bregman and stars Deborah Kara Unger in a breathtaking performance. Gordon’s film Handsome Harry premiered in competition at the Tribeca Film Festival (2009) and was released theatrically by Paladin to rave reviews. The film features a stellar ensemble cast including Steve Buscemi, Aidan Quinn, Campbell Scott, Jamey Sheridan. The film critic John Powers has said, “Gordon’s willingness to explore dangerous territory puts her miles ahead of most filmmakers.” Gordon is a film professor at Columbia University.
The Drowning was adapted for the screen by Stephen Molton and House of Cards showrunner Frank Pugliese, and is being released by Paladin and Electric Entertainment.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Waqa7wbTpMM
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Watch Mr. Robot’s Rami Malek in First Trailer for Indie Thriller BUSTER’S MAL HEART
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BUSTER’S MAL HEART[/caption]
BUSTER’S MAL HEART starring Rami Malek of the USA Network hit Mr. Robot, has released the official trailer.
In this bold thriller peppered with dark humor and interlocking mystery, an eccentric mountain man is on the run from the authorities, surviving the winter by breaking into empty vacation homes in a remote community. Regularly calling into radio talk shows — where he has acquired the nickname “Buster” — to rant about the impending Inversion at the turn of the millennium, he is haunted by visions of being lost at sea, and memories of his former life as a family man.
Buster (Rami Malek) was once Jonah, a hard-working husband and father whose job as the night-shift concierge at a hotel took its toll on his psyche and, consequently, his marriage to the sensitive Marty (Kate Lyn Sheil) — until a chance encounter with a conspiracy-obsessed drifter (DJ Qualls) changed the course of their lives forever. As the solitary present-day Buster drifts from house to house, eluding the local sheriff at every turn, we gradually piece together the events that fractured his life and left him alone on top of a snowy mountain, or perhaps in a small rowboat in the middle of a vast ocean — or both, in this visceral mind bender that will provoke discussion long after it turns your world upside-down.
BUSTER’S MAL HEART, written and directed by Sarah Adina Smith, opens theatrically in New York and Los Angeles on April 28th.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H-NGiCB-6js
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Watch Trailer for Michael O’Shea’s Indie Vampire Thriller THE TRANSFIGURATION
Here is the new trailer for The Transfiguration written and directed by Michael O’Shea, and starring Eric Ruffin and Chloe Levine, that will screen at the upcoming 2017 SXSW Film Festival. The film will open in New York on Friday, April 7th at the Angelika Film Center, and in Los Angeles on Friday, April 21st at The Nuart Theatre.
An official selection at the Cannes Film Festival, writer/director Michael O’Shea’s debut feature The Transfiguration follows troubled teen Milo who hides behind his fascination with vampire lore. When he meets the equally alienated Sophie, the two form a bond that begins to challenge Milo’s dark obsession, blurring his fantasy into reality. A chilling portrait of violence, The Transfiguration is an atmospheric thriller set against the grit of New York City.
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Robert McGinley’s DANGER DIVA Starring Molly Sides of THUNDERPUSSY to World Premiere on April 13 | Trailer
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DANGER DIVA[/caption]
DANGER DIVA, a new cyberpunk musical thriller, written, directed and produced by Robert McGinley (award-winning filmmaker of JIMMY ZIP and SHREDDER ORPHEUS), will have it’s World Premiere at the SIFF Egyptian Theater in Seattle, Washington on Thursday, April 13.
Danger Diva was filmed entirely in Seattle with a local cast and crew. The film stars Molly Sides, lead singer of the all-girl rock/pop band, THUNDERPUSSY. Also starring in Danger Diva are Seattle theater/film standouts Tim Gouran, Ray Tagavilla, Amy Thone and Conner Neddersen. After the screening, THUNDERPUSSY will mount the stage and unleash a set of their fiery brand of rock.
In Danger Diva, audiences are taken on a journey into the near future with hard rock singer Devi Danger as she is coerced into becoming an electronically enhanced new-music diva. Her singing voice is used to control and energize the brains of indoctrinated employees (also known as “Brain Cattle”) that are being used as external processors for the advancement of corporate high tech clients. Operating in a digital sweatshop, these “Brain Cattle” process binary algorithms that serve as a chorus for Devi Danger. McGinley’s influences for the film came mainly from cyberpunk literature and films; in particular, William Gibson’s “NEUROMANCER” and the science-fiction classic, BLADE RUNNER. Further inspired by the Ella Fitzgerald “Is it live, or is it Memorex” commercial, DANGER DIVA explores the conflict between high tech vs. high touch, and what it means to be human in a digitally enhanced bio-tech future. Music anchors these themes with an eclectic rocking score with songs by Seattle-based rock band THUNDERPUSSY and composer Regan Remy. McGinley explains, “In the midst of this rock ‘n roll saga, the audience will have an opportunity to ponder future technology nightmares like the use of enslaved human brains as external hard drive processors, or employing human offspring as vehicles for life extension.”
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Pat Healy’s TAKE ME, Starring Taylor Schilling to World Premiere at Tribeca Film Festival, and in Theaters on May 5th
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Pat Healy as Ray Moody and Taylor Schilling as Anna St. Blair in TAKE ME. Photographer: Nathan M. Miller.[/caption]
Pat Healy’s feature debut Take Me, starring Taylor Schilling opposite Healy will world premiere at the upcoming 2017 Tribeca Film Festival, followed by a theatrical and digital release via The Orchard on May 5th.
In Take Me, Ray is in the boutique simulated abduction business. An understandably threadbare market, he jumps at the chance when a mysterious call contracts him for a weekend kidnapping with a handsome payday at the end. But the job isn’t all that it seems. A black comedy that threads the needle between crime thriller and slapstick farce, Take Me is as twisty as it is funny.
The filmmaking team of Take Me recently set up a website promoting the faux-company “Kidnap Solutions LLC” which claims to be a fully immersive exposure therapy that has been known to cure alcoholism, drug addiction, overeating, nicotine addiction, sex/love addiction and bad habits.
Actor, writer and director, Pat Healy began his career on stage at Chicago’s famed Steppenwolf Theatre Company, and went on to appear in over forty feature films and dozens of television series. As a writer, he has authored a dozen feature film screenplays including Snow Ponies, currently in pre-production starring Gerard Butler and directed by Darrin Prescott. He also wrote several episodes of HBO’s critically acclaimed drama series In Treatment. His first short film Mullitt, which he wrote, directed and starred in, premiered at the 2001 Sundance Film Festival.
Pat Healy commented “I was too lazy and/or afraid to direct a feature film for years until I read Mike Makowsky’s inspired script. I knew I had to do it. Thankfully Jay, Mark & Taylor agreed and gave me the chance to make this crazy thing. It’s the weird/funny movie I hope audiences would expect I’d unleash on the world.”
The script for Take Me was penned by Mike Makowsky, with the Duplass Brothers serving as executive producers, and while Mel Eslyn along with Sev Ohanian serving as producers of the film
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Watch Trailer for BURNING SANDS from Sundance 2017, Set to Premiere on Netflix on March 10
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Malik Bazille, Trevor Jackson, Tosin Cole, Octavius Johnson and DeRon Horton appear in Burning Sands by Gerard McMurray, an official selection of the U.S. Dramatic Competition at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival. © 2016 Sundance Institute | photo by Isiah Donté Lee.[/caption]
Netflix has released the trailer for Burning Sands, a powerful, coming-of-age drama that explores the bonds of fraternity and exposes how far some are willing to go in the name of brotherhood.
The film was selected for the 2017 Sundance Film Festival US Dramatic Competition and will be available to Netflix members worldwide on Friday, March 10.
Burning Sands stars Trevor Jackson (ABC’s American Crime) in a breakout performance, along with Alfre Woodard, Steve Harris, Trevante Rhodes, Tosin Cole, DeRon Horton, Imani Hakim and Serayah. It is directed and co-written by Gerard McMurray (producer, Fruitvale Station).
The film was produced by Stephanie Allain (Beyond the Lights), Jason Michael Berman (Birth of a Nation), Reginald Hudlin (Django Unchained) and Mel Jones (Dear White People). Common also contributed an original song, “The Cross”.
Burning Sands takes you on a raw, voyeuristic journey of fraternity pledging through the eyes of one favored pledgee, who is torn between honoring a code of silence or standing up against the intensifying violence of underground hazing. Led by a breakthrough performance by Trevor Jackson, director Gerard McMurray’s feature directorial debut brings an emotional honesty to the classic tale of “rites of passage” and the complicated bonds of brotherhood.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7t-ZivjczEs
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Slamdance Grand Jury Winner DIM THE FLUORESCENTS to Be Released in Canada | Trailer
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Dim The Fluorescents – director Daniel Warth and producer Josh Clavir,[/caption]
Dim The Fluorescents, the feature film debut of director Daniel Warth and producer Josh Clavir, and winner of the 2017 Slamdance Film Festival Grand Jury Prize will be released in Canada by Films We Like. The film will have a cross-Canada fall theatrical release, followed by a wide digital release targeting SVOD, streaming and airline services.
FWL has been following the film since before its debut at Slamdance Film Festival, and shortly after the fest, finalized the deal.
Dim the Fluorescents tells the story of struggling actor Audrey (Claire Armstrong) and aspiring playwright Lillian (Naomi Skwarna), who pour all of their creative energy into the only paying work they can find: corporate role-playing demonstrations. When they book the biggest gig of their careers at a hotel conference, work commences on their most ambitious production to date, and the ensuing tensions threaten to derail both the production and their friendship.
As wryly funny as it is unexpectedly poignant, Dim the Fluorescents is a one-of-a-kind portrait of the artistic life and process in the unlikeliest of settings. A labour of love painstakingly constructed over the course of four years, the film was written by Daniel Warth and Miles Barstead – who also composed the score – and produced by Josh Clavir.
“I honestly can’t think of a better Canadian home for Dim the Fluorescents than Films We Like,” said Warth. “They have put out so many of my favorite films of the new century: Tabu, Berberian Sound Studio, Like Someone in Love, and far too many others to mention. I am beyond excited for this partnership, and I know they’re going to do an incredible job bringing the film to Canadian audiences.”
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Rob Meyer’s LITTLE BOXES from Tribeca 2016 Gets April 14th Delivery Date
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Little Boxes[/caption]
Rob Meyer’s LITTLE BOXES starring Melanie Lynskey (“Togetherness”), Nelsan Ellis (GET ON UP), Armani Jackson (THE LAST WITCH HUNTER), Oona Laurence (Broadway’s MATILDA), and Janeane Garofalo, will be released in theaters on April 14th by Gunpowder & Sky Distribution.
It’s the summer before 6th grade, and Clark (Jackson) is the new biracial kid in a very white town. Discovering that to be cool he needs to act ‘more black’, he fumbles to meet expectations. Meanwhile, his urban intellectual parents Mack (Ellis) and Gina (Lynskey) try to adjust to small-town living. Accustomed to life in New York, the tight-knit family is ill-prepared for the drastically different set of obstacles that their new community presents. They soon find themselves struggling to understand themselves and each other in this new context.
Written by Annie J. Howell, LITTLE BOXES premiered at the 2016 Tribeca Film Festival, where it received a warm reception from critics. IndieWire praised Lynskey’s performance as “radiantly real” and called Howell’s script “knowing and perceptive”, noting approvingly that the film “addresses delicate questions about how our national conversations shape and seep into younger generations.” Variety concurred, hailing Ellis and Lynskey as “warm, funny and credible” and the film’s gentle touch on “issues of race, class and privilege”.
“LITTLE BOXES is as heartwarming as it is timely,” said Gunpowder & Sky Distribution’s Jake Hanly. “Rob unpacked a very complex issue in a way any audience can understand and relate to.”
Director Rob Meyer said, “It’s a thrill and an honor to team up with Gunpowder & Sky Distribution for the theatrical and VOD release. They distribute the kind of movies that I want to watch.” Producer Jared Ian Goldman added, “The Gunpowder & Sky team love the heart, humor and commentary of LITTLE BOXES as much as those of us who made it. They understand the timeliness and nuance to the mix-ups, misunderstandings, and stereotyping that the story utilizes so successfully.”
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A QUIET PASSION, starring Cynthia Nixon as Emily Dickinson Sets Release Dates | Trailer
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A Quiet Passion[/caption]
A QUIET PASSION starring Cynthia Nixon, and an official selection at the 2016 New York, Toronto and Berlin film festivals, will open in New York on April 14, and at the Laemmle Royal in Los Angeles on April 21. A national release will follow.
Following Sunset Song, acclaimed British director Terence Davies turns to 19th-century American poet Emily Dickinson, and exquisitely evokes Dickinson’s deep attachment to her close-knit family along with the manners, mores and spiritual convictions of her time that she struggled with and transcended in her poetry. Cynthia Nixon delivers a triumphant performance as Emily Dickinson as she personifies the wit, intellectual independence and pathos of the poet whose genius only came to be recognized after her death.
In addition to his two acclaimed semi-autobiographical features Distant Voices, Still Lives and The Long Day Closes, Mr. Davies’ films include the gorgeous literary adaptations The House of Mirth, The Neon Bible, The Deep Blue Sea, Sunset Song, as well as Of Time and the City, his masterful exploration of his native city, Liverpool.
A QUIET PASSION written and directed by Terence Davies, reunites Davies with his Deep Blue Sea cinematographer Florian Hoffmeister to create a luminous rendering of the poet’s universe.
Emily Dickinson was born in Amherst, Massachusetts. Not publicly recognized during her lifetime, her first volume of works was published posthumously in 1890 after her family discovered forty hardbound volumes containing nearly 1,800 poems.
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Ghanian Film and Film Independent Spirit Award Nominee NAKOM Sets March 3rd Release Date | Trailer
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Nakom[/caption]
Nakom, directed by the female team of TW Pittman and Daniela Norris, and nominated for the John Cassavetes Film Independent Spirit Award for the best new film made for under $500,000, will be released by Corinth Films. The film, starring Jacob Ayanaba, Justina Kulidu, Shetu Mussah, Grace Ayariga, Aziz Abdul, Esther Issaka, Mamudu Asigiri, and Thomas Kulidu, will open Friday March 3rd at New York’s Cinema Village in Manhattan.
Set in present day Ghana, Nakom follows Iddrisu, a talented medical student who is summoned home by his sister after their father’s sudden death. Iddrisu reluctantly returns home to the village of Nakom, buries his father and temporarily assumes the head of the impoverished household and farm, inheriting not only the delicate task of planting a successful crop but also a debt left by the deceased patriarch that could destroy the family. Attempting to maintain part of his studies from the confines of a small hut, Iddrisu becomes increasingly frustrated with the incessant physical and emotional needs of those around him, the demanding toil of the land and lack of rain. A contentious relationship with his uncle Napolean, to whom the sizeable debt is owed, is further complicated by the unplanned pregnancy of Napolean’s granddaughter who was sent to live with Iddrisu’s family. As the new patriarch grapples with tradition and familial duty, he is met with varying shades of contempt by both family and villagers who compare him with his father expecting a resemblance. Iddrisu’s patience and wisdom are tempered by the strange paradox created by his faith in God and desire for control, the latter of which he cannot have so long as he stays in Nakom. As circumstances swell, Iddrisu suddenly begins to realize that no future for him exists in the place where he is needed the most, even despite an offer by the village Chieftain to remain in Nakom to become an elder and marry his daughter. [gallery size="medium" type="rectangular" ids="20737,20738,20746,20745,20744,20743,20742,20741,20740,20739"]
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11 Indie Filmmakers Awarded “Filmed in NC” Grants
Eleven indie filmmakers have been awarded “Filmed in NC” grants, an initiative to support indie filmmakers in North Carolina. The grants are funded by the NC Film Office and awarded through the Cucalorus Film Foundation. The eleven projects awarded range from narrative features to short docs and were chosen from 59 submissions.
Embracing the diversity of the film industry, the “Filmed in NC” Grants are supporting five female directors, three projects from African American filmmakers, and one genderqueer filmmaker. Filmmakers will present a portion of their ongoing work at the 23rd annual Cucalorus Film Festival, taking place November 8 to 12, 2017.
Grant recipients are:
Alex Nomick for Sweet Nothing, a narrative about a college student struggling with his sexuality;
Alicia Inshiradu for What The River Knows, a short chronicling the six months of a young married couple’s tragic life;
Anna R. Jones for Chairman Jones – An Improbable Leader, a documentary about North Carolina’s first African American school board chairman;
Anthony Reynolds for Times Like Dying, a feature about a vengeful farming family;
Brendan & Jeremy Smyth for Mohmmed, a poetic look into forgotten refugees;
Christopher Baker for Sarah’s Big Day, about a girl and her imaginary friend;
Joanne Hock for Martin Hill: Camera Man, a documentary about an obsessed hoarder of filmmaking tools;
Katina Parker for A Love Supreme: Black, Queer and Christian in The South, documenting the journey to reconcile Black Queer Christians with their families;
Laura Hart McKinny for Extraordinary Ventures, a story of employment of teens and adults on the autism spectrum;
Molly Lewis for Paradise: Downhill Skateboarding, about the downhill skateboarding culture of Western North Carolina;
Ricky Kelly for Black Beach/White Beach: A Tale of Two Beaches, about the racial tensions that arise in Myrtle Beach during two national bike festivals every spring.