As the immigration debate takes center stage in a presidential campaign marked by increasingly divisive and racially charged rhetoric, a new film MI AMERICA offers an on-the-ground look at some of the reality of this conflict.
The film is inspired by true stories from around the country and delivers a harrowing narrative on the conflict between disenfranchised Americans and immigrant workers. MI AMERICA opens in theaters on October 16th and is directed by Robert Fontaine who also stars in the film. The cast also includes Michael Brainard, Brad Lee Wind, Grant Boyd, Michael Derek, Stephen Booth and Annemarie Lawless.
The story explores the circumstances surrounding a brutal hate crime targeting five Hispanic migrant laborers. Rolando Ramirez (Robert Fontaine) has been assigned to this case by chance. This journey will force him to question his own identity, and beliefs, on what it means to be an American, and in turn, attempt to bring those who committed this crime to justice.
A hate-crime has been committed, that has upset the delicate balance of a small, ethnically diverse waterfront city Braxton in upstate New York. The film explores the circumstances around the kidnapping and disappearance of Five Hispanic migrant labors.
Rolando Ramirez (a Hispanic-American Detective, and a longtime resident of the community), has been assigned to this case by chance. Or was it fate? His journey will force him to question his own identity, and beliefs, on what it means to be a North American, and in turn, attempt to bring those who committed this crime to justice…some of whom were close friends from childhood.
Violence against Latinos and the story told in MI AMERICA is not unfamiliar to cities and towns across the U.S. where the conflict of disenfranchised Americans and immigrant workers have resulted in tragedy. The immigration dilemma and debate continues to rage on as we enter the politically charged battlefield of the 2016 election and Latinos continue to be targets.
This gripping murder mystery offers a potent opportunity to take a closer look at this dire issue in the media.
[via release]Films
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MI AMERICA Film Explores Violence Against Migrant Workers Sets Release Date
As the immigration debate takes center stage in a presidential campaign marked by increasingly divisive and racially charged rhetoric, a new film MI AMERICA offers an on-the-ground look at some of the reality of this conflict.
The film is inspired by true stories from around the country and delivers a harrowing narrative on the conflict between disenfranchised Americans and immigrant workers. MI AMERICA opens in theaters on October 16th and is directed by Robert Fontaine who also stars in the film. The cast also includes Michael Brainard, Brad Lee Wind, Grant Boyd, Michael Derek, Stephen Booth and Annemarie Lawless.
The story explores the circumstances surrounding a brutal hate crime targeting five Hispanic migrant laborers. Rolando Ramirez (Robert Fontaine) has been assigned to this case by chance. This journey will force him to question his own identity, and beliefs, on what it means to be an American, and in turn, attempt to bring those who committed this crime to justice.
A hate-crime has been committed, that has upset the delicate balance of a small, ethnically diverse waterfront city Braxton in upstate New York. The film explores the circumstances around the kidnapping and disappearance of Five Hispanic migrant labors.
Rolando Ramirez (a Hispanic-American Detective, and a longtime resident of the community), has been assigned to this case by chance. Or was it fate? His journey will force him to question his own identity, and beliefs, on what it means to be a North American, and in turn, attempt to bring those who committed this crime to justice…some of whom were close friends from childhood.
Violence against Latinos and the story told in MI AMERICA is not unfamiliar to cities and towns across the U.S. where the conflict of disenfranchised Americans and immigrant workers have resulted in tragedy. The immigration dilemma and debate continues to rage on as we enter the politically charged battlefield of the 2016 election and Latinos continue to be targets.
This gripping murder mystery offers a potent opportunity to take a closer look at this dire issue in the media.
[via release]
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‘Back to the Future’ Documentary BACK IN TIME Eyes Future Release | TRAILER
“Back to the Future” fans will love this. Gravitas Ventures will release the documentary Back in Time, which takes a look at the very real impact the Back to the Future movies have had on our culture. Back in Time will receive a limited theatrical and VOD release later this year in October.
Directed by Jason Aron the documentary film Back in Time is, described as at its heart, a look at the very real impact the Back to the Future movies have had on our culture. What was once a little idea that spawned a tightly-focused documentary has grown into something truly amazing over two years of filming. Back in Time is a cinematic monument to the vastness of the trilogy’s fandom. In addition to the footage and interviews revolving around the time machine itself, the crew found that simply by delving into the impact of the trilogy an epic journey began to unfold before them. The crew captured countless hours of footage during filming. From Steven Spielberg to Robert Zemeckis and Bob Gale, to the Sheas and Hollers, and from James Tolkan and Lea Thompson to Christopher Lloyd and Michael J. Fox, Back in Time features interview after interview that simply must be seen.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CvzcYS_NH7I
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Museum of the Moving Image in NYC to Honor Alex Ross Perry with a Retrospective
From August 22 through 25, 2015, Museum of the Moving Image in New York City will honor director Alex Ross Perry with a Retrospective, and will present all of his features, including a special preview screening of the new film Queen of Earth.
“Alex Ross Perry’s two most recent films feature unforgettable and vivid performances—most notably Elisabeth Moss’s daring portrayal of emotional despair in the astonishing Queen of Earth,” said Chief Curator David Schwartz. “The Museum is pleased to offer New Yorkers an opportunity to catch up on an impressive body of work by this unique emerging talent who has incorporated his love of cinema into his own original vision.”
Impolex
SATURDAY, AUGUST 22, 4:30 P.M.
Dir. Alex Ross Perry. 2009, 73 mins. 35mm. With Riley O’Bryan, Kate Lyn Sheil, Bruno Meyrick Jones. In his feature debut, Perry was loosely inspired by Thomas Pynchon’s Gravity’s Rainbow. Taking place just after World War II, the film follows the shambling young soldier Tyrone S. as he wanders through the forest looking for German V2 rockets and encounters a number of inexplicably figures, including an eyepatch-wearing Englishman, a garrulous octopus, and the girlfriend he left behind to join the army.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZJqIOt7UHI0
The Color Wheel
SUNDAY, AUGUST 23, 3:00 P.M.
Dir. Alex Ross Perry. 2011, 83 mins. 35mm. With Carlen Altman, Alex Ross Perry. Having recently broken up with her boyfriend and former professor, aspiring TV weathergirl JR calls on her estranged younger brother Colin to help retrieve her possessions at her ex’s apartment. What follows is one of the most uncomfortable road movies ever, as the two equally despicable characters incessantly pick on, undercut, and attack one another. “Perry gives a harsh, sarcastic twist to the intimate rivalry of siblings…. [He] directs these uproarious rapid-fire flareups with exquisite comic timing and incisive comic framing,” wrote Richard Brody in The New Yorker.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gOtO8JBtxpE
Listen Up Philip
SUNDAY, AUGUST 23, 5:30 P.M.
Dir. Alex Ross Perry. 2014, 109 mins. With Jason Schwartzman, Elisabeth Moss, Jonathan Pryce. Feeling alienated by the pressures of the New York literary world and the girlfriend who financially supports him, the narcissistic and self-involved author Philip Lewis Friedman seeks refuge in the country home of his equally self-obsessed idol, the older, more established writer Ike Zimmerman. “Words do more than hurt, they also slash and burn in this sharp, dyspeptic, sometimes gaspingly funny exploration of art and life […],” noted Manohla Dargisin The New York Times.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jkjn5ICqmJI
SPECIAL PREVIEW SCREENING
Queen of Earth
With Elisabeth Moss and Alex Ross Perry in person
TUESDAY, AUGUST 25, 7:30 P.M.
Dir. Alex Ross Perry. 90 mins. With Elisabeth Moss, Patrick Fugit, Katherine Waterson. Catherine (played in what Variety calls “an utterly fearless central performance by Elisabeth Moss”) has entered a particularly dark period in her life. Following her father’s death and a bad breakup with her longtime boyfriend, she decides to spend a week recuperating in the lake house of her best friend, Virginia. However, fissures between the two women begin to appear, sending Catherine into a downward spiral of delusion and madness. As Scott Foundas points out in his Variety review, ”Perry is working in a style that seems equally influenced by doppelganger narratives like Bergman’s Persona and Brian De Palma’s Sisters.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AU3a8oniq2s
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PALIO,””Rocky” on Horseback”, Documentary Official Trailer, Sets US Release Date
The official trailer is released for the Italian horse racing documentary Palio directed by Cosima Spender, that premiered earlier this year at the Tribeca Film Festival, where it won the award for Best Editing. The NY Times in a glowing article, noted “Cosima Spender’s “Palio” takes an equally offbeat subject, the brutally competitive semiannual horse races in the piazza of Siena, Italy, and treats it as if it were a classic sports movie — “Rocky” on horseback…”
In the heart of Tuscany, the dusty terra-cotta-tinged city of Siena is home to the world’s oldest horse race: the Palio. Twice a summer jockeys representing ten of the city’s historic districts maneuver through a frenzied course in the central Piazza del Campo, cheered and jeered in equal measure by passionate local supporters. The cutthroat spirit of the race speaks to its medieval roots, as riders are compelled to do whatever it takes to win both on the course and off; to succeed in the Palio taking bribes and making deals is just as essential as being a good rider. A master of the game’s complex strategies, renowned jockey Gigi Bruschelli needs just two more victories to become the winningest rider in the Palio’s storied history. But his former trainee Giovanni Atzeni, a young upstart keen to enter the pantheon of the race’s legends, stands in the way of his throne. With breathtaking cinematography, director Cosima Spender’s enthralling documentary captures the intensity of the event as well as the beauty of Siena. All together creating a mesmerizing portrait of an age-old tradition and the larger-than-life personalities who keep the spirit of the race alive each year. Tribeca Film Festival
Palio will be released in the U.S. on November 6, and on iTunes later that month. The next Palio race takes place this Sunday, August 16, in Siena, Italy. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3NGAIKMtvxY
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Inspirational Documentary ZEMENE to Close 2015 Harlem International Film Festival | TRAILER
The Harlem International Film Festival (Hi) celebrating its 10th Anniversary, will take place September 9-13 featuring MIST Harlem as its primary 2015 theatrical venue.
Wednesday, September 9 at 7 PM Hi kicks off its lineup with award-winning Stories of Our Lives chronicling the hidden struggles of lovers, fighters and rebels that characterize the criminalized LGBT community in Kenya.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KxDr1ue-lHc
Other highlights include the East Coast Premiere of the award-winning America is Still the Place, based on the unbelievable true story of Charlie Walker, the black man behind the clean up of one of the biggest oil spills in US history. The film features the unforgettable performance of Mike Colter, star of Marvel’s brand new Netflix series, Luke Cage, who will join director Patrick Gilles for Q&A.
https://vimeo.com/116602949
Closing Night Film is Melissa Donovan’s “must-see inspirational” documentary Zemene about a young Ethiopian girl’s bravery in the face of enormous odds. Living in a remote village with a rare curvature of the spine, she struggles with poverty, poor education, and potentially life-threatening illnesses. But a chance encounter in the streets of Gondar with Dr. Rick Hodes sets in motion a series of events that will change Zemene and the future of her village forever. Shot throughout the beautiful countryside, the film is a poetic testament to the power of compassion and the potential within us all. Zemene screened at the Library of Congress on August 12, 2015 and will be catalogued and become part of the official collection of the world’s largest library.
https://vimeo.com/97292617
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Danish War Drama LAND OF MINE to Premiere at Toronto International Film Festival
Martin Zandvliet’s war drama “Land of Mine” will open the 2015 Toronto International Film Festival’s brand new section, Platform. The film, Zandvliet’s third, unearths a lesser known chapter of Danish postwar history
Taking place in May 1945 only a few days after the end of the war, the film tells the story of how a group of German prisoners of war were brought to Denmark and forced to disarm the two million land mines that had been scattered along the West Coast by the German occupying forces. In charge of the enfeebled young men performing the dangerous task is Sergeant Carl Leopold Rasmussen. Like so many of his fellow Danes, he has a deep hatred for the Germans after having suffered five years of hardships during the occupation. He lets his rage rain down on the prisoners, until one day a tragic incident makes him change his view of the enemy even if it may be too late. Actor Roland Møller takes his first lead as the Danish sergeant in charge of the prisoners. Møller made his screen debut in Tobias Lindholm and Michael Noer’s prison drama “R” and went on to perform in Lindholm’s “A Hijacking” and Noer’s “Northwest”. Among the Danish cast is also Mikkel Boe Følsgaard (“A Royal Affair”), while the young Germans all are amateur actors, discovered through Berlin-based casting expert Simone Bär who has collaborated with Michael Haneke, among others. Zandvliet’s debut feature “Applause” (2009) received numerous awards, with quite a few directed at the film’s lead actress Paprika Steen. The film was selected for the Toronto Film Festival, as was Zandvliet’s second feature, “A Funny Man” (2011), which also enjoyed great domestic success with a total of 10 Robert and Bodil awards, Denmark’s highest film distinctions.
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EVOCATEUR: The Morton Downey Jr. Movie to Premiere Tonight August 13 on CNN
The documentary EVOCATEUR: The Morton Downey Jr. Movie will premiere tonight, Thursday, Aug. 13 at 9:00pm Eastern on CNN/U.S. The riveting story traces the populist rise and rollercoaster career of the shock host who upended the previously polite and predictable talk show format forever. Before there was Glenn Beck or Geraldo Rivera or Rush Limbaugh, there was Morton Downey, Jr., who ignited the dawn of ‘mad-as-hell and not going to take it anymore’ television with conservative, provocative talk that made him a late night TV folk hero during the late 1980s. The film first premiered at the 2012 Tribeca Film Festival.
Television innovator Bob Pittman found himself looking for a new challenge after launching the revolutionary, format-busting cable phenomenon, the MTV network. Pittman backed the enigmatic, bombastic Downey for a talk show that viewers found uniquely candid, oftentimes frustrating, ultimately addictive television. Archival highlights included in the film feature legendary Downey show segments with defense attorney Alan Dershowitz, Congressman Ron Paul (R-TX), Guardian Angels founder Curtis Sliwa, attorney/activist Gloria Allred, and Rev. Al Sharpton, in excruciating, extended deconstruction of the infamous, controversial Tawana Brawley case. In a rare exclusive interview, Steven Pagones, the white district attorney among those accused of raping Brawley, discusses how the infamy associated with that case – and amplified by the on-air debates between Downey and Sharpton – irrevocably altered his life.
Deconstructing Downey’s rise to fame are contemporary interviews with Downey friend and conservative icon Pat Buchanan, broadcaster Larry King, former talk show hosts Richard Bey and Sally Jessy Raphael, syndicated columnist Stanley Crouch, comedian Chris Elliott, and the team behind the talk show. They explore Downey’s appeal, as well as the personal demons that fueled his on-camera persona and behind-the-scenes battles with production executives and sponsors that ultimately led to Downey’s career immolation.
Along the way, the filmmakers reveal new insights into a persistent mystery about an incident that effectively ended Downey’s television career: did Downey actually stage a brutal attack on himself, allegedly by skinheads, in a misguided attempt to regain some of his notoriety?
The film will encore on CNN on Aug. 20 at 11:00pm, and on Saturday, Aug. 22, at 8:00pm and 10:00pm. All times Eastern.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qUv6vG1W90o
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Jason Sudeikis, Alison Brie are Sex Addicts in Red Band Trailer for SLEEPING WITH OTHER PEOPLE
IFC Films debuted the official poster and Red Band trailer for the romantic comedy SLEEPING WITH OTHER PEOPLE, directed by Leslye Hedland and starring Jason Sudeikis and Alison Brie. Sleeping With Other People open in theaters on September 11, 2015.
Can two serial cheaters get a second chance at love? After a one-night stand in college, New Yorkers Lainey (Alison Brie) and Jake (Jason Sudeikis) meet by chance twelve years later and discover they each have the same problem: because of their monogamy-challenged ways, neither can maintain a relationship. Determined to stay friends despite their mutual attraction, they make a pact to keep it platonic, a deal that proves easier said than done. Fresh, funny, and full of witty insights about modern love, this hilariously heartfelt film “is the rare rom-com that reminds us why we love them so much in the first place” (Time Out New York). Amanda Peet, Adam Scott, Natasha Lyonne, and Jason Mantzoukas co-star.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H8gsb2g9YGk
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Italian “17-Year Old Virgin” Comedy SHORT SKIN Sets US Release Date | TRAILER
Breaking Glass Pictures will release in the US, the Italian coming-of-age comedy SHORT SKIN, directed by Duccio Chiarini, about a 17-year-old virgin who wants to have sex but he has a problem – he suffers from a painful disorder called phimosis or tight foreskin. The film premiered at the 2014 Venice Film Festival and was awarded Best Debut Film prize at the Ciak d’oro 2015.
Short Skin will premiere at Cinema Village in NYC on October 9, and then released on VOD and DVD on October 20.
Edoardo (newcomer Matteo Creatini) [is] a 17-year-old virgin. This summer, he and his best friend vow to lose their virginity. There’s just one problem: Edoardo is suffering from a disorder called phimosis – a painful condition in which the foreskin is too tight to be pulled back. Edoardo is also secretly dealing with the antics of his crazy friends and family — bickering parents with their own sexual issues, a sister obsessed with her dog’s sexuality, his leering best friend Arturo, his pink haired alt neighbor Elisabetta and his dream girl Bianca, who has decided to move to Paris.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uQKgvzX-KqA&feature=youtu.be&a
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Award-Winning Documentary A SINNER IN MECCA Opens September 4 | TRAILER
The award-winning documentary A SINNER IN MECCA, will open in New York on September 4 and Los Angeles on September 11, before expanding to additional markets and VOD. Recently recognized with the 2015 Outfest Grand Jury Award for Best Documentary Feature, A SINNER IN MECCA follows director Parvez Sharma (A Jihad for Love) as the openly gay Muslim filmmaker documents his pilgrimage to Mecca in Saudi Arabia, where filming is strictly prohibited and homosexuality is a crime punishable by death.
A SINNER IN MECCA audaciously enters a world that has been forbidden to non-Muslims for 14 centuries. The filmmaker documents his journey on nothing more than an iPhone and two smuggled, tiny cameras. On these never-before-filmed streets of ancient Mecca, he joins 4 million Muslims, from the majority, peace-loving pilgrims fulfilling a lifelong calling, to brutal jihadists for whom violence is a creed. They have all entered Mecca for the world’s largest pilgrimage: the Hajj.
This film unflinchingly showcases parts of the dangerous ideology that governs today’s ISIS and how much it has in common with Saudi Arabia’s sacred doctrine, Wahabi Islam. Cabals within the secretive Saudi monarchy have allegedly funded both Al-Qaeda and ISIS over the years. On the streets of Mecca, Saudi Arabia’s most famous son, Osama bin Laden, is sometimes referred to as Sheikh Osama, using the prefix for a learned Muslim man. It is into this Saudi Arabia the filmmaker, an openly gay Muslim man, enters. He is looking to find his own place within an Islam he has always known, an Islam that bears no resemblance to the bastardized versions creating havoc around the Muslim world, in almost daily battles in Europe—where the film will be broadcast by two of its biggest television networks, Arte and ZDF—and in North America.
With A SINNER IN MECCA, the Muslims of Islam are given agency to tell the complex, and now violence-marred story of their faith. And in their midst: a longing Muslim, already labeled an infidel, wondering if he can finally secure his place within this religion that condemns him.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bzshP2k5FMk
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Award-Winning LOW AND BEHOLD Makes its Digital Premier August 18th on iTunes
In honor of the 10th Anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, the award-winning feature film LOW AND BEHOLD will make its digital premier August 18th on iTunes through the support of the Sundance Institute #ArtistServices program.
Based on real events, LOW AND BEHOLD tells the story of a young insurance claim adjuster, in post-Katrina New Orleans, who risks his job to help a local man find his lost dog. Shot in New Orleans only months after Hurricane Katrina, this neorealist-inspired film blends fiction and non-fiction to tell the story of an unlikely friendship.
LOW AND BEHOLD was co-written and directed by Zack Godshall, whose other films include LORD BYRON and GOD’S ARCHITECTS. The film stars Barlow Jacobs (SHOTGUN STORIES, THE MASTER) who also co-wrote the script with Godshall. Jared Moshe, Sarah Hendler and Jacobs produced.
Chris Horton, Director, #ArtistServices: Creative Distribution, said, “We’re proud to help Zack and Barlow re-release their film during an important milestone. Our #ArtistServices program was created in part to help Sundance filmmakers from past Festivals expose their work to new audiences on digital platforms, and LOW AND BEHOLD is great example of that.”
The film was shot in the immediate aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. It was the first film about the tragedy to be shot in New Orleans after the storm. It made its world premier at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival, garnering rave reviews and going on to win numerous festival awards. Mike Miley, for The Huffington Post wrote, “LOW AND BEHOLD is a fantastic work of cinema, that’s funny, heartbreaking, honest, and beautiful…”
“Barlow and I believed LOW AND BEHOLD would be a movie for all kinds of audiences, for people from all walks of life. Our festival run in 2007-08 proved us right. Now that the film is being digitally released for the first time, we’re just excited and hopeful that this important story will continue to find a wider audience,” said Godshall.
Blindwall Pictures and Mama Bear Studios are excited to be partnering with the Sundance Institute #ArtistServices program for the digital premier of LOW AND BEHOLD on iTunes. The iTunes release will be followed by releases on Amazon Instant Video, Microsoft Xbox, Sony Entertainment Network, SundanceNOW, VUDU, YouTube.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h8K0g5iqkFk
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Action, Horror, Shock and Fantasy Films on Midnight Madness Lineup for 2015 Toronto Film Festival
Midnight Madness returns to the 2015 Toronto International Film Festival to satiate late night audiences’ appetites for wild sensory stimulation. The program will present the best in action, horror, shock and fantasy films from the rabble-rousers of cinema, opening with Jeremy Saulnier’s tense siege shocker Green Room.
“Midnight Madness winds up Festival audiences as the days are winding down and they are hungry for more,” says Colin Geddes, International Programmer for the Festival. “From adrenaline-filled action and untamed horror to twisted comedy and darkly blurred lines of reality, this year’s lineup welcomes back celebrated masters and fresh visionaries of renegade genre cinema.”
Among this year’s returning Midnight Madness directors are Joe Begos and Sean Byrne, who both debuted in the program and are back with their much anticipated follow-up features, and Japanese bad boy auteur Takashi Miike with his high-octane Yakuza Apocalypse. Closing out the selection is the raucously reverent homage to classic slasher movies The Final Girls.
Films screening as part of the Midnight Madness program include:
Baskin
Can Evrenol, Turkey World Premiere
A squad of unsuspecting cops goes through a trapdoor to Hell when they stumble upon a Black Mass in an abandoned building. The nightmarish feature debut Baskin is the first-ever Midnight Madness film from Turkey.
The Devil’s Candy
Sean Byrne, USA World Premiere
The director of the 2009 Midnight Madness People’s Choice Award winner The Loved Ones is back with an equally fresh twist on the supernatural genre. A struggling artist (Ethan Embry) and his family buy the house of their dreams only to discover the property’s mysterious dark past and a former tenant who wants more than to simply come back home. From the producers of Midnight Madness hits You’re Next and The Guest.
Midnight Madness Closing Night Film.
The Final Girls
Todd Strauss-Schulson, USA International Premiere
Max (American Horror Story’s Taissa Farmiga) is a high school senior whose mom (Malin Akerman) was a celebrated ’80s scream queen. At a screening, Max and her friends are mysteriously transported inside her mom’s most infamous movie, where they must fend off the camp counselors’ raging hormones, battle a deranged machete-wielding killer and find a way to escape the movie and get back home.
The Girl in the Photographs
Nick Simon, USA World Premiere
Big-city glamour clashes with small-town values and a killer’s knife, in this bloody cocktail of terror from director Nick Simon and executive producer Wes Craven. Colleen’s life in the sleepy town of Spearfish is disrupted when she starts receiving photographs of brutally murdered women. Things get even crazier for Colleen when L.A. based celeb-photographer Peter Hemmings (Kal Penn) returns to his hometown of Spearfish to investigate.
Midnight Madness Opening Night Film.
Green Room (pictured above)
Jeremy Saulnier, USA North American Premiere
Broke, tired and at each other’s throats after a cancelled gig, a young punk rock band accepts a sketchy matinee show to get themselves home. When they stumble upon something they weren’t supposed to witness, the quartet is trapped in a terrifying siege.
Directed by Jeremy Saulnier (of 2013 Cannes Film Festival FIPRESCI Prize winner Blue Ruin), the film stars Anton Yelchin, Imogen Poots, Alia Shawkat, and Patrick Stewart. Green Room is preceded by the previously announced short film The Chickening from directors Nick DenBoer and Davy Force.
Hardcore
Ilya Naishuller, Russia/USA World Premiere
Resurrected with no recollection of his past, a cyborg named Henry (the audience’s POV) and his ally, Jimmy (Sharlto Copley, District 9) must fight through the streets of Moscow in pursuit of Henry’s kidnapped wife in the world’s first action-adventure film to be entirely shot from the first person perspective.
The Mind’s Eye
Joe Begos, USA World Premiere
Joe Begos returns with a psychokinetic thriller about Zack Connors (Graham Skipper), whose abilities have kept him off the grid for years until he’s recruited by the mysterious Dr. Slovak. The snowy New England landscape turns into a whirlwind of psychic rage, flying axes, and brutal revenge as Zack does everything in his power to stop Dr. Slovak’s deadly descent into synthetically engineered telekinetic madness.
Southbound
Roxanne Benjamin, David Bruckner, Patrick Horvath and Radio Silence, USA World Premiere
Five intertwining tales of terror unfold along an endless desert highway. On a desolate stretch of road, weary travelers — two men on the run from their past, a band on their way to the next gig, a man struggling to get home, a brother in search of his long-lost sister and a family on vacation — are forced to confront their worst fears and darkest secrets in these interwoven tales of terror and remorse on the open road.
SPL 2 – A Time For Consequences
Soi Cheang, Hong Kong International Premiere
The anticipated follow-up to the bone-cracking martial arts brawler SPL (also known as Sha Po Lung and Kill Zone) that debuted in the program in 2005 stars Midnight Madness discovery Tony Jaa (Ong Bak). When an undercover cop (Wu Jing) has his cover blown and is thrown into a prison in Thailand run by a crime syndicate, he must team up with a prison guard (Jaa) to bust out and get revenge on those who wronged him. Filled with gun battles, prison riots and frenetic fight choreography, SPL 2 might knock the wind out of you — and possibly a few teeth.
Yakuza Apocalypse (Gokudo Daisenso)
Takashi Miike, Japan North American Premiere
Japanese cinematic extremist Takashi Miike returns to his gonzo roots with this mind-melter that finds room for vampires, gangsters, monsters, martial arts and even a yakuza knitting circle. A true master and MVP of the program, Miike wowed previous Midnight Madness audiences with such hits as Fudoh: The New Generation, Audition, The City of Lost Souls, Ichi the Killer, Zebraman, The Great Yokai War and Sukiyaki Western Django. He returns with a film too wild to be described and too fun to be missed!
The 40th Toronto International Film Festival runs September 10 to 20, 2015.