BIGHT OF THE TWIN

[caption id="attachment_24807" align="aligncenter" width="1023"] LET THE CORPSES TAN[/caption] 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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