“it’s the surreal disconnect between youth and maturity that colors ST. NICK’s magic… without a doubt the best film at SXSW”
(Aaron Hills, GreenCine Daily)
“a consummate, beautifully realized mystery of a film”
(Robert Cumbow, Parallax View)
ST. NICK, David Lowery’s debut feature about a brother and sister on the run in Texas is a sparse, beautifully poetic film (and one that draws frequent comparisons to Terrence Malick’s Badlands) from one of the rising stars in American indie cinema.
Week 2 of Indies for Indies bids farewell to WHALE, a film several audience members flat-out loved, and brings 2 new films to Pittsburgh.
Jarrod Whaley’s debut feature HELL IS OTHER PEOPLE doesn’t directly reference Jean-Paul Sartre, but it sure does share a mentality. HIOP follows Morty, an unlikely protagonist as he struggles for financial and emotional survival in Chattanooga, TN. It’s a film that’s both achingly funny and heartbreakingly sad, and centers around a very strong lead performance by Richard Johnson.
HELL IS OTHER PEOPLE comes to us directly from Cinequest, where it sold out all of it’s showings and generated the following reviews:
“The mainspring-free life—demonstrated so memorably by Morty—is perfect for an economy that has let so many millions know that their services will no longer be needed.” — Richard von Busack (Metro Silicone Valley)
“This gently paced comedy, indistinctly set in Chattanooga, Tennessee, feels like a marriage between Richard Linklater’s early work and an inversion of Mumblecore. However what first time feature director Jarrod Whaley has done here is distinct; a hyper-specific take on regional cinema, a subset of film that is itself already hyper-specific…and while the title invokes a well-known quote by Sartre, the existential angle of the film takes such a subtle and semi-literal tack on the matter you hardly know you’re thinking philosophically.” — Sara Schieron (Boxoffice.com)
“This is a small, intimate story, suggested in part by Whaley’s judicious use of close-ups and extreme close-ups that seek to track down the inner life of these struggling, awkward characters.” — Chuck Tryon
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Also showing will be the World Premiere of Peet Gelderblom’s short OUT OF SYNC. Gelderblom, famous to cinephiles around the world for his cartoon series Directorama (and the Indies for Indies logo), presents the very first film ever shot in Anamorphic AuDiVision. What’s Anamorphic AuDiVision? Well there’s only one way to find out. He also shot in on the RED camera, which looks pretty stunning on the Hollywood’s screen.
OUT OF SYNC was the best film I saw in 2009, regardless of length, and I say this as someone who votes for the Spirit Awards. It made my girlfriend cry. It’s flat-out stunning.
“This is a terrific movie. Formally adventurous and technically impeccable but with soul and a point. A rare combination of aspects. The story is told in a very intricate, borderline too-clever manner, toying with literary POV techniques yet somehow never losing track of the basic feelings of the couple and the issues that complicate their relationship. The style is very cognizant of film history, but not a slave to it. Gelderblom’s got his own voice, and it’s rich and assured.” — Matt Zoller Seitz (IFC, The New York Times)
“It’s a breezy, often visually ambitious (though not ostentatious) and funny film that packs a lot of influences into its brisk 10-minute running time—De Palma, Chabrol, the brothers Coen and Dardennes, even a touch of the airy visual elegance of Vincent Minnelli make themselves known as threads in the fabric that Peet weaves into his own audacious blend.” — Dennis Cozzalio (Sergio Leone and the Infield Fly Rule)
Screenings:
Saturday, March 13, 4:30pm
Monday, March 15, 7pm
Tuesday, March 16, 9:30pm
starring: Amir Motlagh, Darren O’Neil, Michael Flowers, & Kindy Barr
written and directed by: Amir Motlagh
Los Angeles, CA/75 min IMDb Official Webpage
We kick off Indies for Indies with Amir Motlagh’s WHALE, a beautifully lo-fi film that mixes media to create a picture of a man adrift after a break-up, back home and facing both people from his past and their expectations of who he’s become.
The cast is a combination of actors and non-actors (including Motlagh’s own Iranian parents), and the film features a score from his band, Shanks and the Dreamers.
Reviews of WHALE:
Amir Motlagh sets out to eradicate “division of labor” filmmaking with WHALE, an elliptical work pulsing with a restlessness of purpose and vision. Motlagh and his film wear a love-hate relationship with mumblecore on their respective sleeves—a condition which seems, ultimately, inevitable. — Interview @ BRAINTRUSTdv
“WHALE is what Truffaut called the cinema of the future…. It has talent and ambition to spare; Motlagh knows exactly what he wants and he knows how to get it. He’s not afraid to be personal, to be slightly obscure and elliptical, to use the freedom that independence gives him. whale is definitely worth seeing and considering for filmgoers and filmmakers alike.” (Tom Russell)
WHALE will screen: Saturday, March 6th @ 4:30pm
Monday, March 8th @ 7pm
Tuesday, March 9th @ 9:30pm
We’re proud add to our screening series Out of Sync, a short by Peet Gelderblom. I’m on record as calling this the best film of 2009, regardless of length. Out of Sync will play in week 2, starting on March 13th.
“This is a terrific movie. Formally adventurous and technically impeccable but with soul and a point. A rare combination of aspects. The story is told in a very intricate, borderline too-clever manner, toying with literary POV techniques yet somehow never losing track of the basic feelings of the couple and the issues that complicate their relationship. The style is very cognizant of film history, but not a slave to it. Gelderblom’s got his own voice, and it’s rich and assured.”
Way up on top of the page, we’ve got a tab for submissions. We’re trying to keep the prices down, so it’s $20 for features and $10 for shorts.
Our deadline is rolling, so there is no earlybird or late price or anything like that. We will do our best to get back to you in a timely manner as to your film’s status. Certain situations may take longer than others.
Curated by Lucas McNelly, Indies for Indies is a festival that strives to work with filmmakers to grow their audience in the greater Pittsburgh region. It is a rare festival that gives filmmakers a portion of their ticket sales, thus helping them get that much closer to the ever-elusive financial break-even point.
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