Stefan Avalos’s feature dazzled jury and audiences in Park City.
Stefan Avalos’s feature earned the Sparky Prize for Best Documentary Feature and the audience award in Park City on Friday night.
The Sparky Prize for Best Narrative Feature went to Daniel Warth’s Dim The Fluorescents and Bill Watterson’s Dave Made A Maze won the Narrative Feature Audience Award.
Jamie Greenberg’s Future ’38 earned the Beyond Feature Audience Award.
Moriom by Francesca Scalisi and Mark Olexa won the Sparky Prize for best documentary short, while Tim Mason’s No Other Way To Say It won best narrative short and Hold Me (Ca Caw Ca Caw) by Renee Zhan took the animated prize.
UpCycles by Ariana Gerstein won best experimental short and Maxwell McCabe-Lokoss’s took best anarchy short for Ape Sodom.
The Spirit Of Slamdance Award went to the film team behind Neighborhood Food Drive by Jerzy Rose.
Stefan Avalos’s feature earned the Sparky Prize for Best Documentary Feature and the audience award in Park City on Friday night.
The Sparky Prize for Best Narrative Feature went to Daniel Warth’s Dim The Fluorescents and Bill Watterson’s Dave Made A Maze won the Narrative Feature Audience Award.
Jamie Greenberg’s Future ’38 earned the Beyond Feature Audience Award.
Moriom by Francesca Scalisi and Mark Olexa won the Sparky Prize for best documentary short, while Tim Mason’s No Other Way To Say It won best narrative short and Hold Me (Ca Caw Ca Caw) by Renee Zhan took the animated prize.
UpCycles by Ariana Gerstein won best experimental short and Maxwell McCabe-Lokoss’s took best anarchy short for Ape Sodom.
The Spirit Of Slamdance Award went to the film team behind Neighborhood Food Drive by Jerzy Rose.
- 1/27/2017
- by jeremykay67@gmail.com (Jeremy Kay)
- ScreenDaily
Last night, the 23rd annual Slamdance Film Festival announced the feature and short film recipients of this year’s Sparky Awards. A jury of filmmakers and industry professionals determined the Slamdance Jury Awards for Narrative Feature, Documentary Feature, and Short Film categories. The Audience Awards and the Spirit of Slamdance, an award given by the filmmakers of Slamdance 2017 to the director who best embodies the spirit of the Festival, were also bestowed. The award winners were announced at the festival’s annual Awards Ceremony at the Treasure Mountain Inn in Park City, Utah.
Read More: Slamdance Film Festival Announces 2017 Lineup: ‘Aerotropolis,’ ‘The Children Send Their Regards’ and More
“Independent film is made beautiful not by those individual artists that form celebrity culture but by creative collaboration” said Peter Baxter, Slamdance Co-Founder and President. “At Slamdance this year we’ve experienced an entire program of beautiful independent film and the promise...
Read More: Slamdance Film Festival Announces 2017 Lineup: ‘Aerotropolis,’ ‘The Children Send Their Regards’ and More
“Independent film is made beautiful not by those individual artists that form celebrity culture but by creative collaboration” said Peter Baxter, Slamdance Co-Founder and President. “At Slamdance this year we’ve experienced an entire program of beautiful independent film and the promise...
- 1/27/2017
- by Vikram Murthi
- Indiewire
The Sundance Film Festival won’t be handing out its awards until tomorrow but that other Park City shindig held its ceremony last night and a certain Stradivari obsessed documentary took some top prizes. There were wins for the Bill Waterson directed Dave Made a Maze and a Spirit of Slamdance victory for the Jerzy Rose helmed Neighborhood Food Drive, at the 23rd Slamdance fest on Thursday. The event at Park City’s Treasure Mountain Inn also saw the Stefan Avalos directed S…...
- 1/27/2017
- Deadline
Neighborhood Food Drive’s synopsis should be a clue as to what kind of film it is: “Awful idiots fail at throwing a party over and over”. Director Jerzy Rose definitely wasn’t out to make a feel-good comedy with those emotional moments the more mainstream ones tend to tack on during the last 20 minutes. The idiots in question are Madeline (Lyra Hill) and Naomi (Bruce Bundy), the owners of an upscale yet curiously always empty restaurant. Wanting to supposedly help their community, they set about organizing food drives with the help of their dimbulb waiter Steven (Marcos Barnes), his flighty girlfriend Bianca (Ruby McCollister) and the couple’s douchey, bearded, Jason Sudeikis-type college prof David (Ted Tremper), who apparently has nothing better to do than hang...
[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...
[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...
- 1/20/2017
- Screen Anarchy
Chicago filmmakers Jerzy Rose and Halle Butler are currently fundraising for their feature length satire Neighborhood Food Drive, about two egomaniacal restauranteurs and their unpaid intern as they throw a series of lavish and disastrous fundraisers. Below, Rose interviews his casting director Samy Burch about the process of pulling together both professional actors and otherwise for a cast headed up by Bruce Bundy and Lyra Hill.–SS Jerzy Rose: I have a vague memory of you telling me, after you’d seen Crimes Against Humanity, that you’d love to help me cast my next movie. I followed up one year later. I think I simply asked “How […]...
- 6/24/2015
- by Sarah Salovaara
- Filmmaker Magazine - Blog
Chicago filmmakers Jerzy Rose and Halle Butler are currently fundraising for their feature length satire Neighborhood Food Drive, about two egomaniacal restauranteurs and their unpaid intern as they throw a series of lavish and disastrous fundraisers. Below, Rose interviews his casting director Samy Burch about the process of pulling together both professional actors and otherwise for a cast headed up by Bruce Bundy and Lyra Hill.–SS Jerzy Rose: I have a vague memory of you telling me, after you’d seen Crimes Against Humanity, that you’d love to help me cast my next movie. I followed up one year later. I think I simply asked “How […]...
- 6/24/2015
- by Sarah Salovaara
- Filmmaker Magazine-Director Interviews
The 22nd annual Chicago Underground Film Festival presents five days of devastating celluloid provocations on May 13-17 at the Logan Theatre.
The fest kicks off on May 13 with the incredibly haunting short film Echoes by Jaimz Asmundson and the Filipino romantic crime drama Ruined Heart: Another Lovestory Between a Criminal and a Whore by the single-named director Khavn.
Highlights of the fest include the new slacker-ific comedy by Lev Kalman and Whitney Horn, L for Leisure; the Spanish socio-political documentary Speculation Nation by Bill Brown and Sabine Gruffat; the pastoral friendship drama For the Plasma by Bingham Bryant & Kyle Molzan; and the joyful pop doc Living Stars by Gastón Duprat and Mariano Cohn.
There are also loads of un-missable short films, such as the gritty modern film noir Bite Radius by Spencer Parsons; and amazing new films by Jennifer Reeder (Blood Below the Skin), Zachary Epcar (Under the Heat Lamp...
The fest kicks off on May 13 with the incredibly haunting short film Echoes by Jaimz Asmundson and the Filipino romantic crime drama Ruined Heart: Another Lovestory Between a Criminal and a Whore by the single-named director Khavn.
Highlights of the fest include the new slacker-ific comedy by Lev Kalman and Whitney Horn, L for Leisure; the Spanish socio-political documentary Speculation Nation by Bill Brown and Sabine Gruffat; the pastoral friendship drama For the Plasma by Bingham Bryant & Kyle Molzan; and the joyful pop doc Living Stars by Gastón Duprat and Mariano Cohn.
There are also loads of un-missable short films, such as the gritty modern film noir Bite Radius by Spencer Parsons; and amazing new films by Jennifer Reeder (Blood Below the Skin), Zachary Epcar (Under the Heat Lamp...
- 5/11/2015
- by Mike Everleth
- Underground Film Journal
The 17th annual Boston Underground Film Festival is set to explode all over the Brattle Theater in Harvard Square on March 25-29.
Opening Night: The fun kicks off on the 25th at 7:30 p.m. with the exciting new flick from the always amazing Astron-6 collective, The Editor, an homage to the brutal Giallo movies of the ’70s and ’80s directed by Adam Brooks and Matthew Kennedy. This will be followed by the restored version of the legendary cult classic Gone With the Pope by the notorious Duke Mitchell.
Closing Night: Goodnight Mommy the debut feature film by Severin Fiala and Veronika Franz, will screen at 8:30 p.m. on the 29th and is a nightmarish vision of familial dread when twin brothers believe their cosmetically altered mother is literally not the woman she used to be.
Other features include a mix of horror, like Matt O’Mahoney’s...
Opening Night: The fun kicks off on the 25th at 7:30 p.m. with the exciting new flick from the always amazing Astron-6 collective, The Editor, an homage to the brutal Giallo movies of the ’70s and ’80s directed by Adam Brooks and Matthew Kennedy. This will be followed by the restored version of the legendary cult classic Gone With the Pope by the notorious Duke Mitchell.
Closing Night: Goodnight Mommy the debut feature film by Severin Fiala and Veronika Franz, will screen at 8:30 p.m. on the 29th and is a nightmarish vision of familial dread when twin brothers believe their cosmetically altered mother is literally not the woman she used to be.
Other features include a mix of horror, like Matt O’Mahoney’s...
- 3/12/2015
- by Mike Everleth
- Underground Film Journal
Lori Felker says:
Hi!
This is me: Runts
I’m a Chicago-based filmmaker and I make weird videos and films that vary in shape and size. I was also a programmer and organizer for the Chicago Underground Film Festival for a little while, until I took this year off.
My cat’s name is Czubek (it’s Polish), she’s 16 (on March 18!) and feisty. She likes to sit on my lap while I edit, and she consoled me after I tripped and fell on my face while carrying a bunch of equipment home from an off-season Cuff screening. She’s made appearances in a few of my experiments, but I’m working on a film that will feature her. She’s that amazing.
Lori’s website.
Underground Film Journal says:
Lori Felker is one of the foundations of the Chicago filmmaking community. As she says above, she has worked for...
Hi!
This is me: Runts
I’m a Chicago-based filmmaker and I make weird videos and films that vary in shape and size. I was also a programmer and organizer for the Chicago Underground Film Festival for a little while, until I took this year off.
My cat’s name is Czubek (it’s Polish), she’s 16 (on March 18!) and feisty. She likes to sit on my lap while I edit, and she consoled me after I tripped and fell on my face while carrying a bunch of equipment home from an off-season Cuff screening. She’s made appearances in a few of my experiments, but I’m working on a film that will feature her. She’s that amazing.
Lori’s website.
Underground Film Journal says:
Lori Felker is one of the foundations of the Chicago filmmaking community. As she says above, she has worked for...
- 3/25/2014
- by Mike Everleth
- Underground Film Journal
The 16th annual Boston Underground Film Festival will once again terrorize all of New England with a wide selection of international atrocities that span the globe from Japan to Belgium to the fest’s own backyard. The fest will run March 26-30 at the Brattle Theater.
The fest will open with the supernatural teen comedy All Cheerleaders Die by the dynamic directing team of Lucky McKee and Chris Sivertson, which will then be followed by the cult 1974 Japanese nunsploitation flick School of the Holy Beast by Norifumi Suzuki.
Other feature films screening at the fest include: The American warrior documentary My Name Is Jonah by Phil Healy and Jb Sapienza; the pre-apocolyptic party of Doomsdays by Eddie Mullins; The Strange Color of Your Body’s Tears by Belgian extreme filmmakers Hélène Cattet & Bruno Forzani; the collegiate conspiracy of Jerzy Rose’s Crimes Against Humanity; Jeremy Saulnier’s twist on the revenge thriller,...
The fest will open with the supernatural teen comedy All Cheerleaders Die by the dynamic directing team of Lucky McKee and Chris Sivertson, which will then be followed by the cult 1974 Japanese nunsploitation flick School of the Holy Beast by Norifumi Suzuki.
Other feature films screening at the fest include: The American warrior documentary My Name Is Jonah by Phil Healy and Jb Sapienza; the pre-apocolyptic party of Doomsdays by Eddie Mullins; The Strange Color of Your Body’s Tears by Belgian extreme filmmakers Hélène Cattet & Bruno Forzani; the collegiate conspiracy of Jerzy Rose’s Crimes Against Humanity; Jeremy Saulnier’s twist on the revenge thriller,...
- 3/20/2014
- by Mike Everleth
- Underground Film Journal
The 16th annual Boston Underground Film Festival just announced the first wave of films to screen at the historic Brattle Theatre March 26th-30th, and they are stellar! Most notably, the long-awaited “re-collaboration,” between college friends Lucky McKee and Chris Sivertson, All Cheerleaders Die. The pair first made the film just out of college at USC in 2001, but after a decade plus of working on their own projects decided to remake their own film. Lucky McKee is best known for his debut film May and his most recent success The Woman, while Sivertson has made The Lost and I Know Who Killed Me. Buff has only announced their first handful of films and promise more surprises!
Here’s all of the pertinent info taken straight from their press release:
Spring must be near because the crescendo of chaos is getting louder as the 16th annual Boston Underground Film Festival returns...
Here’s all of the pertinent info taken straight from their press release:
Spring must be near because the crescendo of chaos is getting louder as the 16th annual Boston Underground Film Festival returns...
- 2/19/2014
- by Kristy Jett
- FEARnet
The 10th annual Atlanta Underground Film Festival, held back on October 16-20, have released their impressive list of award winners, which includes 22 films.
The Best Feature award went to Dane Dakota’s Alex Dreaming, a comedy/drama about a Vietnam veteran who may or may not be imagining that assassins want to kill him. The Best Documentary Feature, Stephen Graves’s A Body Without Organs, previously won the Most Visionary Award earlier this year at the Chicago Underground Film Festival.
The Best Comedy Feature went to Jerzy Rose’s Crimes Against Humanity; while J.R. Hughto’s Diamond on Vinyl took home the Best Drama Feature award.
Lots of short films took awards, too, including Kurt Dettbarn’s Sad Monster for Best Short Film; Grey Wears’s Cereal Mascots Trix Rabbit for Best Animated Short; and Kevin Lonano’s awesome Space Dracula for Best Experimental Short. You can watch Space Dracula...
The Best Feature award went to Dane Dakota’s Alex Dreaming, a comedy/drama about a Vietnam veteran who may or may not be imagining that assassins want to kill him. The Best Documentary Feature, Stephen Graves’s A Body Without Organs, previously won the Most Visionary Award earlier this year at the Chicago Underground Film Festival.
The Best Comedy Feature went to Jerzy Rose’s Crimes Against Humanity; while J.R. Hughto’s Diamond on Vinyl took home the Best Drama Feature award.
Lots of short films took awards, too, including Kurt Dettbarn’s Sad Monster for Best Short Film; Grey Wears’s Cereal Mascots Trix Rabbit for Best Animated Short; and Kevin Lonano’s awesome Space Dracula for Best Experimental Short. You can watch Space Dracula...
- 11/8/2013
- by Mike Everleth
- Underground Film Journal
The Atlanta Underground Film Festival celebrates a decade of being in the business of bringing great alternative cinema to the South. The 10th edition of the fest runs Oct. 16-20 and is screening an eclectic mix of feature films and loads of shorts.
Some of the feature include the voyeuristic drama Diamond on Vinyl by J.R. Hughto; the oddball consipracy of Crimes Against Humanity by Jerzy Rose; the rockin’ documentary Discoverdale by George Kane; the Christian shame of Bhoner by Frank Anderson and Colin Shields; the medical documentary A Body Without Organs by Stephen Graves; and more.
Short films are organized in blocks for comedy, drama, experimental and the always popular Animation Attack!.
The full film lineup is below. For more info, please visit the festival’s official website.
October 16
6:30 p.m.: Diamond on Vinyl, dir. J.R. Hughto. A complete stranger attempts to heal the shattered relationship between a formerly engaged couple.
Some of the feature include the voyeuristic drama Diamond on Vinyl by J.R. Hughto; the oddball consipracy of Crimes Against Humanity by Jerzy Rose; the rockin’ documentary Discoverdale by George Kane; the Christian shame of Bhoner by Frank Anderson and Colin Shields; the medical documentary A Body Without Organs by Stephen Graves; and more.
Short films are organized in blocks for comedy, drama, experimental and the always popular Animation Attack!.
The full film lineup is below. For more info, please visit the festival’s official website.
October 16
6:30 p.m.: Diamond on Vinyl, dir. J.R. Hughto. A complete stranger attempts to heal the shattered relationship between a formerly engaged couple.
- 10/16/2013
- by Mike Everleth
- Underground Film Journal
Get a taste of the goings on at the 2011 Chicago Underground Film Festival, which was held back on June 2-9 in the Windy City, courtesy of F Newsmagazine, a publication of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Most appropriately, the above embedded video includes an interview with filmmaker Jerzy Rose, an alumni of Saic, whose feature film Some Girls Never Learn opened this year’s Cuff.
More interesting, though, for those interested in underground film history is festival founder Bryan Wendorf revealing the secret origin of Cuff. Ok, not so secret, really, but not something one hears very often of how he and a partner organized the first Cuff way back in 1994. Wendorf plays it off kind of modestly, but as Bad Lit: The Journal of Underground Film uncovered recently, the first ever Cuff was a rather large, significant event, sitting at the intersection of avant-garde, experimental and exploitation.
More interesting, though, for those interested in underground film history is festival founder Bryan Wendorf revealing the secret origin of Cuff. Ok, not so secret, really, but not something one hears very often of how he and a partner organized the first Cuff way back in 1994. Wendorf plays it off kind of modestly, but as Bad Lit: The Journal of Underground Film uncovered recently, the first ever Cuff was a rather large, significant event, sitting at the intersection of avant-garde, experimental and exploitation.
- 8/2/2011
- by Mike Everleth
- Underground Film Journal
The 14th annual Revelation Perth International Film Festival is, once again, packed to the gills with worldwide wonderful, weird and revelatory filmmaking. The fest runs this year on July 14-24.
The highlight of the festival is the once-in-a-lifetime live performance of Gravity Was Everywhere Back Then, which will be performed on July 17 at 7:15 p.m. American animator Brent Green will be traveling Down Under to provide the live musical score and narration for his emotional, live-action animated tale about undying love and creation. He will also be accompanied by band mates and foley artists, Mike McGinley, John Swartz, Donna K and Drew Henkles.
Some other films to look out for at the fest will be the Australian premiere of Zach Clark‘s terminally twisted Vacation!, a black comedy about four girls on a debauched weekend of drinking and drugging that ends horribly for all involved; Marie Losier’s acclaimed...
The highlight of the festival is the once-in-a-lifetime live performance of Gravity Was Everywhere Back Then, which will be performed on July 17 at 7:15 p.m. American animator Brent Green will be traveling Down Under to provide the live musical score and narration for his emotional, live-action animated tale about undying love and creation. He will also be accompanied by band mates and foley artists, Mike McGinley, John Swartz, Donna K and Drew Henkles.
Some other films to look out for at the fest will be the Australian premiere of Zach Clark‘s terminally twisted Vacation!, a black comedy about four girls on a debauched weekend of drinking and drugging that ends horribly for all involved; Marie Losier’s acclaimed...
- 6/17/2011
- by Mike Everleth
- Underground Film Journal
The 18th Annual Chicago Underground Film Festival has handed out their annual awards. The big winner this year is filmmaker Jerzy Rose for his movie Some Girls Never Learn.
Rose’s debut comedy feature film won both the Made in Chicago Award and was voted the number one film amongst audience members.
Other feature films winning prizes are Best Documentary And Again, Adele Horne’s portrait of the unusual town of Playas, New Mexico; while the Best Narrative (feature) award was split between two films: Alex Ross Perry’s The Color Wheel, about feuding siblings; and Damon Russell’s Snow on tha Bluff, a fictional autobiography about an Atlanta crack dealer.
Short film winners include Ryan Garrett, John Price and Ben Rivers; while Nellie Kluz, Mike Gibisser, Spencer Parsons and Laura Kraning all received honorable mentions.
The jury selecting this year’s winners were Donald Harrison of the Ann Arbor Film Festival,...
Rose’s debut comedy feature film won both the Made in Chicago Award and was voted the number one film amongst audience members.
Other feature films winning prizes are Best Documentary And Again, Adele Horne’s portrait of the unusual town of Playas, New Mexico; while the Best Narrative (feature) award was split between two films: Alex Ross Perry’s The Color Wheel, about feuding siblings; and Damon Russell’s Snow on tha Bluff, a fictional autobiography about an Atlanta crack dealer.
Short film winners include Ryan Garrett, John Price and Ben Rivers; while Nellie Kluz, Mike Gibisser, Spencer Parsons and Laura Kraning all received honorable mentions.
The jury selecting this year’s winners were Donald Harrison of the Ann Arbor Film Festival,...
- 6/7/2011
- by Mike Everleth
- Underground Film Journal
Now this is what I always want to see more of: Filmmaker Chris Hansen started chronicling the shoot for his latest feature film, An Affair. He has several posts up, so I recommend going to his June blog archives to read up on how it’s going. (The shoot’s still in it’s very early stages.) I know blogging after a day of shooting probably sucks, but I love reading production diaries.In case you missed the fascinating recent dust up between the media advocacy group Reel Grrls and Comcast, Flip the Media has a great article on it, including the positive outcome of the whole thing.Usama Alshaibi’s Profane screened at the Chicago Underground Film Festival the other day and Ben Sachs has a capsule review of it in the Chicago Reader, which focuses on the film’s more lurid aspects.Speaking of Cuff, the Chicago Sun-Times...
- 6/5/2011
- by Mike Everleth
- Underground Film Journal
Tonight marks the opening of the 18th annual Chicago Underground Film Festival. The fest is kicking off this year with the transcendental comedy debut feature by Jerzy Rose, Some Girls Never Learn.
The film chronicles several coincidental paranormal discoveries, including the unearthing of Amelia Earhart’s leg bone, the spontaneous gatherings of wildlife into concentric circles, the loss of helium into the luminiferous aether, and the journey a high school science teacher takes to the underworld to find his girlfriend.
The film screens tonight at 8:00 p.m. at the Gene Siskel Film Center.
Watch the trailer below.
Cuff will then continue every night until June 9. Some other highlights of the fest include Usama Alshaibi’s Profane, Marie Losier‘s The Ballad of Genesis and Lady Jaye, Jeff Krulik & John Heyn’s Heavy Metal Parking Lot and Michael Galinsky & Suki Hawley‘s Battle of Brooklyn.
Check out the full lineup here.
The film chronicles several coincidental paranormal discoveries, including the unearthing of Amelia Earhart’s leg bone, the spontaneous gatherings of wildlife into concentric circles, the loss of helium into the luminiferous aether, and the journey a high school science teacher takes to the underworld to find his girlfriend.
The film screens tonight at 8:00 p.m. at the Gene Siskel Film Center.
Watch the trailer below.
Cuff will then continue every night until June 9. Some other highlights of the fest include Usama Alshaibi’s Profane, Marie Losier‘s The Ballad of Genesis and Lady Jaye, Jeff Krulik & John Heyn’s Heavy Metal Parking Lot and Michael Galinsky & Suki Hawley‘s Battle of Brooklyn.
Check out the full lineup here.
- 6/2/2011
- by Mike Everleth
- Underground Film Journal
The 18th annual Chicago Underground Film Festival is ready to have another monumental year at the Gene Siskel Film Center on June 2-9, featuring a killer lineup with new films from some true underground legends.
First, Usama Alshaibi will screen his latest, most visually stunning and conceptually innovative feature Profane, about a spiritually confused Muslim sex worker trying to recapture her lost jinn — a demon of smokeless fire — on streets of the Windy City.
Then, documentary filmmakers Jeff Krulik and John Heyn return to their hard rockin’ roots with Heavy Metal Picnic, which relives one of the most notorious ’80s weekend parties in the history of Maryland and the world — the Full Moon Jamboree, which if you can remember it means you weren’t there. Plus, Hmp will be screened with Heyn and Krulik’s underground classic Heavy Metal Parking Lot.
Also in the documentary vein, are Marie Losier‘s...
First, Usama Alshaibi will screen his latest, most visually stunning and conceptually innovative feature Profane, about a spiritually confused Muslim sex worker trying to recapture her lost jinn — a demon of smokeless fire — on streets of the Windy City.
Then, documentary filmmakers Jeff Krulik and John Heyn return to their hard rockin’ roots with Heavy Metal Picnic, which relives one of the most notorious ’80s weekend parties in the history of Maryland and the world — the Full Moon Jamboree, which if you can remember it means you weren’t there. Plus, Hmp will be screened with Heyn and Krulik’s underground classic Heavy Metal Parking Lot.
Also in the documentary vein, are Marie Losier‘s...
- 5/13/2011
- by Mike Everleth
- Underground Film Journal
Part experimental film, part horror movie, Runts by Lori Felker and Jeffrey Schreckengost is one hell of a sick and disturbing nightmare. Told almost entirely with baby dolls, a pair of conjoined twins are separated and cast out into the world where they do terrible things to each other, including morbid mutilation and incest. Filmed with in dark sepia tones with jumpy editing and a nerve-jangling soundtrack, Runts is an unnerving piece of work.
Although I’ve been known in the past to read religious imagery into films that the filmmaker didn’t intend, I can’t help but see some sort of Garden of Eden connection in Runts. A man and a woman are born of the same parentage and cast out into the unknown. And if Adam and Eve both had the same father, wouldn’t their coupling be an incestuous union? Plus, the unpleasant birth somehow makes...
Although I’ve been known in the past to read religious imagery into films that the filmmaker didn’t intend, I can’t help but see some sort of Garden of Eden connection in Runts. A man and a woman are born of the same parentage and cast out into the unknown. And if Adam and Eve both had the same father, wouldn’t their coupling be an incestuous union? Plus, the unpleasant birth somehow makes...
- 5/7/2011
- by Mike Everleth
- Underground Film Journal
Update: See the full 2011 Cuff lineup here.
The Chicago Underground Film Festival, the longest-running underground film fest in the world, has announced the Opening and Closing Night films for their 18th annual edition, which will run this year June 2-9 at the Gene Siskel Film Center.
Opening the prestigious festival is the debut feature film by Chicago-based filmmaker Jerzy Rose, Some Girls Never Learn. The film is an absurdist comedy about the discovery of several bizarre scientific happenings, including the unearthing of Amelia Earhart’s leg bone, animals spontaneously gathering into concentric circles and helium escaping into the luminiferous aether. Meanwhile, a high school science teacher has to journey into the underworld to retrieve his girlfriend.
Rose has previously directed several short experimental videos, including a trailer for last year’s Cuff. He is also a graduate of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.
Watch the Some Girls Never Learn trailer:
Then,...
The Chicago Underground Film Festival, the longest-running underground film fest in the world, has announced the Opening and Closing Night films for their 18th annual edition, which will run this year June 2-9 at the Gene Siskel Film Center.
Opening the prestigious festival is the debut feature film by Chicago-based filmmaker Jerzy Rose, Some Girls Never Learn. The film is an absurdist comedy about the discovery of several bizarre scientific happenings, including the unearthing of Amelia Earhart’s leg bone, animals spontaneously gathering into concentric circles and helium escaping into the luminiferous aether. Meanwhile, a high school science teacher has to journey into the underworld to retrieve his girlfriend.
Rose has previously directed several short experimental videos, including a trailer for last year’s Cuff. He is also a graduate of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.
Watch the Some Girls Never Learn trailer:
Then,...
- 5/6/2011
- by Mike Everleth
- Underground Film Journal
IMDb.com, Inc. takes no responsibility for the content or accuracy of the above news articles, Tweets, or blog posts. This content is published for the entertainment of our users only. The news articles, Tweets, and blog posts do not represent IMDb's opinions nor can we guarantee that the reporting therein is completely factual. Please visit the source responsible for the item in question to report any concerns you may have regarding content or accuracy.