And then there were twelve!

Slamdance is thrilled to announce the 12 finalists for the 2016 Slamdance Screenplay Competition. Congratulations to these writers for making it to the final 12!

The winners will be announced on October 6th at the WGA West in Los Angeles. Keep an eye out for the announcement on our website on October 7th!





2016 FINALISTS (in alphabetical order)Feature:Great White Shark by Andrew Kightlinger
Montana Quagmire by David Biscevic
Oil and Water by Alfred Thomas Catalfo and Morgan Webster Dudley
Horror: Dead Pilgrims by Colin Campbell
The Housesitter by Suju Vijayan
Welcome to the Hotel Chateau Cheveux by Michael Snow
Short: Conviction by Anju Andre-Bergmann
Entrenched by Joseph Chebatte
Fetch by Sam Gill
Original Teleplay: Feral: Lone Wolf by Bryan Kett
Lovecraft by Doug Wolfe
Sugartown by Amanda Toye

Los Angeles, CA - October 7, 2016 -- Great White Shark written by Andrew Kightlinger has won the 2016 Slamdance Screenplay Competition Grand Prize. Kightlinger, born and raised on Madagascar before transplanting to South Dakota, was awarded $7,000 in cash prizes for his feature script at the annual awards ceremony hosted by the Writers Guild of America, West last night on October 6, 2016.


Great White Shark tells the story of estranged siblings who embark on a scavenger hunt in South Dakota to secure their inheritance after their loathsome father dies.



Slamdance recognizes four categories in its Writing Competition and congratulates the top three winning screenplays in each category. The top three Slamdance screenplays in each prize category are as follows:

Features:
1st Place- Great White Shark by Andrew Kightlinger
2nd Place- Oil and Water by Alfred Thomas Catalfo and Morgan Webster Dudley
3rd Place- Montana Quagmire by David Biscevic

Horror:
1st Place- The Housesitter by Suju Vijayan
2nd Place- Welcome to the Hotel Chateau Cheveux by Michael Snow
3rd Place- Dead Pilgrims by Colin Campbell

Shorts:
1st Place- Conviction by Anju Andre-Bergmann
2nd Place- Fetch by Sam Gill
3rd Place- Entrenched by Joey Chebatte

Teleplays:
1st Place- Feral: Lone Wolf by Bryan Kett
2nd Place- Lovecraft by Doug Wolfe
3rd Place- Sugartown by Amanda Toye

“As WGAW's President, and as someone who has found his home in independent cinema, I'm thrilled to join Slamdance in supporting new and emerging filmmakers. Slamdance's annual Screenplay Competition has always found writers of talent and promise, and has exposed that work to the larger community. It's a mission the WGAW is honored and proud to support,” states WGAW President, Howard A. Rodman.

“The standard of writing in this year's competition was extremely high in all categories. Andrew Kightlinger's audacious Great White Shark led what we'd like to see made and clearly producers should look at all of our finalists' work. There's great emerging talent here,” says Slamdance Co-Founder and President, Peter Baxter

Slamdance received a record-breaking 3,600 submissions for the 2016 Writing Competition, which strives to bring attention to and support emerging writing talent.

The Competition has established a reputation for finding production-worthy screenplays written by emerging writers. Shane Andries’ The Delegation - 2015 Grand Prize and Best Feature winner - is currently in development. Andries says about his Slamdance experience “After winning the Grand Prize at the 2015 Slamdance Screenplay Competition, I was able to land a literary agent at C.A.A. and attach an Oscar winning Producer to my script, which is currently in development. Most recently, I've been brought on to adapt a Wall Street Journal bestseller. It all started with Slamdance…”

Cash and service prizes for the 2016 Writing Competition amounted to $20,000. Pierce Law Group, LLP, a long standing sponsor of Slamdance, provided a total of $5,000 in legal services to the category winners.

Over the past 21 years, the success of the Slamdance Writing Competition and the writers it has discovered continues to attract the attention of industry professionals searching for the best new independent writing talent. Screenplays connected to the Slamdance Writing Competition that have gone to production include Maria Full of Grace from writer/director Joshua Marston and The Woodsman co-written by Nicole Kassel and Steven Fechter, directed by Kassel. Recent winners that have gone on to be produced include 100 Bloody Acres written by co-writers/directors Colin and Cameron Cairn and Jug Face written and directed by Chad Crawford Kinkle.

As a year-round organization, Slamdance serves as a showcase for the discovery of new and emerging talent and is dedicated to the nurturing and development of new independent artists and storytellers. The 2017 Slamdance Film Festival will run concurrently with the Sundance Film Festival, January 20-26, in Park City, Utah. With the festival being entirely programmed and organized by filmmakers and with no individual filmmaker's vote meaning more than any other's, Slamdance continues to live by its mantra: "By Filmmakers, For Filmmakers." Slamdance is proud to count among its alumni many notable writers and directors who first gained notice at the festival, including such cinematic luminaries as Christopher Nolan, Marc Forster, Jared Hess, Oren Peli, Lena Dunham and Benh Zeitlin.

Slamdance's year-round activities also include the traveling On The Road screening events, the Anarchy Workshop for student filmmakers, and The ArcLight Presents Slamdance Cinema Club -- a monthly cinema club partnership with ArcLight Cinemas based at the ArcLight Hollywood and Chicago, with two screenings each month of alumni and films straight from the festival.

In January 2015, Hulu partnered with Slamdance Studios to offer a new film collection from Festival alumni. The nascent but already profitable venture allows viewers to access Slamdance Studios on Hulu at http://www.hulu.com/companies/slamdance

Slamdance Presents is a new distribution arm established to access broader distribution of independent films made or acquired by Slamdance Studios. The goal is to build the popularity of independent films and support filmmakers on a commercial level through theatrical releases. The Resurrection of Jake The Snake is the first film to be released by the company. The documentary reached number one on iTunes in December, 2015. In August, 2016 Slamdance Presents released its second title with Claire Carré's directorial debut Embers for a week long run at at the ArcLight Cinemas Hollywood. Each screening was followed by a DIY filmmaking panel on a different topic related to the film, with filmmakers and special guests including Jason Ritter, KK Barrett and Amber Benson.

In November, 2015, Slamdance announced DIG, a new digital, interactive and gaming showcase dedicated to emerging independent artists working in hybrid, immersive and developing forms of digital media art. Ten works were featured in the inaugural DIG show that opened in Los Angeles at Big Pictures Los Angeles in December, 2015. The show was also featured at the 2016 Slamdance Film Festival. The 2016 DIG showcase will take place December 2-11 at Big Pictures Los Angeles.

For more information, log onto www.slamdance.com

Festival to Showcase 11 Narrative and 8 Documentary Features Lineup Spotlights 8 Directorial Debuts From Women Filmmakers

November 28, 2016 (Los Angeles) - The Slamdance Film Festival announced today their Narrative and Documentary Feature Film Competition programs for its 23rd Festival edition, taking place in Park City from January 20-26, 2017. Driven by a dedication to emerging artists, Slamdance continues to be the premiere film festival by filmmakers, for filmmakers.


Established in 1995, Slamdance is dedicated to discovering and supporting new talents in independent filmmaking. Previous Slamdance alumni include: Bong Joon Ho (SNOWPIERCER), Lena Dunham (TINY FURNITURE), and Christopher Nolan (THE DARK KNIGHT; MEMENTO). The 23rd edition of Slamdance will also feature DIG (Digital, Interactive & Gaming) which showcases eight works by emerging artists working in cutting edge digital media, and Polytechnic, a series of free, open-learning workshops that explore new ideas and disrupt existing ones with unique perspectives on filmmaking and new media production from industry insiders.


“As filmmakers themselves, the Slamdance programmers and staff share the same creative spirit as the festival artists. Our stories are different but our divergent attitude is the same.” states Co-founder and President, Peter Baxter. “Together, we give a voice to DIY filmmaking. Empowering emerging artists is what we do, and you are about to see a great group at Slamdance 2017.”

This year the festival will showcase 11 narrative and 8 documentary features from emerging storytellers across the globe.

“Slamdance gives a platform to artists working outside of the system—we pride ourselves on supporting filmmakers who create challenging work,” says Festival Manager, Clementine Leger. “We feel so fortunate to welcome these artists and their works into our community.”

The feature competition lineup includes 16 premieres—12 World, 3 North American, and 1 US premieres. All competition films are feature film directorial debuts with budgets of less than $1 million USD, and without US distribution. All films were reviewed by a team of Slamdance alumni and are programmed democratically.

Jury Awards are presented for the Best Narrative Feature and Best Documentary Feature. Previous winners include: THE MILLION DOLLAR DUCK (Best Documentary Feature, 2016) and DRIFTWOOD (Best Narrative Feature, 2016). Films in both categories are eligible for the Audience Award and Spirit of Slamdance Award, the latter of which is voted upon by this year’s presented filmmakers.

NARRATIVE FEATURES PROGRAM
Aerotropolis
(Taiwan) World Premiere
Director & Screenwriter: Jheng-Neng LI
Allen invested everything into a beautiful home to flip for profit only to have it languish on the market, turning his daily life into a haze of financial pressures and an erosion of reality.
Cast: Chia-Lun Yang, Jui-Tzu Liu, Chong-Cyuan Huang, Chin-Yu Lin, Sih-Mei Liou, Ting-Li Bao, Chieh-Wen Deng, Zaw Lin Htwe

Beat Beat Heart
(Germany) North American Premiere
Director & Screenwriter: Luise Brinkmann
Daydreaming her way out of a broken heart, Kerstin’s denial as well as her days are shaken up with the arrival of her mother, dealing with her own relationship’s demise.
Cast: Lana Cooper, Saskia Vester, Till Wonka, Aleksandar Radenkovic, Christin Nichols, Jörg Bundschuh, Caroline Erikson

Cortez
(USA)
Director: Cheryl Nichols; Screenwriter(s): Arron Shiver, Cheryl Nichols
Struggling musician Jesse tracks down his ex Anne in a small town in New Mexico, and is forced to face the decisions of his past as present day consequences set in.
Cast: Arron Shiver, Cheryl Nichols, Drago Sumonja, Judith Ivey, Jackson Shiver, Cassidy Freeman, Kristian Moore, Dylan Kenin

Dave Made a Maze
(USA) World Premiere
Director: Bill Watterson; Screenwriter(s): Steven Sears, Bill Watterson
Dave builds a fort in his living room and ends up trapped inside by fantastical pitfalls, booby traps and creatures, leaving his girlfriend Annie to head up the eccentric rescue team to go in after him.
Cast: Nick Thune, Meera Rohit Kumbhani, Adam Busch, James Urbaniak, Stephanie Allynne, Kirsten Vangsness, Scott Krinsky, John Hennigan

Dim the Fluorescents
(Canada) World Premiere
Director: Daniel Warth; Screenwriter(s): Miles Barstead, Daniel Warth
A struggling actress and an aspiring playwright funnel their uninhibited passion into the only paying work they can find: role-playing demonstrations for corporate seminars.
Cast: Claire Armstrong, Naomi Skwarna, Andreana Callegarini-Gradzik, Brendan Hobin, Clare McConnell, Todd Graham, Hannan Younis, Thom Gill

The Family
(China, Australia) US Premiere
Director & Screenwriter: Shumin Liu
Liu and Deng are a couple in their 70s who set off to visit their adult children in three faraway cities, in an immersive exploration of family dynamics and daily life.
Cast: Shoufang Deng, Lijie Liu, Xiaomin Liu, Jiangsheng Jiang, Erya Chen, Xujun Liu, Liqin Huang, Zepeng Liao

Kate Can’t Swim
(USA) World Premiere
Director: Josh Helman; Screenwriter(s): Jennifer Allcott, Josh Helman
When Kate’s best friend Em returns from abroad with a surprising new lover, they embark on a reunion vacation with their partners, but the peaceful getaway quickly becomes emotionally complicated.
Cast: Celeste Arias, Grayson Dejesus, Jennifer Allcott, Josh Helman

Kuro
(France, UK, Germany, Luxembourg) World Premiere
Director(s) & Screenwriter(s): Joji Koyama, Tujiko Noriko
A Japanese woman living in Paris tends to her paraplegic lover, passing time by recounting a story about the time they once spent together in Japan, rich with anecdotes, myths and an unexpected dark turn.
Cast: Tujiko Noriko, Jackie

Weather House
(Germany) World Premiere
Director(s): Frauke Havemann; Co-Director: Eric Schefter; Screenwriter: Mark Johnson Set in an unspecific time of extreme climate change, an isolated group of disoriented characters develop their own strange belief systems and engage in absurd activities to process their dilemma.
Cast: Inga Dietrich, Charles McDaniel, Erik Hansen, Sabine Hertling, Jack Rath

Wexford Plaza
(Canada) North American Premiere
Director & Screenwriter: Joyce Wong
Betty is a lonely strip mall security guard, and an unexpected moment with charming deadbeat Danny ends up setting off the unraveling of both their lives.
Cast: Reid Asselstine, Darrel Gamotin, Francis Melling, Ellie Posadas

Withdrawn
(Canada) World Premiere
Director: Adrian Murray; Screenwriter(s): Adrian Murray, Marcus Sullivan, Dean Tardioli
Living in a basement he can’t afford, Aaron spends his days doing drum solos and talking his way out of paying for utilities, until he finds a lost credit card and devises a plan to defraud its owner.
Cast: Aaron Keogh, Molly Reisman, Dean Tardioli, Adrian Murray, Greg Wasylyszn, Kelly Paoli, Hallie Burt, Earl Oliveros

DOCUMENTARY FEATURES PROGRAM
Bogalusa Charm
(USA) World Premiere
Director: Stephen Richardson; Screenwriter: Jennifer Harrington
Through the lens of an anachronistic charm school that has existed for almost three decades in rural Louisiana, we explore a town confronted with contemporary issues of class and race.

The Children Send Their Regards
(Austria) World Premiere
Director: Patricia Josefine Marchart; Screenwriter(s): Jakob Purkarthofer, Sepp Rothwangl, Patricia Josefine Marchart
Adult victims of physical abuse by clergy members in Austria revisit the sites of their childhood trauma and make public their stories to shed light into one of the greatest crimes of the post-war period.
Cast: Georg Prader, Jo Auer, Inge Killmeyer, Josef Schörkmayr, Klaus Oberndorfer, Paula Neulinger, Walo Nowak, Anita Ossinger, Klaus Fluch, Sepp Rothwangl

Hotel Coolgardie
(Australia)
Director: Pete Gleeson
Somewhere between Australia’s most isolated city and it's largest gold pit lies Coolgardie, where the arrival every three months of a new pair of foreign female backpackers to work the only bar in town is keenly anticipated by the town’s hot-blooded males.

The Modern Jungle
(Mexico/USA) North American Premiere
Director(s) & Screenwriter(s): Charles Fairbanks, Saul Kak
A story of globalization filtered through the fever dream of a Mexican shaman, this is an intimate portrait of Zoque culture, commodity fetish, and the predicament of documentary cinema.
Cast: Juan Juarez Rodriguez, Carmen Echevarría Lopez

On The Sly: In Search of the Family Stone
(USA) World Premiere
Director & Screenwriter: Michael Rubenstone
Director and super-fan Michael Rubenstone sets out in search of long-time reclusive funk legend, Sly Stone. Along the way, he meets with some success, but finds countless more failures in trying to capture a man who refuses to be contained.
Cast: Michael Rubenstone, Cornel West, Bobby Womack, Clive Davis, Dick Cavett, Paul Shaffer, David Kapralik, Freddy Stone

Strad Style
(USA) World Premiere
Director: Stefan Avalos
A rural Ohio eccentric with an obsession for 'Stradivari' convinces a famous European concert violinist that he can make a copy of one of the most famous and valuable violins in the world. Fighting time, poverty, and most of all - himself - Danny Houck puts everything on the line for one shot at glory.
Cast: Daniel Houck, Razvan Stoica, David Campbell, Rodger Stearns, Mary Houck

Supergirl
(USA)
Director: Jessie Auritt
Naomi seems like a typical 11-year-old Orthodox Jewish girl; watching her compete to lift almost three times her bodyweight tells a different story.

Who is Arthur Chu?
(USA) World Premiere
Director(s) & Screenwriter(s): Scott Drucker, Yu Gu
Arthur Chu, eleven time Jeopardy! winner turned internet iconoclast, battles dark forces as a blogger and cultural pundit ultimately realizing that to create positive change in the world he must first heal his own wounds.

All Access, Industry, Local's, and Student Festival Passes are available now online. Individual tickets will be available shortly. To purchase, click here: http://showcase.slamdance.com/Passes-and-Tickets

The 2017 Slamdance Artwork was created by artist Tommy C Burns

About Slamdance
Slamdance is a community, a year-round experience, and a statement. Established in 1995 by a wild bunch of filmmakers who were tired of relying on a large, oblique system to showcase their work, Slamdance has proven, year after year, that when it comes to recognizing talent and launching careers, independent and grassroots communities can do it themselves.

Slamdance alums are responsible for the programming and organization of the festival. With a variety of backgrounds, interests, and talents, but with no individual filmmaker’s vote meaning more than any others, Slamdance’s programming and organizing committees have been able to stay close to the heart of low budget and do-it-yourself filmmaking. In this way, Slamdance continues to grow and exemplify its mantra: By Filmmakers, For Filmmakers.

The 2017 Slamdance Film Festival will run January 20-26 in Park City, Utah.

Notable Slamdance alumni who first gained notice at the festival include: Christopher Nolan (Interstellar), Oren Peli (Paranormal Activity), Marc Forster (World War Z), Jared Hess (Napoleon Dynamite), Lena Dunham (Girls), Benh Zeitlin (Beasts of the Southern Wild), Anthony & Joe Russo (Captain America: The Winter Soldier), Jeremy Saulnier (Blue Ruin), Seth Gordon (Horrible Bosses), Lynn Shelton (Humpday) and Matt Johnson (Operation Avalanche). Box Office Mojo reports alumni who first showed their work at Slamdance have earned over $11.5 billion at the Box Office to date.

In addition to the Festival, Slamdance serves emerging artists and a growing audience with several year-round activities. These include the popular Slamdance Screenplay Competition, the traveling On The Road screening events, the Anarchy Workshop for student filmmakers, and The ArcLight Presents Slamdance Cinema Club – a monthly cinema club partnership with ArcLight Cinemas based at the ArcLight Hollywood and ArcLight Chicago, with two screenings and filmmaker Q&A’s each month:
www.arclightcinemas.com/en/news/arclight-presents-slamdance-cinema-club

In January 2015, Hulu partnered with Slamdance Studios to offer a new film collection from Festival alumni. The nascent but already profitable venture allows viewers to access Slamdance Studios on Hulu at www.hulu.com/companies/slamdance

Slamdance Presents is a new distribution arm established to access broader distribution of independent films. The goal is to build the popularity of independent films and support filmmakers on a commercial level through theatrical releases. In August 2016, Slamdance Presents launched the week long release of Claire Carré’s feature sci-fi film, Embers, at ArcLight Cinemas Hollywood. Steve Yu’s The Resurrection of Jake The Snake was the first film to be released by the company. The documentary reached number one on iTunes in December, 2015.

In November 2015, Slamdance announced DIG (Digital, Interactive & Gaming), a new digital, interactive and gaming showcase dedicated to emerging independent artists working in hybrid, immersive and developing forms of digital media art. Ten works were featured in the inaugural DIG show that opened in Los Angeles at Big Pictures Los Angeles on December 4, running through December 13, 2015. The show was also featured at the 2016 Slamdance Film Festival.

DIG will open December 2-10, 2016 and form part of the 2017 Film Festival.

2017 Slamdance Film Festival Sponsors include Blackmagic Design, Distribber, CreativeFuture, Directors Guild of America, Fusion, Different By Design, Pierce Law Group LLP, Writers Guild Of America West, Salt Lake City's Slug Magazine, Beehive Distilling, and BlueStar Café. Slamdance is proud to partner with sponsors who support emerging artists and filmmakers. Additional information about Slamdance is available at www.slamdance.com

The 2017 Slamdance Film Festival will take place January 20th - 26th in Park City, Utah. Additional information about the Slamdance is available at www.slamdance.com

PRESS MATERIALS:
Competition Film Stills: http://bit.ly/2goPmzt
Festival logos and key art: http://bit.ly/2gp1e4E

Additional References: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slamdance_Film_Festival

Connect With Slamdance:
Facebook: SlamdanceFilmFestival
Twitter: @slamdance
Instagram: @slamogram

Press Contact:

After Bruce PR
Eseel Borlasa
eseel@afterbruce.com
562-881-6725

Tracy Nguyen-Chung
tracy@afterbruce.com
503-701-2115

Slamdance Opening Night Film: World Premiere Of What Lies Upstream. Oscar Qualifying Shorts Program Features 24 World Premieres

(LOS ANGELES, CA - December 6, 2016) – (LOS ANGELES, CA) – Slamdance today announced its Special Screenings, Beyond, and Shorts programs for their 23nd Film Festival. It is a bold selection of films from visionary filmmakers from across the globe. This year the festival will host 35 World, 9 North American and 10 US premieres within these programs.


“This year Slamdance’s Special Screenings selections are hard-hitting, revelatory films that deserve exposure in Park City,” says Paul Rachman, Special Screening Programmer. “Averting trends and remaining premiere agnostic this program reflects the gut instinct Slamdance programmers rely on in their singular choices.”

Last year the festival presented EMBERS, a sci-fi indie directed by Claire Carre. Carre was recently nominated by the 32nd Film Independent Spirit Awards for the Kiehl’s Someone To Watch Award.

"The support of Slamdance has had a powerful impact on my first feature from selecting the film as the festival’s Closing Night film, through releasing it theatrically with Slamdance Presents,” shares Carre. “It's challenging making a low budget indie movie on your own, and it's easy to get lost. Slamdance has championed EMBERS in monumental ways."

This year, several Slamdance Alumni return with highly anticipated presentations in the Beyond Program. These selections are made be emerging narrative and documentary filmmakers working beyond their first features.

“The films in the Beyond section exhibit bold directorial vision and singular characters that introduce audiences to exciting and uncharted new worlds,” says Beyond programmer Josh Mandel. “These emerging filmmakers are beacons of light in a sea of darkness that will continue to forge new paths in the years to come.”

Films in this program are eligible for the Audience Award. Additionally, the filmmakers are eligible for the Spirit of Slamdance Awards, which is voted upon by their festival filmmakers peers.

“Our slate of short films this year is one of the most daring we have been privileged to showcase,” says Narrative Shorts programmer Taylor O. Miller. Fellow programmer Breven Angaelica adds, “We continue this year with short films that fit into their own category, or none at all, and bring a rawness and and originality to the future of filmmaking that we are humbled to recognize and share.”

The 2017 OscarⓇ Qualifying Shorts competition showcases 51 US and 20 International productions in the Narrative, Documentary, Animation, Anarchy and Experimental sections. All Slamdance films are programmed entirely by the Slamdance filmmaking community from blind submissions.

SPECIAL SCREENINGS PROGRAM
After Adderall
(USA)
Director and Screenwriter: Stephen Elliott
In 2010 James Franco optioned the rights to my memoir, The Adderall Diaries. In 2015 The Adderall Diaries starring James Franco and Ed Harris premiered at the TriBeca Film Festival. This is a movie about James Franco making a movie about me.
Cast: Stephen Elliott, Mickaela Tombrock, Bill Heck, Michael C. Hall, Ned Van Zandt, James Urbaniak, Lili Taylor, Jerry Stahl

A Narrative Film*
(USA)
Director: Michael Edwards
The most narrative narrative never narrated. It has a beginning, a middle, and an end…. It is at once both a three-act assault on the conceit of the traditional narrative, and also perhaps, a futile attempt to escape the narrative impulse of cinema.

What Lies Upstream
(USA) World Premiere
Director: Cullen Hoback
In this detective story, filmmaker Cullen Hoback investigates the largest chemical drinking water contamination in a generation. But something is rotten in state and federal regulatory agencies, and through years of persistent journalism, we learn the shocking truth about what’s really happening with drinking water in America.
Cast: Dr. Marc Edwards, Dr. Rahul Gupta, Dr. Mona Hanna-Attisha, Cullen Hoback, Randy Huffman, Dr. David Lewis, Maya Nye, Dr. Andrew Whelton

You Never Had It: An Evening with Bukowski
(Italy/Mexico/USA) US Premiere
Director and Screenwriter: Matteo Borgardt
A night of drinking and talking about sex, literature, childhood and humanity with the irreverent writer poet Charles Bukowski in his California house in 1981. A story of tapes lost, found and brought back to life.
Cast: Charles Bukowski, Linda Lee Beighle, Silvia Bizio

*Animated Short Preceding You Never Had It: An Evening with Bukowski

BEYOND PROGRAM
Automatic at Sea
(USA/ Denmark) North American Premiere
Director and Screenwriter: Matthew Lessner
Eve, a young Swedish traveler, finds herself stranded on a private island with Peter, a wealthy heir whom she hardly knows. While waiting for other guests to arrive, Eve becomes trapped in an unstable reality punctuated by feverish visions, dimensional shifting and secret ​soft drinks. How can she escape if she's not even sure she's there?
Cast: David Henry Gerson, Livia Hiselius, Breeda Wool

The Erlprince
(Poland) North American Premiere
Director and Screenwriter: Kuba Czekaj
It's the end of the world for a teenage genius, the feverish approach of the apocalypse - adulthood.
Cast: Staszek Cywka, Agnieszka Podsiadlik, Sebastian Łach,

Future ‘38
(USA) World Premiere
Director and Screenwriter: Jamie Greenberg
1938 screwball comedy set in the far-off future year of 2018
Cast: Betty Gilpin, Nick Westrate, Robert John Burke, Ethan Phillips, Sean Young, Tom Riis Farrell, Sophie von Haselberg, Tabitha Holbert

Neighborhood Food Drive
(USA) World Premiere
Director: Jerzy Rose; Screenwriter(s): Halle Butler, Mike Lopez, Jerzy Rose
A group of awful idiots fail at throwing a party over and over.
Cast: Lyra Hill, Bruce Bundy, Ruby McCollister, Ted Tremper, Marcos Barnes, Jared Larson

Suck It Up
(Canada) World Premiere
Director: Jordan Canning; Screenwriter: Julia Hoff
Faye lost the love of her life, Ronnie lost her brother. These two best friends take off on a debaucherous journey into the mountains to cope with the loss of the man they both loved.
Cast: Erin Carter, Grace Glowicki, Daniel Beirne, Toby Marks, Nancy Kerr, Michael Rowe

NARRATIVE SHORTS PROGRAM
August
(USA) World Premiere
Director and Screenwriter: Caitlyn Greene
Deep in Louisiana’s swampland, a woman wakes from a fever dream where it has been August for 16 years.
Cast: Kaelyn Charbonnet, Reginald Robinson, Sanita C. Irvin (Voice)

Birds with Human Heads
(USA) World Premiere
Director and Screenwriter: Max Wilde
Basking in the wildlife of a handmade universe, a girl receives her first stick and poke tattoo from her best friend.
Cast: Emma Factor, Emma Kikue Munson

Brad Cuts Loose
(USA) World Premiere
Director and Screenwriter: Christopher Good
An uptight office drone seemingly discovers the perfect vehicle for letting off steam when an advertisement for a business catering to his innermost desires pops up one morning on his computer.
Cast: Kentucker Audley, Tipper Newton, John Ennis, Wilson Vance

Business
(USA) World Premiere
Director and Screenwriter: Kati Skelton
A terrified young man gets tangled up in a surreal and demoralizing "business opportunity."
Cast: Branson Reese, Peter Reznikoff, Dagmar Stansova, Matt Dennie

The Cure
(USA) World Premiere
Director and Screenwriter: Mike Olenick
A mom cries, photos fly, cats spy, and bodies collide in this sci-fi soap opera that unravels the secret dreams of people who are desperately searching for ways to cure their fears of loneliness.
Cast: David Rysdahl, Jennifer Estlin, Justin Rose, Kait Staley, Mrva Russell

A Doll’s Hug
(Taiwan/USA) World Premiere
Director: Rob Chihwen Lo; Screenwriter(s): Rob Chihwen LO (Story), Cheng-Han WU (Screenplay)
A Taiwanese boy learns to fight back from the threatening violence in his Barbie doll world.
Cast: Pin-Chieh Su, Jackson Lou, Mengxi Hus, Fabio Grangeon, Ivon Huang

Dr. Meertz
(USA) World Premiere
Director and Screenwriter: Steve Collins
A renegade psychotherapist has a brief window of time to cure a patient with ungodly dreams.
Cast: John Merriman, Byron Brown, Paul Gordon

E
(Canada) US Premiere
Director and Screenwriter: Raphaël Ouellet
5 women : 5 tales of ordinary oppression.
Cast: Victoria Barkoff, Sandrine Bisson, Debbie Lynch-White, Sarah Pellerin, Alexa-Jeanne Dubé

Ford Clitaurus
(USA) World Premiere
Director and Screenwriter: MP Cunningham
An aspiring artist struggles to find his voice, his sexual identity, and the meaning of creativity.
Cast: Bryce Van Leuven, Taylor Young, MP Cunningham

Get Out Fast
(USA) World Premiere
Director and Screenwriter: Haley Elizabeth Anderson
Alex's best friend, Coyote Boy, is missing and he doesn't know why.
Cast: Hale Lytle, Tre Marquis Frazier, Warren Dedrick, Tori Wolsefer

I’m in Here
(USA) World Premiere
Director and Screenwriter: Willy Berliner
When a man finds a family of strangers in his house who claim to have bought the place, he agrees to let them stay until they can get to the bottom of the mix-up. They never leave.
Cast: Dave Hanson, Jim Santangeli, Jillian Lebling, Kathy Searle

The Investment
(USA) World Premiere
Director and Screenwriter: Steve Collins
A mysterious salesman offers an inadvisable investment opportunity to a lonely woman in need of a friend.
Cast: Courtney Davis, Paul Gordon

Last Night
(USA)
Director and Screenwriter: Kent Juliff
On the final night of their DIY stand up tour around Texas, five comics grow closer as friends.
Cast: Kent Juliff, Elizabeth Spears, Joe Tullar, Martin Urbano

Losing It
(USA) World Premiere
Director and Screenwriter: Henry Jinings
High schooler Marshall hopes to seal the deal on prom night, but his date, Sarah, might not be as into it as he had hoped.
Cast: Bryce Earhart, Rachelle Henry, Eric Newsome, Anne Ruttencutter, Nic Chase, Mason Knight, Alice Tokaryev

Neon Lights
(USA) World Premiere
Director and Screenwriter: Bradley Bixler
After a seemingly ordinary transaction goes wrong, a young stripper encounters a violent customer on her way home to her father’s birthday.
Cast: Adriana Llabrés, Parker Torres, Michael Barbour, Giovanny Cruz-Marín

No Other Way To Say It
(USA)
Director and Screenwriter: Tim Mason
A voice over actor tries to deliver the right performance while receiving confusing text messages and confusing direction.
Cast: Beth Melewski, Sue Salvi, Megan Kellie

Nonna
(Canada) US Premiere
Director and Screenwriter: Pascal Plante
Just another visit at granny's…
Cast: Micheline Chamberland, Catherine Beauchemin

Oh What a Wonderful Feeling
(Canada)
Director and Screenwriter: François Jaros
Stars, hide your fires, let not light see my black and deep desires. Nor any truck.
Cast: Karelle Tremblay, Frédérike Bédard, Catherine Hughes, Patrice Beauchesne

One-Minded
(France/USA/South Korea)
Director(s) and Screenwriter(s): Forest Ian Etsler, Sébastien Simon
"One-minded" tells the story of one fan's transformation from dog to God.
Cast: Moon Choi, Yaerin Erin Joo, Ryu Jun-yeol, Kwak Jin-moo

The Package
(USA) World Premiere
Director and Screenwriter: Benjamin Whatley
An experimental narrative which follows the journey of a product from the factory line to a consumer and beyond.
Cast: Michael Rudolf

Paco
(USA)
Director and Screenwriter: Catalina Jordan Alvarez
He wants you to bounce on his lap.
Cast: Brian Jordan Alvarez, Rosalyn Williams, Daniel Fishkin, Parker Dilworth

Pedazos
(USA)
Director and Screenwriter: Alejandro Peña
After a garish and violent ceremony, two lovers are thrown into a mysterious cave inhabited by flying creatures.
Cast: Henry MacLean, Will Stryker

Redmond Hand, Private Dick
(USA) World Premiere
Director: Todd Selby; Screenwriter: Jason Kreher
On her quest to find a beautiful woman's missing cactus, LA’s most notorious detective gets caught up in some crazy shit and then dies.
Cast: Felicia Pearson, Miranda Parham, Katya Zamolodchikova, Jay London

Sadhu in Bombay
(India) North American Premiere
Director: Kabir Mehta
Sadhu In Bombay is a documentary portrait of a man, with ascetic origins, who has been radically transformed by city life . The film explores the grey zones between truth, fiction and the construction of reality; while vividly addressing contemporary life in India.

Student Union
(Hungary) North American Premiere
Director and Screenwriter: György Mór Kárpáti
The return journey on a train from a freshman summer camp, where 18-year-old Dóra has just been sexually abused.
Cast: Katica Nagy, Krisztián Rózsa

Voyage of Galactic Space Dangler
(USA)
Director and Screenwriter: Evan Mann
A space man meets a cave man.
Cast: Andrew Finzel, Nolan Brown, Rick Romero, Valerie Simon

We Together
(USA)
Director and Screenwriter: Henry Kaplan
A zombie is awakened.
Cast: Martel Rudd, Kristopher McAfee

DOCUMENTARY SHORTS PROGRAM
Clean Hands
(USA) World Premiere
Director: Lauren DeFilippo
On a Sunday morning the congregation of the Daytona Beach Drive-In Christian Church tunes in.
Cast: Robert Kemp-Baird

Clip-135-02-05
(USA) World Premiere
Director: Sasha Gransjean
Animals are used to express the dislocation, helplessness, and anger, while nature illustrates the lack of control that we have on events that come to pass.
Cast: Sasha Gransjean

Commodity City
(USA) World Premiere
Director: Jessica Kingdon
An observation of the daily lives of vendors who work in China’s Yiwu Markets, the largest consumer market in the world. The film explores moments of tension between the fake and the real, between what is for sale and the humans who sell them.

The Dundee Project
(USA) World Premiere
Director and Screenwriter: Mark Borchardt
In his long-awaited follow-up to 1997's 'Coven,' filmmaker Mark Borchardt steps behind the camera again with 'The Dundee Project,' a documentary chronicling a small town UFO festival in Wisconsin.
Cast: Mark Borchardt, UFO Bob, Mike, Sheldon

Dust & Dirt
(USA) World Premiere
Director: Chris Stanford
Mason Massey dreams of one day making it to the top level of racing but with a lack of big money sponsorship he knows that it is going to be a long, hard road.
Cast: Mason Massey

Eveready
(Uganda/USA) World Premiere
Director: Paul Szynol
Uganda's most surprising boxer steps into the ring one more time.

Irregulars
(Italy)
Director: Fabio Palmieri
Against a tellingly hypnotic factory backdrop, a refugee encapsulates the global immigration crisis in his own wrenching words.
Cast: Cyrille Kabore

It Is What It Is
(USA) US Premiere
Director: Cyrus Yoshi Tabar
As filmmaker Cyrus Yoshi Tabar digs deep into his family history for answers to questions that have shaped his life, he finds that there are some things that might be better off left in the past.
Cast: Cyrus Yoshi Tabar, Afsaneh Sade, Roxane Maiko Pate

Moriom
(Switzerland)
Director(s): Francesca Scalisi, Mark Olexa
Moriom, a beautiful but strange young woman, says her parents must be punished for holding her prisoner and torturing her. They have a different story.

The Real Wi-Fi of Baltimore
(USA) World Premiere
Director: Julia Kim Smith
Featuring the genre-busting talent of James Nasty and TT the Artist, The Real Wi-Fi Of Baltimore offers a punny and nuanced view of Baltimore neighborhoods in a short film edited from iPhone screenshots of Wi-Fi network names.
Cast: James Nasty, TT the Artist

Richard Twice
(USA) World Premiere
Director: Matthew Salton
Richard Atkins, the singer and songwriter of the early 70’s California psychedelic folk duo ‘Richard Twice’, was on his way to stardom and a huge success with his first debut album when he mysteriously walked away from it all.
Cast: Richard Atkins

Searching for Wives
(Singapore) North American Premiere
Director and Screenwriter: Zuki Juno Tobgye
A foreign worker from South India, whose customs says he is not allowed to marry at an even age, comes to Singapore in search of a job and a chance to find a wife before he turns 32.
Cast: Shanmugavel Pathakarnan, Sheeja Sajeev Lal, K. Sajeev Lal, Ramalingam Muthu

Sweet Pie
(USA) World Premiere
Director: Pierce Cravens
Sweet Pie, also known as Paul Winer, revives his career as the baron of bare-assed boogie-woogie and blues at the Public Theater in NYC.
Cast: Sweet Pie aka Paul Winer, Joanne Winer, Will Perone

This is Yates
(USA)
Director: Josh Yates
A reflexive analog-elegy that hates itself.

Troll: A Southern Tale
(USA)
Director: Marinah Janello
An eccentric artist navigates self-expression through his experiences living and growing up in the South.
Cast: Tony Arnold

ANIMATION SHORTS PROGRAM
Auto
(USA) US Premiere
Director: Conner Griffith
Cars dance on highways, crowds of people wash across sidewalk shores.

Batfish Soup
(USA)
Director: Amanda Bonaiuto
Wacky relatives give way to mounting tensions with broken dolls, boiling stew and a bang.

Chella Drive
(USA) Us Premiere
Director: Adele Han Li
A disembodied memory of adolescence in a Southern Californian suburb. The stuck-stillness of endless summer is disrupted only by a passing El Niño.

Hold Me (Ca Caw Ca Caw)
(USA)
Renee Zhan
Flap flapflapflapflap flap. A large bird and a small boy cohabit in an unhappy relationship, trapped by four walls and a mutual codependency. The fragile balance of their existence is cracked by an un-eggs-pected arrival.

Insect Bite
(USA)
Director: Grace Nayoon Rhee
A tiny bug tries to figure out what it wants to become.

It Is My Fault
(China) North American Premiere
Director: Liu Sha
This work utilizes the own approach of the digital medium itself to deconstruct, to form the subliminal synesthesia visually and to create a fictional experience for the mind.

Monkey
(China) US Premiere
Director and Screenwriter: Shen Jie
One of the three monkeys died.

My Father’s Room
(South Korea) North American Premiere
Director and Screenwriter: Nari Jang
Sometimes, family members can be worse than strangers.

The Noise of Licking
(Hungary)
Director and Screenwriter: Nadja Andrasev; Short story by: Ádám Bodor
A woman is being watched every day by the neighbor's cat, as she takes care of her exotic plants. Their perverted ritual comes to an end when the cat disappears. Next spring a peculiar man pays her a visit.

Plena Stellarum
(USA)
Director and Screenwriter: Matthew Wade
Neon ghosts dreaming in dead landscapes.

Q
(USA) US Premiere
Director: James Bascara
A bashful encounter.

Remember
(Japan)
Director and Screenwriter: Shunsaku Hayashi
“Leaving home, ‘I’ got a phone call. As ‘I’ answered it, the house exploded. ‘I’ went to work and continued as normal”…

Serpentine
(USA) North American Premiere
Director and Screenwriter: Bronwyn Maloney
A young woman's reflective fantasy arouses a surreal exploration of sensuality, self-esteem, and deeply rooted fears.

EXPERIMENTAL SHORTS PROGRAM
Blua
(Colombia) World Premiere
Director and Screenwriter: Carolina Charry Quintero
What do we see when we really look at an animal? Certainly, not just what meets the eye.
Cast: Margarita Quintero, Chuja Seo, Rafa Rojas, José Adam Arriola

Experiments in Non-Cinema
(USA) World Premiere
Director(s) and Screenwriter(s): Spencer Holden, Noah Engel
Making cinematic experiences without a camera apparatus. Non-Cinema
Cast: Spencer Holden, Noah Engel

Girl Becomes Snow
(USA) World Premiere
Director(s) and Screenwriter(s): Ryan Betschart, Tyler Betschart
An investigation into death induced dream ephemera or; a body (mind) dissolves into video signal memories.
Cast: Karissa Hahn

Press Play
(USA) World Premiere
Director: Kym McDaniel
Discernment becomes crucial as a little girl negotiates an adult world where different forms of entrapment threaten reality.

The Trembling Giant
(United Kingdom)
Director: Patrick Tarrant
The bark of the quaking aspen is thought to provide the cure for any fear who cause can't be named.

Unknown Hours
(USA) North American Premiere
Director: Calum Walter
An observer journeys down a main street in Chicago towards a neighborhood known for its nightlife.

UpCycles
(USA)
Director: Ariana Gerstein
Cycling from original footage shot on super 8mm, up to 16mm, 35mm, down again to 16, optically printed, hand processed, and then optically printed again using a digital still camera to end on digital video.

ANARCHY SHORTS PROGRAM
Ape Sodom
(Canada)
Director and Screenwriter: Maxwell McCabe-Lokos
Three degenerates navigate the descending hierarchy of post-consumerist enlightenment.
Cast: Maxwell McCabe-Lokos, Mihaly Szabados, Perrie Olthuis, David Cronenberg

Hell Follows
(USA/Japan) World Premiere
Director and Screenwriter: Brian Harrison
Betrayed by his clan and murdered for his past evil deeds, a sadistic killer's soul possesses his identical twin's body and sets out onto the road of vengeance for one final crusade of extermination... Everywhere he goes... HELL FOLLOWS.
Cast: Takuya Iba, Shu Sakimoto, Masahiro Takahashi, Sohanny Rose

Horseshoe Theory
(USA) World Premiere
Director: Jonathan Daniel Brown; Screenwriter(s): Jonathan Daniel Brown, Travis Harrington
A weapons deal between a white supremacist and a member of the Islamic State blossoms into more.
Cast: Jackson Rathbone, Amir Malaklou, Lily Harrington, Travis Harrington

In a World of Bad Breath
(USA) World Premiere
Director and Screenwriter: Christopher Graybill
Watch general confusion amongst an ancient presence.
Cast: Oates Wu, Asher Knowles

Lighter Click
(USA) World Premiere
Director: Robbie Ward
An odyssey through a mysterious psychedelic landscape full of monsters and secrets both beautiful and dark.

Silverhead
(USA) US Premiere
Director and Screenwriter: Lewis Vaughn
A deranged, 300 lb. masked ax murderer terrorizes the streets of Chicago as a calculated hunter tracks him.
Cast: Christopher Porter, Corbin Manning, Clayvon Reeves, Jason Grey, Jarren Davis, Rodney Andrews, Ashley Pough

TheBox
(USA) US Premiere
Director(s): Jack Turpin, Davy Walker
An expressionistic journey through the gilt-pop-entrapment in which we find ourselves.

Vitamins for Life
(USA)
Director: Grier Dill; Screenwriter: T. R. Darling
An educational film about some lesser known vitamins.
Cast: Tessa Greenberg

What a Beautiful World This Will Be
(USA)
Director and Screenwriter: Tyler Walker
While a mysterious disease called “the Blank” ravages New York City, a young drunk must find his missing friend.
Cast: Jordan Michael Blake, Luke Marinkovich, Kara Dudley, Amanda Evans

Press Stills: http://bit.ly/2goPmzt

###

ABOUT SLAMDANCE
Slamdance is a community, a year-round experience, and a statement. Established in 1995 by a wild bunch of filmmakers who were tired of relying on a large, oblique system to showcase their work, Slamdance has proven, year after year, that when it comes to recognizing talent and launching careers, independent and grassroots communities can do it themselves.

Slamdance alums are responsible for the programming and organization of the festival. With a variety of backgrounds, interests, and talents, but with no individual filmmaker’s vote meaning more than any others, Slamdance’s programming and organizing committees have been able to stay close to the heart of low budget and do-it-yourself filmmaking. In this way, Slamdance continues to grow and exemplify its mantra: By Filmmakers, For Filmmakers.

The 2017 Slamdance Film Festival will run January 20-26 in Park City, Utah.

Notable Slamdance alumni who first gained notice at the festival include: Christopher Nolan (Interstellar), Oren Peli (Paranormal Activity), Marc Forster (World War Z), Jared Hess (Napoleon Dynamite), Lena Dunham (Girls), Benh Zeitlin (Beasts of the Southern Wild), Anthony & Joe Russo (Captain America: The Winter Soldier), Jeremy Saulnier (Blue Ruin), Seth Gordon (Horrible Bosses), Lynn Shelton (Humpday) and Matt Johnson (Operation Avalanche). Box Office Mojo reports alumni who first showed their work at Slamdance have earned over $11.5 billion at the Box Office to date.

In addition to the Festival, Slamdance serves emerging artists and a growing audience with several year-round activities. These include the popular Slamdance Screenplay Competition, the traveling On The Road screening events, the Anarchy Workshop for student filmmakers, and The ArcLight Presents Slamdance Cinema Club – a monthly cinema club partnership with ArcLight Cinemas based at the ArcLight Hollywood and ArcLight Chicago, with two screenings and filmmaker Q&A’s each month:
www.arclightcinemas.com/en/news/arclight-presents-slamdance-cinema-club

Slamdance Presents is a new distribution arm established to access broader distribution of independent films. The goal is to build the popularity of independent films and support filmmakers on a commercial level through theatrical releases. In August 2016, Slamdance Presents launched the week long release of Claire Carré’s feature sci-fi film, Embers, at ArcLight Cinemas Hollywood. Steve Yu’s The Resurrection of Jake The Snake was the first film to be released by the company. The documentary reached number one on iTunes in December, 2015.

In November 2015, Slamdance announced DIG (Digital, Interactive & Gaming), a new digital, interactive and gaming showcase dedicated to emerging independent artists working in hybrid, immersive and developing forms of digital media art. Ten works were featured in the inaugural DIG show that opened in Los Angeles at Big Pictures Los Angeles on December 4, running through December 13, 2015. The show was also featured at the 2016 Slamdance Film Festival.

DIG will open December 2-10, 2016 in Los Angeles and form part of the 2017 Film Festival.

2017 Slamdance Film Festival Sponsors include Blackmagic Design, Distribber, CreativeFuture, Directors Guild of America, Fusion, Different By Design, Pierce Law Group LLP, Writers Guild Of America West, Salt Lake City's Slug Magazine, Beehive Distilling, and BlueStar Café. Slamdance is proud to partner with sponsors who support emerging artists and filmmakers. Additional information about Slamdance is available at www.slamdance.com

Facebook: SlamdanceFilmFestival
Twitter: @slamdance
Instagram: @slamogram


Additional References: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slamdance_Film_Festival

PRESS CONTACT:

After Bruce PR
Eseel Borlasa
eseel@afterbruce.com
562-881-6725

Tracy Nguyen-Chung
tracy@afterbruce.com
503-701-2115

This year we welcome Houston native and MFA student at Claremont University, Tommy C Burns to the already impressive list of artists who have contributed to Slamdance including Shepard Fairey, Kii Arens, David Flores and Rosie Lea.

Slamdance spoke with Tommy about his background, inspirations, and his creation of the 2017 Slamdance Film Festival key art, titled The Charmer.



Could you tell us a little bit about yourself and your background? Where are you from?

Originally I’m from Texas, born in Houston. I graduated from high school in Midland-Odessa and I have a huge family in San Antonio. I moved to LA when I was 18 and California has always been kind of influential to me from an artistic perspective. When I was growing up, I admired a lot of graffiti coming out of LA. A lot of the youth skateboarding scene which is heavy with images for decks and tee shirts and stuff like that. Of course, the movies. That’s so powerful, and all the album covers that I would see growing up. I mean, I do know my art history a little bit, but I would say that as far as what is contemporary art to me, that is more influential to me then the modern art scene.

LA’s definitely a good place to find that kind of, subversive stuff. And that’s really “Slamdance” too...graffiti and album artwork and stuff like that. When did you start getting into art?

Some of my first memories are making art I guess. My grandmother was an artist, rest in peace. She just died actually this last year. I didn’t really have a lot of contact with her because she lived very far away and I didn’t really have as much communication on that side of the family, but it was always a memorable experience. I just think I’ve formed a lot of my best friendships around artistic sensibilities. I guess we kind of search each other out.

Yeah, you have a bond.

Yeah, especially in a city like Midland-Odessa where I graduated from high school, it’s not a very artist-friendly environment. I think it’s kind of changing a little bit more, but it’s definitely not something that was encouraged

Right. Did you find your crew of artists there? Did you have a community?

I did. We never expected to be able to do what we’re doing now. It’s real inspiring because I have a friend who owns a gallery, I have another friend who is a pretty well known tattoo artist in the area. Out here too, in California, I’ve gotten a chance to be introduced to so many different artists and meet a lot of my heroes growing up. Not just that, but I think I was really heavily influenced by a lot of chicano art and muralists. Even though I don’t think that’s necessarily what I do, I know that subliminally all those things kind of come into my conscious.

That was my next question. How does your cultural background influence your work? I do feel as well that even if it’s something you don’t actively think about, it’s inside you.

Definitely. And thankfully, through some of my trips painting in different cities, I’ve gotten to see just how there’s a common aesthetic throughout the whole southwest for that kind of movement. It’s meaningful to get to see those kind of common bonds of images. I think that all of those kinds of images are changing literally the way people look at themselves. Having a place like a film festival is the same thing. People get a chance to explore some of those kind of topics, and having the opportunity to paint and do something different, it’s been really helpful for me and my artistic development.

Something that we’ve come to learn at Slamdance is that it’s super hard for filmmakers to get a start, because it’s very competitive and it tends to be that you need a lot of money to do anything. I’m wondering with art and your experience, what are some roadblocks that you’ve faced?

It’s actually kind of ironic, because to tell you the truth I did some film school and I really love film and have tried to do film myself. I’ve always wanted to branch into film because it seemed more stable. I was thinking, if I get this technical skill of being an editor or cameraman, it’s gonna be more job security. Little did I know..

...there’s millions of people thinking the same thing

Yeah! Going back into art I felt like it was a chance for me to distinguish myself from others by doing something that was a little more personal. It’s easier to see the artist's’ hand. My thing is basically to try and make things, no matter what, without needing permission or approval. It does suck to feel like you have to wait for a budget or a permit. That’s really my main thing with film. I shot so much without any paperwork and no permits. It’s like I have a form-o-phobia. Anyways, I guess that’s what I would say. People should just try and make things until hopefully people will see they’re passionate for what they do, and they can meet the right person who can help their ideas live in the real world, you know? Not just in their head.

So you’re currently a student at Claremont. How long have you been studying there?

I’m getting my Masters in Fine Arts. There’s not really a way to describe it because we can all do what we want. I really enjoy my professors, Amiko, and David Pagel as well have really helped me a lot. It’s been a great experience. Like I said, I haven’t really ever studied art formally. I had a class in high school, one class in college with David Amiko, which is why I chose to go back to school. He really encouraged me and helped me through the application process as far as giving me a lot of good advice on how to follow through.



How do you feel about being the festival artist for Slamdance?
In a way, I feel like it is a complicated relationship that artists have with commerce. Yet at the same time, it’s one of the most exciting relationships an artist can have. That’s what we aspire to, is to be seen and to be heard and be relevant. I feel like a film festival is the ultimate example of that. You’re having all these teams of people trying to come together to express these abstract ideas. As an artist, I do that by myself at a studio. I was talking to somebody about “art by committee.” It’s kind of a painful process in a way. I guess you can almost say it’s like group therapy. It’s kind of painful because there’s uncomfortable moments about certain things because people don’t agree or see eye to eye on everything, but there’s a lot of growth that’s happening. People have wide and varied interests and belief systems, I think an independent film festival is kind of the epitome of that.

Yeah, and your artwork is representing that this year. It’s pretty awesome.

Yeah it’s exciting!

We’re so stoked with how the artwork turned out and feel as though it totally represents us as a festival and what we’ve been doing for over 20 years. In your words, what is the message behind this piece and how does it fit in with our festival?

First off, I think it was fun for me to paint. It was to me an image that I want to look at. It’s interesting and could be looked at as somewhat erotic. I look at it like, yeah it’s sexy, but everyone has different ideas of what sexy is. I completely understand if not everyone thinks it’s sexy. The main form is representing a strong woman, and at the same time, kind of wrestling with those societal pressures of what she should be doing or how she should be acting. With all the stuff that’s happening with the election, I know that a strong woman is still very intimidating for a lot of people. I know that not everybody is going to look at that image and see just a strong woman. I think like I said about sexuality, it’s always going to be like a hand grenade, no matter what it’s gonna be explosive. But that’s also what’s interesting about those kinds of images to me. I tried to do it tastefully from my perspective or my point of origin.

I really appreciate the opportunity and I think I chose to try to use it to represent the festival because what I admire about filmmakers is that they’re wrestling with their own personal demons or ideas. Like the way she’s holding the snake. It’s unclear-- is it friendly? Is it dangerous? Is she playing with it or is she restraining it? There’s a lot of uncertainty and I think that’s the fun part of film and having other people look at your film and those kinds of interactions. Those kinds of interactions are really precarious.

Here’s a fun one, what’s your favorite movie

Oh man, it’s really hard

It’s my least favorite question

For real I’ve seen hundreds of movies. I’m a huge Criterion Collection fan. I’ve seen a lot of them. I love japanese films. I’d say one of my favorite films that is one of the most personal to me is 400 blows. That’s his first film! It’s incredible, it’s insane. I’m a huge Kurosawa fan, that’s probably my favorite director as well as Kubrick. I’m a huge Walter Hill fan and I like a lot of various strange things like Ralph Bakshi. I like Brian de Palma’s films, and the film Black Moon by Louis Malle, that one is a big inspiration to me actually. It’s hard for me to narrow stuff down, and there’s so many incredible filmmakers, it’s insane. I mean, how to even keep up with all the new talent because even now it’s even more crazy and it’s harder to know who’s who because there’s so many more people that are creating!

Connect With Tommy
Facebook: Facebook.com/TommyCBurns
Instagram: @burnsalive

(PARK CITY, UT – January 26, 2017)– The 23rd Slamdance Film Festival tonight announced the feature and short film recipients of this year's Sparky awards in the Audience, Jury, and Sponsored Categories. The award winners were announced at the festival’s annual Awards Ceremony at the Treasure Mountain Inn in Park City, UT.


Established in 1995 by a wild bunch of filmmakers, Slamdance has proven, year after year, that when it comes to recognizing talent and launching careers, independent and grassroots communities can do it themselves. Previous Slamdance alumni include: Christopher Nolan (THE DARK KNIGHT; MEMENTO), and Claire Carre (EMBERS).

“Independent film is made beautiful not by those individual artists that form celebrity culture but by creative collaboration” said Slamdance Co-Founder and President, Peter Baxter. “At Slamdance this year we've experienced an entire program of beautiful independent film and the promise of great emerging artists continuing the legacy of what we set out to do. With our awards we honor several filmmakers yet we know and must acknowledge Slamdance has just been made stronger by everyone of them who has taken part.”

A jury of esteemed filmmakers and industry professionals determined the Slamdance Jury Awards for Narrative Feature, Documentary Feature, and Short Film categories. The Audience Awards as well as the Spirit of Slamdance, an award given by the filmmakers of Slamdance 2017 to the filmmaker who best embodies the spirit of the Festival, were also bestowed. Additional sponsored awards were provided by NAB Show, Final Draft, and Pierce Law Group LLP. The feature competition films in the Documentary and Narrative Programs are limited to first-time filmmakers working with production budgets of less than $1 million.

This year’s Slamdance Narrative Jury Prizes were selected by: film critic Jason Coleman, Ania Trzebiatowska (Visit Films), and filmmaker Jerzy Rose (CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY). The Sparky Prize for Best Narrative Feature went to DIM THE FLUORESCENTS; directed by Daniel Warth, and written by Warth and Miles Barstead.

“It’s empathetic, weird and insanely funny.” said Slamdance jurors. “This film delivers its crazy script with guts & panache. It's a delight--beautifully executed and smart as a whip.”

This year’s Slamdance Documentary Jury Prizes were selected by: filmmaker Adrian Belic (GENGHIS BLUES; BEYOND THE CALL), filmmaker Mario DeAngelis, filmmaker/journalist Silvia Bizio. The Sparky Prize for Best Documentary Feature went to STRAD STYLE; directed by Stefan Avalos.

Jurors shared that they honor the film, “for capturing a journey of passion and commitment, honesty and the triumph of one vision against all odds.”

The same Jury also gave the Sparky Prize for Best Documentary Short to MORIOM, directed by Francesca Scalisi and Mark Olexa, highlighting “its arresting portrayal dramatically shot of human trauma and its consequence.”

This year’s Slamdance Narrative Shorts and Animated Shorts jury prizes were selected by: filmmaker Sonia Albert Sobrino, Jeffrey Bowers (VIMEO, Sr, Curator), and filmmaker Malik Vitthal (IMPERIAL DREAMS). The Sparky Prize for Best Narrative Short went to NO OTHER WAY TO SAY IT, directed by Tim Mason

Jurors celebrated the film and shared, “we recognize this brave new voice that found the magical combination to create this work.”

The Sparky Prize for Best Animated Short went to Hold Me (Ca Caw Ca Caw), directed by Renee Zhan. “This film is brilliant, and nuanced portrait of power and control and the pain that this artists creates,” said Jurors. “Its honest voice found a way to share a very private moment with a flawless combination of oppressed levity”

This year’s Experimental Shorts/Anarchy Shorts Prizes were selected by: filmmaker Miriam Albert Sobrino, filmmaker Mike Olenick (RED LUCK; THE CURE), and film programmer Bryan Wendorf (Chicago Underground Film Festival)

The Sparky Prize for Best Experimental Short went to UpCycles, directed by Ariana Gerstein. “We are impressed by the unusual and meticulous process involved in making UpCycles,” said Jurors. “We are even more affected that the process never overshadowed the pure visual delight of experiencing this experimental film.”

The Sparky Prize for Best Anarchy Short was given to APE SODOM, directed by Maxwell McCabe-Lokos. “While we were impressed by the strange and fully realized world of this film,” Jurors said, “We were more impressed by seeing how many objects someone could shove up their ass at one time. Ape Sodom not only lived up to its name--it embodies the spirit of anarchy.”

The Spirit Of Slamdance Award went to the film team of NEIGHBORHOOD FOOD DRIVE, directed by Jerzy Rose, and written by Rose, Halle Butler, and Mike Lopez

Awards were also given to festival favorites, voted on by the Slamdance audiences. The Narrative Feature Audience Award was given to DAVE MADE A MAZE, Bill Watterson, and written by Watterson and Steven Sears. The Documentary Feature Audience Award was given to STRAD STYLE. The Beyond Feature Audience Award was given to FUTURE ‘38, directed by Jamie Greenberg.

Immediately following closing night, Slamdance will present a special encore screening in Los Angeles of their opening night film, WHAT LIES UPSTREAM. The documentary feature, directed by Cullen Hoback will launch the ArcLight Presents Slamdance Cinema Club 2017 season on Tuesday, January 31st at the ArcLight Hollywood. Tickets

Full List of Winners
Jury Awards | Narrative Features
Narrative Feature Grand Jury Prize:
DIM THE FLUORESCENTS
(Canada) World Premiere
Director: Daniel Warth; Screenwriter(s): Miles Barstead, Daniel Warth
Jury statement: “Empathetic, weird and insanely funny, this film delivers its crazy script with guts & panache. It's a delight--beautifully executed and smart as a whip. The jury is thrilled to present the grand jury prize for best narrative feature to DIM THE FLUORESCENTS.”

Narrative Features Honorable Mention:
KATE CAN'T SWIM
(USA) World Premiere
Director: Josh Helman; Screenwriter(s): Jennifer Allcott, Josh Helman
Jury statement: “Flawless in its execution of portraying real relationships with believably nuanced characters, authentic on-screen chemistry and an engaging story that thrives on what isn’t said.”

Jury Awards | Documentary Features, Documentary Shorts
Documentary Feature Grand Jury Prize:
STRAD STYLE
(USA) World Premiere
Director: Stefan Avalos
Jury statement: “For capturing a journey of passion and commitment, honesty and the triumph of one vision against all odds.’

Documentary Feature Honorable Mention:
THE MODERN JUNGLE
(Mexico/USA)
Director(s) & Screenwriter(s): Charles Fairbanks, Saul Kak
Jury statement: “For its beautiful cinematography, for a compassionate journey into a dangerous and uncharted world.”

Documentary Short Grand Jury Prize:
MORIOM
(Switzerland)
Director(s): Francesca Scalisi, Mark Olexa
Jury statement: “For an arresting portrayal dramatically shot of human trauma and its consequence.”

Documentary Short Honorable Mention:
IRREGULARS
(Italy)
Director: Fabio Palmieri
Jury statement: “For its visionary take on the dehumanized face of immigration.”

Jury Awards - Narrative Shorts/Animated Shorts
Narrative Shorts Grand Jury Prize:
NO OTHER WAY TO SAY IT
(USA)
Director and Screenwriter: Tim Mason
Jury statement: “Brave new voice, that found the magical combination to create the complete short film. "It's Good There's no other way to say it."

Narrative Shorts Honorable Mention:
OH WHAT A WONDERFUL FEELING
(Canada)
Director and Screenwriter: François Jaros
Jury statement: “Powerful storytelling that found a way to lean away from the stereotypes and consider the humans within the context, with a technical savvy and social responsibility this film reminds us to witness everyone and to see their power.”

Animated Shorts Grand Jury Prize:
HOLD ME (CA CAW CA CAW)
(USA)
Renee Zhan
Jury statement: “For its brilliant, and nuanced portrait of power and control and the pain that this artists creates. This honest voice found a way to share a very private moment with a flawless combination of oppressed levity”

Animated Shorts Honorable Mention:
MY FATHER'S ROOM
(South Korea) North American Premiere
Director and Screenwriter: Nari Jang
Jury statement: “This heartbreaking portrait of a girl's broken relationship and the lifelong effects of growing up with an abusive father found a way to sear into its audience to look at the root of pain, asking us to reflect if we could ever escape its cloud. A complete and touching film.”

Jury Awards - Experimental Shorts/Anarchy Shorts
Experimental Shorts Grand Jury Prize:
UPCYCLES
(USA)
Director: Ariana Gerstein
Jury statement: “We are impressed by the unusual and meticulous process involved in making UpCycles. We are even more affected that the process never overshadowed the pure visual delight of experiencing this experimental film.”

Experimental Shorts Honorable Mention:
BLUA
(Colombia)
Director and Screenwriter: Carolina Charry Quintero
Jury statement: “We were surprised by the unexpected shifts between the documentary, narrative, and experimental moments in Blua, and we look forward to seeing the path the filmmaker takes with her future work.”

Anarchy Shorts Grand Jury Prize:
APE SODOM
(Canada)
Director and Screenwriter: Maxwell McCabe-Lokos
Jury statement: “While we were impressed by the strange and fully realized world of this film, we were more impressed by seeing how many objects someone could shove up their ass at one time. Ape Sodom not only lived up to its name -- it embodies the spirit of anarchy.”

Anarchy Shorts Honorable Mention:
HORSESHOE THEORY
(USA) World Premiere
Director: Jonathan Daniel Brown
Jury statement: “At a time when America is more divided than ever, this film gives us the hope that two opposing sides can set aside their differences, come together, work together, fall in love... and cum together.”

Spirit of Slamdance Award Winner:
NEIGHBORHOOD FOOD DRIVE
(USA) World Premiere
Director: Jerzy Rose; Screenwriter(s): Halle Butler, Mike Lopez, Jerzy Rose

Audience Awards
Audience Award for Narrative Feature:
DAVE MADE A MAZE
(USA) World Premiere
Director: Bill Watterson; Screenwriter(s): Steven Sears, Bill Watterson

Audience Award for Documentary Feature:
STRAD STYLE
(USA) World Premiere
Director: Stefan Avalos

Audience Award for Beyond Feature:
FUTURE '38
(USA) World Premiere
Director and Screenwriter: Jamie Greenberg

ABOUT SLAMDANCE:
Slamdance is a community, a year-round experience, and a statement. Established in 1995 by a wild bunch of filmmakers who were tired of relying on a large, oblique system to showcase their work, Slamdance has proven, year after year, that when it comes to recognizing talent and launching careers, independent and grassroots communities can do it themselves.

Slamdance alums are responsible for the programming and organization of the festival. With a variety of backgrounds, interests, and talents, but with no individual filmmaker’s vote meaning more than any others, Slamdance’s programming and organizing committees have been able to stay close to the heart of low budget and do-it-yourself filmmaking. In this way, Slamdance continues to grow and exemplify its mantra: By Filmmakers, For Filmmakers.

The 2017 Slamdance Film Festival will run January 20-26 in Park City, Utah.

Notable Slamdance alumni who first gained notice at the festival include: Christopher Nolan (Interstellar), Oren Peli (Paranormal Activity), Marc Forster (World War Z), Jared Hess (Napoleon Dynamite), Lena Dunham (Girls), Benh Zeitlin (Beasts of the Southern Wild), Anthony & Joe Russo (Captain America: The Winter Soldier), Jeremy Saulnier (Blue Ruin), Seth Gordon (Horrible Bosses), Lynn Shelton (Humpday) and Matt Johnson (Operation Avalanche). Box Office Mojo reports alumni who first showed their work at Slamdance have earned over $11.5 billion at the Box Office to date.

In addition to the Festival, Slamdance serves emerging artists and a growing audience with several year-round activities. These include the popular Slamdance Screenplay Competition, the traveling On The Road screening events, the Anarchy Workshop for student filmmakers, and The ArcLight Presents Slamdance Cinema Club – a monthly cinema club partnership with ArcLight Cinemas based at the ArcLight Hollywood and ArcLight Chicago, with two screenings and filmmaker Q&A’s each month:
www.arclightcinemas.com/en/news/arclight-presents-slamdance-cinema-club

Slamdance Presents is a new distribution arm established to access broader distribution of independent films. The goal is to build the popularity of independent films and support filmmakers on a commercial level through theatrical releases. In August 2016, Slamdance Presents launched the week long release of Claire Carré’s feature sci-fi film, Embers, at ArcLight Cinemas Hollywood. Steve Yu’s The Resurrection of Jake The Snake was the first film to be released by the company. The documentary reached number one on iTunes in December, 2015.

In November 2015, Slamdance announced DIG (Digital, Interactive & Gaming), a new digital, interactive and gaming showcase dedicated to emerging independent artists working in hybrid, immersive and developing forms of digital media art. Ten works were featured in the inaugural DIG show that opened in Los Angeles at Big Pictures Los Angeles on December 4, running through December 13, 2015. The show was also featured at the 2016 Slamdance Film Festival. DIG opened in Los Angeles December 2-10, 2016 and will form part of the 2017 Film Festival.

2017 Slamdance Film Festival Sponsors include Blackmagic Design, Distribber, CreativeFuture, Directors Guild of America, Fusion, Different By Design, Pierce Law Group LLP, Writers Guild Of America West, Salt Lake City's Slug Magazine, Beehive Distilling, and BlueStar Café. Slamdance is proud to partner with sponsors who support emerging artists and filmmakers. Additional information about Slamdance is available at www.slamdance.com

Facebook: SlamdanceFilmFestival
Twitter: @slamdance
Instagram: @slamogram

PRESS CONTACT:
After Bruce PR
Eseel Borlasa
eseel@afterbruce.com
562-881-6725
Tracy Nguyen-Chung
tracy@afterbruce.com
503-701-2115

Driven, co-presented by Slamdance, is a scripted series by Stephen Elliott (The Adderall Diaries, After Adderall) that delves into the world of on-demand car services and the lives behind those who ride and those who drive. It's also a commentary on how people live in post-Trump America.

Click here to view more episodes.



Paul Mitchell is 45 years old and lives in New York. He's the author of several books but hasn't written much in a long time. The day Donald Trump is elected Paul realizes he's tired of trying to write. He gives up and becomes a driver for Panda Car, a car-sharing platform rival to Uber.

Ep. 1 Cast: Jennifer Missoni, Paul Glover, Michael Cunningham, Will Dagger, Ariana Chevalier, Nina Binder, Stephen Elliott

Pics from Slamdance 2017 by Ian Stroud

Slamdance Cinema Club
Dave Made a Maze
September 10th, 8PM at ArcLight Hollywood
September 20th, 8PM at ArcLight Chicago
Buy Tickets

The Scent of Rain and Lightning
September 11th, 8PM at ArcLight Hollywood
September 21st, 8PM at ArcLight Hollywood
Buy Tickets

Today marks our 24th annual unveiling of the Slamdance Film Festival key art and artist. This year, we welcome Dakota Noot, a recent Claremont University graduate from North Dakota, to the already impressive list of artists who have contributed to Slamdance including Shepard Fairey, Kii Arens, David Flores, Rosie Lea and Tommy C. Burns.

We asked Dakota about his background, his art, his creation of the 2017 Slamdance Film Festival key art, and also bacon.


Tell us a bit about yourself and your background. Where are you from?

I am an artist originally from North Dakota, but I currently live in Los Angeles. I recently graduated with my Masters in Fine Arts from Claremont Graduate University.

When did you start doing art?

I've been making art since I was a child. My dad is a high school art teacher, so I always grew up around it. I can't remember not making art and I've never stopped.

What mediums do you work in?
I mostly paint and draw. My paintings are all acrylic, because I love how plastic and flat it looks. I'm definitely not going for realism.

What are some themes that flow through your work?

I draw a lot from my background. Most of my family are farmers, so I play with farm animals like pigs in my work. I use animals that are eaten or hunted. I like to imagine my work is made by someone who grew up in the middle of nowhere, but only had the language of TV to understand the world. My style looks very radioactive and cartoon-like, which isn't what is expected from "rural" art.

Tell us a bit about the Slamdance artwork your created from your point of view

This piece was exciting because it is a new direction for me. The rider and the pig aren't strictly harming or eating each other. Instead, the rider has the face of a pig too. The human realizes his bestial nature and has fun with it. No matter how sick the body looks, or how saturated with media/television, it's still trying to laugh.


How does it feel to be Slamdance’s 2018 festival artist?

Amazing! So much of my art feeds from film and pop culture. It's cool to give back to that. Independent films are a lot like art, allowing an amazing freedom of ideas.

What is the message behind this piece and how does it fit in with the spirit of our film festival?

This film festival keeps riding, giving a voice to the weird and overlooked, in a media-saturated climate. What I connected with is the positivity of everyone at Slamdance. There is a humor to my work that relates to that. My work takes sick, twisted bodies but champions their humor and will to keep moving.

You've just graduated. What's your next big artistic challenge?

I'm looking into artist residencies. My goal is to take over the world!

Where can people see more of your artwork?

I have three paintings in the upcoming group show "Salon" at Shoshana Wayne. The reception is on September 9 from 5-7 pm, but the show is up for the entire month.

Do you have a title for this piece?

"When Bacon Rides Bacon"

What's your favorite way to eat bacon?

I can't eat a burger without bacon. Which reminds me...I should eat one now.

Connect With Dakota
www.dakotanoot.com
Instagram: @dakotanoot

By MUKK aka Josh M. Griffiths
Originally published in Unbelievably Bad, 9/12/16
Original Article

Dead Hands Dig Deep is the debut directorial outing from young Sydney based filmmaker Jai Love. The documentary tells the tale of Edwin Borsheim and his band Kettle Cadaver from Temecula, California, profiling his gory glory days of the nineties and his current situation and state of mind. It’s rife with death, nihilism, self-mutilation, blood, drug use, small-town weirdness and Satan.

UB speaks to Jai about how he got involved and how he got out alive…

To cut to the chase – why should anyone care to see a film about a band no one has ever really heard of, directed by a young Australian punk?

I hate questions about WHY anyone should see something. If punk, metal, performance art or documentaries interest you then just see the fucking thing. I’ve seen so many films about things I’ve known nothing about but purely just seen it for the love of cinema. I would also say that if you think you can handle watching a man nail a hammer through his cock and balls – just come and have a look. A Warner Brothers Exec left one of the screenings in Europe because he thought he was going to vomit – it was a victory for independent cinema.

If you were applying for an arts grant for the film – how would you pitch it? (Inclusion of words such as “zeitgeist” + “juxtaposition” and references to theorists, artists and philosophy are encouraged if not mandatory.)

I would just show them the DVD A Taste Of Blood – this was the VHS compilation tape Edwin released in the nineties of all the stuff Kettle Cadaver did on stage. It was what made me want to make the film and it would anyone else who was interested in this sort of thing.

What motivation do you think Edwin had in taking part in the documentary?

Edwin had planned to kill the documentary crew. His plan would be to kill us all but himself and leave Hazal (our DP) alive with the tapes. Then she would go and take the video to the media and it would become infamous. He called this KETTLE CADAVER 3 – this was because he had already made two films full of disturbing live footage. He revealed this to us late in the filmmaking process, claiming he’d bought weapons and had a date planned. It never happened and I think he’s happy now. He was proud of the film we made…

Did you ever broach the subject of Edwin’s choice of name for his band? …I ask cause for a man with a clear understanding of performance and self-marketing Kettle Cadaver is a damn appalling choice!

Yes, we talked about it – I’m not really sure of its meaning. He was speeding around the topic and didn’t quite answer my question. It also isn’t something that is relevant to the movie at all because it isn’t about Kettle Cadaver… it is a character study on Edwin.

What do you think the relationship between Eva O and Edwin was like and the reasons for it forming? The whole thing seems like it was done as part of Edwin’s self-directed mythology…the marriage being held on the 08/08/2008, how Eva was the ex lover of Rozz Williams (he of ‘Christian Death’ and eventual suicide by hanging), Eva’s connection to serial killer Richard Ramirez, the 16-year age difference, etc.

From what I can tell, what I’ve been told and how Edwin speaks of it, he and Eva O were once very much in love. They met through Rikk Agnew (also of Christian Death) after Rikk showed Eva A Taste Of Blood. Rick says that Eva wanted to meet Ed immediately and invited him to the next Christian Death show they were going to play. I think in a lot of ways it was very surreal for Ed because he was a fan of Christian Death and Rozz Williams… years later he’s married to his ex wife. Somewhere along the line, though… things got very dark. Now Eva wants nothing to do with Edwin and wouldn’t even take part in the film as we think she might have been worried about Edwin finding her and her daughter. We go into all of this in the film.


Please share five random facts / memories about your own life with our dear readers.

* My film and video teacher in high school would only wear black. He was a cool guy and I learnt a lot of life’s hard lessons from him.

* I met Werner Herzog at Sundance, gave him a DVD with a note inside it and he told me he’d watch the documentary. I’m going to try and find his phone number and call him up. I can only compare it to what it must be like for religious people when they die and meet god. It was all a blur.

* I accidentally smoked crystal meth with a guy named Vinnie once.

* For a long time I wanted to leave the shitty town I grew up in and join the circus like Daniel Johnston – but I’m afraid of clowns.

* Tommy Lee Jones farted on me.

Watch Dead Hands Dig Deep on iTunes, available for download on September 15th: https://itunes.apple.com/us/movie/dead-hands-dig-deep/id1266572423

If you've seen it. Rate it!

by Sean Reveron
Originally published in CVLT Nation, 3/2/16
Original Article

I recently watched the must-see documentary DEAD HANDS DIG DEEP (written by Spencer Heath and Jai Love, and directed by Jai Love) that was about one of America’s most fucked in the head bands that goes by the name of KETTLE CADAVER. Their frontman, Edwin Borsheim, inflicted harm on himself that made GG Allin seem like a wimp – I’m just saying, this dude is fucking next level. The documentary takes a look into his mind, where nothing but violence dwells. It’s been a long time since I’ve watched a film about a band or musician that has been so intense. If I had to describe Kettle Cadaver’s sound, it would be like crossing Christian Death with pure, feral sonic poison.

Check out the exclusive clip below to hear Rikk Agnew and others talk about Kettle Cadaver's legendary DVD A TASTE OF BLOOD



Watch Dead Hands Dig Deep on iTunes, available for download on September 15th: https://itunes.apple.com/us/movie/dead-hands-dig-deep/id1266572423

If you've seen it. Rate it!

Society needs the deviant. It needs the anarchist and the addict to function properly. They show us when we've gone too far. Without them how would we know? Edwin Borsheim, the subject of Jai Love's Dead Hands Dig Deep, lived and died a soldier on that frontline.

Through self mutilation and an open but committed relationship with the monstrous and unknown, he propelled the rock band Kettle Cadaver to relevance. At first only agreeing to front the band if he could staple his mouth shut. Locals quickly came out to see if Edwin would kill himself onstage. Often he came close.

As a programmer for Slamdance's documentary program I have seen many EPK's claiming to be films featuring performers bragging about the botched suicide attempts, near overdoses and self inflicted pain they have endured. But never before this film had I heard a man brag about what he hadn't done.

Edwin is proud of what he has held in, not let out. His dogs don't respect him, he can't look people in the eye and I doubt you would think twice if he passed you on the street.

The 19 year old, first time director Jai Love knew better. Now we do too. Jai knew that Edwin suffered in part so we don't have to. By way of Judas not Jesus.

I moderated a Q & A with Edwin and Jai after the Arclight premiere and they similarly appeared violently sensitive and almost incapable of being insincere. Edwin claimed to hate pain. Torturing himself only for a strongly held belief that someone has to. He would rather be mute and considered dumb than say a word he didn't mean. Every nail in his face for a specific reason. A metaphor, nothing more.

The quickest way to bring a society together is through the exclusion of another. That screening was the last time most of us ever saw Edwin. After repeatedly expressing his admiration for those that kill themselves, Edwin found the nerve. What's left is this stunning portrait of a life spent as a rare, moving and frightening work of art.

-Adam Busch
9/14/17

by Kuba Grzeca
Originally published in HorrorNews.Net, 8/31/17
Original Article

If you’ve ever had to remind yourself that what you’re watching is just a movie in order to stomach a violent scene or disturbing imagery – don’t watch this film; it won’t give you this comfort. Everything in this movie is a part of our reality and once you see it and acknowledge this fact, there is no going back. Dead Hands Dig Deep is a documentary that hits hard and leaves a mark.

Australian filmmaker Jai Love takes to Temecula (California) where we meet Edwin Borsheim, a former frontman of a metal band Kettle Cadaver, his friends and family. We learn about his past and get to see how his life looks like in the present day. Sounds like a description of almost every single rockumentary ever made, right? Sure it does. But it’s also a description of the most extreme and unnverving movie I’ve ever seen.

Edwin Borsheim was famous for his on-stage antics. And by antics I mean things that’d make G.G. Allin cringe uncomfortably. We get to see some footage from Kettle Cadaver live shows: there’s Edwin wrapping a barbed wire around his head, piercing his skin with safety pins, sewing his mouth shut with a staple gun and nailing his scrotum to a piece of wood. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Now that Kettle Cadaver disbanded, Edwin lives a reclusive life in his house on the outskirts of Temecula.

The very first thing we see him doing? Looking straight into the camera and talking about how he daydreams about murdering random people, opening fire upon cars at an intersection and taking as many lives as he possibly can.

It is made clear by his family, his friends and Borsheim himself that whatever he did on-stage was something much more than an act.

Jai Love did a very good job with showing the life of Borsheim from different angles. The are interviews with his estranged mother and brother that shed some light on Edwin’s troubled past and possible causes of his present mental state are the most important part. They help the viewer feel some compassion to the man who spends most of the movie rambling about his hatred towards humanity in general. The interviews with fellow musicians made me respect Borsheim’s dedication to the scene – he built a venue all by himself, he used to organize backyard wrestling events, concerts and parties for the scene kids – as a punk rocker I was truly impressed by what he did for Temecula’s alternative youth.

What Love could’ve done better is interviewing Borsheim himself in a more organized way. Of course, it’s important to see Edwin at his worst – talking to himself, suffering mental breakdowns, hearing voices and so on – but the best moments of this film, where I really felt that I’m actually getting to learn something about this man, were the ones where the young filmmaker had more control and Edwin was just answering the questions or reminiscing. Borsheim turns out to be a great, entertaining and intelligent storyteller if asked the right questions. Too bad his powerful persona takes over so often.

From the technical point of view Dead Hands Dig Deep is top-notch. Audio-visual quality of this movie is very high, even the archival footage, despite being recorded in the nineties, holds up to modern standards, and the music Love uses to illustrate his film is appropriately haunting and subtle at the same time.

Dead Hands Dig Deep is, indeed, extreme. With its 100% unsimulated acts of violence (…one including a dead coyote) and lots of talking about death, suicide and murder, many people will find it simply too hard to stomach. Personally, I like movies that invade my comfort zone, I like when they make me think and when they are ambiguous, non-judgemental and free from moralizing. Jai Love may be unexperienced, but he is an extremely talented director and I’m looking forward to seeing his future works.

Slamdance is very excited to announce the quarter-finalists for the 2017 Slamdance Screenplay Competition. Congratulations to those who made it to the Quarter Finals!



We received so many amazing screenplays this year, and each year the final decisions get tougher to make. To those who did not make the Quarter Finals, we wish to assure you that Screenplay Competitions are not the final say on writing, cinema and certainly not on artistic achievement. Many Screenplays we have not selected in the past have gone on to great success at other contests and have been produced.

The 32 semi-finalists will be announced on September 25th.

Keep an eye out for upcoming announcements on our website


2017 QUARTER-FINALISTS
(in alphabetical order)Feature: 8-Bit Heroes by Michael J. Harwood
Af*ckinstan by Jim Maceda
Also by Siobhan Gilbert
A Relative Unknownby Lynne Logan
Balkanized at Sunrise by Joe Tripician
Big Fire by Daniel Judson
Boxed In by Matthew Walker
Buraq by Maazin Kamal
Californians by Eve Symington and Robin Zamora
Crime Extraordinaire by Howard Fridkin
Daughters of Mab by Chelsea Andes
Dusty by Michael Caleb Tasker
Empty Spaces by Tari A. Wariebi
Escher by Jason Kessler
Fireflies by Amanda Keener
Guns, Gold & Glory by Jerry Redfield, III
Home by Franka Potente
Juke by Whit Brayton & Zack Rice
Lenore by Goldie Jones
Lens of War by Robert Ham
Little Wildernessby Lindsey Martin
Lucky by Brigitte Erickson
Martyr by Scott Pittock
Meet Cute by Mariyam Mahbub
Ninety Proof by Nick Lentz
None of the Above by John Day
Orwell by Lawrence M. Bogad
Out of Nowhere by Christian Schneider
Principles Of Flight by Bridget Foley
Quintana by William LiPera
She Dream of Neon by Michael Graham
Stacey by Steve Hanisch
Standing Up by Corey Deshon
Stateside by Brett Scieszka
The Art of Yielding by Kathryn S. Gardiner
The Child of a Frog by Kevin Foong
The Devil's Prophet by Jason E. Deparis
The Fiddler by Sadhbh Walshe
The Giant of Illinois by Adam Sleper
The Haul by Anthony Khaseria
The Jackalope by Patrick Wilder
The New Road by Michael Raymond
The Occupied Mind by Christopher Arcache
The Paradise Walk by Daniel Holland
The Vine by Max Hoven and Aaron Crow
Three Hundred Years in Paradise by Stephen Graf
True Marrow by Teal Greyhavens
Whitetail by Vincent Sweeney
You've Come a Long Way by Steve Tornello

Horror: An October Wedding by Nate Ruegger
Beast of Virginia by Matthew Corley
Day Shift by Tyler Tice
Fathers by Derek Boeckelmann
Hannah's Birthday by Juliet Bergh
Obliquity by Lasta Drachkovitch
President by Raoul Dyssell & Allan Choi
Red Dive by Alexander Gustaveson
The Monarch Project by Jeff Warrick
The Underneathe by Ritchie Arthurson and Jack Sandberg
The Will O Wisp by Evan Cooper

Short: Crowville by Sarah Stupar
Geist by Julia Iannone
Keegan the Alien by Katie Emma Filby
Savior by Teri Rusike
The Clown-Faced Plumber by Frederick Jones
The Devil and Robert Johnson by Matthias Sundberg
The Dress by Mat Sheldon
The Forest Fenced Becomes Backyards, Like Songs Are Born From Sound by Ryan M. Moore
Time Seed by Glenn Doyle
To Be Forgotten by Masa Gibson
Wooden Dice by Garrett Ratcliff

Original Teleplay: After Contact by Mukilan Thangamani
Anatomy of a Black Market by Lak Rana
Beyond the Drop by H.F.S. Evans
Black Rose by Connor McLean
Care by Clea Litewka
Commitment by Christopher Sullivan
Fashion Sharks by Leigh Rudd
Firebug by D F Mamea
Footlights by Loni Kim
Fringe Benefit by Rose Schimm
Fubar by Jude Roth
Home Front by J. Lee
Hysterical Females by Holiday Kinard
Is Dad Dating Mom? by Alisyn Ghivizzani
Jackrabbit by David Schlow
Jewish Ghost Mom by Jeremy Padow
Life in the Suck by Jalysa Conway
Miskatonic University by J.W. Bentley
NonProphets by Tess Gattuso Kenyon & McFarlane
Outskirts by Flannery Maney
Provenance by Tiffany Shaw Ho
Shrink Proof by Stephen Potts
Slope 12 by Jeanne Veillette Bowerman & Douglas A. Blackmon
The Dragon's Daughter by Matthew Kazacos
The End Times by Tyler Eaton
The Harlow Effect by Nathan Adolfson
The Hunt by Jonathan Redding
The Other Side by Theophilus Lacey
The Shit Town Detective Agency by Meg Favreau

by Tiernan Morrison
Originally published in 4:3, 9/14/16
Original Article

Perhaps the most unsettling film in the Sydney Underground Film Festival lineup this year is a documentary about Edwin Borsheim, a little known musician from small-town California. Directed by 19 year-old filmmaker Jai Love, Dead Hands Dig Deep is the story of how Borsheim, as the lead singer of ’90s death rock band Kettle Cadaver, became a hit on the underground VHS circuit with his penchant for on-stage self-mutilation. Though the film contains enough gruesome footage to impress hardened exploitation fans, the film is more interested in the man behind the masochism. Like a demented Searching for Sugarman, it is a study of a shocking urban legend and the story of the broken, drug-addled man underneath it.

What was your experience with filmmaking before making this movie?

I wasn’t very experienced at all. I had made a couple of short films with my friends in high school but that was all pretty relaxed. I got into film school in 2014 and I did a couple of little things there, but most of my experience comes from working on film sets. I was a PA on Mad Max: Fury Road, and I got this great experience interning on The Homesman with Tommy Lee Jones. All of that just made me realise I wanted to make my own films.

Could you talk about how you came upon the story?

I meet Edwin through a friend who ended up producing the film [Spencer Heath]. He was from the town that Edwin was from [Temecula, California] and they had met when Edwin’s brother passed away because they were all friends with him. At that time no one had seen Edwin for a few years so they talked to him and started hanging out. Really though, I was first introduced to Edwin via his work. I saw a DVD of him performing and I was immediately like “woah, this is pretty insane stuff”.

Once you came upon the story, what was the thought that went into deciding how you wanted it to be told?

Well, I don’t really like straightforward documentaries a lot of the time, especially those music documentary/rockumentary stereotypes, so I decided the film would have to be a character study about Edwin as a person, rather than the story of a band that did all this crazy stuff. I wanted to dissect Edwin’s psyche without any judgement. I wanted to keep my voice and my opinions of Edwin out of it, and let the audience form their own ideas.

Were there any films in particular you drew on making this movie?

I’m a really big fan of Werner Herzog—he’s inspired me since I was a kid. Also, Terry Zwigoff’s movie Crumb. That was a big one because of the unconventional way he told Crumb’s story.

Did Edwin have anything to do with the finished product? Did he see it before you released it?

No, he actually saw it for the first time at the LA premiere. I tried to show it to him before that but he insisted on not seeing it until it was in front of an audience full of people. He really didn’t want anything to do with it. In fact, he thought that the movie was some big conspiracy and that there was really no film being made, but that might have just been the drugs.

The film makes some suggestions as to where Edwin’s self-destructive stage behaviour came from. Do you think it was ever more than entertainment for Edwin?

Yeah, I would say that it is an entertainment thing, but I don’t know if that’s it entirely because he’s still living that way today. I think, if it was entertainment, it was mostly for himself. I think a lot of the self mutilation was him expressing how he really feels inside; his inner turmoil. I think he is very beaten down and he tortures himself for it.

It raises a question that comes up on the film a lot, which is ‘what does it mean to be authentic?’ Edwin’s Mum and his neighbour praise him for living honestly, and he himself is very invested in the idea of being ‘real’, but there’s a lot of artifice about Edwin. What do you make of this notion of Edwin’s authenticity?

I think that’s something that I can’t answer. I think that that’s why I made the film: to try and figure that out for myself. I of course have my opinions about it but I can’t sit here and tell you whether he’s real or fake, because I don’t think life really works like that. I think Edwin is as real as you want him to be.

That’s an interesting point, because part of what’s intriguing about the movie is the way that everyone seems to react differently to him. He becomes this figure that people reflect themselves against.

Yeah, I see a lot of myself in Edwin in ways, and that’s what a lot of people do when they see the film. With a character study like this, you either have empathy for the character or you totally hate him and don’t relate at all. It’s funny because often the people who don’t like the movie just don’t like Edwin. They’re almost offended by him; they think “I just can’t deal with people like that so this movie’s garbage”. The film’s divisive in a lot of ways because Edwin’s a divisive character, and from the moment we started shooting we knew that was going to be the case. That’s what it’s like in Edwin’s life: people either love him or they hate him.

Did your perspective on him change as you made the movie?

Yeah, definitely. When we started the film I didn’t really know Edwin, so we got to know each other as the film was being made. It was really interesting because I’d only heard the folklore version of who he was and what he’d done, but I really didn’t know know him as a person. Luckily we had Spencer there, who helped shoot and produce the movie, because if we were around Edwin as just a bunch of guys from Australia I think it would have been a lot more uncomfortable. It was good because we wanted the movie to feel like you were getting to know Edwin just by hanging out with him.

That’s definitely the arc of the film. You’re introduced to him as an extreme character and as the film progresses you’re introduced to some of the real darkness underpinning that.

I think that darkness exists in everyone though. I think that Edwin is just a physical manifestation of it. Like, a lot of people get really really upset by the beginning of the film where he says he sometimes thinks about shooting people, but I think that’s something that a lot of people think about. I would even say that if someone says they don’t think about that stuff they’re probably lying, and that’s even scarier.

That straight-to-camera monologue is an interesting way to start the film because it feels like a pro-wrestling heel antagonising the audience. It introduces him as a guy who’s comfortable creating an image for himself. You see that again later in the private video diaries he keeps.

I think that feeling really comes from the fact that he loves movies and he always wanted to make them. From the time he was 15 or 16 he just filmed everything in his life. I think he would film himself as a sort of therapy, especially in those intense scenes alone in his house where he thinks he’s losing his mind. He just turns on the camera because he finds comfort in that.

Did he just give you access to that stuff?

It took us a while to get that access but he did eventually. At the start he would make us VHS tapes using this really complicated method. He was high on speed all the time, which made it hard for him to think laterally, so he would use three different cameras and all these machines just to make one tape. He would make us these VHS tapes to stop us going through his archive because there’s a lot of very disturbing, borderline incriminating stuff in there, even stuff from the days where he used to torture people for money. Initially he was worried about us because we didn’t have that trust, but it got to the point where I said “Edwin, I need to see everything”, and he gave it to us. Then it was just a matter of sorting through it all.

That would have been a big job.

Yeah. We had a very good editor named Conlan MacKenzie, and he and I would just sit for hours and go through it all. When I went back to shoot more stuff by myself, me and Spencer would just sit there all night watching tapes that Edwin had given us and go “yeah, that’s good let’s mark that”, or “eight hours of him filming his own feces because he thought he had some parasite? We probably can’t put that in”.

That’s definitely one for the DVD extras. Was it difficult living in Edwin’s world for so long?

It would be if you let it get to you. People would tell me when I would meet them around town that whenever they went out to Edwin’s place, a lot of weird stuff started happening in their lives. When you let that darkness in, it really starts to get to you. I think working so hard to get this film made gave me some distance from it though. I could see that Edwin was trying to drag me into it but I think I always had my guard up. I had a crew there that I was accountable for, that I really cared about, and I didn’t want them to be harmed or sucked into that world either so it was just about finding a balance.

Part of what’s great about the movie is how gradually you learn about the real trauma in Edwin’s life. You don’t reveal he’s heavily involved with drugs almost till the end of the film. How did that pacing come together?

Well, our first cut of the movie was like two or three hours and was just garbage. (laughs) It had a lot of the stuff about his family and the drugs at the start of the movie and it painted a very obvious picture of Edwin, when really we wanted to show how Edwin lives now and add those aspects as you go along. If the audience has all this information about his family and the drugs up-front then they’ll have a certain perception of Edwin throughout the whole movie—“oh you’re a junkie, oh you’re doing this because you needed a mother or a father”. We wanted you to get to know Edwin first and form an opinion of him, because that’s how it works when you meet someone on the street.

One of the most interesting things about the film is the urban legend that’s built around Edwin. Does his notoriety still exist in Temecula?

Yeah, absolutely. It exists around that area but everywhere else it’s forgotten. And that’s what’s kind of crazy to me about this story. When I first saw all his stuff I was like “man, people are walking around with GG Allin on a crucifix on a T-shirt when this guy Edwin is just so much more intense”. I really do hate to make that comparison but as far as cult figures go I think Edwin’s story needs to be out there. It’s really interesting to me, and I think it would have been really interesting if I was 15 and I had just discovered it, which is what I was thinking about when we first started—“let’s make a movie that my parents wouldn’t have wanted me to watch when I was 16, about this guy who did all this really really intense stuff in the 90’s”.

Obviously GG Allin looms large over Edwin’s story and he comes up in the film a couple of times. Has Edwin ever made reference to him?

You know, I don’t think I’ve ever had a conversation with Edwin about GG Allin. Edwin’s way more into death rock bands like Christian Death than he is into shock rock. He says that people would always send him weird stuff, like footage of a guy hanging from his shoulders on hooks from a helicopter, and he would be like “man, I’m not into that shit!” (laughs) I think that shows that there’s something else to Edwin’s behaviour; some other reason for it, whether that be psychosexual or whether that be this ‘child crying out for help’ thing. There’s something more to it than just “look at what I can do”.

Yeah, that’s the big contrast with GG, who was just getting away with what he could get away with.

Yeah and he was also just … a lot of the stuff he did was just very problematic.

That’s true. A lot of the GG worship ignores the fact that a big part of his notoriety came from attacking women.

Yeah, and Edwin didn’t really go down that road so it’s different in a lot of ways, but I do understand the comparison. It’s definitely not conscious to Edwin but I’m sure he knows he exists.

Another layer to Edwin’s strangeness is the sort of music he makes. Compared to what was around in the 90’s, Kettle Cadaver’s music is not particularly extreme. It’s very slow and synth-heavy, and it almost feels at odds with the stuff happening on stage.

Yeah and that’s actually really interesting. Edwin’s Norwegian so he’s really into the Norwegian Black Metal scene. Have you seen Peter Beste’s black metal portraits?

The ones from Until the Light Takes Us?

Yeah, a little bit, and also from that Vice Documentary ‘True Norwegian Black Metal’. Anyway, Edwin was showing me this really rare portrait of his that he’d bought in Japan and one day we were talking about it and he said “look, I don’t even really care about the blast beats and the heavy riffs. I care about how fucking sick those guys look and what they stand for”. He’s so much more about that than he is about the music. He’s into the music too but he really thinks they stand for something more. Even though Kettle Cadaver sounds like a death rock band, in a lot of ways they’re a black metal band because the had that same message and they were doing the same sort of things that were happening in Norway.

Do you see any hope in Edwin’s story?

(long pause) I think, in certain ways, yes. I think in a lot of ways this documentary saved Edwin’s life and I don’t know if that’s necessarily hope but he was really at the end of his run when we came along. When we started looking for him we thought he might have been dead inside of his house because the dogs mean you can’t get in. Luckily his little brother Danny got a hold of him and said “he’s a mess … but he seemed vaguely interested when I mentioned the documentary”. He got excited when he found out we were coming from Australia because he was so into Mad Max and Australian movies like Romper Stomper. I think that the hope now is that he … I don’t want to say “gets the cult following he deserves”, but he definitely deserves to have his story out there.

It does end on that positive moment of Edwin burying the doll he made of his ex-wife. Do you get the sense that he’s moving towards closure?

Yeah, he definitely is. I wouldn’t say the film is full of hope but what happens at the end of the documentary and what’s happening in his life now … there’s some hope there. With Edwin, you never know what’s going to happen.


Watch Dead Hands Dig Deep on iTunes, available for download on September 15th: https://itunes.apple.com/us/movie/dead-hands-dig-deep/id1266572423

Slamdance is delighted to announce and congratulate the 32 semi-finalists for the 2017 Slamdance Screenplay Competition. The Finalists will be announced on October 2nd and the competition winners will be announced on October 13th at the WGA West.

Keep an eye out for upcoming announcements on our website!


2017 SEMI-FINALISTS
(in alphabetical order)Feature: 8-Bit Heroes by Michael J. Harwood
Californians by Eve Symington and Robin Zamora
Escher by Jason Kessler
Guns, Gold & Glory by Jerry Redfield, III
Lenore by Goldie Jones
Martyr by Scott Pittock
The Giant of Illinois by Adam Sleper
Whitetail by Vincent Sweeney

Horror: Beast of Virginia by Matthew Corley
Day Shift by Tyler Tice
Fathers by Derek Boeckelmann
Hannah's Birthday by Juliet Bergh
Obliquity by Lasta Drachkovitch
PreZident by Raoul Dyssell & Allan Choi
The Monarch Project by Jeff Warrick
The Will O Wisp by Evan Cooper

Short: Crowville by Sarah Stupar
Geist by Julie Iannone
The Clown-Faced Plumber by Frederick Jones
The Devil and Robert Johnson by Matthias Sundberg
The Forest Fenced Becomes Backyards, Like Songs Are Born From Sound by Ryan M. Moore
Time Seed by Glenn Doyle
To Be Forgotten by Masa Gibson
Wooden Dice by Garrett Ratcliff

Original Teleplay: Care by Clea Litewka
Fashion Sharks by Leigh Rudd
Fringe Benefit by Rose Schimm
Jackrabbit by David Schlow
Life in the Suck by Jalysa Conway
Outskirts by Flannery Maney
Provenance by Tiffany Shaw Ho
The Harlow Effect by Nathan Adolfson

Slamdance Cinema Club
Supergirl
October 8th, 8PM at ArcLight Hollywood
October 18th, 8PM at ArcLight Chicago
Buy Tickets

Who is Arthur Chu?
October 9th, 8PM at ArcLight Hollywood
October 19th, 8PM at ArcLight Hollywood
Buy Tickets

Now we're down to 12.

Slamdance is thrilled to announce the 12 finalists for the 2017 Slamdance Screenplay Competition. Congratulations to these writers for making it to the final 12!

The winners will be announced on October 13th at the WGA West in Los Angeles. Keep an eye out for the announcement on our website on October 14th!


2017 FINALISTS (in alphabetical order)Feature:8-Bit Heroes by Michael J. Harwood
Escher by Jason Kessler
Lenore by Goldie Jones
Horror: Beast of Virginia by Matthew Corley
Day Shift by Tyler Tice
PreZident by Raoul Dyssell & Allan Choi
Short: Geist by Julie Iannone
The Clown-Faced Plumber by Frederick Jones
The Forest Fenced Becomes Backyards, Like Songs Are Born From Sound by Ryan M. Moore
Original Teleplay: Fringe Benefit by Rose Schimm
Jackrabbit by David Schlow
Provenance by Tiffany Shaw Ho

Award to include $25,000 prize, filmmakers mentoring, office at new studio
and cash stipend for one year.

LOS ANGELES, CA – October 10, 2017 – Peter Baxter, President and co-founder of Slamdance, and critically acclaimed directors Anthony and Joe Russo, The Russo Brothers, announced today the presentation of the inaugural Russo Brothers Fellowship to be presented to a Slamdance filmmaker at the 2018 Slamdance Film Festival.  


Anthony and Joe will select one filmmaker, who will receive a $25,000 prize consisting of filmmaker support, an office at their new Los Angeles based studio, mentoring from Anthony and Joe, and a cash stipend for one year.   The Russo’s new studio in L.A.’s downtown art district is being created to empower and cultivate filmmakers

“We’re very proud to partner with Slamdance,” said Anthony and Joe Russo. “Having begun our careers at this festival, we’re honored to partner with such a great organization, and to foster and support young filmmakers while creating a platform for new and emerging talent.”

“Joe and Anthony embody what Slamdance's community is all about." said Peter Baxter, President and co-founder of Slamdance. "Their artist driven partnership and open studio environment takes our support for emerging filmmakers to the next level. Thank you both for this fantastic Fellowship and growing our organization."

The Russos launched their career when their first film, Pieces, premiered at the 1997 Slamdance Festival.  Steven Soderbergh, who was attending the festival, saw their film and offered to produce their next movie, Welcome To Collinwood, starring George Clooney, William H. Macy, and Sam Rockwell. The Brothers made their Marvel Studios directorial debut with the critically lauded blockbuster Captain America: The Winter Soldier. Their follow-up, Captain America: Civil War, not only enjoyed the 5th-highest weekend gross in domestic box office history, but also had the highest worldwide gross of 2016, as well as widespread praise from both critics and fans. Following Captain America: Civil War, the Brothers are currently shooting Avengers: Infinity War and the yet-to-be-titled Avengers 4. The Russo Brothers are also Emmy Award winning directors and TV comedy sensations thanks to the critical success of Arrested Development, Community, and Happy Endings. They are currently making a return to TV producing, most notably with Sony Pictures TV’s, Deadly Class.

The 2018 Slamdance Film Festival will take place January 19-25 in Park City, Utah.
 
###
 
ABOUT SLAMDANCE:
Slamdance is a community, a year-round experience, and a statement. Established in 1995 by a wild bunch of filmmakers who were tired of relying on a large, oblique system to showcase their work, Slamdance has proven, year after year, that when it comes to recognizing talent and launching careers, independent and grassroots communities can do it themselves.

Slamdance alums are responsible for the programming and organization of the festival. With a variety of backgrounds, interests, and talents, but with no individual filmmaker’s vote meaning more than any others, Slamdance’s programming and organizing committees have been able to stay close to the heart of low budget and do-it-yourself filmmaking. In this way, Slamdance continues to grow and exemplify its mantra: By Filmmakers, For Filmmakers.

The 2018 Slamdance Film Festival will run January 19-25 in Park City, Utah.

Notable Slamdance alumni who first gained notice at the festival include: Christopher Nolan (Dunkirk, Interstellar), Oren Peli (Paranormal Activity), Marc Forster (World War Z), Jared Hess (Napoleon Dynamite), Lena Dunham (Girls), Benh Zeitlin (Beasts of the Southern Wild), Anthony & Joe Russo (Captain America: Civil War, Captain America: The Winter Soldier), Jeremy Saulnier (Blue Ruin), Seth Gordon (Horrible Bosses), Lynn Shelton (Outside, Humpday) and Matt Johnson (Operation Avalanche). Box Office Mojo reports alumni who first showed their work at Slamdance have earned over $13.3 billion at the Box Office to date.

In addition to the Festival, Slamdance serves emerging artists and a growing audience with several year-round activities. These include the popular Slamdance Screenplay Competition, the Anarchy Workshop for student filmmakers, and The ArcLight Presents Slamdance Cinema Club – a monthly cinema club partnership with ArcLight Cinemas based at the ArcLight Hollywood and ArcLight Chicago, with two screenings and filmmaker Q&A’s each month:
www.arclightcinemas.com/en/news/arclight-presents-slamdance-cinema-club

Slamdance Presents is a distribution arm established to access broader distribution opportunities for independent films. The goal is to build the popularity of independent films and support filmmakers on a commercial level through theatrical releases. Steve Yu’s The Resurrection of Jake the Snake was the first film to be released by the company. The documentary reached number one on iTunes in December, 2015. In August 2016, Slamdance Presents launched the week long release of Claire Carré’s sci-fi film, Embers, at ArcLight Cinemas Hollywood. In 2017, Slamdance Presents acquired four award winning and critically acclaimed films to be released on VOD: Driftwood by Paul Taylor, Dead Hands Dig Deep by Jai Love, The Ground We Won by Christopher Pryor and Without by Mark Jackson.

In November 2015, Slamdance announced DIG (Digital, Interactive & Gaming), a new digital, interactive and gaming showcase dedicated to emerging independent artists working in hybrid, immersive and developing forms of digital media art. This December DIG will return to Big Pictures Los Angeles, from December 1-8, presenting select multi-media works that will form part of the of the 2018 Film Festival.

Slamdance Film Festival Sponsors include Blackmagic Design, Distribber, CreativeFuture, Directors Guild of America, Different By Design, Pierce Law Group LLP, Writers Guild Of America West, Salt Lake City's Slug Magazine, and Beehive Distilling. Slamdance is proud to partner with sponsors who support emerging artists and filmmakers. Additional information about Slamdance is available at www.slamdance.com

Facebook: SlamdanceFilmFestival
Twitter: @slamdance
Instagram: @slamogram