Hello dear readers. You probably didn't expect me back so soon!! If you have learned anything from the past few weeks here at Awards Wiz it's that rules have gone out the window.
In addition to being filmed by award winning filmmaker John Afamasaga's upcoming "Southern Man," John has cast me in his next narrative short. You all know that I have my own short film in the pipeline....deep in the pipeline...and of course rehearsal for "Doubt" crank up tomorrow night.
I don't know what I will have time or leftover passion for when it comes to writing here at Awards Wiz, but I am going to take things a day at a time.
There are three films I want to tell you about coming to a device/theater near (ish) you.
So, let's get to it.
At the End of the Day
If you missed this great film at the Oxford Film Festival, you can buy/rent it TODAY!
To give you a little insider background, I first saw "At the End of the Day" back in late 2017, right before the Oxford Film Festival submission deadline for my 2nd year of programming. I was kind of in panic mode because I felt like we were missing something. I really wanted a narrative feature that told a story of love and acceptance, but I hadn't seen anything that really spoke to me. When I saw "At the End of the Day," that void was filled.
When we made the offer, we were unfortunately turned down. A quick glance at the film's FB page told us that we weren't quite in their plan...well...we were, but another festival was first dibs for their premiere. My film lover heart was broken.
I never got that narrative feature I was looking for and programmed another documentary, which was awesome.
Flash forward to 2018. My desires for programming weren't quite what they were the year before. I wasn't trying to fill a void or even fill seats. I was attempting to anticipate the needs of our audience while at the same time speak to them with my personal film aesthetic.
I never forgot about "At the End of the Day," and while trying to finalize things yet again, I went back to their FB page and saw they were still playing festivals. One of our "rules" is to show films that have yet to have a theatrical or digital release.
I reached out to Kevin O'Brien, the director, and this time the answer was yes.
The whole experience with "At the End of the Day" was an example of one of life's most important lessons. I may have wanted the film for the 2018 fest, but with all of the chaos and hate out there in the world, 2019 was exactly when Oxford needed it. And it was right before their digital release, which is TODAY.
Kevin made the film partly because of experiences he had growing up in the church, and I wanted to show it because of the fact that almost every queer person I know has struggled with Faith and Spirituality somewhere along the way to the present day.
Actor Stephen Shane Martin (who is not only talented but the nicest, down to earth person) leads a cast of fantastic, real characters in this uplifting, questioning film about inclusion and love. Check out the trailer below. And then go to itunes and watch!
At the End of the Day on iTunes
Devils Path
Next we have "Devil's Path" directed by Matthew Montgomery from Breaking Glass Pictures.
I received the email about "Devil's Path" in the heat of the final weeks of Oscar season. I am a big fan of Breaking Glass Pictures-particularly "The Falls" trilogy. I had actually hoped to program "The Falls: Covenant of Grace" into OXFF as well, but it didn't quite fit- timing, release dates, etc...It just wasn't going to work.
So, when I saw they were releasing a thriller about two men who meet at a hookup park, I was in. I watched it last night, and it was the perfect Oscars palette cleanser.
From writer/director Matthew Montgomery, Devil's Path follows two men who meet up in a popular wilderness park for a casual hookup. What seems like an innocent and random meeting quickly descends into a horrific nightmare. With recent disappearances and attacks, the two men soon find themselves in the terrifying position of being the next victims in a deadly game of cat and mouse...It doesn't have a lot of scares per se, but at just under an hour and a half I was quite riveted to the screen. If you are looking for something fun and queer to watch, check it out. It opens in LA this Friday and will be on DVDE/VOD March 5th.
Giant Little Ones
Finally, we have "Giant Little Ones" written and directed by Keith Behrman and starring Josh Wiggins, Darren Mann, Taylor Hickson, Maria Bello and Kyle MacLachlan.
When I heard about the film after it played at Toronto, I almost immediately reached out to the producers about screening it at Oxford Film Festival. They responded right away and asked if they could wait a bit before sending it to me. I decided not to get my hopes up this time and continued along with my programming duties.
A few months passed and I reached out again...just a couple more weeks they said.
Then, right before the deadline they sent the film to me.
It was not only one of the best LGBTQ films I had seen for the fest, it was my favorite from what I had seen all year. I offered, they accepted and we screened the film.
Now that the festival is over I can tell you that this will certainly be in the running for my favorite film of 2019. On the first viewing I was a bit shaken by the fact that this coming of age story wasn't taking the traditional trajectory of most coming out films. By the time the credits rolled, I had come around but needed to see it again, which I did immediately.
When I saw the film again a few weeks ago at the festival, I was so blown away by the writing, directing, acting, the SCORE...everything...but mostly by the fact that a story about LGBTQ people could still surprise me.
Looking for the best trailer to post here I saw a youtube comment asking, "so is he attracted to girls or boys?" I get it...that was me. Open your mind and go along for the ride.
The film will be released this Friday, March 1st.
No comments:
Post a Comment