Jennifer Lynch (daughter of David Lynch, whose last film was the oddly not good Boxing Helena) revives her film directing career with the thriller feature Surveillance, premiering at Fantastic Fest in Austin Sept 18-25th! Among the other films representing women at the festival, one of the biggest in North America, are Leslie Ali's sci-fi short The Object, Carla Coma's animated The Squirrel Next Door, Anna Solena's animated short Violeta, a documentary called Zombie Girl about young horror filmmaker Emily Hagins, Natasha Arthy's action feature Fighter, Marrie Caillou's portion of the animated horror Fear(s) of the Dark, a documentary about pop icon Tiffany's stalkers, and the films Astropia, Deadgirl and Chocolate which deal with interesting, morbid, and disturbing female characters. Read on for the full info!...
SURVEILLANCE
North American Premiere / dir. Jennifer Lynch / USA / 2008 / 98 min.
Jennifer Lynch (BOXING HELENA) helms a crime thriller with overtones of RASHOMON. None of the eyewitness accounts in a roadside serial killer massacre seem to match up. The FBI is called in to cut through the confusion before the killer can strike again.
OBJECT, THE
Dir. Leslie Ali / UK / 2007 / 6 min.
A strange family finds an even stranger singing cube that leads to an epic battle...kinda. In the tradition of FF feature FUNKY FOREST, this film uses brazen flat-out weirdness to mangle your brain into unstoppable confused laughter.
SQUIRREL NEXT DOOR, THE
Dir. Carla Coma / Canada / 2007 / 2 min.
True love sees no barriers...including species. Taxidermy animation that will make you want to run out, kill things and use them to create great art.
VIOLETA
Dir. Anna Solana & Marc Riva / Spain / 2007 / 9 min
Violeta makes a new friend and takes him back home to meet the folks. Too bad the depths of depravity of this family is unparalleled in the history of animation.
ZOMBIE GIRL
World Premiere / dir. Aaron Marshall, Justin Johnson, Erik Mauck / USA / 2008 / 91 min.
A documentary covering the two years that it took 12-year-old Austinite Emily Hagins to write and direct the feature-length zombie movie PATHOGEN.
Fighter (2008, Denmark, director: Natasha Arthy)
A Danish (?!!) kung fu coming-of-age drama choreographed by and featuring a supporting role by action master Xian Gao (CROUCHING TIGER HIDDEN DRAGON, FONG SAI YUK)
FEAR(S) OF THE DARK
Austin Premiere / dir. Various / France / 2007 / 85 min.
An animated anthology of films by six of the world’s hottest graphic artists and cartoonists. All films are rendered in black and white, and all are based on their creators’ own nightmares and fears.
DEADGIRL
US Premiere / dir. Gadi Harel and Marcel Sarmiento / USA / 2008 / 99 min.
Exploring an abandoned sanatorium while ditching school, two high school burnouts discover a girl strapped to a gurney in a secluded chamber. Debut directors Gadi Harel and Marcel Sarmiento craft a new breed of teen angst drama set against a backdrop of humor black enough to make John Hughes retreat to a fetal state. Both directors will be in attendance to present the film.
CHOCOLATE
US Premiere / dir. Prachya Pinkaew / Thailand / 2008 / 110 min.
The director of ONG BAK returns with his new protégé, who was in training for five years for this role. Ammara Siripong portrays an autistic girl who learns martial arts from watching Tony Jaa and Bruce Lee films so as to exact revenge on those who bankrupted her mother.
I Think We’re Alone Now (2007, USA, director: Sean Donnelly)
This fascinating and severely disturbing documentary takes you deep into the worlds and obsessions of Kelly McCormick and Jeffery Deane Turner, who have been separately stalking 80s pop icon Tiffany for nearly 20 years. Director Sean Donnelly live in person!
