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The American Cinematheque has announced the schedule of events and list of speakers for this year’s Proof Film Festival, which will take place from Oct. 18-20 at the Culver Theater. The festival will feature 46 official selections in addition to industry panels, special screenings, centerpiece conversations and the Proof Pitch Deck Show & Tell.

The in-person panelists include Margaret Cho, Carlos López Estrada, Danny Madden, Sean Wang, Darrell Britt-Gibson, Morgan Cooper, Valerie Bush, Karen Maine and more.

The festival has also chosen eight participants for its Proof Pitch Deck Show & Tell, which will give each team the opportunity to pitch their film decks to industry professionals. Those participants are “Eat the Children” from Andrew Merrill, “The Lambing” from Jillian Corsie, “Photocopy” from Mike Klubeck, “Silver Spoon” from Lucy Porter, “Poppyfields” from Maria Belafonte, “House of Dixie” from Netta Walker, “Paul Ruins a Wedding and Destroys an Entire Community” from Brad Roelandt...

Stars: Robby Valls, Jennifer Daley, Laura Urgelles, Grant Moninger, Amanda Viola, Aaron Bustos | Written by Mike Cuenca, Ashlee Elfman, Dan Rojay | Directed by Mike Cuenca

Shot in a week during the pandemic, and set during one, Like a Dirty French Novel consists of a series of linked stories dubbed chapters and interludes. Director Mike Cuenca (Jerry Powell & the Delusions of Grandeur) and co-writers Ashlee Elfman (Damien’s Quest) and Dan Rojay (I’ll Be Around) however don’t want to tell stories about the pandemic but, as the title card tells us, “a result of its social disruption.”.

Like a Dirty French Novel’s prologue follows three men as they follow a woman whose eyes glow in the dark to a bad end while onlookers in cheap Halloween masks look on.

Then we meet Hue (Robby Valls) and Crystal (Jennifer Daley; Blood Born) a couple whose relationship is dead and rotting,...

"Am I making you nervous? While I touch myself?" Blvd De Cinema Productions has revealed an official trailer for a low budget indie film described as a "grindhouse noir" called Like a Dirty French Novel. Which, I must say, is a pretty clever title for this. The tagline states it's "between the absurd and the vulgar" which is also somewhat tantalizing. The film follows a number of interesting characters: a sexually-charged mysterious phone operator, two estranged twin brothers, and a cosplaying femme fatale. Starring Jennifer Daley, Robby Valls, Miles Dougal, Brittany Samson, and Amanda Viola. The trailer says there's "five noir-tinged chapters" in this film, which runs 78 minutes in total. This looks as mediocre as expected, with a few interesting shadowy shots, but there's not much else to see in here. Unless you're really into noir. Here's the official trailer (+ posters) for Mike Cuenca's Like a Dirty French Novel,...