News

Stars: Georgina Navarro, Justyn Franco, Chauntice Green, Stephán O’Shea, Jerry White Jr. | Written and Directed by Shihan Van Clief

Lead is an aspiring influencer who’s celebrating a couple of milestones, the first ten subscribers to her channel and getting to tell her viewers “I’ve been cast in my first horror film.”

The unnamed film seems shrouded in secrecy, with the cast getting only their scenes not the actual script, everyone is blindfolded on the drive to the set, everyone referred to by their character name, and, of course, their phones taken until the shoot is done. Of course, they agree and Lead, along with Jock, Girlfriend, and Black Guy (Stephán O’Shea) she heads off to the top secret location.

After a flat tyre and an encounter with Creepy Guy they arrive on set. Soon things are going smoothly, at least until people start dying.

Writer/director Shihan...

Many of us have moments in our past that we’d love to revisit, or change. Maybe there was a dream that we left on the table as we turned our back and walked into adulthood. For Jerry White Jr., the public access television show that he created in his friends in the 90’s was hard to forget. Rather than chalk it up to a memory, he decided to do something about it. 20 years later, it’s time to get the gang back together!

I first became privy of the film during the Mammoth Lakes Film Festival, and it was definitely a favorite of mine. Documented by Jeremy Royce, 20 Years Of Madness, follows White Jr., a recent film school graduate who has always wondered ‘what if’ about his old show ’30 Minutes of Madness.’

The 90’s show, put together largely by White, and starring his friends, aired on public access television in Michigan.

Paramount Pictures has announced plans to move up the release of Richard Linklater's 1980s college baseball comedy "Everybody Wants Some" by two weeks - from April 15th to April 1st.

The raunchy indie laugher will also adopt a platform approach now - opening in limited release on the 1st before expanding over the next two weekends.

The studio had "Rings," the third film in "The Ring" franchise, slated for April 1st. That has now been pushed back by six months and will open just before Halloween on October 28th.

In related news, Gravitas Ventures has acquired distribution rights to the documentary "20 Years of Madness" and plans a VOD release on April 12th. The film follows Jerry White Jr., creator of the cult hit public access TV show "30 Minutes of Madness," as he returns to his hometown to film an episode.

Source: Deadline...

Have you ever wanted to go back and revisit a moment in time where everything seemed like it came together? Or maybe it was a passion project that didn’t quite go as far as you would have liked? Well, get ready for a trip back to the 90’s with Jerry White Jr. and Jeremy Royce in their documentary 20 Years Of Madness.

In 20 Years Of Madness, we follow Jerry White Jr., a recent film school graduate who has always wondered ‘what if’ about his old show ’30 Minutes of Madness.’ The 90’s show, put together largely by White, and starring his friends, aired on public access television in Michigan. For 30 minutes, the teens would perform wacky skits, stunts, and sing songs. Unfortunately, White and his friends had a falling out, and the show was left in the dust.

20 years later, White decides to head back to Michigan, rent a house for one month,...

Director Jeremy Royce follows Jerry White Jr. as he contends with the quirky personalities and strong opinions of his cast in an erstwhile attempt at bringing the cult VHS show back to life. 20 Years of Madness captures just how important it is for creative people to have an outlet to express themselves freely. All the while, Royce introduces the documentary's audience to some truly fantastic footage from the original public access series, which is reminiscent of a freakishly lo-fi, punk rock, high school production of Kids in the Hall or Sctv.

While kids today may take it for granted that with an internet connection you can instantly publish your thoughts, musings, "Star Wars" moves, or anything else that crosses your mind immediately to the internet, it wasn't so easy in the '90s. You were lucky if you even had a camcorder to fool around with. But for a bunch of kids in Detroit, a cable access show brought their unique brand of teenage mayhem into homes around the city. And in the upcoming Slamdance Film Festival documentary "20 Years Of Madness' we get to hear their unique story, and today we have an exclusive clip. The film is directed by Jeremy Royce, who chronicles the talent behind "30 Minutes Of Madness," in which Jerry White Jr. and his friends put together wacky skits and general weirdness and aired them on TV. Now, two decades later, Jerry tries to get the gang back...

While the Sundance Film Festival is the better known film festival located in Utah that runs in January, it is not the only one, as the Slamdance Film Festival has been running in the same place during the same month for over 20 years. The unique aspect of the Slamdance Film Festival, however, is its Narrative Features and Documentary Features program, which restricts its selection to films that are directorial debuts, made for under $1 million, and don’t have Us distribution. The 2015 incarnation of the festival is set to run from January 23rd to the 29th, and ahead of the festival’s premiere next month, organisers have unveiled the lineup for the aforementioned categories. The lineup is as follows.

Narrative Features Program:

Across The Sea (Turkey/USA), making its North American Premiere

Written and Directed by Nisan Dağ and Esra Saydam

Starring Damla Sönmez, Jacob Fishel, Ahmet Rıfat Şungar, Hakan Karsak,...

Festival top brass announced the 19 films that will screen at the Slamdance Film Festival, set to run in Park City, Utah, from January 23-29.

The 11 narrative and eight documentary selections include 13 world premieres. All competition films are feature directorial debuts budgeted below $1m without Us distribution.

“It’s very exciting to bring this dynamic lineup to audiences in Park City,” said festival director Anna Germanidi. “We are proud to help launch these filmmakers’ careers and celebrate the success we all believe these films deserve.”

“Our success in showcasing emerging artists is most obviously linked with American talent, but increasingly at Slamdance, we want to also support new international talent,” said co-founder and president Peter Baxter.

All synopses below provided by Slamdance.

Narrative Features

Across The Sea (Turkey-usa)

Dirs Nisan Dağ, Esra Saydam

Young, beautiful and pregnant, Damla has to confront her first love in a Turkish summer town before she can fully embrace her new life in...

The Sundance Film Festival dominates Park City in late January, but there is also the upstart Slamdance Film Festival. We’ve not really highlighted that fest or its program, but I always stay at Treasure Mountain Inn where Slamdance is headquartered and they’ve kind of grown on me. Last year they brought Christopher Nolan to speak (the fest had the good sense to program his first film) and Joe Mangianello came to vamp his male stripper docu. This year, there’s every chance of seeing Dennis Rodman, the flamboyant former rebounding machine and Bff of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, for the docu Dennis Rodman’s Big Bang In Pyongyang. So let’s all root for an international incident! Here are the films they’ll be playing from January 23-29:

Narrative Features Program

Across the Sea – Directors & Screenwriters: Nisan Dağ, Esra Saydam. (Turkey/USA) North American Premiere.

Here's your daily dose of an indie film in progress; at the end of the week, you'll have the chance to vote for your favorite. In the meantime: Is this a movie you’d want to see? Tell us in the comments. "20 Years of Madness" Tweetable Logline: The eccentric creators of a Metro Detroit 90s cult Public Access TV show reunite after 20 years to make a new episode. Elevator Pitch: "20 Years of Madness" is a feature-length documentary following Jerry White Jr., founder of the Public Access TV Show 30 Minutes Of Madness, as he leaves Los Angeles and returns to Metro Detroit to make a new episode of the 30Mom on its 20-year anniversary. Jerry reconnects with the friends he grew up with as they discover whether the magic of their show was a fleeting youthful experiment or a creative community they will share for the rest of their lives. Production...

Do cockroaches dream of electric sheep? I'm not sure, but in Jonathan Langager's live-action short film Josephine and the Roach, the titular roach showcases a lot of human qualities -- for example, he enjoys drinking tea and playing violin. Heck, this roach is capable of falling in love with Josephine (Jenna Augen), the woman whose apartment he infests. Crazy, right? For one, Josephine is an entirely different species and has approximately 45,000 times his body mass. Besides, even if his feelings were reciprocated by her, how could they ever consummate their love for each other? The mere thought of that gives me the heebie-jeebies! This is where Moe (Jerry White Jr.) -- Josephine's husband -- comes in. The roach devises a way to crawl into Moe's brain and puppeteer his body movements. Moe thus becomes a 300-pound conduit for the highly inventive roach to express his affections for Josephine.