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"Try not to care what the world thinks about us. Because this is real for me." Strand Releasing has unveiled an official trailer for an indie drama titled Cicada, marking the feature directorial debut of filmmaker Matt Fifer. This played at numerous LGBT film festivals last year, including Outfest, Out on Screen, OUTshine, Zinentiendo, Queer Screen Sydney, and Frameline in San Fran. Cicada follows Ben, a young bisexual man, as he comes out to the world and develops an intense relationship with Sam, a closeted man struggling with deep wounds of his own. As the summer progresses and their intimacy grows, their pasts begin to crawl to the surface. Written & directed by Matt Fifer, who also stars in the film as Ben, with Sheldon Brown, Sandra Bauleo, Cobie Smulders, Jazmin Grace Grimaldi, Michael Potts, Scott Adsit, and David Burtka. This looks quite tender and lovely, and decidedly honest about relationships and their challenges.

Strand Releasing has acquired all North American rights to “Cicada,” Matthew Fifer’s Brooklyn-set debut feature, which premiered last year at several festivals, including Frameline, Outfest and BFI London.

“Cicada” was written and directed by Fifer and Kieran Mulcare. The film was inspired by events in Sheldon Brown’s and Fifer’s own lives. Fifer headlines the film alongside Brown, who also co-wrote the script.

The film follows Ben (Fifer), a young bisexual man who, after a string of unsuccessful and awkward encounters, meets Sam (Brown), a man of color struggling with deep wounds of his own. As the summer progresses and their intimacy grows, their pasts begin to crawl to the surface.

“We’re thrilled to be working on Matt’s debut feature ‘Cicada.’ It’s a thrilling and promising new voice, one that fits our family of auteurs,” said Marcus Hu of Strand Releasing.

The film also stars Cobie Smulders,...

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Watch the Trailer for The Canyonlands: "Five contest winners and their troubled guide struggle to survive their rafting trip in the canyonlands."

Distributor: Freestyle Digital Media Theatrical Release Date: March 5, 2021 VOD Release Date: March 9, 2020 Production Company: Sadieland Productions Director/Writer/Producer: Brendan Devane Starring: Stephanie Barkley, Marqus Bobesich, Wayne Charles Baker, Dennis Connors, Sheldon Brown, Ariana Anderson, Jesse Buck-Brennan, Lauren Capkanis, Larry Yazzie, Linda Villanueva Run Time: 99 minutes

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Watch the Trailer for Stand Off: "Stand Off is a zombie horror film (With plenty of action) about four survivors who attempt to work together in order to survive an infection outbreak and uncover it's strange super human effects.

When a mysterious epidemic enters the city, four strangers must...

Freestyle Digital Media has secured the North American distrubtuion rights to On Thin Ice, a social justice-themed sports documentary featuring athletes Allyson Felix, Evander Holyfield, Robbie Rogers, Apolo Ohno, Michael Sam, Aimee Mullins, and Greg Louganis. Directed by Keli Price, the film will be available to rent and own on February 2. The doc calls attention to athletes who have struggled for acceptance due to race, religion, sexual orientation, and other prejudices. The film chronicles the life of filmmaker Keli Price’s Great-grandfather Jack Brooks, who escaped the anti-Jewish pogroms in Eastern Europe in 1923 and went on to become one of the premier speed skaters of interwar America. He skated with the U.S. Olympic team, and traveled to Lake Placid in 1932 for the III Olympic Winter Games. But his dream was cut short. Singled out because of the religion he practiced and the place he called home, the “speedster from...

Early on in “Cicada,” a secondary character drops the old maxim, attributed to Leonardo da Vinci, that art is never finished, only abandoned. It’s a pointed moment of self-awareness in a film of many. Writer-director-producer-editor-star Matthew Fifer’s debut feature processes lived experience into a cracked, anguished work of autofiction, raggedly cathartic and needfully unresolved as it sketches young queer lives in different stages of self-acceptance. Delicately tracing the first summery blush of romance between two Brooklyn men respectively hindered by their own private trauma, “Cicada” is self-indulgent in the most forgivable, even fruitful, way, with stretches of nervy improvisation and everyday poetry that feel aptly rough and bruised. Nothing here seems to have been finished, or even abandoned, with ease.

In a normal year, “Cicada” would have completed a comprehensive tour of the LGBTQ festival circuit, picking up a word-of-mouth following along the way: It was originally set...