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FINDING GREAT STORIES Original Productions Update This Monthʼs Film Premieres Talent Search
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
1 Welcome Readers:
The purpose of this magazine is to share with our movie-goers, the industry and our partners updates about what is happening at Flix Premiere each month. We aim to highlight and explore the upcoming month’s film premieres in each market, to announce new developments on our platform and to provide a CEO update about the exciting current and future plans at Flix Premiere. Happy reading!
IN THIS ISSUE: July’s Premiere Snapshot Learn about our exclusive new premieres showing each week US July Premieres Snapshot - pg. 2 UK July Premieres Snapshot - pg. 3 Tourbillon
Close Up: Premiere Feature Reviews
Su gar Su ga r
A chance to immerse yourself in the wonderful stories premiering each week Wi nte r
Where We're Meant To Be - Blayne Weaver, Seth Nicholas Gore, Michael Howard, Tracey Coppedge - pg. 4 Turnabout - George Katt, Waylon Payne, Peter Greene, Sayra Player - pg. 5
W in te r
Sugar - Shenae Grimes, Marshall Allman, Corbin Bleu, Wes Studi - pg. 6 Tourbillon - Cortney Palm, Chris Petrovski, Emilio Palame - pg. 7 Winter - Tommy Flanagan, Judith Godrèche, Stacy Martin, Tom Payne - pg. 8 Spear - Troy Honeysett, Hunter Page-Lochard, Aaron Pedersen - pg. 9 Occupy,Texas - Gene Gallerano, Janine Turner, Peri Gilpin, Lorelei Linklater, Reed Birney - pg. 10
CEO’S Corner This month, Flix Premiere's CEO Martin Warner shares his insight on finding great stories, the elements needed and how the company appraises new film acquisitions. - pg. 12
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US JULY PREMIERES SNAPSHOT
Starring: Blayne Weaver, Seth Nicholas Gore, Michael Howard, Tracey Coppedge
July 7, 2017 - 7pm EST
Starring: Shenae Grimes, Marshall Allman, Corbin Bleu, Wes Studi
July 14, 2017 - 7pm EST June 9, 2017 - 7pm EST
Starring: Tommy Flanagan, Judith Godrèche, Stacy Martin, Tom Payne
July 21, 2017 - 7pm EST
Directed by: Stephen Page
Starring: Gene Gallerano, Janine Turner, Peri Gilpin,Lorelei Linklater, Reed Birney
96%
July 28, 2017 - 7pm EST
638
72 Award-Winning films Exclusive to our platform
200 over
Total territories acquired We are available across 15 major platforms including: DEVICES
Apple TV
Amazon Fire
iOS, Android, Web
Roku
Samsung Sony, Panasonic, LG, Sharp
theatrical Premieres available and
300
in General Release Pipeline
Chromecast
www.flixpremiere.com
Our service is available in the US and UK, and we are fast acquiring movie titles for territory expansion.
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UK JULY PREMIERES SNAPSHOT UK MARKET
Starring: Blayne Weaver, Seth Nicholas Gore, Michael Howard, Tracey Coppedge
July 1, 2017 - 7pm BST
Starring: George Katt, Waylon Payne, Peter Greene, Sayra Player
July 8, 2017 - 7pm BST
Starring: Cortney Palm, Chris Petrovski, Emilio Palame
July 15, 2017 - 7pm BST
Starring: Troy Honeysett, Hunter Page-Lochard, Aaron Pedersen SPECIAL
MENTION ASIA PACIFIC SCREEN AWARDS
STEPHEN PAGE
NOMINATED ASIA PACIFIC SCREEN AWARDS
STEPHEN PAGE
NOMINATED AACTA AWARDS
NOMINATED AACTA AWARDS
BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY
BEST COSTUME DESIGN
STEPHEN PAGE
JENNIFER IRWIN
July 22, 2017 - 7pm BST
Starring: Janine Turner, Peri Gilpin, Lorelei Linklater, Reed Birney
July 29, 2017 - 7pm BST
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Close Up: Premiere Feature Review
Where We’re Meant To Be
L
ife is made up of small moments, the kind that are largely lost to memory and seem to be inconsequential. But those instances overlap with and are inevitably connected to other pivotal and destiny-altering events for both ourselves and those who surround us. This is the premise of a soul-searching conversation that takes place on a promising first date at the beginning of Where We’re Meant to Be. And the theory about small moments described by these potential love birds cleverly becomes the premise for the entire film. In this way, Where We’re Meant to Be has an inventive and exciting approach to storytelling. It’s neither a compilation of short films, nor a narrative feature of the canned story arc variety. Plenty of those kinds of films can be found. Instead, it consists of a series of vignettes that connect together via a subtle detail, one that shifts the viewer into a whole new rich microcosm of story. While plotlines diverge from one another following the camera’s new focus, the separate stories are linked together by the themes of serendipity, providence, and destiny.
UK Premiere JULY 1 - 7PM BST US Premiere JULY 7 - 7PM EST
Where We’re
Director Michael Howard’s second
Meant to Be
feature film, Where We’re Meant to Be is
captures its share
remarkably consistent in tone through a
of poignant,
variety of situations. With steady and
candid, and
interesting cinematography, a new
heartfelt moment.
approach toward narrative, and original concepts, this is a drama
Small details shift an individual’s entire view of their life, their partners, their family members, or their job. Collectively, through the connections that bind them to one another, the vignettes suggest that everyone is “where they’re meant to be,” even when that may be unfathomable from within the shocking, upsetting, or dramatic world of the individual stories themselves. Where We’re Meant to Be captures its share of poignant, candid, and heartfelt moments. Of particular note is its treatment of a tragic death through a poetic visual sequence.
you will want to check out. Pamela Powell, Reel Honest Reviews
The brutal honesty of a woman on a first date, a relationship between an older woman and younger man, and a confrontation between brothers also stand out for their original and bold perspectives.
5
Close Up: Premiere Feature Review
Turnabout
UK Premiere JULY 8 - 7PM BST
E
lements of our past occasionally disrupt our present. People we once knew, friends made and lost, and experiences we shared suddenly return and make us rethink who we are today. Turnabout is a film about one such night when an old acquaintance resurfaces unexpectedly to dizzying effect. After fifteen years apart, Perry receives a late-night call for help from his high school friend Billy. Full of booze and pills, and on the brink of suicide, Billy is at the end of his rope when he reaches out to his old pal. What follows begins as a courtesy rescue of a friend in need and quickly devolves into a dramatic thriller. While Perry grew up and married, established himself as a successful optician, and built a family, Billy drifted from job to job and into a dark underworld. Will Perry be able to help? Turnabout lives up to its name and takes the viewer down a path that seems familiar, only to upend expectations in a series of plot twists. Director and writer E.B. Hughes fixes all of the action over the course of just one night. The film has the virtue of offering many long takes that allow the narrative to develop in real-time while still engaging its audience with a plot-driven and gripping story.
Overall, Turnabout is a fantastic piece of work and is very deserving of the awards it has already managed to pick up on the festival circuit. Carl Burgess, screencritix
It took multiple awards in Atlantic City, Philadelphia, and NYC, including accolades for best feature drama, best actor, and cinematography.
The pace of Turnabout is rhythmic and well proportioned in this way. Chase Bowman’s cinematography takes a charming seaside town and subtly shows its dark underbelly. George Katt mirrors the double-sidedness of the environment in his portrayal of Billy. Smooth talking, earnest, and, yet, there are shades of sinister intentions about him. Waylon Payne strikes dynamic Perry who unravels from a place of personal achievement and professional security over the course of a long night. Peter Greene gives a memorable performance as a dark strip club proprietor and loan shark figure.
Ultimately a stylish and deeply emotive film with two standout central performances . Chris Olson, UK Film Review
With such an impressive cast playing to the height of the material, it is no wonder that Turnabout was a hit on the 2016 film festival circuit.
Do not miss out on the suspense. Let a call from the past take you somewhere you did not think you would go.
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Close Up: Premiere Feature Review
Sugar
US Premiere JULY 14 - 7PM EST
A
udiences are familiar with Los Angeles as the “city of stars,” the place made of dreams. Hollywood is associated with celebrity, wealth, and glamour in the popular imagination. It takes a bold film to challenge and disturb that vision of LA. Sugar, by Rotimi Rainwater, is such a picture, unafraid to push audiences beyond the status quo and into the life of a group of homeless adolescents. Sugar (Shenae Grimes) is a young woman with a traumatic and mysterious past, whose present is consumed by the preoccupations of daily survival on the streets of Los Angeles. But she does not have to face life entirely on her own. Marshall (Marshall Allman), her boyfriend, and the young Ronnie (Austin Williams) are the members of her new chosen family. The beaches and skateboard parks of Venice are their domain. A pizza is a feast and an empty shopping cart a source of entertainment. Through their eyes we learn about the ebb and flow, the rough rhythm of life on the streets.
..the heart of the film stems from its honest, unblinking observations of its characters and the dialogue they share, which likely underlines the bonds real-life homeless people form. Matthew Huntley, Box Office Prophets
People come and go with such volatility there. The sudden reappearance of a member of Sugar’s family–a ghost from her past–troubles the delicate balance of their mutual codependence to that point that it is unclear if the makeshift family will survive.
A touching drama that challenges our ideas about family and our sense of what constitutes a home, Sugar’s greatest achievement might be that it takes the familiar streets of Hollywood and beaches of Venice and estranges them to the viewer. We suddenly see the underbelly of LA sparkle–including the murky waters of the Los Angeles River–and are forced to consider the life of a population that the majority constantly overlooks, pretending that they simply do not exist.
Sugar is a great film about homeless youth in Venice, California. Sharon Abella, Indiewire
Grimes, Allman, and Williams offer poignant performances, providing depth to characters damaged by their past lives and doing what they can to make the best of today. Angus Macfadyen presents an affable, loving, and well-intentioned Uncle Gene. The overall effect is a portrait of the ways in which family can be forged by affinity, and social life can persist even in the most unfavorable conditions. Sugar is a courageous film that is not to be missed.
Close Up: Premiere Feature Review
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UK Premiere JULY 15 - 7PM BST
Tourbillon ...the film’s audience has an opportunity to consider not only a mesmerizing mystery, but also a piece of wisdom.
T
he quest for eternal youth is as old as civilization itself. To live forever as an adolescent, in one’s prime, is a powerful and enduring fantasy. But what if it could be achieved? What personal, emotional, or social costs might we allow for obtaining this precious gift. And how long would we be able to enjoy it? Tourbillon is a story about immortality that transcends tired genre categories. Daniela’s body is timeless. Forever young and beautiful, she is also utterly alone. Part science fiction and part thriller, this drama contemplates the life of an exceptional girl at a critical period. For Daniela’s condition has not come without a price, or without sacrifices. And though she has been guided and protected by a secretive organization named The Family, charting her path forward is ultimately a matter that she must take into her own hands.
With few people to trust, and everything to lose, Daniela will struggle to decide her destiny.
This reality is quickly turned upside down, however, in a series of startling events.
Director Gene Ivery’s debut feature, Tourbillon brings a New Wave feel to science fiction.
Ivery’s balance of tone in this original format for a science fiction thriller suggests a maturity that many filmmakers will not achieve, let alone in their first picture.
Narrated from Daniela’s perspective, via mandatory journaling for The Family, the film gradually reveals her unique world.
Tourbillon is a story about immortality that transcends tired genre categories...Part science fiction and part thriller, this drama contemplates the life of an exceptional girl at a critical period.
Cinematographer Daphne Qin Wu effectively captures Daniela’s interior life through floating close-ups of the objects and everyday places that make up her world. Under her camera’s lens, Los Angeles, too, achieves the quality of being suspended in time. Qin Wu transforms cityscapes as if they are seen through an immortal’s eyes. Cortney Palm play a thoughtful and poised Daniela, wise beyond her years while simultaneously vital. Valerie Kairys brings exactly the right dose of ambivalence to Mother, a character teetering on the edge of being a savior or a villain. Tourbillon shows that, ultimately, even never-ending life has its ups and downs. The whirlwind does not escape those who shall be forever young and beautiful. And because it shares this insight, the film’s audience has an opportunity to consider not only a mesmerizing mystery, but also a piece of wisdom.
Close Up: Premiere Feature Review
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US Premiere JULY 21 - 7PM EST
Winter
T
rauma can shake a brilliant mind and turn a vibrant individual into something unrecognizable. Woods Weston was an acclaimed painter, a father, and a respected member of his community. When we meet him, though, he is clinging to the end of his rope. Winter is the story of the Weston family’s discontent. Woods is an addict, a drunk, and a washed-up parent incapable of caring for his two sons. Child Services has intervened and placed his youngest boy in foster care. The oldest, Tom, tries to look after his father and take responsibility for his household. But it seems like an impossible task. Now Columbia University is offering him a full scholarship, but he has to make a decision about his admission soon. Will he be able to move on and let go, and will everything fall apart at home if he does? Heidi Greensmith’s breakthrough feature, Winter is a timely and poignant portrait of mental illness and its effects in the home. It is a courageous film, unafraid to explore a subject that often remains taboo even as it pervasively affects society. A moving drama, its pain is punctuated by moments of levity as Woods shows bits of his larger than life personality through the cracks of his affliction.
Overall, a fine and insightful Tommy Flanagan gives a tour de force performance as Woods. Oscillating from hopelessness and grief, to hope and creative determination, he takes us on the journey of his character’s plunge into schizophrenia. Flanagan gives a performance of great depth that conveys all the confusion and pain of mental illness, the great love of a man for his family, and the grandeur of an artistic sensibility.
look at loss and sanity. Recommended. John McArthur, moviescramble
This impressive feature length debut of writer-director Heidi Greensmith is a soulful, intimate and deeply humane character study, using emotionally loaded moments of intimate conversation, charged glances, explosive outbursts and uncomfortable silences to explore of how grief can affect even the strongest of people. Ross Miller, Thoughtsonfilm
Tom Payne compliments and matches his talent as the elder son, Tom. Caught between pursuing his own dreams and his profound love for his father, Payne balances these competing needs in a sensitive and realistic manner. Winter is a thoughtful and moving feature. It reminds us that, even after lives have been shattered, there remains an opportunity to pick up the pieces, to drag oneself off of the floor, and to create, to love, and to live again.
9
Close Up: Premiere Feature Review UK Premiere JULY 22 - 7PM BST
Spear
A
sweeping cliffside ocean vista opens to a tribal rite of initiation. The young Djali sets aside his modern clothing, is bathed, and then painted with mud. Spear invites its audience on his journey of rebirth that is, simultaneously, a return to ancestral roots and an interrogation of an unbalanced contemporary social order. Djali’s story is told through modern dance, mesmerizing percussive music, and stunning landscapes, which make this Aussie feature a singular cinematic experience. Director Stephen Page’s breakthrough film effortlessly transposes his acclaimed choreography to the cinematic medium. As Artistic Director of the Bangarra Dance Theatre troupe for over 26 years, his life’s work has been to give expression to the Aboriginal experience. Extending this mission in a personal way, Spear features the Bangarra troupe, incorporates indigenous music composed by Page’s brother, and stars his son as a youth torn between an ancient culture and a hostile modern one. This tension between the poles of split and hybrid identity permeates the film. The camera shifts from isolated seaside rock and the plains of the Outback to urban cityscapes. Similarly, indigenous dancers and those of European ancestry blend contemporary and tribal dance. Man transforms to animal. Australia’s history of settler colonialism and the domination of Aboriginal peoples by White Europeans are held up to a mirror.
While it is difficult to definitively understand the meaning behind this complex marriage of dance and chant with its diverse imagery and striking settings, one thing is certain: Stephen Page’s Spear is a unique piece of cinema. Louise Keller, Urban Cinefile
Djali belongs neither fully to the world of his native ancestors, nor to modern Australia. Such conflict animates the dance sequences that tell his story and keep the viewer alert to variations of perspective.
[Page’s artistic filming technique] allows us to focus on the shaping of bodies and images as they flow through each tableau, seeing love, adulthood and battle through the eyes of a boy becoming a man as expressed through movement. Robert Bell, Exclaim!
What is personal for Djali clearly has broader, national resonance. It is precisely a multi-faceted perspective that the film suggests is necessary to cast upon popular representations of Aboriginal people in twentieth-century Australian culture, to reevaluate the real harm that they perpetuate. Spear is visually stunning from its first ocean landscape to its last.
Jennifer Irwin’s costume design, with its play of contrasts and hybridity, boldly captures the rift between competing identities that is central to the piece. David Page’s original score also musically fuses the traditional and the contemporary, adding a surrealist undercurrent to the images. The overall result is a lyrical film, with a rhythm and fluid visual style worthy of the dance it delightfully showcases.
Close Up: Premiere Feature Review
10
US Premiere JULY 28 - 7PM EST UK Premiere JULY 29 - 7PM BST
Occupy, Texas
Y
oung Texan son Beau Baker never stopped occupying Wall Street. Seven years after the movement, he still lives in a sleeping bag under a stoop in New York’s financial district.
The acting by Elvir and Linklater steal the
Or at least he does until his uncle retrieves him following the unexpected death of his parents.
movie.... It’s a film you can wrap around
Occupy, Texas follows Beau’s journey from life in the streets back to upper middle-class Dallas, where he has inherited his parent’s estate and the guardianship of two young sisters.
Bob Bloom, the film yap
Fasten your seatbelts, this is going to make for a wild ride! From negotiating homework, dating, and the basic upkeep of his family home with his siblings, to encountering old flings and remembrances of his former Texan life, Beau is entirely unprepared for a sudden return to society. Gene Gallerano, who plays Beau, also penned the screenplay for the film. He was inspired to do so when contact with Occupy Wall Street protestors in New York left him wondering–what comes next for the passionate members of this group when the movement dissolves?
yourself and snuggle.
Frasier alumna and Texas native Peri Gilpin tops off the cast as Dallas society professional Aunt Uma, who is hell-bent on assuring that Beau does not destroy his sisters’ chances at a normal life.
Occupy, Texas is a charming film about the painful reconciliation of a rebel with their roots, and the possibility that everyone really can, one day,
What will be the outlet for all of this intense energy? The result is a brilliant premise for a comedy, but one that manages to also be a reflection on grief, loss, and the deeper meaning of what it means to grow up and move on. Gallerano’s Beau is delightfully quirky and a recognizable archetype of alternative living. His talent is particularly well matched by Catherine Elvir, who plays his inquisitive, goofy, and vibrant younger sister, Arden. The two have a tender chemistry that balances fun playfulness and genuine sibling affection under typical and strained circumstances. Lorelei Linklater plays a more brooding and aloof Claire.
return home.
Shot primarily in Dallas, director Jeff Barry draws the audience into a familiar world of Texan manners and gossip, and shakes it up with exactly the kind of outsider it needs–one who was raised there. Occupy Texas is a charming film about the painful reconciliation of a rebel with their roots, and the possibility that everyone really can, one day, return home.
CEO’S CORNER
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Our team looks for the aforementioned insight into the movie, and then we begin the appraisal of each film by getting our highly capable and passionate screening
FINDING GREAT STORIES
team to watch and review each movie to give us a true aggregated consensus of what we see is real. Each movie also goes through an accreditations process to understand the context of the movie in the marketplace we expect to exhibit from. This accreditations process looks at the talent, the production, the festival journey, a movie's success in different markets and what early critics thought about the movie. Our formula, screening and accreditations is what enables Flix Premiere to find movies that resonate with our viewers. Check out this month's Film Premieres to
A
get a sense of the wonderful movies available. very warm welcome to this month’s magazine - Close Up.
In this issue, I wanted to discuss finding great stories, the process we go through, and how we end up with award-winning movies that make up Flix Premiere's identity. The best way to look at this is to holistically think about what makes a great story and ultimately a great movie. For some time I have conveyed to people both in and out of the industry, that truly great movies aren't about brands, budget, who made them, or what studio produced it. Sometimes it's not even about awards. All of this is important - and are marked for a successful formula. But it's more than that. We search for stories that have broad enough appeal because they are relevant, often impactful, characterise life through showing us a mirror of our daily lives. We seek for a narrative that resonates with its audience, and through this a compelling story with underlying characters that make you think and often converse about them after the movie is over. We are fortunate that a lot of these important movies we find are already celebrated in film festivals around the world, and duly supported by awards bestowed upon them.
This month I'd like to draw your attention to our new feature that focuses on searching for movies by cast member.
You can learn about leading actors and
actresses, and up and coming talent that make up over 250 recognised artists in our library. Lastly, look out for more information about our Original Productions journey, where we seek to apply our talents to finding more broad ranging yet unique stories that deserve to be produced.
We have a
growing pipeline of movies already and will have some more news soon. Happy reading. Martin Warner CEO and Founder
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