“A Whale Of A Tale” Documentary Release Set

Megumi Sasaki’s award-winning documentary A WHALE OF A TALE will be released on iTunes in the US, Canada and UK on Tuesday, October 30.

In 2010, Taiji, a sleepy fishing town in Japan, suddenly found itself in the worldwide media spotlight. THE COVE, a documentary denouncing the town’s longstanding whale and dolphin hunting traditions, won an Academy Award and almost overnight, Taiji became the go-to destination and battleground for activists from around the world.

Can a proud 400-year-old whaling tradition survive a tsunami of modern animal-rights activism and colliding forces of globalism vs. localism?

A WHALE OF A TALE reveals the complex story behind the ongoing debate. Told through a wide range of characters including local fishermen, international activists and an American journalist (and long time Japanese resident), this powerful documentary unearths a deep divide in eastern and western thought about nature and wildlife and cultural sensitivity in the face of global activism.
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NYT Critic’s Pick “Await Further Instructions” from Dark Sky Films

From director Johnny Kevorkian and starring David Bradley (Dr. Who, Game of Thrones)

Dark Sky Films

Take the techno-paranoia of Black Mirror, add the intergalactic body horror of John Carpenter’s THE THING, adapt them into a VHS board game, and wrap it all up in a bitingly satirical Christmas-movie package, and what do you get? Await Further Instructions from British director Johnny Kevorkian and co-starring David Bradley of Game Of Thrones, Doctor Who, and Harry Potter fame. It’ll be in theaters and on VOD October 5th from Dark Sky Films.

Film Synopsis

It’s Christmas Day and the Milgram family wake to find a mysterious black substance surrounding their house. Something monumental is clearly happening right outside their door, but what exactly – an industrial accident, a terrorist attack, nuclear war? Descending into terrified arguments, they turn on the television, desperate for any information. On screen a message glows ominously: ‘Stay Indoors and Await Further Instructions’. As the television exerts an ever more sinister grip, their paranoia escalates into bloody carnage.

A powder keg of throat-grabbing intensity and mind-bending body horror, AWAIT FURTHER INSTRUCTIONS is an unmissable tour-de-force from rising star filmmaker Johnny Kevorkian and the BAFTA-nominated producer of God’s Own Country.

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“Leave Yourself Alone” Comes To Digital

Virgil Films

Leave Yourself Alone, a three-time award winning first feature debut by Nicole Eckenroad, comes to Digital HD October 9th. Eckenroad throws herself in the center of her carefully crafted narrative about a young tormented Hollywood actress followed by a pair of documentary filmmakers as she loses control of herself in method acting.

In May 2006 a 19-year-old Hollywood actress moves to Philadelphia to escape her bad reputation and restart her acting career. A pair of documentary filmmakers follows her to an undefined end as she experiments with Meisner technique, taking on the characteristics and behaviors of the characters she plays more often than her own. After losing countless roles to A-list talent, Nicole commits recklessly to a leading role in a story too close to her own and spirals into the abyss of her darkest secret.

Leave Yourself Alone is about performance and identity and depicts the lasting effect of a sexual assault on a young actress as two men film her struggle to land a break-out role. The film points a romantic gaze at a charming, innocent and naive young woman while the men behind the camera challenge the moral boundaries of keeping the camera rolling as she becomes emotionally and psychologically vulnerable. The film’s style convinces the viewer that fiction is fact and makes him consider his part as a voyeur on the victim.

“For me, this story relates very much to my experience and does for almost every
woman I know,” Eckenroad states. “Our identity and behavior are a combination of societal pressures and the inequities and aggressions acted upon us. The film is admittedly rebellious and attempts to flip the experience back onto the aggressor. It manipulates the viewer’s perception to believe they are watching a true story, and you feel guilty watching this young person self-destruct as a result of a trauma that was inflicted upon her.”

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Trailer For New Indie Thriller “Painless”

By Creative Media Times

Based on real medical science, the new indie thriller “Painless” follows a man named Henry, who has a rare condition called congenital analgesia which renders him unable to feel physical pain, and his search for normalcy.

“Pain, suffering due to bodily harm, is nature’s way of protecting us. But every once in a while, nature makes a mistake,” Henry’s voice-over says in the trailer. “If it is possible to take away the sensation of pain, then we must also be able to create it.”

“Painless” stars Joey Klein (“12 Monkeys”) and is directed by Jordan Horowitz (“Angel of Nanjing”). Also in the film are Joey Klein, Evalena Marie, Kip Gilman, and Pascal Yen-Pfister.

The new thriller is now available DVD and all major VOD platforms. See the trailer below.

Henry Long was born with a rare condition that leaves him unable to feel physical pain. Life for him is a daily struggle, never knowing when he might become seriously injured without realizing it, or worse, die from an internal injury he never knew existed. He lives in a constant state of fear and is completely alienated from those around him who cannot relate to his daily struggles.

Barricading himself in a world of science, Henry has dedicated his life to finding a cure so that he can one day know what it’s like to feel ‘normal.’ When he discovers a promising drug that he is unable to obtain on his own, he gets involved with a dangerous scientist with a dark past and his own secret agenda. Henry must decide if his need for normalcy is worth paying the ultimate price before it’s too late.

Based on a real disorder – congenital analgesia – and authentic medical science, PAINLESS looks at the dark side of life with a rare condition and the challenges both symptomatic and social that people with these conditions face.

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New Trailer For Frederick Wiseman’s “Monrovia, Indiana”

By Creative Media Times

Directed by Frederick Wiseman, the documentary explodes small-town life in contemporary America, small midwestern farming community and its values. The film shows day-to-day experiences of living and working in Monrovia, its community organizations and institutions, religion and daily life.

The documentary is an official selection at Venice Film Festival, Toronto International Film Festival, New York Film Festival and many more.

Is set to open theatrically on October 26th at New York’s Film Forum as it begins a national theatrical rollout, then in Los Angeles on November 2nd with more locations expected in November and December.

Here is the film’s synopsis:

MONROVIA, INDIANA explores a small town in rural, mid-America and illustrates how values like community service, duty, spiritual life, generosity and authenticity are formed, experienced and lived along with conflicting stereotypes. The film gives a complex and nuanced view of daily life in Monrovia and provides some understanding of a way of life whose influence and force have not always been recognized or understood in the big cities on the east and west coasts of America and in other countries.

About the director:
Since 1967, Frederick Wiseman has directed 42 documentaries—dramatic, narrative films that seek to portray ordinary human experience in a wide variety of contemporary social institutions. His films include TITICUT FOLLIES, HIGH SCHOOL, WELFARE, JUVENILE COURT, BOXING GYM, LA DANSE, BALLET, CENTRAL PARK, BALLET, LA COMEDIE FRANCAISE, BELFAST, MAINE, and EX LIBRIS – The New York Public Library. He has directed a fiction film, THE LAST LETTER (2002). His films are distributed in theatres and broadcast on television in many countries.

MONROVIA, INDIANA Official Trailer from Zipporah Films on Vimeo.

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