Utopia has acquired North American rights to “The Sweet East,” a contemporary travelogue that marks the feature directing debut of Sean Price Williams. The sale comes after the film debuted at Director’s Fortnight during the 2023 Cannes Film Festival.
Williams has a reputation as one of the most talented cinematographers in the independent film space, having previously worked with the likes of the Safdie Brothers, Alex Ross Perry, Michael Almereyda, Abel Ferrara and Albert Maysles. Here, he brings a script by cult film critic Nick Pinkerton to the screen.
Critics hailed the film as fresh and often funny, while praising the performance of Talia Ryder, who played a key supporting role in “Never Rarely Sometimes Always.” In “The Sweet East,” she plays Lillian, who runs away while on a school trip, encountering everyone from white supremacists and Islamic radicals to neo-punks and woke avant-gardists. The film also stars Simon Rex...
Williams has a reputation as one of the most talented cinematographers in the independent film space, having previously worked with the likes of the Safdie Brothers, Alex Ross Perry, Michael Almereyda, Abel Ferrara and Albert Maysles. Here, he brings a script by cult film critic Nick Pinkerton to the screen.
Critics hailed the film as fresh and often funny, while praising the performance of Talia Ryder, who played a key supporting role in “Never Rarely Sometimes Always.” In “The Sweet East,” she plays Lillian, who runs away while on a school trip, encountering everyone from white supremacists and Islamic radicals to neo-punks and woke avant-gardists. The film also stars Simon Rex...
- 7/27/2023
- by Brent Lang
- Variety Film + TV
Michael M. Bilandic's Project Space 13 is exclusively showing on Mubi in many countries starting December 10, 2021 in the series The New Auteurs, as well as in the series Anarchy in NYC: Michael M. Bilandic's Streetwise Cinema. I remember seeing Dušan Makavejev’s The Coca-Cola Kid back in the spring of 2020 at Anthology Film Archives in downtown Manhattan. It’s a satirical indictment of unhinged imperialist soft drink distributors wreaking havoc in the Outback. It’s also a pretty dumb romantic comedy starring Eric Roberts in full 1980s yuppie mode. It’s my favorite type of film: humorous, absurdist, yet grappling with serious issues in an entertaining, devil-may-care manner. I had no idea at the time that it would be the last 35mm print I’d see in a theater for well over a year. After the screening a bunch of us went to a bar down the street. There...
- 12/10/2021
- MUBI
"Something extremely sinister happened in this apartment." Utopia has revealed the official trailer for a wacky, weird indie horror / dark comedy called The Scary of Sixty-First, the feature debut of actor / filmmaker Dasha Nekrasova. This premiered at the 2021 Berlin Film Festival earlier this year, where it won the Best First Feature Award. Two roommates' lives are upended after finding out that their new Manhattan apartment harbors a dark secret – it was previously owned by the infamous Jeffrey Epstein. This is That film. The Berlinale jury stated it's, "an audacious take on genre cinema that confronts contemporary issues such as global power structures, sexual abuse, conspiracy theories and the dark corners of the internet in a wildly twisted, witty and subversive manner." The Scary of Sixty-First stars Madeline Quinn and Betsey Brown as the two tenants, with Stephen Gurewitz, Dasha Nekrasova, and Mark Rapaport. This will be showing on 35mm at select cinemas starting in December,...
- 10/12/2021
- by Alex Billington
- firstshowing.net
Abel Ferrara on his selections for Abel Ferrara’s Cinema Village: “Desperate Living by John Waters, one of my favorite directors. Then we got a couple of films by the guys that I worked with. My editor and my Dp Sean Williams, Stephen Gurewitz, Michael Bilandic. Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze
Abel Ferrara’s Cinema Village starts on Tuesday, June 29 at 7:30pm with a free screening of The Projectionist on Nicolas Nicolaou, followed by a Q&a with Abel. Tommaso; Pasolini; Siberia (Dafoe); Ms. 45; 4:44 Last Day On Earth, and Driller Killer will have $5 screenings.
John Waters’ Desperate Living; Bernardo Bertolucci’s The Conformist; Stephen Gurewitz’s Honky Kong; Alejandro Jodorowsky’s El Topo, and Jim Sharman’s The Rocky Horror Picture Show are among the films selected by Ferrara to be screening during his celebration of the reopening...
Abel Ferrara’s Cinema Village starts on Tuesday, June 29 at 7:30pm with a free screening of The Projectionist on Nicolas Nicolaou, followed by a Q&a with Abel. Tommaso; Pasolini; Siberia (Dafoe); Ms. 45; 4:44 Last Day On Earth, and Driller Killer will have $5 screenings.
John Waters’ Desperate Living; Bernardo Bertolucci’s The Conformist; Stephen Gurewitz’s Honky Kong; Alejandro Jodorowsky’s El Topo, and Jim Sharman’s The Rocky Horror Picture Show are among the films selected by Ferrara to be screening during his celebration of the reopening...
- 6/27/2021
- by Anne-Katrin Titze
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
“She’s a very sick girl and she’s always been into, like, the UK,” says Noelle (Madeline Quinn) about her roommate Addie (Betsie Brown) to her new friend The Girl (Dasha Nekrasova). Sick fascinations are the instruments of demonic evil in Dasha Nekrasova’s debut feature The Scary of Sixty-First. Quinn co-wrote Scary with Nekrasova based on their shared feeling of futility in the aftermath of Jeffrey Epstein’s death. Unsatisfied with the story that Epstein committed suicide, in the summer of 2019 Nekrasova held “Epstein Truther MeetUps” to investigate his death with fellow skeptical New Yorkers. Her truther explorations became an idea for the film and Nekrasova’s Girl character could be a stand-in for the actress, but that isn’t too important. The real story with The Scary of Sixty-First is: if you speak of the devil, he shall appear.
While friends Noelle and Addie tour an apartment on the Upper East Side,...
While friends Noelle and Addie tour an apartment on the Upper East Side,...
- 3/15/2021
- by Joshua Encinias
- The Film Stage
Apart from a work in progress industry screening in Wroclaw during the American Film Fest in 2017, there is very little info on Stephen Gurewitz’s Honkey Kong. A project that proposes renowned cinematographer Sean Price Williams being playful in front of the camera, and that takes place on the other side of the world, Hannah Gross and Alex Ross Perry also star in Gurewitz’s third feature film after Happy Birthday Rita (2010) and Marvin Seth and Stanley (2012).
Gist: A soul-battered New York chef begins unraveling during a trip to Hong Kong.
Production Co./Producers: Britni West.…...
Gist: A soul-battered New York chef begins unraveling during a trip to Hong Kong.
Production Co./Producers: Britni West.…...
- 11/21/2018
- by Eric Lavallée
- IONCINEMA.com
Now in its eighth year, the American Film Festival offers a unique perspective on recent developments in U.S. indie filmmaking. That’s because it happens in Poland, staged at the stylish Kino Nowe Horyzonty film center in Wroclaw, also home to the summer New Horizons festival, which has more of a European tilt.
Although the festival, which recently concluded, surveys many favorites from Sundance and South by Southwest, the curation doesn’t merely transpose selections to a new setting. It imports a lively assortment of filmmakers, as well, and creates a cozy, engaged atmosphere more akin to the communal vibe of the Maryland Film Festival. Indeed, to rub shoulders in a crowd that included Jody Lee Lipes, Noel Wells, Dustin Guy Defa, Nathan Silver, producer Mike Ryan, Jessica Oreck and Mike Ott is to experience a deep dive into the creative bustle of current indie ferment.
That spirit is...
Although the festival, which recently concluded, surveys many favorites from Sundance and South by Southwest, the curation doesn’t merely transpose selections to a new setting. It imports a lively assortment of filmmakers, as well, and creates a cozy, engaged atmosphere more akin to the communal vibe of the Maryland Film Festival. Indeed, to rub shoulders in a crowd that included Jody Lee Lipes, Noel Wells, Dustin Guy Defa, Nathan Silver, producer Mike Ryan, Jessica Oreck and Mike Ott is to experience a deep dive into the creative bustle of current indie ferment.
That spirit is...
- 11/14/2017
- by Steve Dollar
- Indiewire
After honing his sour, smarter-than-thou persona on HBO's Girls, Alex Karpovsky translates the mix of repression, condescension, and bluntness he's now associated with to a Midwestern male context.
Karpovsky doesn't get to show much range in writer-director Stephen Gurewitz's timid, overly sparse father-sons road trip movie, Marvin Seth and Stanley. But as firstborn Seth, he's certainly playing the film's only halfway-developed character. Irritable Seth and his needy younger brother, Stanley (Stephen Gurewitz), return home to suburban Minnesota to spend time with their elderly father, Marvin (first-time actor Marvin Gurewitz). After Seth foils a would-be surprise trip to Red Lobster — "it's a crappy corporate chain!" he petulantly protests in the car —...
Karpovsky doesn't get to show much range in writer-director Stephen Gurewitz's timid, overly sparse father-sons road trip movie, Marvin Seth and Stanley. But as firstborn Seth, he's certainly playing the film's only halfway-developed character. Irritable Seth and his needy younger brother, Stanley (Stephen Gurewitz), return home to suburban Minnesota to spend time with their elderly father, Marvin (first-time actor Marvin Gurewitz). After Seth foils a would-be surprise trip to Red Lobster — "it's a crappy corporate chain!" he petulantly protests in the car —...
- 4/23/2014
- Village Voice
Factory 25 has acquired world rights to "Marvin, Seth and Stanley," starring Alex Karpovsky ("Girls," "Inside Llewyn Davis") by writer/director Stephen Gurewitz, who co-stars.When the comedic road trip, which was shot on 16 mm, screened at festivals in 2012, Richard Brody at The New Yorker called it "an extraordinarily touching and quietly hilarious dramatic version of 'Shit My Dad Says.'"The Brooklyn-based indie distributor plans to release the film digitally on January 28 on cable VOD, iTunes, Amazon Vudu, X-Box, Sony Playstation and other digital outlets before it premieres theatrically in February.Here is the plot summary from Factory 25: The film joins the quarreling Greenstein brothers Seth (Karpovsky) and Stanley (Gurewitz) when they reluctantly agree to join their father, Marvin, for a weekend trip in rural Minnesota. Estranged from each other, the threesome of inept outdoorsmen rediscover repressed grudges as the weekend comically devolves into a series of...
- 1/8/2014
- by Paula Bernstein
- Indiewire
Factory 25 has acquired world rights to the comedic road film starring Alex Karpovsky.
Stephen Gurewitz directed the story of quarrelling brothers to accompany their father on a weekend trip to rural Minnesota. Alex Karpovsky, Stephen Gurewitz and Marvin Gurewitz star.
Factory 25 will release Marvin, Seth And Stanley digitally and on VOD on January 28.
The film premieres theatrically in February and will continue to play through the spring.
Stephen Gurewitz directed the story of quarrelling brothers to accompany their father on a weekend trip to rural Minnesota. Alex Karpovsky, Stephen Gurewitz and Marvin Gurewitz star.
Factory 25 will release Marvin, Seth And Stanley digitally and on VOD on January 28.
The film premieres theatrically in February and will continue to play through the spring.
- 1/8/2014
- by jeremykay67@gmail.com (Jeremy Kay)
- ScreenDaily
Having long been abandoned by his career-focused sons, Marvin (Marvin Gurewitz) coerces Seth (Alex Karpovsky) and Stanley (Stephen Gurewitz) to go on a weekend fishing trip with him. Marvin's divorce from Seth and Stanley's mother obviously still stings; he seems quite lonely living in his house all alone. I suspect that a great deal of guilt-tripping was required, because Seth and Stanley clearly have other places that they would rather be. Alex's marriage is crumbling apart, probably because he puts himself and his career above all else. Stanley, on the other hand, is an aspiring actor who seems afraid that he might miss his big break. Marvin, however, is old school; he is from an era when families stuck together, especially humble working class ones like the Greensteins.
- 9/8/2012
- by Don Simpson
- SmellsLikeScreenSpirit
I’ve had wind of this for a while, via both filmmaker Kentucker Audley and programmer Miriam Bale (who has a feature on Beasts of the Southern Wild in our current issue), but now the news is public. On September 14 and 15, the 92Y Tribeca will host the first La Di Da film festival, which takes a look at the recent work of a group of post-Mumblecore figures, including Amy Seimetz, the Safdies, Sean Price Williams, Dustin Guy Defa, Alex Karpovsky, Kate Lyn Sheil, Eléonore Hendricks and Audley.
In the press release explaining the genesis of the event, Bale says, “I’ve programmed mostly classic films for many years, but recently I’ve seen contemporary films that look like new classics. Many were shot on 16mm. They’re simple yet sophisticated, and also experimental and really feel like something new. These filmmakers are using documentary or low-budget methods to film quickly and cheaply in the streets,...
In the press release explaining the genesis of the event, Bale says, “I’ve programmed mostly classic films for many years, but recently I’ve seen contemporary films that look like new classics. Many were shot on 16mm. They’re simple yet sophisticated, and also experimental and really feel like something new. These filmmakers are using documentary or low-budget methods to film quickly and cheaply in the streets,...
- 7/23/2012
- by Nick Dawson
- Filmmaker Magazine - Blog
Just a quick heads up to alert you to the fact that the excellent NoBudge film website — run by indie actor/director Kentucker Audley, one of our 25 New Faces in 2007 — is running an innovative “live screening series” featuring filmmaker Q&As, starting tonight. Eight films will screen during the next two weeks, and each night the director of that day’s featured film will do a Q&A online.
Programmed for the next two weeks are the shorts Cochran (James Gannon, 2009), Prom Queen (Ben Siler, 2007), Bruno (Sam Goetz, 2007), and Repeat (Donal Foreman, 2009). The features portion includes Seattle-based filmmaker Christian Palmer’s gritty 2010 drama William Never Married and Joe Lewis’s bohemian performance piece Tyler B. Nice, while the two most notable inclusions are Impolex, the 2009 debut from The Color Wheel‘s Alex Ross Perry, and Stephen Gurewitz’s Marvin Seth and Stanley, which just had its world premiere a week...
Programmed for the next two weeks are the shorts Cochran (James Gannon, 2009), Prom Queen (Ben Siler, 2007), Bruno (Sam Goetz, 2007), and Repeat (Donal Foreman, 2009). The features portion includes Seattle-based filmmaker Christian Palmer’s gritty 2010 drama William Never Married and Joe Lewis’s bohemian performance piece Tyler B. Nice, while the two most notable inclusions are Impolex, the 2009 debut from The Color Wheel‘s Alex Ross Perry, and Stephen Gurewitz’s Marvin Seth and Stanley, which just had its world premiere a week...
- 5/14/2012
- by Nick Dawson
- Filmmaker Magazine - Blog
Chicago – As the days count down to the end of the year, it’s a perfect time for a countdown of the top ten films of 2011. Last week, Brian Tallerico of HollywoodChicago.com posted his 10 Best of 2011, and this week I pick my Top Ten Films of 2011, by Patrick McDonald.
If there was a single overriding theme to films in 2011, it was the end of the world. There were symbolic, financial, moral, anarchistic and literal end of the worlds, which comes on the heels of the meltdown of the end of last decade. It wasn’t a science fiction style end, but a commentary on a pervasive mood in general society, and the reflection of that mood in so many films throughout 2011 is quite remarkable, and unmistakable.
In my Top Ten of 2011, several of those end-of-the-world films are there, but also there is hopeful turns with baseball, Woody Allen and brilliant smaller budget filmmaking.
If there was a single overriding theme to films in 2011, it was the end of the world. There were symbolic, financial, moral, anarchistic and literal end of the worlds, which comes on the heels of the meltdown of the end of last decade. It wasn’t a science fiction style end, but a commentary on a pervasive mood in general society, and the reflection of that mood in so many films throughout 2011 is quite remarkable, and unmistakable.
In my Top Ten of 2011, several of those end-of-the-world films are there, but also there is hopeful turns with baseball, Woody Allen and brilliant smaller budget filmmaking.
- 12/27/2011
- by adam@hollywoodchicago.com (Adam Fendelman)
- HollywoodChicago.com
As the holiday season begins to ramp up, the 3rd annual Minneapolis Underground Film Festival is going to be spreading some naughty cheer on Dec. 3-5 for a weekend packed with over 16 feature films, several short films, parties and more.
While there are tons of great films to see at the festival, Bad Lit is especially excited by a trio of features that will be screening. First up is a rare U.S. screening of Spanish avant-garde filmmaker Carlos Atanes‘ third feature film Maximum Shame, an intense and surreal journey into an alternate reality on the verge of the destruction of the entire universe. The film combines philosophical ranting, verbal and physical torture, and singing! What more could you ask for?
Another international film that will be playing comes from just over the northern border. It’s Michael Peterson‘s wickedly entertaining Eddies: The Documentary, a truly inspiring film about...
While there are tons of great films to see at the festival, Bad Lit is especially excited by a trio of features that will be screening. First up is a rare U.S. screening of Spanish avant-garde filmmaker Carlos Atanes‘ third feature film Maximum Shame, an intense and surreal journey into an alternate reality on the verge of the destruction of the entire universe. The film combines philosophical ranting, verbal and physical torture, and singing! What more could you ask for?
Another international film that will be playing comes from just over the northern border. It’s Michael Peterson‘s wickedly entertaining Eddies: The Documentary, a truly inspiring film about...
- 11/29/2010
- by Mike Everleth
- Underground Film Journal
We’re only a few days away from the start of the Raindance festival here in London, and we’ve been fortunate enough to speak with the director of one of the films on show.
Dean Peterson’s film, Incredibly Small, is making its debut at the festival and we recently posted the trailer to give you a good indication of what to expect and there’s something magnetic in what we’ve seen so far. The naturalistic flow of dialogue and some beautifully sun bleached shots tease what is sure to be a great film and Peterson talks about his process, Raindance and his take on the independent movie scene of 2010.
To find out more about the festival click here and Incredibly Small premieres on the 9th of October at 6.45pm.
HeyUGuys: First of all – what’s your story – how did you get here, to having your film appear at Raindance?...
Dean Peterson’s film, Incredibly Small, is making its debut at the festival and we recently posted the trailer to give you a good indication of what to expect and there’s something magnetic in what we’ve seen so far. The naturalistic flow of dialogue and some beautifully sun bleached shots tease what is sure to be a great film and Peterson talks about his process, Raindance and his take on the independent movie scene of 2010.
To find out more about the festival click here and Incredibly Small premieres on the 9th of October at 6.45pm.
HeyUGuys: First of all – what’s your story – how did you get here, to having your film appear at Raindance?...
- 9/27/2010
- by Jon Lyus
- HeyUGuys.co.uk
The Raindance Film Festival lineup got some one crowded out by all the London Film Festival announcements yesterday but it most definitely should not be overlooked. This is the place where loads of awesome indie get to come and get noticed. One of the movies playing at the festival is called Incredibly Small and the director, Dean Peterson emailed me yesterday to give me a heads up on the trailer and poster that has been released for the movie.
The cast includes Susan Burke, Stephen Gurewitz, Alex Karpovsky, Amy Seimetz, Alex Rennie, Bob Byington, Ron Lynch, Darlene Westgor, Dave Mercer, Charles Hubbell and Eric Hisle.
Incredibly Small focuses around a couple Anne (Burke) and Amir (Gurewitz) who decide to move in together after graduating at their university. Amir has been left to find the accommodation and what he finds is somewhat inadequate and miniature!
Synopsis: Two recent college graduates, Anne,...
The cast includes Susan Burke, Stephen Gurewitz, Alex Karpovsky, Amy Seimetz, Alex Rennie, Bob Byington, Ron Lynch, Darlene Westgor, Dave Mercer, Charles Hubbell and Eric Hisle.
Incredibly Small focuses around a couple Anne (Burke) and Amir (Gurewitz) who decide to move in together after graduating at their university. Amir has been left to find the accommodation and what he finds is somewhat inadequate and miniature!
Synopsis: Two recent college graduates, Anne,...
- 9/10/2010
- by David Sztypuljak
- HeyUGuys.co.uk
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