Hannah Fidell’s A Teacher, Chad Hartigan’s This Is Martin Bonner and other Sundance buzz-makers and world premieres will screen at the Sundance Institute‘s inaugural NEXT Weekend Film Festival from August 8-11 in Los Angeles. Here are the 10 newly unveiled titles set to screen at the American Cinematheque’s Aero Theatre, Cinefamily, Cinespia at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery, MOCA, and the UCLA School of Theater, Film, and Television:
12 O’Clock Boys / U.S.A. (Director and screenwriter: Lotfy Nathan) — Pug, a bright 13-year-old boy living on a dangerous, west-side block in Baltimore, dreams of joining the 12 O’Clock Boys – a notorious Urban dirt bike pack who invade the streets, popping wheelies and cruising at high speeds through traffic while clashing with police. (Documentary) LA PREMIERE
Blue Caprice / U.S.A. (Director: Alexandre Moors, Screenwriters: R. F. I. Porto, Alexandre Moors) — An abandoned boy is lured to America and drawn into the shadow of a dangerous father figure in this film inspired by the real-life events that led to the 2002 Beltway sniper attacks. Cast: Isaiah Washington, Tequan Richmond, Joey Lauren Adams, Tim Blake Nelson, Cassandra Freeman, Leo Fitzpatrick. LA PREMIERE
Cutie And The Boxer / U.S.A. (Director: Zachary Heinzerling) — Over the course of the chaotic 40-year marriage between New York-based Japanese artists Ushio and Noriko Shinohara, their headstrong, yet complementary personalities form a graceful rumination on companionship, sacrifice and the creative spirit. (Documentary) LA PREMIERE
The Foxy Merkins / U.S.A. (Director: Madeleine Olnek, Screenwriters: Madeleine Olnek, Jackie Monahan, Lisa Haas) — Two lesbian hookers work the streets of New York. One is a down-on-her-luck newbie; the other is a beautiful – and straight – grifter who is an expert on picking up women. Together they face bargain-hunting housewives and double-dealing conservative women in this subversive buddy comedy. Cast: Lisa Haas, Jackie Monahan, Alex Karpovsky, Susan Ziegler, Sally Sockwell, Deb Margolin. WORLD PREMIERE
How To Be A Man / U.S.A. (Director: Chadd Harbold, Screenwriters: Bryan Gaynor, Chadd Harbold, Gavin McInnes) — When former comedian Mark is faced with a rare form of cancer, he hires an impressionable cameraman to document his crude and comical lessons on what it means to be a man for his unborn son. But when Mark nearly loses everything, he realizes he has the most to learn. Cast: Gavin McInnes, Liam Aiken, Paulo Costanzo, Megan Neuringer, Nigel DeFriez, Nicole Balsam. WORLD PREMIERE
It Felt Like Love / U.S.A. (Director and screenwriter: Eliza Hittman) — On the outskirts of Brooklyn, a 14-year-old’s sexual quest takes a dangerous turn when she pursues an older guy and tests the boundaries between obsession and love. Cast: Gina Piersanti, Giovanna Salimeni, Ronen Rubinstein, Jesse Cordasco, Nick Rosen, Case Prime. LA PREMIERE
Newlyweeds / U.S.A. (Director and screenwriter: Shaka King) — A Brooklyn repo-man and his globetrotting girlfriend forge an unlikely romance. But what should be a match made in stoner heaven turns into a love triangle gone awry in this dark ballad of chemical dependency — part coming of age romance, part hallucinatory adventure. Cast: Amari Cheatom, Trae Harris, Tone Tank, Colman Domingo, Isiah Whitlock Jr., Adrian Martinez. LA PREMIERE
Stand Clear Of The Closing Doors / U.S.A. (Director: Sam Fleischner, Screenwriters: Rose Lichter-Marck, Micah Bloomberg) — When a young, autistic Mexican boy runs away from his undocumented family on the outskirts of New York City, he embarks on an 11-day odyssey in the city’s subway system, forcing his splintered family to reconcile their differences in order to bring him home. Cast: Andrea Suarez Paz, Jesus Sanchez-Velez, Azul Zorrilla, Tenoch Huerta Mejia, Marsha Stephanie Blake. LA PREMIERE
A Teacher / U.S.A. (Director and screenwriter: Hannah Fidell) — A popular young high school teacher in a wealthy suburban Texas high school has an affair with one of her students. Her life begins to unravel as the relationship comes to an end. Cast: Lindsay Burdge, Will Brittain, Jennifer Prediger, Jonny Mars, Julie Phillips, Chris Doubek. LA PREMIERE
This Is Martin Bonner / U.S.A. (Director and screenwriter: Chad Hartigan) — In this 2013 Sundance Film Festival award-winning film we discover two men, each searching in their quiet solitude to begin a new life amidst an unspoken need for encouragement and support. Cast: Paul Eenhoorn, Richmond Arquette, Sam Buchanan, Robert Longstreet, Demetrius Grosse. LA PREMIERE
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