The celebrated true indie-focused film festival returns to
New York City with three times as many films as last year’s debut.
64 World Premiere Screenings Featured
Dylan K. Narang’s TAPAWINGO is the Opening Night selection,
and Nicholas Gyeney’s THE ACTIVATED MAN will make its World Premiere as the
Closing Night selection.
New York, NY (November 9, 2023) – Dances With Films
announced the film lineup for the return of what has become LA’s largest purely
indie film-focused film festival over the past 26 years to New York City
(November 30-December 3) for the second time featuring a film lineup nearly
three times the size of last year’s NYC debut. DWF alum Dylan K. Narang’s
Tapawingo is the Opening Night selection, and Nicholas Gyeney’s psychological
thriller The Activated Man will make its world premiere in the Closing Night
slot.
Among DWF NYC’s lineup of 136 films, including 20 narrative
features, 9 documentary features, 19 television and streaming pilots, and 88
short films (73 narrative and 15 documentaries), are an impressive number of
world premieres. All screenings will take place at Regal Union Square (850
Broadway).
Among the 64 world
premieres are Gyeney’s The Activated Man, Etana Jacobson’s Advanced Chemistry,
Kevin Interdonato’s The Bastard Sons, Michael Groom’s Between The Lights, Isaac
Hirotsu Woofter’s Bound, Sara Katarina Burke and Aaron Andrew Keene’s Can’t
Seem to Make You Mine, Ryan Moore’s Influence, Michelle Bossy’s Nobody’s Home,
Brendan Boogie’s Tallywacker, Micah Khan’s The Zombie Wedding, Justin Best’s
Sheryl, and Wynette Yao’s District Of Second Chances. Hanna Vastinsalo’s
Palimpsest will make its North American Premiere at Dances With Films NYC.
After becoming the
leading beacon for true indie films and filmmakers in Los Angeles over the past
26 years, this will mark Dances With Films’ return to New York City for the
second year. Dances With Films’ Founders and Directors Leslee Scallon and Michael
Trent, said, “This year's theme is "the color of imagination" and
that imagination, by its various definitions, exemplifies what Dances With
Films will be highlighting this December. We could not be more excited to
return to NYC and debut so many wonderful films and help provide a platform for
all our indie filmmakers and their projects under the spotlight of this great
city.”
Thursday, November 30
will feature the Opening Night presentation of DWF alumni Dylan K. Narang’s
Tapawingo. Previously at DWF with his feature All I Need (2016), Narang’s
Tapawingo is a lighthearted coming-of-age comedy stars Jon Heder as an
eccentric young man who lives with his mother and works in a mailroom. However,
when he must pick up his boss’ son from school, he discovers the kid is the
subject of relentless bullying. at school, Naturally, he assembles a team of
misfits to ensure the boy’s safety, but the good deed takes an unexpected turn
when they discover that the network of bullies they are guarding against wields
more power and influence than they initially thought. The film also stars Gina
Gershon, Billy Zane, John Ratzenberger, and Amanda Bearse.
As part of DWF NYC’s
dedicated programming of horror, thrillers, and genre films, the Closing Night
selection also comes from the film festival’s Midnight section. Sunday,
December 3, Nicholas Gyeney’s The Activated Man will make its world premiere as
it officially closes the film festival. In the film, a man, struggling with the
grief from losing his best friend and beloved dog to cancer, begins to have
strange visions only he can see. While he questions whether his mind has
fractured or if it's real, a mysterious rise in murder-suicides takes hold of
the city, and he becomes haunted by images of a shadowy figure known as ‘The
Fedora Man’. To survive, he must face his fears and confront 'The Fedora Man'
as he uncovers dark secrets from his past, while finally embracing who he
really is, and what he is meant to do.
Additional feature films making their world premieres are
Etana Jacobson’s Advanced Chemistry about a scientist whose attempt in the lab
to help his lesbian best friend stop cheating on her wife backfires when the
wife falls for him. Kevin Interdonato’s The Bastard Sons is a story of revenge
by a group of men, when the man who raised them – the family boss – is
murdered. Michael Groom’s British romantic drama Between The Lights follows
askeptical scientist who falls for a reluctant medium, leading them on an
odyssey of love, loss and discovery that turns her world upside down. Isaac
Hirotsu Woofter’s Bound focuses on a young introvert who flees with her pet
pocket squirrel to New York in order to escape her drug-dealing controlling
stepfather. Making it’s North American Premiere is Vardan Tozija’s M. A
multi-national production including
Macedonia, Croatia, Kosovo, France, and Luxembourg, the film
centers on a young boy who lives in the forest under the watchful eye of his
overprotective and mysterious father. Their sheltered existence is all he knows
until an encounter with a kind-hearted, helpless boy may open up a whole new
world to him.
Also making their world premieres at DWF NYC are Sara
Katarina Burke and Aaron Andrew Keene’s Can’t Seem to Make You Mine about a
recent parolee who tries to make amends with his ex and become a father to his
little boy while staying with a stripper he met on a pen-pal website. Ryan
Moore’s Influence focuses on a struggling female filmmaker who kidnaps a famous
social media influencer to convince them to play the lead role in her latest
project. Michelle Bossy’s Nobody’s Home follows the mind-bending journey of a
young man after he is released from the psychiatric hospital with his
girlfriend who may or may not be telling him the truth about what he is
experiencing. Brendan Boogie’s buddy comedy Tallywacker takes us on a trip with
2 bandmates whose relationship gets tested when one of them gets a gig touring
with a major rock star. Micah Khan’s outlandish comedy The Zombie Wedding
illustrates the challenges one can have at a New Jersey wedding when the groom
is a zombie, and the bride is not. Another film in the Midnight Features
section making its world premiere is Justin Best’s Sheryl about a woman who
goes on a bloody quest to create the perfect face after she’s dumped by her
serial killer boyfriend for not being “hot enough”.
Highlights among the
documentary section include one feature-length film making its world premiere,
and a second making its U.S. Premiere. Making its world premiere is Wynette
Yao’s District Of Second Chances, which follows the journeys of three men - all
sentenced to life in prison during the 1990s - who have the possibility of
being released and starting a new life thanks to sentencing reform. Making its
U.S. premiere will be Emilio Di Stefano’s Denim Hunter. The road movie
documentary follows a man whose obsession with really old jeans leads him
through the deserts of California, Arizona, and Nevada as well as up the
snowclad Rocky Mountains of Colorado. Marc Saltarelli’s Studio One Forever is
the untold story of America’s iconic gay disco, a kaleidoscopic excursion into
LGBTQ+ history through the lens of Studio One and its adjoining live music
venue, The Backlot during the 70s and 80s. Hoag Kepner’s Torched - The Story of
Austin Torch tells the story of the Austin Torch, a wild and fiery group of women/non-binary
athletes in Austin who are trying to legitimize and professionalize their
fringe sport of Ultimate Frisbee.
The television, web
series pilots, and episodics also have a healthy number of world premieres.
Those include Federica Marchese and Vinusha Sundaresan’s Chinese series pilot
The Blind Zone about a faceoff between two teenage sociopaths after they set
their eyes on the same target, David Antonio Martin’s absurd comedy The
Selectman where two men are trapped in a picturesque world where the forces of
learned behavior, arrested adolescence, and the quest for power forever
collide, and Henk Pretorius’ British animated series pilot Travel Foxwhich
follows the inquisitive Travel Fox and Bogie the Tortoise as they race across
the world, chasing rainbows in search of a legendary pot of gold.
Additional world
premieres include Jon Da’s Ülom: The Primary Experiment is centered on a
desperate scientist who undertakes a labyrinthian experiment he believes will
locate his missing daughter. Jonathan Chao’s Xander teams a lonely high school
student with a Genie. However, the student might lose his new best friend if he
makes his one wish. Making its North American premiere will be Aaron Lewis’
Moments, a gripping 9-episode digital series, offering intimate glimpses into
characters on the brink. Clarissa De Los Reyes’ Hot Angry Mom about a
people-pleasing mom who must face her rage, as a video of her epic meltdown
goes viral, and Dana Marisa Schoenfeld’s East about a New York City Corporate
attorney who suddenly loses her job and catches her boyfriend cheating, forcing
her to reevaluate everything and pursue
her childhood dream of being an actress.
Highlights among the short films showcased at DWF NYC
include the world premiere of Luke Black’s I Keep Bumping Into Candy Maldonado
in which a man keeps bumping into the famous baseball player who is his
childhood ideal each day until he’s inspired to make some life changes.
Rj Collins’ thrilling Dropping follows a young woman going
through the rigorous “dropping” training which may just turn into a fight for
survival. Actor Cynthia Gibb takes a turn behind the camera, directing Lux
Freer, about a non-binary teen whose humiliating job of delivering a pizza to
bully and aspiring prom queen Arabella Astor’s mansion sets in motion a plot to
upend the social stratosphere at her high school. Nazrin Choudhury’s Red, White
And Bluestars Brittany Snow as a single parent forced to cross state lines in
search of an urgent and necessary abortion. Eleanor Morrison’s You Need To
Process This stars Mary Holland and Matt Peters as a married couple who must
discuss a sexual assault.
DWF NYC will also
present a series of filmmaker panels focused on current real world issues faced
by today’s indie filmmakers at The Stand (116 E. 16th Street) Panels will
include “Distribution: Navigating the Marketplace as Well as Forecasting the
Future”, which will be moderated by Scott Macauley (Filmmaker Magazine), and is
slated to include executives from Magnolia Pictures, IFC, and STX
Entertainment, “Making the Sale: The Producer/Sales Agent Dynamic” moderated by
Kate Erbland (Indiewire), and includes Carylanna Taylor (Head of Sales Film
Sales Corp), Josh Braun (Founder & President, Submarine), and Jason
Ishikawa (Sr. Exec. & Co-head of Sales, Cinetic Media), and “The Casting
Director/Producer Dynamic” moderated by Michael Sladik (SAGindie New York), and
includes casting directors Shayna Markowitz, Bernie Telsey, and Paul Schnee.
For more information about the Dances With Films NYC film
lineup, events, passes, and tickets, go to: https://danceswithfilms.com/.
The 2023 Dances With Films NYC official selections:
