Las Vegas' premiere underground festival announces lineup
It's been called "the key festival for indie cult filmmakers to land distribution deals." Its founder and programmer has been called the "new champion of unabashed B-movie sleaze." Those praises might seem a bit outlandish, but with the official announcement of the PollyGrind Film Festival's schedule, it's easy to see where they come from.
Chad Clinton Freeman's second installment of the Las Vegas underground film festival will highlight more than 100 projects, including 30-plus features films, in October at theatre7 in the arts district.
World premieres at the festival, which runs until Oct. 16, will include Creep Creepersin's Finger Bang, Michael Ricks' The Las Vegas Abductions, Logan Myers' Mondo Sexxxx: The Terry Kobrah Story, Aramis Sartorio's The Gruesome Death of Tommy Pistol, James Bickert's Dear God No!, Shane Ryan's The Girl Who Wasn't Missing, and Craig McIntyre's The Los Angeles Ripper. The sexy revenge thriller The Atonement of Janis Drake will close the event on Oct. 17. The debut feature by Glen Meadows stars Beverly Lynne and Angel Porrino.
PollyGrind will be the U.S. premiere for Darren Ward's A Day of Violence and Ginnetta Correli's The Earl Sessions.
The event will also screen the latest from the legendary underground filmmakers Eric Stanze (Ratline), Herschell Gordon Lewis (The Uh-Oh Show), Bill Zebub (Night of the Pumpkin), Joe Castro (The Summer of Massacre), Caleb Emerson (Frankie in Blunderland), Sean Garrity (Zooey & Adam), Sean Cain (Breath of Hate), Henry Weintraub (The Darkest Corner of Paradise) and Fred Vogel (Sella Turcica).
Other highlights are the debut features from Adam Rehmeier (The Bunny Game), Calvin Lee Reeder (The Oregonian), Billy Chase Goforth (25K), Sevé Schelenz (Skew), Matthew Pollack (Run Run It's Him), and Edward E. Romero (Butterfly).
Rounding out the films will be Planet of the Vampire Women (Darin Wood), Rage (Chris Witherspoon), 15 till Midnight (Wolfgang Meyer), My Demon Within (Michael Su), Seeking Wellness: Suffering Through Four Movements ( Daniel Schneidkraut), Ashes (Elias Matar), The Super (Evan Makrogiannis / Brian Weaver), El Monstro Del Mar (Stuart Simpson), Beware (Jason Daly), and The Taint (Drew Bolduc / Dan Nelson).
In addition to the feature films, there are 80-plus trailers, music videos and shorts playing the international event.
More than 20 projects are from Las Vegas filmmakers, but some of what's screening comes from as far as India, Spain, Brazil, England, Australia, Canada, Germany, Sweden and Italy, making for a nice mix of cultures, human experiences and genres on display.
"Everything from arthouse to grindhouse is here," Freeman said. "There's brutality, there's blood and nudity, there's controversy, there's exploitation, there's experimentation, there's comedy and there are movies that are quite thought provoking."
According to Freeman, action, horror, sci-fi, experimental, dark comedy, hixploitation, mumblecore, horror comedy, crime, gore, found footage, avant-garde, biker, exploitation, western, sexploitation, documentary, and then some are represented at the event.
Eight of the 13 features screened last year went on to find DVD distribution, including the top jury and audience winners Slime City Massacre and Dead Hooker in a Trunk. This year, PollyGrind has signed on to offer DVD distribution deals from Breaking Glass Pictures to the top two winners, with other winners receiving deluxe sub-distribution packages from Apprehensive Films and Wild Eye Releasing, as well as arthouse distribution contracts from venue host theatre7. Also up for grabs is close to $10,000 in software prizes from Sony Creative, Final Draft and Red Giant Software.
Other award-winning filmmakers, auteurs, renegades and mavericks with projects screening at the event include Briony Kidd, Atul Taishete, Michael Dunn, Oren Shai, Paul von Stoetzel, Zachary Mami, Lee Lanier, Alex Ferrari, Ernie Fosselius,Yakov Levi, Cassandra Sechler, Ryen McPherson, Kelly Schwarze, Pardis Parker, Jimmie Gonzalez and The Thompson Brothers.
Guests currently expected to be in attendance include Beverly Lynne, John Karyus, Aramis Sartorio, Brandon Slagle, Devanny Pinn, Monique Parent, Creep Creepersin, Sean Cain, Brooke Lewis, Adam Rehmeier, Edward E. Romero, James Bickert, Honey Lauren, Ginnetta Correli, Joe Castro, and Michael Su.
Lynne, who is known as The Queen of Late Night for her roles in films such as Bikini Pirates, Bewitched Housewives and I.M. Caravaggio, and Karyus, who is a self-proclaimed actor that "specializes in bringing perverts, weirdos, freaks and nerds to life," both appear in four projects.
Lynne stars in The Atonement of Janis Drake, The Las Vegas Abductions and two episodes of TanyaX, a webseries spinoff of The Girl from B.I.K.I.N.I. Karyus appears in Frankie in Blunderland, Summer of Massacre, The Gruesome Death of Tommy Pistol and Finger Bang. Sartorio, Slagle, and Pinn can all be seen in three projects each at the event.
After a kickoff event on Oct. 7 with a concert that features Creepersin, Of the Gods, The Roxy Gunn Project and more, PollyGrind grinds into full gear Oct. 8 with programming that starts at noon that goes into the wee hours. The next day is another full slate of fun.
During the week, PollyGrind will change up a bit. Oct. 10-11 will be double features that start at 7 p.m.
PollyGrind then takes over the bi-monthly late night talk and comedy show The Will Edwards Show on Oct. 12. Beverly Lynne and The Roxy Gunn Project will be guests. The world premiere of The Las Vegas Abductions rounds out the night.
Zombiepalooza brings five shorts and two features on Oct. 13, and a triple feature on Oct. 14 leads into all day programming on Oct. 15-16. Winning films will replay Oct. 29-30.
PollyGrind announces distribution deals for winners
He's been promising the second year of his PollyGrind Film Festival in Las Vegas is going to be bigger and better than its first. Today with the announcement of festival prizes, filmmaker and promoter Chad Clinton Freeman (Killer Biker Chicks, Johnny Reaper, and Gingerdead Man 3-D: Saturday Night Cleaver) looks to be on his way to keeping that promise.
The international event, dubbed Las Vegas' premiere underground film festival, will not only be giving away close to $10,000 in software prizes from Sony Creative, Final Draft and Red Giant Software, but deluxe sub-distribution packages from Apprehensive Films, arthouse distribution contracts from venue host theatre7 and DVD distribution from Breaking Glass Pictures.
Both the top jury award winner and the top audience award winner will receive DVD contracts with Vicious Circle Films, a specialty label with Breaking Glass Pictures.
With a growing catalog of nearly 100 titles including Cropsey, Someone's Knocking at the Door, Ticked Off Trannies with Knives, and Easter Bunny Kill! Kill!, Breaking Glass Pictures is an East Coast based film distribution company that formed in 2009 and features an international sales division.
"I'm super excited about this partnership," said Freeman, who has been called the "new champion of unabashed B-movie sleaze" by ArrowInTheHead.com. "Like PollyGrind, Breaking Glass Pictures is about boldly going where others don't. The same can be said for theatre7 and a number of our other sponsors."
PollyGrind gave out more than 20 awards last year and will give out at least that this year, including Best Use of Nudity/Sexuality, Best Use of Violence/Gore, Best Use of Music, The Most Outrageous and The Most Creative.
Greg Lamberson’s Slime City Massacre won the top jury prize, otherwise known as Biggest Baddest Mother of the PollyGrind, in 2010, while Jen and Sylvia Soska’s Dead Hooker in a Trunk was voted favorite feature by the audience.
"More than half of the features we screened last year received DVD distribution and that list grows almost every day," Freeman said, noting the August 9 release of Alex Pucci's Frat House Massacre by Synapse Films as the most recent. "This year, PollyGrind will feature even more films and we're going to help expose all of these great indie works to an even bigger audience than we were able to last year."
The second and third place films, as ranked by the festival's jury, will receive deluxe sub-distribution packages from Apprehensive Films (Amputee with an Axe, Bad Girls Go To Hell, Hardware Wars, Last Stop on 13th Street).
"PollyGrind is going to end up being the key festival for indie cult filmmakers to land distribution deals," said Jonathan Morken of Apprehensive Films, the company with the slogan "We Produce & Distribute Films of Questionable Taste."
The packages from Apprehensive will help get the winner's films listed on Amazon.com and on more than 30 of the top video on demand providers including iTunes, Amazon VOD, Netflix and more. Additionally, the films will be eligible for Wal-Mart sales and will be submitted to the top 5,000 video retailers and wholesale distributors, including Best Buy, Blockbuster, Columbia House, Target, and many more.
"Aside from Breaking Glass Pictures and Apprehensive Films, Wild Eye Releasing has shown an interest in this year's PollyGrind," Freeman said. "The company, known for releasing controversial and groundbreaking films such as Night of the Living Dead Reanimated, Gothkill, Blitzkrieg: The Escape from Stalag 69, and Bill Zebub's Dolla Morte, has recently signed on as a sponsor."
The Apprehensive Films release Crippled Masters 2: Two Crippled Heroes kicks off a series of PollyGrind Presents events at theatre7 on July 8. The obscure kung-fu cult classic will double feature with Alberto Triana's Las Vegas made blaxploitation, martial arts, slap stick comedy Sweet Ninja Brown.
Located near the "Downtown Las Vegas" sign (1406 South 3rd Street, Las Vegas, NV 89104, in the arts district), theatre7 is an artlover's and indie film fan's paradise. Owned by filmmaker Derek Stonebarger and programmed by Freeman, theatre7 screens independent films, doubles as an art gallery and hosts live theatre performances.
Independent films currently with arthouse distribution contracts through theatre7 include I.M. Caravaggio, Thor at the Bus Stop, You People, and One Long Day.
After world premiering in April at theatre7, One Long Day was selected for the Action on Film International Film Festival in Los Angeles. In the theater's screening rotation since March, Thor at the Bus Stop recently landed a DVD distribution contract, while I.M. Caravaggio was invited to screen in New York City as part of the third annual NewFilmmakers Summer Fest.
PollyGrind is an annual underground film festival that considers any and all independently produced and non distributed movies that are slightly off kilter.
Taking place in October, the PollyGrind Film Festival's aim is to celebrate individuality, diversity, creativity and empowerment by showcasing the work of filmmakers with defiantly independent visions.
The festival consists of programming in the tradition of grindhouse theaters with double features, bookended by trailers and music videos. The event welcomes, but is not limited to horror, gore, sci-fi, fantasy, exploitation, sexploitation, arthouse, cult, experimental, dark, creepy and campy features.
Submissions for the 2011 season are being accepted through PollyGrind.com until July 13. Sponsorship opportunities are also still available.
In addition to their sponsorship, Breaking Glass Pictures is also offering a discount to the fans of PollyGrind. Visit their site and enter promocode "pollygrind" at checkout to receive not only free shipping, but $7 off every DVD.