The 19th annual edition of DANCES WITH FILMS will host the West Coast premiere of Guys Reading Poems, a black-and-white mindbender feature film that uses poetry as a framing device. Of the festival’s acceptance of the film, director Hunter Lee Hughes says, “We’re so grateful to be an official selection at DANCES WITH FILMS. Their ‘defiantly independent’ ethos perfectly gels with a mindbender film that incorporates poetry as cinematic puzzle pieces. We can’t wait to share our work with the audiences there.”
The film will screen at the TCL Chinese 6 Theatre on Saturday, June 11th at 2:45 p.m. You can purchase your tickets for the screening here.
In Guys Reading Poems, a resourceful boy (Luke Judy) creatively uses poetry to survive when his mother (Patricia Velasquez, The Mummy films, Liz En Septiembre), a disturbed avant garde painter, locks him in a puppet box and builds an art installation around his imprisonment. The cast also includes Alexander Dreymon (BBC America’s The Last Kingdom) as the father of the boy and Lydia Hearst (South of Hell) as his beautiful mistress. Key supporting roles are played by Rex Lee (Entourage, Young & Hungry), Christos Vasilopoulos (Banshee), Blake Sheldon (General Hospital) and Jerod Meagher (Recovery Road). The supporting cast is rounded out by up-and-comers Daniel Berilla, Gopal Divan, Vincent Montuel, Justin Schwan and Megan Sousa along with Hughes and Jason Fracaro, also one of the film’s producers.
Luke Judy on the shoulders of Alexander Dreymon in GUYS READING POEMS
Before directing Guys Reading Poems, Hughes wrote and directed the internet television series Dumbass Filmmakers! and authored two plays, Fate of the Monarchs (Critic’s Pick, “Backstage West”) and The Sermons of John Bradley, as well as the dark short film Winner Takes All.
Guys Reading Poems was produced by Debbie Vandermeulen, along with Fracaro and Hughes, with cinematography by Michael Marius Pessah, who won the Outfest “Five in Focus” award for his work in black-and-white on the feature film Joshua Tree 1951: A Portrait of James Dean. The score was written by Joachim Horsley with editing by Patrick Kennelly, production design by Nathaly Lopez and costumes by haute couture designer Shpetim Zero. The rest of the producing team includes co-producers Sammy Kusler, Terry Nitschke and Paul Trusik, executive producers Elizabeth A. Bell, J. Parker Buell, Dennis Crema, Anja Godhe, Johann Moonesinghe, Neelou Malekpour, co-executive producers Bradley R. Bernstein, Kerry H. Buell and Colin K. Buell and Tom Liebengood and associate producers Daniel Berilla, Josh Cohen, Michael Fister, Jordan Gregory, John C. Hall, Patrick Holzen, David Russo and Robert D. Womack. The film is a collaboration between Fatelink Productions and Fusion Features, in association with Crema Family Office, Xantara Film Capital, Fast Track Pictures and YourHollywoodPro.com.
The filmmakers believe that Guys Reading Poems is the first feature to be shot on the Red Monochrome, which David Fincher employed on his Justin Timberlake music video, “Suit and Tie.” It highlights poetry by Walt Whitman, William Wordsworth, Edna St. Vincent Millay and Emily Dickinson, along with a few modern poets, including current West Hollywood poet laureate Steven Reigns. The film world premiered in April during National Poetry Month at the 21st annual Palm Beach International Film Festival to a very positive response. More festival announcements, including an international premiere, are expected soon.
Guys Reading Poems will screen on Saturday, June 11th at 2:45 p.m. at the TCL Chinese 6 Theatre in the heart of Hollywood at the Highland/Hollywood complex. Tickets can be purchased here. For news and upcoming festival announcements, as well as a poetry blog related to Guys Reading Poems, please visit: guysreadingpoems.com.
For international sales, please contact Patrick Holzen (patrick@mutzmedia.co.uk) at Bodhi Tree International.