GENERATION D.I.Y. - Full Program

filmswelike presents
the new anti-festival:
GENERATION D.I.Y.

Canadian tour kicks off in Toronto at the Bloor Cinema on Thurs, June 19, 2008

Joe Swanberg & Greta Gerwig’s Nights and Weekends to

headline Toronto festival on Thurs, June 19 @ the Bloor Cinema

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“…mumblecore is the sole significant American indie film wave of the last 20 years to have emerged outside the ecosystem of the Sundance Film Festival…” - The New York Times

Independent distribution company, filmswelike, introduces the new anti-festival: Generation D.I.Y.  This summer, Canadian filmmaker Ron Mann (Grass, Comic Book, Confidential) and veteran promoter Gary Topp (The Police, Ramones, Dixie Chicks) bring Generation D.I.Y. to theatres across Canada, an unlikely assembly of films by a collection of American filmmakers who are young, ambitious, and broke.

Heralded as the “mumblecore” movement at 2005’s South By South West film festival, theirworks share achingly relatable stories of twenty-somethings and a grainy lo-fi esthetic that have won them critical acclaim everywhere from The New York Times to Entertainment Weekly.  While they have cast off the “mumblecore” label, Generation D.I.Y.’s collection of scriptless films can be considered the first movement in American cinema since Jim Jarmusch and Richard Linklater stood behind the lens.

It is only fitting that the anti-festival is assembled by Mann and Topp’s filmswelike, a distribution company that strongly advocates independent film.  The festival kicks off in Toronto with the opening night premier of director Joe Swanberg’s new film Nights and Weekends featuring indie darling Greta Gerwig.

Followed by Vancouver, Winnipeg and Edmonton in June and July, with directors speaking in each select market.

This Year’s GENERATION D.I.Y films are:

Nights and Weekends – OPENING NIGHT FILM RT: 80 mins.

Thurs, June 19 @7pm – Bloor Cinema

+++ POST Q&A w/ BOTH DIRECTORS/ACTORS++

Directed by Joe Swanberg & Greta Gerwig

Cast: Joe Swanberg & Greta Gerwig

SYNOPSIS: Mattie and James are in love. But too many mornings and too many miles apart have taken a toll on them.  As they struggle with the distance between New York and Chicago, their visits become reminders of the difficulties, not the pleasures, of their relationship.  Joe Swanberg and Greta Gerwig follow HANNAH TAKES THE STAIRS with this intimate portrayal of longing and confusion.  This time Swanberg co-stars with Gerwig, and Gerwig co-directs with Swanberg, creating a film that resonates deeply and leaves scars that fade but can’t heal.

http://www.nightsandweekendsmovie.com

Trailer : http://www.nightsandweekendsmovie.com/trailer.html

Quiet City RT: 78 mins.

Fri, June 20 @ 4 :30pm –Bloor Cinema;

Repeats Sat, June 21 @8 :30pm – Bloor Cinema +++POST Q&A w/Director+++

Directed by Aaron Katz
Cast: Erin Fisher, Chris Lankenau, Joe Swanberg, Sarah Hellman, Tucker Stone

SYNOPSIS: Jamie is lost. She’s come to New York to visit her friend Sa­mantha, but Samantha is nowhere to be found, and now Jamie is alone in the city.

Charlie just quit his job, and isn’t sure where he’s going next. Their paths cross late at night on an empty subway platform, and from this chance encounter an unlikely connection is formed. Together they share twenty-four hours drifting from late night diners, to city parks, to aban­doned apartments, to a party and art gallery deep in the heart of indus­trial Brooklyn.

http://www.dancepartyusathemovie.com/quietcity/

Trailer: http://www.dancepartyusathemovie.com/quietcity/?cat=10

LOL RT: 81 mins.

Fri, June 20 @7pm – Bloor Cinema

Directed by Joe Swanberg
Cast: Joe Swanberg, C. Mason Well, Kevin Bewersdor, Brigid Rea­gan, Tipper Newton, Greta Gerwig, Kate Winterich

SYNOPSIS: Alex, Tim, and Chris view the women in their lives through the dimensions of a computer screen or the lens of a camera-phone, as they struggle to balance their online fantasies and addictions with the demands of real life.

This up-to-the-second feature intimately explores masculinity in the new millennium, a time when young men are trying to decipher the mixed messages of modern relationships and technology.

Featuring a nonprofessional cast, video contributions from people all over the world, and original music by lead actor Kevin Bewersdorf, this funny and thoughtful film offers an honest portrait of how the latest tools of communication can either help us click or turn us off.

http://www.lolthemovie.com Trailer: http://www.lolthemovie.com/quicktimetrailer.html

Frownland RT: 106 mins.

Fri, June 20 @9:15pm – Bloor Cinema

Directed by Ronald Bronstein
Cast: Dore Mann, Paul Grimstad, David Sandholm, Carmine Marino

SYNOPSIS: Frownland is a seams-exposed comedy - a melee of a movie, really - about a door-to-door coupon salesman who eats popcorn & eggs off the folded-out door of his kitchen oven.

http://www.frownlandinc.com

Trailer: http://www.vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&VideoID=21951836

Funny Ha Ha RT: 90mins

Sat, June 21 @2:30pm – Bloor Cinema

Directed by Andrew Bujalski

Cast: Kate Dollenmayer, Christian Rudder

SYNOPSIS: When you graduate college you easily sashay into the world of adulthood, start a career, and get serious, right? Wrong. Marnie has left college, but not her drinking habits and her bad taste in bad men. What’s more, Marnie can’t seem to find a permanent job. It would be sad if it weren’t so funny.

http://www.funnyhahafilm.com Trailer: http://www.funnyhahafilm.com

Dance Party, USA RT : 65 mins

Sat, June 21 @4:30pm – Bloor Cinema+++POST Q&A w/Director+++

Directed by Aaron Katz
Cast: Anna Kavan, Cole Pennsinger, Ryan White, Sarah Bing, Natalie Buller, Brendan McFadden, Chad Hartigan

SYNOPSIS: An apathetic seventeen-year old shares a dark secret that causes his aimless new friend to immediately sever ties in director Aaron Katz’s talky teen drama.

Gus spends most of his time relating self-indulgent tales of sexual con­quests and drug fueled frenzies to his best friend Bill.

Jessica seems to be drifting away from most of her friends, and lately things have gotten so bad that she isn’t even speaking with her one-time best-friend Christie.

Every Fourth of July all the kids gather at Brian’s house to drink free beer and watch the fireworks. This year, Gus meets Jessica at the party and tries to pick her up. When she blows off his obvious come-on, Gus tells Jessica a secret that he has never revealed to even his closest of friends.

http://www.dancepartyusathemovie.com Trailer: http://www.spike.com/video/2761124

Four Eyed Monsters RT : 70 mins.

Sat, June 21@6:30pm – Bloor Cinema+++POST Q&A w/Co-Director/Actor Arin Crumley+++

Directed by Arin Crumley & Susan Buice
Cast:  Arin Crumley, Susan Buice

SYNOPSIS: Four Eyed Monsters tells the true story of how Susan and Arin met online, how Arin stalked her at her work, and then how they ended up dating but with a rule to never speak in person.

There lives and minds begin to meld and their fantasies and fears mani­fest as they become a living breathing Four Eyed Monster.

http://www.foureyedmonsters.com Trailer: http://www.foureyedmonsters.com/trailer

A Simple Midwest Story RT: 91 mins.

Sat, June 21@10:30pm – Bloor Cinema+++POST Q&A w/Director+++

Directed by Blake Eckard

Cast : Alec Jennings, Nathan Marticke, David Blair,Kristy Berry, Doug Bruster, andy Townsend, Randy Sego, Jerry Phillippe, Tiffany Crouse, Natasha Eckard, Frank Carroll

SYNOPSIS: The story of the Flems brothers and why they, along with their cousin, murdered three people on farms in Missouri and Iowa.

A sudden act of violence sends two brothers into a torpor of violence in this first feature from 18-year-old writer-director Blake Eckard.  Living on a farm in a backwater burgh with their cousin and stepfather, the Flems have a mundane lifestyle until one of their extended clan ends up dead. Trying to cover up the murder, the boys find themselves committing more atrocities in their efforts to clear their names.  Told in flashback, the tale was shot by Eckard on digital video in and around his home state of Missouri.

Orphans RT: 80 mins.

Sun, June 22 @1:30pm – Bloor Cinema

Directed by Ry Russo-Young
Cast: James Katharine Flynn, Lily Wheelwright

SYNOPSIS: A heartbreaking story of two estranged sisters reunited at an isolated farmhouse in the dead of winter. When the events take an unexpected turn, the sisters revisit their dark and dangerous past.

http://www.ryrussoyoung.com/films2/?movie=orphans

Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7WUAtWQMVNM

Guatemalan Handshake RT: 96 mins.

Sun, June 22 @3:15pm – Bloor Cinema

Directed by Todd Rohal
Cast: Cory McAbee, Ken Byrnes, Katy Haywood, Richard Schreiber

SYNOPSIS: In the confusion following a massive power outage, an awkward demolition derby driver vanishes, setting in motion a series of events affecting his pregnant girlfriend, his helplessly car-less father, a pack of wild boy scouts, a lactose intolerant roller rink employee, an elderly woman in search of her lost dog, and his best friend – a ten-year-old girl named Turkeylegs.

Pieces of the mystery begin to come together as Turkeylegs sets out to find her missing friend. Cars drive circles in the dirt, a woman attends her own funeral, the sun rises sideways and an orange vehicle trades hands again and again. Everything eventully culminates in a massive demolition derby that throws all of the characters into different direc­tions.

http://www.ghandshake.com Trailer: http://www.ghandshake.com/trailers.html

The Death of Indie Rock RT: 75 mins.

Sun, June 22 @5:15pm – Bloor Cinema+++POST Q&A w/Actor/Producer/Composer Doug Brown & Executive Producer Matt Taylor+++

Directed by Rob Fitl

Cast : Doug Robert Brown, Frances Cation, Allen Finn, John Lazarus, Jason Pickar, Joe Salvoni

SYNOPSIS: Dillon (Joe Salvoni), Parker (Doug Brown), and Hot Dog (Allen Finn) are in a band, stuck playing low-paying shows and working dead end jobs.  When they get the chance to move to Montreal for a regular gig at a downtown club, they jump at it.  But the road from no-name indie act to rock-star fame is a bumpy ride.

Shot in Kingston and edited with a breezy staccato rhythm, director Rob Fitl’s first feature is a rough-and tumble look at a young local band chasing their dreams—and occasionally their nightmares. Indie Rock may be dead, but indie filmmaking is alive and kicking.

http://www.indierockfilm.com Trailer: http://www.indierockfilm.com/trailers.htm

++++ACTOR DOUG BROWN is available to for interviews+++

Backroad Blues RT: 89 mins.

Sun, June 22 @7 :15pm – Bloor Cinema+++POST Q&A w/Director+++

Directed by Blake Eckard

Cast : Tyler James, Alec Jennings, Christian Hansen, Ryan Madden, Mike Carroll, Brandon Marticke, Brent Jennings

SYNOPSIS: a minor masterpiece, Backroad Blues is hilariously absurd and tragic-like America itself.  Its Missourian drifter, Chip, reminds us his survival is an endless, inhuman repetition of a wee range of behavior. Fellow rural drifter Kent (Alec Jennings, marvelous) is the opposite: an aching mass of humanity looking for work.  The search for work is what’s important to Chip; job-as-destination matters to Kent, who needs to send money back home to his wife and 8-year-old daughter, and who dreams of creating for them a better life.

Along the way in this road movie (Kent’s truck is the main “indoor” setting), Kent’s comic explosions of frustration recall Elmer Fudd’s until his crushed spirit is no laughing matter.  Kent embodies the perpetual frustration that many discover as they attempt to navigate what American myth assures them are easily accessed highways to success in the U.S. Too many of us end up living the blues on unpaved backroads.

http://www.backroadbluesmovie.com

Mutual Appreciation RT: 108 mins

Sun, June 22 @9 :25pm- Bloor Cinema

Directed by Andrew Bujalski
Cast: Justin Rice, Rachel Clift, Andrew Bujalski, Seung-Min Lee, Kevin Micka, Bill Morrison, Pamela Corkey, Mary Varn, Tamara Luzechyj, Ralph Tyler, Kate Dollenmayer, Keith Ges­sen, Peter Pentz, Salvatore Botti

SYNOPSIS: Alan (Justin Rice), a musician whose band has just broken up, shows up in New York to support his burgeoning rock and roll career.  He starts by searching for a drummer for a show he’s already lined up and otherwise goes about the mechanics of self-promotion.  He finds a newfound champion in Sara (Seung-Min Lee), an aggressive DJ who sets her sights on the submissively uninterested Alan (but finds a drummer for him). 

In down time, Alan drinks and strategizes with his old friend Lawrence (Andrew Bujalski), a grad student, and Lawrence’s girlfriend Ellie (Rachel Clift), a journalist.  Alan endeavors to keep his shoulder to the wheel while Ellie meanwhile finds herself compelled by Alan. The attraction is mutual, but both parties are reluctant to take a next step.

http://www.mutualappreciation.com Trailer: http://www.mutualappreciation.com/qttrailer.html

This year’s Generation D.I.Y. marks the first time these films travel together in Canada.

This summer, filmswelike brings Generation D.I.Y. to Canada.

Participating cities and theatres include:

- Bloor Cinema in Toronto- JUNE 19-22

- The Winnipeg Film Group in Winnipeg - JUNE 26-29

- Metro Cinema in Edmonton - JULY 4-10

- Vancity in Vancouver - JULY 11-17

filmswelike is a Toronto-based distribution company for independent film in Canada, launched by award-winning documentary filmmaker Ron Mann and veteran Toronto film and music promoter Gary Topp.