ANTHOLOGY FILM DEAD GIRLS that was made on a micro-budget, shot over four weekends with a cast of 70 union and non union actors, has gone from script to distribution in 11 months.
Produced and directed by Rough Cut Films partners Del Harvey and Neal Fischer’s Rough Cut Films, Dead Girls has two premieres this month, at the Chicago Horror Film Festival and the Days of the Dead convention in LA, on the same Sept. 26-28 weekend.
The anthology of four films (two written and directed by Harvey, one by Fischer and one by Drake Linder) are stories about women returning from the grave to exact revenge on those who wronged them. Stories run in length from 10 to 20 minutes.
Starring Mia Doran, now in LA, local actors Brian Rooney, Madlyn Mattsey, Jax Turyna, and Rough Cuts EVP/producer Joe Caballero, with Lynn Lowry, screen queen of more than a score of horror films (Cat People), narrates.
Brain Damage Films releases it on VOD Oct. 7, and on DVD Nov. 4. Rough Cut Films is in development on the vampire feature Don’t Save Me.
TWO EPISODES FROM RENT CONTROL, Julie Keck and Jessica King’s web series will headline the 12 international films screening at Pride Films and Plays’ Women’s Words Film Festival, Monday, Sept. 15, at the Public House Theatre.
Written by and starring Heather Dean, directed by Keck and King, the story is about two women living together after breaking up.
Featuring Remy Maelen (#Hashtag), Anji White (#Hashtag), Dan Wenzel, John Loos, and Abby McEnany (Roomies, The Pitch Show) and also produced by Christin Baker.
At 3914 N. Clark; doors open at 6:30 p.m., festival starts at 7 p.m.; tickets, $10.
BORIS WEXLER’S raunchy immigration comedy American Slice, formerly titled Roundabout American, about a chef who opens an escort service out of his pizzeria, is out now online and on DVD Sept. 23. Edouard Giard, Patrick Zielinski, and Marielle de Rocca-Serra star. Wexler produced with Julian Grant.
COMEDY SHORT I’m Not a Hacker, produced and directed by Andrew Stegmeyer of boutique shop Thunderlab Digital Media, is available on Vimeo.
The 13-minute story about a disgruntled IT worker’s descent “into a world of loneliness and insanity,” was produced by Amanda Pflieger and edited by Christopher Oliva.
It screened in the Carmel, LA, and Toronto international short film festivals.
Thunderlab also makes cinematic-style commercials for clients including Finch’s Beer Company, Oak Brook Hills Marriott Resort, and Eclipse Theatre Company.
ACTOR/DIRECTOR ALEXANDER LEATY is making the short Face of the Father, an action drama about human trafficking. It’s follows a man (J. Allen Rager) who struggles with alcohol and depression after losing his family, witnesses a neighbor girl being abducted, and has the chance to intervene.
With Orfelina de Leon, Skye Coyne, Jamil Malik, and Johnny Dymond.
FILMMAKER/EDITOR JOSH RECH is making the coming-of-age short Flyway, about an unusual package that shows up on a boy’s doorstep. “The contents of the package send him and his three friends on an exciting adventure,” Rech says. He’s working with much of the same crew from last year’s Phone Swap.
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