GERARD JAMROZ of Lincolnhead Productions completed postproduction on his debut feature “Chicago Poems.” The black and white, DV ensemble drama follows the intertwining stories of three couples: a boxer and his long-suffering girlfriend, an Indiana transplant and her soldier sweetheart, and a playwright and his landlady.
“Chicago Poems” stars Diane Wren, Robert Tobin, Tera Dunlap, Laura Donnelly, Phil Wasik, and Jamroz, who also contributed music under his musical alias FLESZ.
Jamroz wrote, directed and starred in “Valerie Loves Me” at Stage Left Theatre, and directed the comedy short “Mrs. Butterworth.” He co-produced, acted in and contributed music to the Chicago-shot Danish Dogme feature “Converging with Angels.”
Jamroz produced “Chicago Poems” with Paul Miller. Production design by Rebecca Thomas. See www.chicagopoems.com.
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| Zach Thomas in “Sword of Hearts” |
SWORD AND CLOAK PRODUCTIONS’ self-distributed Elizabethan adventure feature “Sword of Hearts” was released on DVD March 22 through customflix.com. David Schmidt directed the film in 2000. “Sword of Hearts” stars Travis Estes, Kathrynne Ann Rosen, Zack Thomas and Amy Harmon. Angie Landessman shot. James M. Collins II edited.
Schmidt appears in the Indieclub Networking Gathering’s “Guerilla Filmmaking 101: There is always a way!” Wednesday, March 30, 7-11 p.m., at Frankie J’s, 4437 N. Broadway. See www.swordandcloak.com.
LANCE CATANIA of X-Ray Productions presents his horror feature “Cup of My Blood,” screening locally for the first time in its native HD format. Saturday, April 2 at 7 p.m. at Columbia College, 1104 S. Wabash Ave. Catania will speak at 6 p.m., with producers Noel Olken and Kenneth Nilsson. “Cup of My Blood” closes the first day of IFP/Chicago’s Producers Series, which runs all day starting at 9 a.m. April 2, 16, 30 and May 14 and 21. See www.ifp.org.
ROBERTO BLANCHARD is shooting new scenes this April for his slasher pic “Camp Twilight,” which he plans to debut Saturday, April 30 at Burnham Plaza Theatre, 826 S. Wabash Ave. Principal photography was last summer on DV and 35mm. “Camp Twilight” stars Eric Prince, Jenny Sanchez, Heather Zagone, Nakita Marshall, Vera Vaughn, and Fred Schultz, with Blanchard in a cameo as one of several murderers taking out college kids at an off-limits campground.
Blanchard plans to shop the film to contacts at Lions Gate, offering it in a package with his 2004 family baseball drama “The Magic of Summer.” This May he’ll start shooting “Camp Twilight 2: Enter the Woods,” and additional scenes for his long-in-the-making crime drama “Sinister Reign.” See www.blanchardfilms.com.
JOHN MOSSMAN’S short “Spaceman Dan’s 243rd Flight,” produced by The Artistic Home, screens March 31 at 9:30 p.m. and April 2 at 11 a.m. at the Wisconsin Film Festival, Bartell Drury Theatre, 115 E. Mifflin, Madison. “Spaceman Dan” charts the collision of two abandoned children, a call girl and her would-be assassin. The short won Best of Fest at the Rochester International Film Festival. See www.wifilmfest.org.
RUSSELL WATSON is directing the feature drama “Happiness in Paradise,” the story of an international business student caught between his family’s floundering enterprise and a multinational trade scam. Andrea Klunder of Chicago ScriptWorks is casting.
MAJOR LIGHTNER, a Los Angeles director who has made music videos for artists including Norah Jones, Straylight Run and Count the Stars, shot a video in Chicago and Joliet for new Victory Records act The Forecast.
Email info to edk@homesickblues.com.
