Nightingale intros Follow Focus screenings Dec. 7

“The Ladies Almanack,” a feature length experimental narrative film by local filmmaker Daviel Shy, will inaugurate Nightingale Cinema’s unique Follow Focus screening series on Sunday, Dec. 7 at the Nightingale in Noble Square.

“Follow Focus invites audiences to observe a director’s process, collaboration and inspiration,” explains Christy LeMaster, the Nightingale’s cofounder and programmer.  “It’s designed to expand viewership into the production stage.”

The 2015 Follow Focus series consists of the screening of “The Ladies Almanack” in four progressive stages of completion throughout the year, starting with the current Winter Screening. Each screening highlights a different element of the process and ends next fall with a rough cut screening of the entire film.

The inaugural film was written and directed by Daviel Shy, produced by New York artist, Stephanie Acosta, and is being shot on Super 8 by a local crew.

The Ladies Almanack,” is a kaleidoscopic tribute to women’s writing through the friendships, jealousies, flirtations and publishing woes of authors and artists in 1920s Paris. 

Saturday night’s event includes a treatment presentation by Shy, an exclusive trailer release and dramatic readings from “the Ladies Almanack 1928 original novel. It starts at 7 p.m. followed by a reception with the artists follow the screening.

Tickets are $15 and include a limited edition, risograph-printed “Ladies Almanack Tarot Deck,” designed and illustrated by printmaster Jess LeMaster. Attend all four screenings for a complete 24-card set.

The Nightingale microcinema is located at 1084 N. Milwaukee in a 120-old former tannery, where it hosts more than 50 events a year. It recently completed a crowdfunding campaign that raised $6,650 used to upgrade the theatre and is currently working on a microcinema web directory and distribution system called splitbeam.org.