Categories
Featured

CAUGHT ON FILM

Film Spotlight: Johnny Awful

by Margot C. Lester
It’s an artistical mash-up tailor-made for our fair city: a movie about a garage band.

“Johnny Awful is a short film about rock and roll, lies, death, burning bridges, hoaxes, manipulation and the fleeting nature of fame. It’s a comedy,” notes writer/director Nathan Rosenquist. “The film taps into the world of unsigned bands, the mythology of dead rock stars and the problems that come with an entitlement mentality.”

He also contributed some music.

“Since the film is about a rock band, I wrote a few little miniature songs that the band plays throughout the course of the film,” he says.

This isn’t his first film with a musical theme. Rosenquist was the gaffer on El Caffinato, and has teamed back up with the creative duo behind that film, Rory Bradley and Liz Levitt-Bradley of Carrboro.

“We actually had quite a few El Caffinato people involved with this project,” Rosenquist says.

Cast and crew of Johnny Awful, likely filmed at a location near you, from left: George Kaiser (Johnny), Rory Bradley (first assistant director), Marcus Zollicoffer (Dave) and Zachary Davidson (Frank) . Photo by Nicholas Graetz

Levitt-Bradley handled casting and script supervision; Bradley is the first assistant director. The 10-minute film was shot by local cinematographer Nic Beery. Zachary Davidson, who played Milo in El Caffinato, plays Frank in Johnny Awful, one of three lead roles. The other two are played by Marcus Zollicoffer (Dave) and George Kaiser (Johnny), a member of the Screen Actors Guild (SAG).

The film was shot at more than a dozen locations across the Triangle, including Carrboro and Chapel Hill.

“We shot the film on Canon DSLR cameras in high definition and plan on doing a 5.1 surround-sound mix in post-production,” Rosenquist explains. Act of Valor, a feature in wide release starring actual Navy SEALS, also was shot using the Canon DSLR.
Filming is almost complete. Next up are a couple of months of editing and post-production, and release is slated for later this summer.

To learn more about the film, visit johnnyawful.com or facebook.com/JohnnyAwful

Local films at Full Frame
The Southern Documentary Fund’s In the Works program will screen three films at this year’s Full Frame Documentary Film Festival, two featuring local entities.
Café Sense (directors: Vittles) follows the journey of coffee beans from a small farm to the production house to the weekly tastings at Counter Culture Coffee in Durham.
Untitled LUCY Film (director: Elisabeth Haviland James) tells the story of local mental health advocate and author Lucy Daniels through recreations, animated dream sequences and interviews.
Can’t Stop The Water (directors: Rebecca Marshall Ferris, Jason Ferris) explores the impact the shrinking of Isle de Jean Charles has had on families calling this Louisiana island home.
Another film with local ties that will also be screened, Without a Fight, is a feature-length film that documents the ways in which soccer aids social change in the African slum of Kibera. The film is a collaboration between Carolina for Kibera, the UNC Center for Global Initiatives and Chasing the Mad Lion Productions, a multi-media production collaborative. Festival tickets are available to passholders now and will be on sale to the general public on April 2. Tickets and the full festival schedule are available at fullframefest.org

Other festival news
Wiggle Room, by local filmmaker Joe Schenkenberg, was accepted to another Oscar-qualifier film festival, the 39th annual Athens (Ohio) International Film Festival. It also will be screened at the Cape Fear Independent Film Festival, Myrtle Beach International Film Festival and Arizona International Film Festival. moviemagicnow.com; facebook.com/pages/Wiggle-Room-film

Scraps, by local writer Kate Burgauer, will be screened at the Cornfed Film Fest in Macomb, Ill., in April. The film was screened at the Sedona Film Festival’s Weird and Wonderful shorts collection in February. “Lots of great audience response – three packed screenings,” she reports. Burgauer’s feature film script, Vinyl, is under consideration by a local producer and a producer in California. “I can’t give you any more details than that just now, but I am excited for the next step,” she says. scrapsmovie.blogspot.com

Random notes
Just in time for the first Three Stooges movie in decades, Moe Howard’s son, Paul, will host the Three Stooges Madcap Marathon from 1 to 3 p.m. on March 31 at the Varsity. Howard will show home movies and share stories of growing up with the comedic group. road-trip-entertainment.com

Las Abuelas de Plaza de Mayo and the Search for Identity will be screened on April 5 at 7 p.m. in the Nelson Mandela Auditorium at the FedEx Global Education Center on the UNC campus. The film looks at the Argentinian human rights organization of grandmothers and its quest to locate their lost grandchildren. Between 10,000 and 30,000 dissidents of the military dictatorship were kidnapped, tortured and killed during Argentina’s Dirty War, from 1976-1983. The grandmothers believe their kin are among “The Disappeared,” stolen by the country’s government. The documentary is produced by the UNC School of Journalism and Mass Communication professor Charlie Tuggle and his daughters, Brynne Miller and Bethany Parker. Dylan Field, broadcast and multimedia manager for the school, was the videographer and audio editor. searchforidentitydocumentary.com