Indie Spotlight: HUNDREDS OF BEAVERS, ABRUPTIO, GIVING BIRTH TO A BUTTERFLY

HUNDREDS OF BEAVERS Teaser Trailer: “In this silent supernatural epic, a drunken applejack salesman is thrust into the frigid wilderness. Can he go from zero to hero, become North America’s greatest fur trapper, and defeat hundreds of beavers?”

After a celebrated World Premiere at FantasticFest 2022, it took to the festival circuit, and will be screening at twelve different festivals in April alone, including Atlanta Film Festival where it’s nominated for Best Cinematography, and Fantaspoa in Brazil. Hundreds of Beavers is from writer/director Mike Cheslik and producer Ryland Brickson Cole Tews.

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ABRUPTIO at Panic Fest: “HellBent Pictures is excited to announce the next screening of Evan Marlowe’s life-sized puppet horror Abruptio at Panic Fest, Kansas City’s celebrated film festival now in its 10th year at the historic Screenland Theater. Comedy, mystery, blood, A-List voices, action, and puppets combine in the first-of-its-kind surrealistic horror/thriller.

Abruptio features the voice talents of James Marsters (“Buffy the Vampire Slayer”), Hana Mae Lee (Pitch Perfect), Jordan Peele (Nope), Christopher McDonald (The Faculty), Robert Englund (A Nightmare on Elm Street), Darren Darnborough (“True Blood”), Rich Fulcher (“Rick and Morty”), and the iconic Sid Haig (House of 1000 Corpses) in one of his final roles.

After years in production, Abruptio is screening at festivals around the world. The film will next screen in a hybrid format at Panic Fest: in person on April 15 and streaming virtually April 19 to April 23.”

Synopsis: “Les Hackel hates his life. He works a dead-end job, was just dumped by his high-maintenance girlfriend, and still lives with his nagging mom. One night, he discovers a fresh incision behind his neck. His friend Danny tells him it’s a bomb, that someone has implanted one in his neck, too. And then the messages start coming in, forcing Les to carry out missions with deadly results. Les is partnered up with a series of oddball characters to commit heinous tasks. The violence escalating around him, Les pieces together the clues that reveal the horrific plans to breed a monstrous race of beings.”

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GIVING BIRTH TO A BUTTERFLY: “Los Angeles, CA / April 13, 2023 / Cinedigm announced this week the acquisition of Theodore Schaefer’s hauntingly surreal debut feature GIVING BIRTH TO A BUTTERFLY for release as a streaming exclusive on the company’s indie discovery platform Fandor and has just dropped the first trailer. The eccentric fantasy-like drama first premiered at North America’s largest genre film festival, the Fantasia International Film Festival, and is set to open in select U.S. theaters this May—including playdates in New York and Los Angeles—before digitally premiering on May 16.

Described by The Austin Chronicle as “a strange and fragile story of family, identity, and the unlikely directions of a search for self,” GIVING BIRTH TO A BUTTERFLY “mixes melancholy and anxiety with a Lynchian touch” (The Film Stage) and “takes place in a parallel universe that looks and acts like suburbia, just ever so slightly off” (The A.V. Club).

After her identity is stolen, a suburban mom (Annie Parisse, “Friends from College”) and her son’s pregnant girlfriend (Gus Birney, “Shining Vale”) begin to bond and transform during a dreamlike, visually immersive road-trip journey to track down the perpetrators. Dynamically shot on pastel-hued 16mm film, this poetically empowering cult classic in the making is also an intelligent meditation on the faceless underbelly of American life.

GIVING BIRTH TO A BUTTERFLY is co-written by Schaefer and Patrick Lawler, and co-stars Paul Sparks (“Boardwalk Empire”), Owen Campbell (X), Jessica Pimentel (“Orange is the New Black”) and Judith Roberts (You Were Never Really Here). The film was produced by Schaefer (We’re All Going to the World’s Fair) and Daryl Freimark (A Bread Factory: Part 1 & 2), with Dweck Productions’ Hannah Dweck (Berlinale 2023 selection The Adults) and Vanishing Angle’s Benjamin Wiessner (Thunder Road) acting as Executive Producers.

“I’m honored that Giving Birth to a Butterfly will be added to the stellar slate of films Cinedigm and Fandor have been curating,” said director Theodore Schaefer. “It’s clear they have an incisive, discerning eye into the American independent landscape and I can’t think of a better home for our film.”

“Tapping into a nervous dream logic that still resembles the mad world we exist in, Giving Birth to a Butterfly is one of the most cine-literate American debuts I’ve seen in a while,” said Aaron Hillis, Director of Programming for Cinedigm. “Ted Schaefer is clearly a movie nut who understands both the mechanics and pleasures of genre storytelling.”

The deal was negotiated by Brandon Hill, Director of Acquisitions, on behalf of Cinedigm and Benjamin Wiessner of Vanishing Angle on behalf of the filmmakers.”