Shot on 16mm Weird Road Trip Film ‘Giving Birth to a Butterfly’ Trailer

Shot on 16mm Weird Road Trip Film ‘Giving Birth to a Butterfly’ Trailer

by Alex Billington
April 13, 2023
Source: YouTube

“I got scammed, Marlene, that’s why we’re doing this.” Cinedigm has revealed a trailer for an experimental indie film titled Giving Birth to a Butterfly, marking the feature directorial debut of Theodore Schaefer. It first premiered in 2021 at the Fantasia Film Festival in Montreal, and is finally getting a proper release after waiting a few years – streaming on Fandor this May. “Pure weirdo magic. Like Donnie Darko meets Twin Peaks.” After having her identity stolen, a woman, and her son’s pregnant girlfriend, bond together on a surreal journey as they attempt to track down the perpetrators. 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” and “takes place in a parallel universe that looks and acts like suburbia, just ever so slightly off.” Starring Annie Parisse & Gus Birney, Rachel Resheff, Paul Sparks, Owen Campbell, with Jessica Pimentel. It definitely does look a bit strange…

Here’s the official trailer (+ poster) for Theodore Schaefer’s Giving Birth to a Butterfly, from YouTube:

“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.”

After having her identity is stolen, a suburban mom named Diana (Annie Parisse) and her son’s pregnant girlfriend, Marlene (Gus Birney), begin to bond and transform during a surreal, visually immersive road-trip journey to track down the perpetrators. Dynamically shot on 16mm film, this endearing, hauntingly strange cult classic in the making is also an empowering cinematic meditation on family, identity, and the underbelly of American life. Giving Birth to a Butterfly is directed by up-and-coming filmmaker Theodore Schaefer, making his feature directorial debut after a few other shorts and lots of assistant director work previously. The screenplay is co-written by Schaefer and Patrick Lawler. This initially premiered at the 2021 Fantasia Film Festival a few years ago. Cinedigm will debut Giving Birth to a Butterfly in select US theaters early this May, then it will be streaming on Fandor starting May 16th, 2023. Anyone curious about this?

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