The Cucalorus Film Festival, presented by PNC, has unleashed its full 2013 schedule of screenings, artistic interventions and parties. More than 200 features, documentary films and shorts will be presented as part of the festival’s Magnolia, Vanguard, Voices, Works-in-Progress, Midnight Madness and shorts programs during the five-day festival, Nov. 13-17, in Wilmington, N.C.
The festival also will feature five world premieres and 24 Southern or Southeastern U.S. premieres.
Filmed in the Wilmington region in late 2012, Michael Maren’s directorial debut, “A Short History of Decay,” will have its Southern U.S. premiere on Thursday, Nov. 14 at Thalian Hall Center for the Performing Arts’ Main Stage. The dark comedy debuted in October at the Hamptons International Film Festival. Former Wilmington resident and actress Linda Lavin delivers a solid performance in the film as a mother and wife struggling with the realities of Alzheimer’s.
“Redwood Highway,” directed by Gary Lundgren (“Calvin Marshall,” Cucalorus, 2009), features a beautiful performance from Shirley Knight, who plays a woman struggling with her increasing lack of independence in her later years. An extended conversation with Knight and Lundgren will follow its Cucalorus screening at 4 p.m., Saturday, Nov. 16 at Thalian’s main stage.
Fresh from its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival, Ingrid Veninger‘s “The Animal Project,” a charming ensemble comedy, will have its U.S. premiere on Friday, Nov. 15 at City Stage Theater.
Chock full of inspiring surf footage and a touching testimony to Cape Fear area surfing legend Jack Viorel, “Bound By Sea” (directed by Nate Daniel), will have its world premiere at 10 a.m. Saturday, Nov. 16 at Thalian Hall’s main stage.
Foreign-language Academy Award contenders “Borgman” (from the Netherlands) and “Boy Eating the Bird’s Food” (from Greece) join Scandinavian deep sea diving thriller “Pioneer” on the list of 31 international films screening at Cucalorus.
Meanwhile, South by Southwest Film Conference and Festival (SXSW) audience-award winner “Short Term 12” will return to Cucalorus (director Destin Cretton’s short of the same title screened at the festival in 2009). Cannes Film Festival critics-prize winner “Blue Ruin” will headline the festival’s Midnight Madness program, while charming comedy “The Zigzag Kid” will delight children and parents alike during a new family-friendly screening slot on Sunday afternoon (ages 11 and up).
The festival kicks off on Wednesday, Nov. 13 with Dance-a-lorus, a growing program of performances, screenings and workshops exploring the intersection between dance and film. A music-video program, Visual/Sound/Walls, a Bus to Lumberton field trip, and more than 125 other short films will round out the 19th annual festival’s schedule.
Visit Cucalorus’ press page for press kits and dozens of hi-resolution photos from the films. For the low down on all the festival’s events, visit www.cucalorus.org.
Media contacts:
Dan Brawley, Executive Director, dan@cucalorus.org
Ryan Jaccard, Communications Coordinator, comm@cucalorus.org