LOVELESS a Film by Ramin Serry
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Streetlight Films presents LOVELESS a film by Ramin Serry 92 min ⎮ Color ⎮ USA ⎮ 2011 Shot on the RED camera. Exhibited on HDCam. LOVELESS premieres in Chicago at the Gene Siskel Film Center Feb. 11 and Feb. 13 and OPENS in NYC at the reRun Theatre Feb. 18-24 www.lovelessthemovie.com Press Contact: Shauna Lyon, Streetlight Films 917-770-2585 [email protected] LOVELESS LOGLINE Andrew, a commitment-phobic New York City bachelor on the wrong side of 40, finds his prized independent lifestyle in crisis when faced with a demanding, jilted ex-girlfriend and a sexy young woman who comes with an absurdly obsessive, cult-like family. SHORT SYNOPSIS "Loveless" is a darkly witty urban comedy about Andrew, a New York City commitment- phobe stringing along his ex-girlfriend while he chases younger women. When he meets the sexy, secretive Ava, Andrew becomes entangled with her bizarre, cult-like family. Comedy and pathos collide as the family’s absurd obsessions leave Andrew doubting his sanity and safety. EXTENDED SYNOPSIS "Loveless" is a darkly witty urban comedy about Andrew (Andrew Von Urtz), a wryly hilarious commitment-phobe enjoying the single life in New York City. By day, at his crappy desk job, he tortures his droll co-worker Kendra (Kendra Hurley) with sarcasm and teasing, and gets reprimanded by his beleaguered boss Sabin (Sabin Streeter), an old friend who cuts him endless slack. By night, he is a self-proclaimed “writer-director” with no credits to his name, who tries to pick up girls by offering them roles in his dubious film projects. At a party thrown by his married friends, Ramin and Shauna, he avoids holding their baby and then runs into his ex-girlfriend, Joanna (Cindy Chastain), a smart, beautiful woman who knows Andrew well enough to see through his schtick, but loves him anyway despite her better judgment. He soon leaves to meet up with his slick, rich friend Tad (Gary Wilmes) to discuss possible financing for one of Andrew’s films. When Andrew spots the feisty, sexy young Ava (Genevieve Hudson-Price), he follows her to her home, where her clannish family is holding a birthday party for her odd, overprotective brother Ricky (Scott Cohen). Ricky is suspicious of Andrew and his intentions̶until he finds out that they have something in common: both of their fathers are dead. Things start to get bizarre when Andrew discovers that Ava and Ricky hold full conversations with their dead father. Weirded out, Andrew turns to Joanna and they cautiously rekindle their relationship. But Andrew finds that he can’t shake Ava’s family, who are now stalking him. Comedy and pathos collide as Joanna’s demands escalate, and Ava’s family’s absurd obsessions leave Andrew doubting his sanity and safety. Contact: [email protected] “LOVELESS” press kit p. 2 LOVELESS DIRECTOR'S STATEMENT In 2007, Shauna and I were working on a script about a New York City doorman. We wanted to attach a name actor and seek financing, a process which can take years. During that time, I met the filmmaker Andrew Bujalski, who inspired me to make a much lower budget film using my friends. All I had to do was to pick someone in my life who I thought would be an interesting subject. The first person who came to mind was Andrew Von Urtz. Andrew and I went to film school together, and we’ve been friends for nearly twenty years. A nonprofessional actor who has never appeared in a film before, Andrew is known among his friends for being an incredibly witty and charming yet frustratingly elusive personality. Although the story for “Loveless” is fiction, Shauna and I based much of it on Andrew’s life, and he plays a version of himself that is very close to the real thing. In the film we learn that Andrew has written a film script, but we never quite find out what that script is about. In real life, Andrew wrote a screenplay called “You’re Nobody Till Somebody Loves You,” about a young man in downtown New York and his encounters with a Russian prostitute. The opening scene describes the young man sorting through the possessions of his recently deceased father. I knew that Andrew never knew his own father, so when I read this scene I felt that it might offer some insight into Andrew’s otherwise elusive personality. The idea of lost fathers and their impact on people’s personalities and relationships helped form the basis for the story of “Loveless.” The characters of Ava and Ricky have also lost their father, but, unlike Andrew, they deal with it in a very open way̶a way which he sees as foreign and absurd. Andrew clings to his prized independence, while Ricky and Ava cling to familial bonds. These basic character contrasts dictated how the film was written, cast and directed, and inspired us to develop “Loveless” as an experiment in contrasting tones. Andrew’s world, for which we sought to create a naturalistic tone, is populated by nonprofessional actors playing versions of themselves. Cindy Chastain, who plays Andrew’s ex Joanna, is Andrew’s real-life ex-girlfriend. Kendra, Andrew’s office-mate, and Sabin, his boss, are both played by his close friends. One exception is that Gary Wilmes, a professional actor, plays the character of Tad. Reality and fiction come together, though, when the real-life Tad makes a cameo, as a banker who, in one scene, is seated next to the fictional Tad. Contact: [email protected] “LOVELESS” press kit p. 3 LOVELESS For the absurdly comic world that Andrew encounters̶represented by Ava’s family̶we cast professional actors. Ricky is played by Scott Cohen, with whom Shauna and I have been friends for years. Ricky’s younger brother Paul Jr. is played by Scott Cohen’s son, Liam. And Ava is played by Genevieve Hudson-Price, the daughter of the novelist and screenwriter Richard Price; we found Genevieve on an audition tape through our friend Meredith Tucker, who is a casting director. Shauna produced the film out of our apartment, all the actors wore their own clothes and all the locations were donated by friends. Our daughter, Lily, plays herself in the film. It was truly a labor of love. -Ramin Serry ABOUT THE FILM: “Loveless” is based on that well-known urban figure: the indecisive adult American male. Andrew is a man who uses his wit to deflect responsibility and navigate urban realms. A hybrid of reality and fiction, “Loveless” addresses its characters' gnawing emotional terror with a mix of humor, pathos and suspense as Andrew struggles to cling to a phase of life when everything was exciting and possible. He’s grappling with the anxieties faced by all Gen X-ers as they face a looming confrontation with middle age. Set in New York City, “Loveless” is director Ramin Serry’s second feature film. It stars feature newcomer Andrew Von Urtz, a nonprofessional actor with a flair for comic improv. Andrew carries the film with a rare combination of wit, intelligence and emotional complexity. He is supported by an accomplished cast including Scott Cohen (“Kissing Jessica Stein,” "Gilmore Girls," “17 Photos of Isabel,” opposite Natalie Portman), Gary Wilmes (Michael Winterbottom’s “A Mighty Heart"; the acclaimed Elevator Repair Service play "Gatz"), and another newcomer, Genevieve Hudson-Price (“The Wire”). Stylistically, the film takes an intimate approach, with the camera following characters on their adventures through the dwellings and night clubs of downtown New York City. The film was shot on location in New York City and Long Island, and the city’s brooding presence is the perfect setting as events begin to swirl elusively beyond Andrew’s control. Contact: [email protected] “LOVELESS” press kit p. 4 LOVELESS CAST BIOGRAPHIES ANDREW VON URTZ (Andrew) “Loveless” is Andrew’s feature film debut. CINDY CHASTAIN (Joanna) Cindy began her film career as a camera assistant in Hollywood after studying film and theater at Northwestern University, where she won several awards for her short experimental films. She eventually moved to New York and earned an MFA in Screenwriting from Columbia University. While at Columbia she produced Kimberly Peirce's first short film "The Last Good Breath" and worked as a cinematographer on a variety of projects, including Shari Berman and Bob Pulcini's "Last Days of Chasens." Currently, she is writing two screenplays and working as a Creative Director at R/GA, a digital advertising agency in New York City. “Loveless” is Cindy's feature film debut as an actress. GENEVIEVE HUDSON-PRICE (Ava) Genevieve made her film debut in “Freedomland," and she has also appeared on “The Wire.” She earned her BFA in Theater from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts. GARY WILMES (Tad) Gary has appeared in Michael Winterbottom’s “A Mighty Heart,” “Salt,” “Birds of America,” and “Almost in Love.” His theatre credits include Elevator Repair Service’s acclaimed “Gatz,” and his Obie Award-winning performance in Adam Rapp’s “Red Light Winter.” SCOTT COHEN (Ricky) Scott’s numerous film credits include the upcoming “How I Spent My Summer Vacation” (with Mel Gibson), “Love and Other Drugs,” Don Roos’s “The Other Woman” (with Natalie Portman), and “Kissing Jessica Stein.” He was a regular on the beloved television series “Gilmore Girls” as well as “Law and Order: Trial by Jury,” “Street Time” and “NYPD Blue.” Contact: [email protected] “LOVELESS” press kit p. 5 LOVELESS CREW BIOGRAPHIES RAMIN SERRY, Director “Loveless” is written and directed by Ramin Serry, following his critically acclaimed first feature, “Maryam” (2002), which Roger Ebert called “Extraordinary, powerful and very moving.” Ramin is a professor of screenwriting at Columbia University and Hunter College.