Factory Girl

Colour, 35 mm
USA, 2006, 90 min
Section: Horizons

Synopsis

When Edie Sedgwick came to New York in the mid-1960’s she was just one of hundreds of talented girls yearning to conquer the world. Everything changed however the moment she was noticed by guru of the New York art underground, Andy Warhol. Edie became an inseparable part of the artist’s community, Warhol’s private and public companion, and as the emblematic face of his experimental films could boast the grandiose nickname of “superstar”. She was not a creative independent artist but rather a muse in the hands of the neurotic, high-handed genius – and it quickly destroyed her. Especially when her life interconnected with another genius of the wonderful and painful 1960’s – folk romantic Bob Dylan (named here Billy Quinn). This drama by director George Hickenlooper tells of a forgotten personality whose life became entangled with the lives of the rich and famous.

About the director

George Hickenlooper (1963, St. Louis) graduated from Yale University (1986) and won recognition as a successful documentary filmmaker. He directed the short documentary films such as Art, Acting, and the Suicide Chair: Dennis Hopper (1988), Monte Hellman: American Auteur (1997) and Picture This: The Times of Peter Bogdanovich in Archer City, Texas (1991). Along with Fax Bahr and Francis Ford Coppola he won a special Emmy Award in 1992 for his direction of the feature-length documentary Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker’s Apocalypse (1991). He was awarded at the Aspen Shortfest for his short drama Some Folks Call It a Sling Blade (1994). In 2004 he was nominated for an Independent Spirit Award for the documentary Mayor of the Sunset Strip (2003), which maps out the fortunes of musical impresario Rodney Birgenheimer. He has also been making feature films since 1993.