Official Selection - Competition 2013 / Bluebird / USA, Sweden 2012
A tragedy strikes a small community in the state of Maine, but it is not entirely clear who is to blame. The oppressive weight of the story is deftly illustrated by the film’s evocative visual conception highlighting the wretched situation the characters find themselves in but which also allows love to filter through.
Lesley, who lives with her husband and daughter in a small American town, leads a lacklustre life. But all that changes after her shift one day when she forgets to check the school bus she uses to drive kids to school from every part of town. One day after a freezing night her life is turned upside down: on one of the back seats she finds a half-dead child who was trapped all night in the cold bus. When a trial convenes to determine Lesley’s level of responsibility, the depressing situation starts to show in the behavior of her withdrawn husband and her little girl. With its stark lensing, the film offers a barely hospitable look at the inhabitants of a small-town community symbolically set in a frosty winter landscape. Debut director Lance Edmands captures the townspeople in all their variety, avoiding a superficially negative portrayal. The film boasts unusually strong performances and an ambiently oppressive atmosphere.
90 min / Color, DCP
International premiere
Director Lance Edmands
/ Screenplay Lance Edmands
/ Dir. of Photography Jody Lee Lipes
/ Music Saunder Jurriaans, Danny Bensi
/ Editor Dino Jonsater
/ Producer Garrett Fennelly, Kyle Martin, Alexander Schepsman
/ Cast Amy Morton, John Slattery, Louisa Krause, Emily Meade, Margo Martindale, Adam Driver
/ Contact Kyle Martin
Lance Edmands (b. 1981, Maine, USA) is an American director and editor who graduated from New York’s prestigious Tisch School of the Arts. His graduation film, the writer-director short Vacationland (2005), screened at numerous festivals and won a variety of awards. He has created music videos, and his portfolio also includes commercials for internationally successful companies. As an editor he cooperated on the short film by Braden King Home Movie (2009) and Lena Dunham’s famous film Tiny Furniture (2010). As a production assistant he worked on the critically acclaimed TV series "The Wire” and on the Jim Jarmusch film Broken Flowers (2005). The ambitious feature debut Bluebird introduces yet another interesting filmmaker from across the ocean.
Kyle Martin
18 East 16th St, NY 10003, New York
United States of America
Phone: +1 212 473 3950
E-mail: [email protected]
Melissa Breaux
Lance Edmands
Film Director
Kyle Martin
Producer
Alexander Schepsman
Producer
Erika Wasserman
Producer
Saunder Juriaans
Music Composer
Danny Bensi
Music Composer
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