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Film Archive

To the Stars

Official Selection - Competition 2019 / To the Stars / USA 2019

Bullied by her classmates, reclusive Iris finds small-town life pure torment; for self-assured Maggie, however, moving to the provinces provides an opportunity to stand out from the rest. A film excelling in finely wrought detail that takes us back to the 1960s, a time when society, bound by gender prejudice, detested the idea of individuality in women.

To the Stars To the Stars

Synopsis

1960s, Oklahoma. Bullied by her classmates, reclusive Iris finds small-town life pure torment; for self-assured Maggie, however, moving to the sticks provides an opportunity to stand out from the rest. What begins as an uneven relationship between two very different girls gradually grows into a sturdy friendship which starts to bring Iris out of her shell. But as the heroines soon discover, a society bound by gender traditions doesn’t easily tolerate those who step out of line. In all its fine-spun detail, the story told by director Martha Stephens conveys a black-and-white, almost dreamlike existence. At first glance it might seem remote to us yet it still tilts a mirror towards today’s world.

Sandra Hezinová

About the film

111 min / Black & white, DCP
International premiere

Director Martha Stephens / Screenplay Shannon Bradley-Colleary / Dir. of Photography Andrew Reed / Music Heather McIntosh / Editor Nathan Whiteside / Art Director Jonathan Guggenheim / Producer Kristin Mann, Laura D. Smith / Production Prowess Pictures / Coproduction Northern Lights Films, Foton Pictures, Rockhill Studios / Cast Kara Hayward, Liana Liberato, Shea Whigham, Jordana Spiro, Malin Akerman, Lucas Zumann, Tony Hale / Sales International Film Trust

About the director

Martha Stephens

Martha Stephens (b. 1984, Huntington, West Virginia, USA). Filmography: Echo Hollow (2005, short), Ant Hills (2006, short), Passenger Pigeons (2010), Pilgrim Song (2012), Land Ho! (2014, with Aaron Katz), To the Stars (2019)

Contacts

International Film Trust
8383 Wilshire Blvd., CA 9021, Beverly Hills
United States of America
Phone: +1 424 278 4224
E-mail: [email protected]

Press kit


Press kit


Guests

Laura D. Smith
Producer

Kristin Mann
Producer

Shannon Colleary
Screenwriter

Kara Hayward

Martha Stephens
Film Director

Liana Liberato

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