The 5th Annual Jim Thorpe Independent Film Festival Announces Its Feature Film Lineup

by Todd Morris • Special to The Current

Channeling the rebellious spirit of the Molly Maguires, The Jim Thorpe Independent Film Festival challenges the boldest, most defiant filmmakers to present their work, shatter convention and incite spirited debate. The festival credo is “eyes and minds wide open,” and they mean it.

It’s hard to believe, but this year, the Jim Thorpe Independent Film Festival (JTIFF) will be returning to the Mauch Chunk Opera House for its FIFTH YEAR! And now that COVID seems to have taken a break (for now) and WWIII appears to be on hold for the moment, let’s party like its…2019?

So for our 5th Anniversary, we are proud to present 80 new films including dozens of US and Pennsylvania premieres from all over the globe – incredible films you won’t see anywhere else. This year’s program was curated from over 800 submissions of every length, genre and description – from the gritty underground to the slick, bigger-budget Hollywood-level films, and everything in between. Here’s a summary of this year’s 10 features and a few festival highlights.

Opening Night Thursday 4/21 at the Mauch Chunk Opera House kicks off with a LIVE MUSICAL PERFORMANCE by the sensational Philly-based ‘sludge rock’ trio, SLOMO SAPIENS, that will play from 7:00 to 8:00pm, at which time we’ll kill the lights for our first feature, the stylish, Finnish horror film, HATCHING, that just premiered at Sundance in January. HATCHING, written and directed by Hanna Bergholm, tells the story of 12-year-old gymnast, Tinja (Siiri Solalinna), who’s desperate to please her image-obsessed mother, whose popular blog presents their family’s lives as manicured suburban perfection. One day, after finding a wounded bird in the woods, Tinja brings its strange egg home, makes a nest for it in her bed, and nurtures it until it hatches. The creature that emerges soon becomes her closest friend and a living nightmare.

On Friday 4/22, we present a jam-packed slate of short films and features including the internationally acclaimed ZALAVA, a rare Iranian horror film directed by Arsalan Amiri. The film premiered at the 78th Venice Film Festival, winning both the Critic’s Week Grand Prize and the FIPRESCI Prize, and went on to win critical acclaim at Toronto and other top international festivals.

The film is set in 1978 in a small Kurdish village named Zalava where the inhabitants claim that a demon is hiding amongst them. Massoud, a young army sergeant who’s been sent to investigate, encounters an exorcist trying to rid the village of the demon. When he arrests the exorcist for fraud, the villagers’ fear and anger escalates to the point where Massoud and his love interest, a government doctor, find themselves trapped in a cursed house, surrounded by villagers who believe that they, themselves, are possessed by the demon. A film that’s dripping in atmosphere and a dark sense of humour, ZALAVA demonstrates just how contagious and dangerous superstition and mob mentality can be.

After ZALAVA, we present the PA premiere of SYLVIE OF THE SUNSHINE STATE, a deeply intimate, direct chronicle of the pandemic that focuses on Sylvie, a whimsical second grader in South Florida, as she navigates the absurdities and emotional turbulence of her eccentric, multigenerational Jewish matriarchy, a dad who lives far away, and life gone virtual, all seen through the lens of her filmmaker single mom. The film premiered at Slamdance in January and took home the Spirit of Slamdance Award.

From the Florida suburbs, we take you back to a simpler time before cell phones and social media ruled our lives. MILLENNIUM BUGS, the second feature written and directed by Alejandro Montoya Marin, follows the uncertain lives of two twenty-something friends, Kelly (Katy Erin) and Miguel (Michael Lovato), just three days before the end of the 20th century. This stylish coming-of-adulthood dramedy accompanied by a killer soundtrack, is bound to strike 90’s kids with a big dose of nostalgia.

Friday night at 7:00pm, the intense road movie, ANCHORAGE, takes us on a drug-fueled cross-country journey into oblivion. Jacob (Scott Monahan) and John (Dakota Loesch) are two brothers with a busted whip and a dream. Their plan is to drive a trunk full of opioids from Florida to Alaska to cash-in big in the Land of Gold. That plan gets side-tracked by their surroundings, their shortcomings, and their tendency to dip into their own supply.

We are so thrilled to have the film’s incredibly talented writer, director, star and JTIFF alumnus, Scott Monahan, flying in from LA to present his film in person and do Q&A with our audience. And of course, Scott will join us for cocktails after the screening at the fabulous FILMMAKERS GALA at the Victor Stabin.

Saturday afternoon at 1:30pm we present Rapper Freddie Gibbs screen debut in Diego Ongaro’s acclaimed DOWN WITH THE KING. Rap star Money Merc (played by Gibbs) has been sent by his manager, Paul, to a rural house in the Berkshires to focus on his next album. Disenchanted with his rap career and the 24/7 upkeep that such fame requires, Merc has no desire to write or record music. Instead, he spends most of his time at his neighbor’s farm learning about farming and enjoying the simplicity of country life. After Merc abruptly announces his retirement on Twitter, Paul rushes to the countryside to lure him back into the music biz. DOWN WITH THE KING was just awarded the Grand Prize at the prestigious 47th Deauville American Film Festival.

Saturday at 8:00pm, following the immersive Live Audio-Visual performance provided by Great Circles, we are proud to present the Pennsylvania premiere of WHEN I CONSUME YOU, an incredibly original, heartfelt, yet terrifying, independent horror film that delivers far beyond what’s typically expected from that simple genre label. A woman (Libby Ewing) and her brother (Evan Dumouchel) hunt down a mysterious stalker hellbent on their destruction in this gritty urban folktale about love and loyalty in the face of ultimate evil. And we are thrilled to announce that the writer and director of this brilliant film, Perry Blackshear, will be traveling to JTIFF from Upstate New York to present his film and take questions from the audience.

Saturday night at Midnight, we welcome back our favorite master of GRINDHOUSE mayhem, Jeffery Garcia, who returns to Jim Thorpe from the fabled land of San Marcos, Texas to present his SECOND gloriously offensive feature film, BUBBLEGUM. This opus of depravity tells the story of “World’s Greatest” Used Car Salesman, Teddy Bupkis, and his teenage girlfriend, Daphne, who are on the run after a failed assassination attempt on his ex-wife makes them the targets of a homicidal, sexually-frustrated police detective and a psychopathic crack dealer. This year, along with Bekah, his girlfriend and JTIFF veteran, Jeffrey will be attending the festival with the film’s two lead actors, Thayer Cranor (Freddie Bupkis), and Michael Nieto (Detective Howard). No One Under 18 Admitted To The Grindhouse Block.

Sunday afternoon at 2:30pm, we present Director Kirill Sokolov’s second feature, NO LOOKING BACK, a bloody black comedy about three generations of Russian mothers in a vain flight from a violent legacy. After four years in prison, Olga is determined to start over, and more than anything, she wants to get her ten-year-old daughter back. However, her overbearing mother refuses to let her grandchild go without a fight. Soon, the family conflict spirals out of control, resulting in a frenzied and violent wild goose chase, with each character willing to do whatever it takes to get what they want. The film just screened last month at SXSW, and actress Sofia Krugova, who plays the young daughter, won Best Actress at the Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival last Fall.

And finally, Our CLOSING NIGHT FILM, writer-director Na Jiazuo’s debut feature, STREETWISE (GAEY WA’R), a gritty drama set in China in the early 2000’s. Dongzi, a small-town youth, becomes a debt-collector for a local gangster in an attempt to pay off his sick father’s hospital bills. A cold and estranged parent-child relationship, an unsettling life on the streets, and an ambiguous relationship with a young woman; in Dongzi’s shoes, this is what it is like to be twenty-one. The film received its world premiere in the Un Certain Regard section at CANNES and garnered rave reviews.

Despite our international flavor, JTIFF always strives to encourage our community of local creators to become a part of the annual festival. And our efforts have definitely paid off this year as the films we’re presenting in both the PA STUDENT FILMMAKER block (Saturday at 11:00am) and the LOCAL HEROES block (Sunday at 11:00am) are the best we’ve seen since the start of the festival five years ago. And we are thrilled to see new work by Local Hero alumni Michael Sheridan, Tedd Hazard and well-known artist, Victor Stabin, along with several excellent newcomers.

And no film festival worth its salted popcorn would be complete without a big, glitzy party. So this year’s FILMMAKERS’ GALA will return to the magnificent, newly-expanded Victor Stabin Museum @ 268 W. Broadway, Friday 4/22 right after ANCHORAGE. There’ll be a Cash Bar, passed hor d’oeuvres, Live Jazz, DJ’s, dancing, and a free Trolley that will transport festival-goers from the opera house to the Stabin museum. (Otherwise, it’s just a 10-minute walk up Broadway).

CLOSING NIGHT PARTY will be at the gorgeous, newly-opened OUROS TAVERN & FAIRE @ 70 Broadway following the Awards Ceremony. So dig out your fanciest night-on-the-town threads, and we’ll see you on the red carpet!

FESTIVAL DATES: APRIL 21-24, 2022

MAIN VENUE:

The Mauch Chunk Opera House

14 W Broadway in Jim Thorpe, PA

PASSES & TICKETS

All Access VIP Pass for all screenings & parties = $170

Opening Night Thursday 4/22 = $20

Day Pass Friday 4/23 = $40

Day Pass Saturday 4/24 = $60

Day Pass Sunday 4/25 = $40

Filmmakers’ Gala Friday 4/23 = $25

Individual Film Block = $10