Movie endings, they're usually pretty straight forward right? Everything pays off, the main characters learn something, and our heroes ride off into the sunset. Sometimes though, we don't get the typical ending from a movie, we get something much more nuanced, complex and open ended. The kind of endings that leave things up in the air for all of us to debate and theorize on until we're blue in the face. With Movie Endings Explained, we aim to delve into some of the more ambiguous…...
- 1/24/2020
- by Luke Ryan
- JoBlo.com
Nora and Will immediately hit it off when they randomly meet while staying separately at a roadside motel. Their innocent flirting soon turns more serious and the couple start to contemplate their future together. The only problem is that they’re married. To other people.
Where We Started is the third feature film by Chris Hansen, who previously directed the indie drama Endings and the mockumentary The Proper Care & Feeding of an American Messiah.
Actor Matthew Brumlow, who previously starred in Endings, stars here as Will while Cora Vander Broek stars as Nora.
Currently in post-production, the film will be making its debut later this year. For more info and to get updates on the film, please visit its Facebook page.
Where We Started is the third feature film by Chris Hansen, who previously directed the indie drama Endings and the mockumentary The Proper Care & Feeding of an American Messiah.
Actor Matthew Brumlow, who previously starred in Endings, stars here as Will while Cora Vander Broek stars as Nora.
Currently in post-production, the film will be making its debut later this year. For more info and to get updates on the film, please visit its Facebook page.
- 4/3/2012
- by Mike Everleth
- Underground Film Journal
The Art Voice newspaper in Buffalo, NY reviewed Chris Hansen’s film Endings, which is currently playing at an interesting screening space/restaurant called Screens. Here’s the poster quote to pull: ” [Endings] ends up going somewhere you don’t quite expect.” Nice to see local papers reviewing truly indie movies, which typically get ignored.Speaking of which: The Denver Westword paper interviews documentary filmmaker Larry Wessel regarding the screening of his doc Iconoclast at the Denver Underground Film Festival tonight. The interview will warm your heart, especially when Wessel calls his doc subject, Boyd Rice, a “lonely, cold-hearted, pretentious, hypocritical sociopath.”Bright Lights Film Journal has a lengthy expose on the work of Bob Moricz, whose work we’re continually praising ourselves here on Bad Lit.If you live or want to move to Houston, TX, the Aurora Picture Show is hiring part-time Media Arts Educators.Save the Evans City Cemetary Chapel!
- 11/13/2011
- by Mike Everleth
- Underground Film Journal
Here’s some underground film Twitter feeds for you to follow:
An Affair. Chris Hansen’s (American Messiah, Endings) third feature film has recently gone into production in Texas and you can follow its progress on Twitter, which links to very entertaining production blog posts and more. Learn all about shooting at sleazy locations; shutting down city streets for Steadicam shots and the bonding of Hansen’s film student crew. (Hansen is a film professor at Baylor University and uses his students as crew.) Follow @AnAffair_Film.
Battle for Brooklyn. The new documentary by Suki Hawley and Michael Galinsky (Horns and Halos) is now out on the festival circuit and will soon be in a theater near you. Read up on the accolades it’s earning and learn more about the continuing skirmishes over Brooklyn’s Atlantic Yards project that the film covers. (Film to be reviewed on Bad Lit soon.
An Affair. Chris Hansen’s (American Messiah, Endings) third feature film has recently gone into production in Texas and you can follow its progress on Twitter, which links to very entertaining production blog posts and more. Learn all about shooting at sleazy locations; shutting down city streets for Steadicam shots and the bonding of Hansen’s film student crew. (Hansen is a film professor at Baylor University and uses his students as crew.) Follow @AnAffair_Film.
Battle for Brooklyn. The new documentary by Suki Hawley and Michael Galinsky (Horns and Halos) is now out on the festival circuit and will soon be in a theater near you. Read up on the accolades it’s earning and learn more about the continuing skirmishes over Brooklyn’s Atlantic Yards project that the film covers. (Film to be reviewed on Bad Lit soon.
- 6/12/2011
- by Mike Everleth
- Underground Film Journal
There’s very little in this world that gets me more excited than when an underground film festival adopts WordPress as a Cms for their website. Even more exciting is when the world’s oldest underground fest does it, as the Chicago Underground Film Festival has recently. Awesome looking site, guys! Gazelluloid is an experimental cinema blog that’s been around almost a year, but I just discovered it. The site posts up tons of great short films with no commentary. You should go bookmark it. There’s another brand new experimental film blog out there, too: cori e comete. However, you have to read Italian to get the full effect. The blog name translates to “choruses and comets.” There’s a new experimental and avant-garde screening space in North America: CinemaSpace at the Segal Centre in Montreal. Lots of great screenings are scheduled already. CineSpace is being run by Daïchi Saïto and Malena Szlam.
- 2/6/2011
- by Mike Everleth
- Underground Film Journal
It’s been a big week — and not quite in a good way — for Richard Wolstencroft of the Melbourne Underground Film Festival, whose home was raided by Australian police looking for banned film L.A. Zombie. It’s a situation that sucks because it’s happening at all, but good because it’s bringing attention to archaic Australian censorship. The story was written up everywhere from the New York Times to The Advocate. Nicest of all, though, was a personal letter of support from Noah Cowan of the Toronto International Film Festival, which screened the film earlier this year. Jay Hollinsworth created a simply amazing poster mashup of one of the most hackneyed visual cliché’s of all time: Looking down a foreshortened gun barrel. Great job, Jay! Oscars.org has video highlights from the Governor’s Awards, including tributes to Jean-Luc Godard from Haskell Wexler, Vincent Cassel, Phil Robinson and more.
- 11/21/2010
- by Mike Everleth
- Underground Film Journal
Filmmaker and Baylor University professor Chris Hansen wants to have an affair. No, not that kind! He’s currently in pre-production on his latest feature film called simply An Affair, a will-they-or-won’t-they drama about a man and a woman who meet in a hotel. Although married to other people, they have a flirtatious evening that runs the risk of turning into something more serious. To help promote the film, which will being lensing in June 2011, Hansen has created a pair of videos exploring the main characters’ inner turmoil. Her side of the affair is embedded above, and his is below.
In developing the film, Hansen is workshopping the script with his actors. The male lead, Will, is played by Matthew Brumlow, one of the stars of Hansen’s previous film, Endings. The female lead, Leah, is played by Cora Vander Broek, who is new to Hansen’s films, but is not unfamiliar with Brumlow.
In developing the film, Hansen is workshopping the script with his actors. The male lead, Will, is played by Matthew Brumlow, one of the stars of Hansen’s previous film, Endings. The female lead, Leah, is played by Cora Vander Broek, who is new to Hansen’s films, but is not unfamiliar with Brumlow.
- 11/11/2010
- by Mike Everleth
- Underground Film Journal
It feels that with increasing frequency I’m seeing more and more filmmakers turning to Kickstarter’s crowdfunding solution to help fund their projects, either in the pre-production, post-production or distribution stages. I’m getting more announcements via email every week and I see a growing number of links to Kickstarter pages in my Facebook news feed.
Two of those projects are by longtime favorites of Bad Lit, two filmmakers who have had their previous films featured many times almost right since the site relaunched itself as the “Journal of Underground Film” back in 2006.
First is the third feature film by Chris Hansen, The Affair, an intimate drama about two married strangers who meet in a dark motel who have to decide if their innocent flirtation is actually going to lead to something more intense. If you’re interested in donating, you can do so at the film’s Kickstarter page.
Two of those projects are by longtime favorites of Bad Lit, two filmmakers who have had their previous films featured many times almost right since the site relaunched itself as the “Journal of Underground Film” back in 2006.
First is the third feature film by Chris Hansen, The Affair, an intimate drama about two married strangers who meet in a dark motel who have to decide if their innocent flirtation is actually going to lead to something more intense. If you’re interested in donating, you can do so at the film’s Kickstarter page.
- 10/8/2010
- by Mike Everleth
- Underground Film Journal
Mike Rollo has just started a new series on old theaters in Saskatchewan. I’m very excited about this, especially based on his first profile of the Majestic Theatre in Biggar, Saskatchewan. Also starting a new blogging series is animator Patrick Smith of Scribble Junkies. He’s teaching “Animation 101″ online and, again, has an excellent first post about sacks of flour. (Sounds like I’m joking, but I’m not.) Plus, one excellent and one horrendous Bakshi movie poster. Smith’s blogging partner Bill Plympton has a horrifying story of when self-distribution goes awry. (At least it all worked out in the end.) P.S. Words of advice: When starting a filmmaking competition, be sure to remember that your email is working. Dolphins, space whales and Stan Vanderbeek, oh my! Andrea Grover on the collision of science, sea creatures, space and the universe. Film Studies for Free has compiled a...
- 9/19/2010
- by Mike Everleth
- Underground Film Journal
The Atlanta Underground Film Festival wrapped up its 7th successful year back on Aug. 29 and has given out awards to 13 feature films and 14 shorts.
Several of the winners are films that have been featured here on Bad Lit, either with a review or having been embedded on the site for your viewing pleasure. First, repeat Auff winner Chris Hansen won the Best Director award for his second feature film Endings, a film that finds three disparate strangers spending their last day on Earth together.
Loretta Hintz‘s outrageous lesbian farm fantasy The Sheep and the Ranch Hand took home the 2010 Auff The Wall award. Also, the recently embedded The Shave by Sean Christensen, a haunting memoir, won the Best Experimental Short award. And, lastly, I was very happy to see that animator Victoria Cook, whom I’ve written about in the past, took home the Best Short Short award for her Devil Town.
Several of the winners are films that have been featured here on Bad Lit, either with a review or having been embedded on the site for your viewing pleasure. First, repeat Auff winner Chris Hansen won the Best Director award for his second feature film Endings, a film that finds three disparate strangers spending their last day on Earth together.
Loretta Hintz‘s outrageous lesbian farm fantasy The Sheep and the Ranch Hand took home the 2010 Auff The Wall award. Also, the recently embedded The Shave by Sean Christensen, a haunting memoir, won the Best Experimental Short award. And, lastly, I was very happy to see that animator Victoria Cook, whom I’ve written about in the past, took home the Best Short Short award for her Devil Town.
- 9/18/2010
- by Mike Everleth
- Underground Film Journal
Wow, this is a long list this week. Enjoy!
Is Australia the most conservative country in the world right now? Luke Buckmaster of The Age newspaper reports that the illegal screening of Bruce Labruce’s gay horror movie L.A. Zombie at the Melbourne Underground Film Festival went off without any arrests. But Buckmaster was so thoroughly disgusted by the movie, he’s practically advocating for the censorship of it. What the hell did he think he was going to go see? Or maybe England is gunning for the Most Conservative Country Award. Electric Sheep reports on Srdjan Spasojevic’s controversial A Serbian Movie being pulled from FrightFest after British censors demanded almost four minutes of edits. While the film has, and will, screen freely here in the U.S. at festivals, who knows what the MPAA would say if the film were released here theatrically? The Australian Film Reviews...
Is Australia the most conservative country in the world right now? Luke Buckmaster of The Age newspaper reports that the illegal screening of Bruce Labruce’s gay horror movie L.A. Zombie at the Melbourne Underground Film Festival went off without any arrests. But Buckmaster was so thoroughly disgusted by the movie, he’s practically advocating for the censorship of it. What the hell did he think he was going to go see? Or maybe England is gunning for the Most Conservative Country Award. Electric Sheep reports on Srdjan Spasojevic’s controversial A Serbian Movie being pulled from FrightFest after British censors demanded almost four minutes of edits. While the film has, and will, screen freely here in the U.S. at festivals, who knows what the MPAA would say if the film were released here theatrically? The Australian Film Reviews...
- 9/5/2010
- by Mike Everleth
- Underground Film Journal
The 7th annual Atlanta Underground Film Festival is like having four different fests crammed into an exhaustive three days on Aug. 27-29. It’s an outrageous underground fest, an animation festival, a documentary fest and a horror movie festival: The culmination of a month of fests run by Atlanta’s Festival League. There’s tons of short films, documentaries, features and more.
There’s lots of great stuff to recommend, too. On the last night of the fest, there will be a screening of Chris Hansen‘s second feature film, Endings, which tells the touching story of three people spending their last day on Earth together. The film was reviewed on Bad Lit a few months ago. On the short film front, there’s Loretta Hintz‘s wild lesbian bestiality (sort of) tale, The Sheep and the Ranch Hand and two films by the perpetually awesome Neil Ira Needleman, Meeskit...
There’s lots of great stuff to recommend, too. On the last night of the fest, there will be a screening of Chris Hansen‘s second feature film, Endings, which tells the touching story of three people spending their last day on Earth together. The film was reviewed on Bad Lit a few months ago. On the short film front, there’s Loretta Hintz‘s wild lesbian bestiality (sort of) tale, The Sheep and the Ranch Hand and two films by the perpetually awesome Neil Ira Needleman, Meeskit...
- 8/18/2010
- by Mike Everleth
- Underground Film Journal
First, my apologies. I’m starting out with a completely self-serving internal link: I created an Underground Film Resource Center page with links to all the different resources I have for underground filmmakers and fans alike on Bad Lit: Film festivals, films, filmmakers, theaters, distributors, websites, the timeline, and more. I have a few ideas of more resources to launch in the future, too. Distributor Channel Midnight has announced that Nathan Wrann’s Burning Inside is now available as an app for the iPhone, iPad and iTouch. I’m not posting this link so much as to promote this particular film — although I highly recommend it — but because I don’t see announcements like this very much. How much underground content is available on iTunes? When I look: Nothing. Well, now there’s this. I want to read more announcements like this in the future. The Rome News-Tribune has an...
- 7/11/2010
- by Mike Everleth
- Underground Film Journal
One of the interesting things about doing these links posts every week is finding the vague, synchronous connections between many of the entries. It’s usually not obvious, and definitely never planned. But, like with this week, there was a real “back to nature” theme between many of the posts, e.g. lots of pictures of trees, an “onion” city festival, a landscape film installation and others. It’s kind of weird when that happens.
donna k. put up a brief note about Brent Green‘s live performance of Gravity Was Everywhere Back Then at L.A.’s Hammer Museum on June 15. I was there and it was indeed a wonderful event. Even nicer was my opportunity to finally meet Brent and Donna in person after the show. Good folks. And if the roadshow comes to your town: Go! The Chicago Tribune wrote up a little preview of the Onion...
donna k. put up a brief note about Brent Green‘s live performance of Gravity Was Everywhere Back Then at L.A.’s Hammer Museum on June 15. I was there and it was indeed a wonderful event. Even nicer was my opportunity to finally meet Brent and Donna in person after the show. Good folks. And if the roadshow comes to your town: Go! The Chicago Tribune wrote up a little preview of the Onion...
- 6/20/2010
- by Mike Everleth
- Underground Film Journal
Filmmaker Chris Hansen’s first feature film, the comedy The Proper Care & Feeding of an American Messiah is finally available to watch in full online. That’s it embedded above. It’s the tender tale of a crusty Messiah looking to earn a little respect. No, he’s not “the” Messiah. He’s just a good, dependable regional Messiah — and that doesn’t make him any less special.
I originally reviewed the film way back in 2006, back when Bad Lit was just finding its underground sea legs. I thought it was a funny film then and it’s really kind of stuck with me ever since. A lot of that is due to the great premise of the film devised by Hansen and the many terrific set-ups and jokes that he develops out of his concept. While Hansen is clearly satirizing televangelist charlatans and their ilk, the film is more...
I originally reviewed the film way back in 2006, back when Bad Lit was just finding its underground sea legs. I thought it was a funny film then and it’s really kind of stuck with me ever since. A lot of that is due to the great premise of the film devised by Hansen and the many terrific set-ups and jokes that he develops out of his concept. While Hansen is clearly satirizing televangelist charlatans and their ilk, the film is more...
- 5/23/2010
- by Mike Everleth
- Underground Film Journal
A collision course with death proves to be a pleasant journey in Chris Hansen’s second feature film, Endings.
Previously, Hansen has directed two comedies — the feature-length The Proper Care and Feeding of an American Messiah and the featurette Clean Freak — but here he slides comfortably into dramatic territory with the tale of a young girl, Emmy (Emma Hansen), a middle-aged mother, Adonna (Ellen Dolan) and a drug addict, Chris (Matthew Brumlow) who all meet on what each of them think is their last day on Earth.
What sounds like a potentially schmaltzy premise is actually handled with a very low-key approach that successfully confounds expectations. There are two main saving graces to the film:
One is that from the outset, Hansen never tips his hand as to what kind of movie this exactly is. Meaning, that most films in which the audience is told in the beginning that a key player,...
Previously, Hansen has directed two comedies — the feature-length The Proper Care and Feeding of an American Messiah and the featurette Clean Freak — but here he slides comfortably into dramatic territory with the tale of a young girl, Emmy (Emma Hansen), a middle-aged mother, Adonna (Ellen Dolan) and a drug addict, Chris (Matthew Brumlow) who all meet on what each of them think is their last day on Earth.
What sounds like a potentially schmaltzy premise is actually handled with a very low-key approach that successfully confounds expectations. There are two main saving graces to the film:
One is that from the outset, Hansen never tips his hand as to what kind of movie this exactly is. Meaning, that most films in which the audience is told in the beginning that a key player,...
- 5/12/2010
- by Mike Everleth
- Underground Film Journal
Filmmaker Chris Hansen has finally put his entire personal confession documentary Clean Freak online. That’s it embedded above and it runs about a half-hour. In the film, Hansen lays bare his neurotic obsession with cleanliness and order, which isn’t always appreciated by his loved ones. It’s an amusing, funny short film, but succeeds more with its naked honesty — an honesty that’s still very apparent when the documentary starts to veer into fictional territory.
Clean Freak is Hansen’s follow-up film to his first feature, The Proper Care & Feeding of an American Messiah, a tremendously funny mockumentary that’s available on DVD. I’ve reviewed both films on Bad Lit, but here’s an excerpt from my review of Clean Freak, where I discuss Hansen’s approach to humor:
Hansen has proved to be a master of the subtle gag. The jokes come in organically through the...
Clean Freak is Hansen’s follow-up film to his first feature, The Proper Care & Feeding of an American Messiah, a tremendously funny mockumentary that’s available on DVD. I’ve reviewed both films on Bad Lit, but here’s an excerpt from my review of Clean Freak, where I discuss Hansen’s approach to humor:
Hansen has proved to be a master of the subtle gag. The jokes come in organically through the...
- 12/30/2009
- by Mike Everleth
- Underground Film Journal
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