Producer Profile: LACE CRATER's Joe Swanberg

Joe Swanberg is well known for being one of our Vanguard Mascot contenders, but he is also well known for his micro-budget filmmaking style. Nearly every film he has directed has been produced by himself, but he has also produced a few films he did not direct, including this year's Lace Crater in the Vanguard program. Below are just of a few of the many films Joe has produced, some of which you may not have heard of.

In 2009, Joe produced his wife Kris Swanberg's film It Was Great, But I Was Ready to Come Home. The film, which selected for SXSW 2009, follows Cam (Jade Healy) and Annie (Kris Swanberg) on a trip through Costa Rica. The film is currently available to rent or buy via Vimeo.

2011's Fantasia festival saw TIFF favourites Adam Wingard and Simon Barrett (A Horrible Way to Die, You're Next, The Guest) screen the Swanberg produced film What Fun We Were Having. The film is an anthology of short films about date rape, and not much is known about it beyond the reviews out of Fantasia. Joe Swanberg does however star in the fourth story in the anthology as a young man who, while under the influence, makes the biggest mistake of his life with his roommate's sister.

Queen of the Earth is a film by Alex Ross Perry that premiered at the Berlin International Film Festival this past February. Released by IFC Films in August, the film stars Katerine Waterston and Elisabeth Moss as two women that grew up together that discover they have drifted apart while at a lake house retreat.

Further information about Lace Crater can be found on the Festival website, as well as on the film's Facebook page and director Harrison Atkins' website.

LACE CRATER Screening Times:

Sun. Sept 20, 3:15PM SCOTIABANK 9

LACE CRATER and Other Ghostly Sexual Encounters

Lace Crater follows the story of Ruth (Lindsay Burdge), an awkward twenty something that begins to experience strange physical changes after a weekend tryst with a ghost. The phenomenon of sexual encounters between ghosts and humans is called spectrophilia, and there are some films that have explored this phenomenon in the past. While not exactly a trope explored often, the relationship between humans and ghosts is one that can produce either romantic or terrifying outcomes.

Ghost (1990) is perhaps the most famous example of a romantic haunting. While no actual human-ghost sexual encounter occurs in the film - the famous pottery scene occurs at the beginning of the film - Sam Wheat's (Patrick Swayze) love for Molly Jensen (Demi Moore) is so strong that he watches after her to protect her after his murder.

The Entity (1981) is a film that is the exact opposite of a romantic haunting, and Martin Scorsese considers it one of the scariest horror movies of all time. The film stars Barbara Hershey as a woman who is tormented and sexually abused by a ghost. The film is based off the story of Doris Bither, a woman who in 1974 told Culver City, California police that she was raped by invisible assailants.

Last year's hit Midnight Madness film It Follows (2014) doesn't feature a human-ghost sexual encounter, but it does feature something arguably scarier - a sexually transmitted poltergeist as programmer Colin Geddes put it in last year's programming notes. The film follows Jay (Maika Monroe) as she confronts a murderous entity visible only to her after having sex with a new boy she has been seeing.

 

Further information about Lace Crater can be found on the Festival website, as well as on the film's Facebook page and director Harrison Atikins' website.

LACE CRATER Screening Times:

Tue. Sept 15, 9:30PM SCOTIABANK 10

Thu. Sept 17, 9:30PM SCOTIABANK 14

Sun. Sept 20, 3:15PM SCOTIABANK 9

LACE CRATER: The Short Films of Harrison Atkins

Harrison Atkins is making his feature film debut with the world premiere of Lace Crater, but before directing the horror-comedy-drama, he helmed a few short films that have been uploaded in full on his Vimeo page. The first one we'll look at is an animated short called Catsleeves from 2010, which has a surprisingly literal take on the title.

The second is Chocolate Heart, which opens with the protagonists' parents turning into cats. If that doesn't draw you in, perhaps the talking toilet will. It really does need to be seen to be believed. Chocolate Heart was a hit at several festivals last year and this year and was also featured on ShortOfTheWeek.com.

Harrison's most recent short is Blissful Banquet, which was a Vimeo Staff Pick and won the Grand Jury Prize at the Oak Cliff Film Festival this year.

Further information about Lace Crater can be found on the Festival website, as well as on the film's Facebook page and director Harrison Atikins' website.

LACE CRATER Screening Times:
Tue. Sept 15, 9:30PM SCOTIABANK 10
Thu. Sept 17, 9:30PM SCOTIABANK 14
Sun. Sept 20, 3:15PM SCOTIABANK 9