Feature
PLAY MOVIE (please click here)
When a beautiful woman and her mysterious husband move into the tight-knit community of Blackwood Falls a terrible crime unleashes a wave of occult-themed murders that threatens to overwhelm the whole town.
In 1983, film student Rich Murray was handed $20,000 in a brown paper bag by a hustler named 'Butch.' These were the funds he used to direct his first music video for a local Philly rocker named Alan Mann. That video for the song “Christmas on the Block”, went on to become the first and perhaps only video by an unsigned artist to play on regular rotation on MTV. Using “Christmas on the Block” as a framing device, Murray illuminates Mann’s larger story - and how he could have, should of and almost did make it, but didn’t because of his excesses, and a tragic accidental death. The film also turns the lens sharply on the film’s director (Murray) and how his own excesses might have resulted in the same tragic trajectory, that but for wisdom and luck, did not.
"The Last Message" plunges the audience into the heart of a remote village in southern Iran, focusing on a woman whose life is dictated by deeply ingrained traditions and the subtle yet powerful pressures of her community. She finds herself at a critical juncture, burdened by a secret and the daunting prospect of a life-altering decision. The film meticulously crafts an atmosphere of profound silence, mirroring the protagonist's emotional isolation and her inability to articulate her inner turmoil. As she grapples with the expectations of her family and the rigid social fabric of the village, her every gesture and glance becomes a testament to her inner strength and resilience. The narrative eschews overt drama for a more introspective exploration of her emotional landscape. The film observes her quiet resistance, her unspoken hopes, and the immense courage required to confront a path that diverges from the prescribed one. "The Last Message" is a deeply human story about the weight of tradition, the courage of conviction, and the enduring power of the female spirit in the face of overwhelming odds.
Brothers Mic & Jim Conway have been playing music since school days, when they started the Jellybean Jug Band together, which subsequently morphed into the Captain Matchbox Whoopee Band. In the early 1970s Captain Matchbox were a tearaway success with old 1920s/30s tunes such as My Canary Has Circles Under His Eyes and comical tunes of their own, like Wangaratta Wahine. Mic loves visual entertainment and vaudeville, and creating instruments out of anything to hand. He has been in countless band line-ups over the last 40 years, and they all demonstrate his unique vision of performance, circus and vaudeville. Jim on the other hand is a natural musician and a blues one at that. He found his instrument early on in Captain Matchbox with the harmonica, proceeding to become one of Australia’s foremost blues harp players. As has been said of them, the brothers make sibling rivalry an art form, but they are also very close. At the age of 30 Jim was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis (MS), and this has gradually progressed over the last 40 years to the point where Jim is now virtually quadriplegic and can no longer play harmonica. Jim is married and Mic has his own family, but they have remained side by side through the years.
The film The Card Players is a free adaptation of the series of works by the French painter Paul Cézanne, bearing the same name. It consists of four episodes—Venus, Grafting the Vine, Grapes, and Bitter Wine—each with a different story.
In the episode Venus, symbolized by Diamonds, the main character has a deep connection with objects. Therefore, this episode places greater emphasis on objects. The main character is inspired by the standing café owner in Paul Cézanne’s painting The Card Players.
The episode Grafting the Vine, symbolized by Clubs, tells the story of a painter who portrays a woman in a garden. This episode emphasizes plants, and the main character is inspired by the figure on the right in Paul Cézanne’s painting The Card Players.
In the episode Grapes, symbolized by Spades, we see a young man living with several cats. The focus of this episode is on animals. The young man intends to make a change in his life of crime—not by abandoning it, but by committing crimes independently. This episode is inspired by the man on the left in Paul Cézanne’s painting The Card Players.
In the episode Bitter Wine, which follows Grafting the Vine and Grapes, we witness the brief companionship of two strangers. One is a man, an art dealer specializing in unknown painters, and the other is a woman, who previously appeared as a model in Grafting the Vine. The female character is inspired by the woman behind the two card players in Paul Cézanne’s painting The Card Players.
Symbolized by Hearts, this episode draws inspiration from the central figure in the painting. The two characters become travel companions for less than an hour.
