FILM FESTIVAL NEWS: Dorie Barton ‘s GIRL FLU Opens the Ohio-based Inside the Loop Film Festival announces lineup for the fest’s debut in October

Dorie Barton ‘s GIRL FLU Opens the Ohio-based Inside the Loop Film Festival; announces lineup for the fest’s debut in October

The Inside the Loop Film Festival today announced the official selections for its debut, which will take place at the Sharonville Cultural Center in Sharonville, Ohio on October 6-8.

Dorie Barton ‘s GIRL FLU Opens the Ohio-based Inside the Loop Film Festival

Inside the Loop will open with Dorie Barton’s award-winning comedy GIRL FLU, close with Ben Bacharach-White’s music comedy MOCK AND ROLL, and will include a meet-and-greet and “Conversation on Hollywood” with “Young & the Restless” star Daniel Goddard, among an exciting three-day weekend in October including a total of 7 feature-length films and 22 short films.

Inside the Loop Executive Directors Lana Read and Nancy Pushkar, said, “It’s exciting to bring outstanding independent films from around the country – and even the world, together with the best work that Ohio filmmakers have created over the past year. We hoped to achieve a careful balance of promoting our local filmmakers at the same time that we introduced local film fans and aspiring filmmakers to great indie filmmaking they might not see otherwise, as well as meet the filmmakers and actors responsible for those films. The schedule is jam-packed for film lovers that are hungry for more than they can get at the multiplex.”

Dorie Barton ‘s GIRL FLU opens Loop Film Festival among film lineup

Barton’s GIRL FLU caps an impressive film festival tour screening as Inside the Loop’s first Opening Night selection. Starring Katee Sackhoff, Jade Pettyjohn, Jeremy Sisto, and Heather Matarazzo, the film has been a festival hit, screening at numerous fests across the country and winning Audience Awards at the Florida Film Festival, and the Nashville Film Festival, with “Best Director” nods at La Femme and Nashville, as well as taking “Best of the Fest” at the Alexandria Film Festival. The film focuses on a young girl going through the worst week of her life – she gets her first period, is ditched by her impulsive, free spirited mom, and learns that you can never really go back to the Valley.

Barton is scheduled to attend the screening and participate in a post-screening Q&A.

Loop Film Festival Closing Night

The Closing Night selection, Bacharach-White’s MOCK AND ROLL, received nominations in almost every category at this year’s Austin Revolution Film Festival. The film follows a fictional band as they plot and scheme their way to what they hope will be fame and fortune – winding up at SXSW, which may be the culmination of their dreams or the nadir of their young lives.

Daniel Goddard will attend Inside the Loop as a special guest this year. For the past ten years, he has thrilled daytime drama audiences with his performance as ‘Cane Ashby’ in “The Young and the Restless.” Previously, Goddard became known to a wide audience with his role in the internationally syndicated series “BeastMaster.” Notable film credits include IMMORTALLY YOURS (2009), THE PERFECT SLEEP (2009), AGE OF KALI (2005), DREAM WARRIOR (2003). Goddard has also appeared on the television series, “Wild Card,” “Monk” and “Emily’s Reasons Why Not.” Goddard will participate in special “meet and greet” and autograph signings with fans on Saturday, October 7, before participating in a “Conversation on Hollywood” discussing his career in film and television.

Other feature films among Inside the Loop’s first lineup include; Puja Pandey and Jacob N Stuart’s AN ADDICTING PICTURE, about a man out to prove he’s not an addict after a psychic has determined as much from one photo of him; David Zelina’s COLD WATER about a woman whose life is reaching a critical mass with a tanking job and demanding boyfriend, just as she is forced to spend a week alone with her impossible family at their cabin; Daniel McCormack’s RESPITE CARE, about a home health care worker that must care for a non-verbal stroke patient who had molested her when she was 10-years old; William Gonzalez’s Colombian thriller, SHE, THE SERGEANT MATACHO, about a young peasant girl and mother inspired by wanting vengeance over her husband’s murder, who becomes a rebel leader and warrior; and John Whitney’s THE STREET WHERE WE LIVE, about a single mom with two kids, forced to resort to desperate means while trying to maintain her dignity. in order to provide for her children after her factory job is lost.

Highlights from Inside the Loop’s three shorts programs include a horror shorts package comprised entirely of Ohio-based filmmakers, three short films that were selected from the recently concluded Memphis Film Prize (Will Robbins’s DRIVEN, Tracy S. Facelli’s FAVORITES, and Matteo Servente’s WE GO ON – which ultimately won the competition), and the return to Ohio by Canadian filmmaker, Jonathan Lawrence, with his film BLACKOUT. Lawrence’s previous film, WHEN THE WORLD WAS FLAT, won both a “Best of Fest” and “Best Actor” at the former, Eastgate-based, Helios Film Festival in 2015. Inside the Loop will be awarding $100 cash prizes to both the “Best Feature” and “Best Short” as determined by Read, Pushkar, and Programming Director, Justina Walford.
Sponsored by ArtsWave, the Greater Cincinnati region’s local arts agency and the nation’s first and largest community campaign for the arts, the Inside the Loop Film Festival has also quickly received strong support from top business and industry leaders in the Cincinnati/Sharonville community with an eye toward not simply celebrating film, but also working to encourage more film production and spur additional interest for outside film interests and production companies to look to the area as an attractive location to shoot their films – thus benefitting local businesses and economy.
Passes and tickets to the Inside the Loop Film Festival can be found at http://insidetheloopfilmfestival.com.
 
The 2017 Inside the Loop Film Festival official selections:
OPENING NIGHT SELECTION
GIRL FLU
Director: Dorie Barton
Country: USA, Running Time: 97min
Bird is mature for her age, a thoughtful sixth grader who dreams of doing the grocery shopping so that all food groups are represented, but whose emotional wisdom starts to slip when her body begins to develop. After her first period arrives in an embarrassingly public way, Bird turns to her single mother for guidance; however, her mom is a flighty stoner who finds this milestone just as befuddling as her young daughter. Already frustrated by their recent move to Echo Park from the Valley, Bird wishes everything would start making sense again.
 
CLOSING NIGHT SELECTION
MOCK AND ROLL
Director: Ben Bacharach-White
Country: USA, Running Time: 95min
When a clueless parody band sets out to make it on stage at SXSW, their plan is interrupted, putting their music careers — and lives — in jeopardy.
 

AN ADDDICTING PICTURE
Directors: Puja Pandey, Jacob N Stuart
Country: USA, Running Time: 70min
A man must prove he’s not an addict after a psychic tells his fiancé not to marry him, all because of one picture. All Andy has to do is get his fiance’s sister, Kathy, to approve the wedding, and they can get happily married. But there is only one problem: Kathy thinks Andy is a gambler, alcoholic, womanizer, and chain-smoker. However, Kathy, up until now, has never met Andy. She came up with this quick assumption by viewing Andy’s online dating profile photo. So there is only one thing left to do: they must meet at her “office”, and get to the bottom of these accusations.  But since Kathy is a full-time psychic, their conversation gets interrupted with her eccentric, and downright chilling, clients.
 
COLD WATER
Director: David Zelina
Country: USA, Running Time: 95min
Things are not going well for Alice Fuller.  She is thirty-two years old with no marketable skills and no friends, her catering business is tanking, she’s freaked out by her boyfriend’s attempts to get closer to her, and now she has to spend a week at a cabin with the last people on earth she wants to see: her family. COLD WATER follows Alice (Amy Shelton-White), her hedonistic mother (Elizabeth White) and underachieving brother (Lee Shelton) as they prepare to say goodbye to the family cabin. Plagued with repressed memories, anger and guilt, Alice finds it impossible to connect with those around her, including her boyfriend, Jake (David Zelina) who is looking to start a family of their own.
 
RESPITE CARE
Director: Daniel McCormack
Country: USA, Running Time: 90min
Ashley, a home health care worker in her 20’s, gets a job caring for Leonard, a non-verbal stroke patient who had molested Ashley when she was 10-years old.
 
SHE, THE SERGEANT MATACHO
Director: William Gonzalez
Country: Colombia, Running Time: 90min
A 24-year-old peasant and mother of a female child falls in with a rebel army following the murder of her husband. The young lady, known as “la Mona”, with a desire for revenge, starts up a criminal life which eventually leads her to ascend through the ranks over the years, until she becomes a leader and commander among the men fighting for survival.
 

THE STREET WHERE WE LIVE
Director: John Whitney
Country: USA, Running Time: 100min
“I’m just two paychecks away from being on the street.” In the aftermath of the nation’s financial crisis, Mary, a single mom with two kids, finds herself faced with that exact situation when the factory where she works closes their doors for good. Providing for her children and keeping the family together, while also maintaining some form of dignity in the process, proves to be the hardest job that Mary will ever have.
 
SHORTS BLOCK #1 (TRT: 88min)

BLACKOUT
Director: Jonathan Lawrence
Country: Canada, Running Time: 14:59min
Two brothers hold an intervention for their alcoholic mother and discover they may be standing in each others way more than her addiction.
 
DOWN & DIRTY
Director: Ori Segev
Country: USA, Running Time: 13:34min
Down & Dirty follows the three-part music group, New Thousand, as they travel and perform around New Orleans, shedding light on street performance and busking culture of the rich and historic city. From street corner politics to vibrant live concert footage, Down & Dirty captures the spirit of New Orleans street performance through the eyes of a band that risked everything for their musical dreams. To survive and thrive in the streets, getting down and dirty is the only option.
 
DRIVEN
Director: Will Robbins
Country: USA, Running Time: 10:59min
A husband only dreams of his wife’s possible infidelity, but his dreams suddenly drive his reality.
 

FAVORITES
Director: Tracy S. Facelli
Country: USA, Running Time: 17:24min
After his wife’s death, a grieving man learns her last act was to make his favorite dessert.
 
THE GIFT OF THE MAGPIE
Director: Anita George
Country: USA, Running Time: 10:47min
It’s carpe diem for a couple of small time grifters on Christmas Eve 1934. Starring Helen Slayton-Hughes (“Parks and Recreation”) Milton Severe, Adam Osterhaus and Pamela Forrest.
 
HERBERT, MOM AND ME
Director: Olga Wagner
Country: USA, Running Time: 8:03min
Even decades after his death, a cult leader still has an effect on those who used to believe.
 

WE GO ON
Director: Matteo Servente
Country: USA, Running Time: 12:30min
Holbert and Phil, two old gents whose numbers have been called up yonder, are in hospice care, Their conversations ricochet around like a shootout in a fantasy factory, as they both relish the last communication left to them.
 
SHORTS BLOCK #2 (TRT: 86min)

ALL AT ONCE
Director: Jack Campise
Country: USA, Running Time: 32:18min
Intent on winning his girlfriend back, a lonely teenager prepares for a music competition despite her constant rejection.
 
ANNIE WAITS
Director: Marnie Paxton-Harris
Country: UK, Running Time: 8:56min
Based on, you know – life.  We’ve all waited for ‘the one’. The one who catches our eye, the one who keeps our interest, the one who won’t expect us to trudge down that conventional path. Annie Waits tells the story of lust and disappointment, as a twenty-something waits for her adult life to begin.
 
HELL IS WARM (THE SIDEKICKS)
Director: Jason Shea
Country: USA, Running Time: 3:15min
Music video of the song, “Hell is Warm” by The Sidekicks, from their album “Runners In The Nerved World ” off of Epitaph Records. Hell wakes up in a mysterious place. As she wanders about, Hell is looked upon differently, teased and doesn’t understand why she is always surrounded by such negativity. Hell, unlike her other demon siblings is different – she can only create fire through compassion. So now Hell travels this new world in hopes of finding some sort of kindness.
 

MELTING POT
Director: KC Allen
Country: USA, Running Time: 11:49min
When a widower falls in love with a younger woman, the only thing standing in the way of true happiness is a loving family.
 
TEXTING: A LOVE STORY
Director: Jeanette L. Buck
Country: USA, Running Time: 7:53min
A short, awkward romantic comedy about love, intimacy, and connection in the digital age.
 

Dorie Barton GIRL FLU among Loop Film Festival lineup

THIS IS THAT NIGHT
Director: Matt Braunsdorf
Country: USA, Running Time: 13:30min
A fourth date couldn’t be going better, but when one of the parties points that out the self-awareness sets in and all bets are off.
 
WE’RE HERE NOW
Directors: Gregory Kennedy, Chad Wyckoff
Country: USA, Running Time: 8:35min
Recently dumped New York columnist and relationship advisor Chad Buchanan takes a third-rate job in Ohio to escape his seemingly miserable life. But when his two best friends – a controlling socialite and NY’s most eligible nympho – learn of his location, they assume the worst and take off for parts unknown to rescue their friend from what they assume to be a nervous breakdown.
 
HORROR SHORTS (TRT: 66min)
ARACHNOID
Director: John Maslowski
Country: USA, Running Time: :50min
A giant spider lurks in the forest.
 

CLAYMATION ZOMBIES
Director: Jake Jolley
Country: USA, Running Time: 15min
Everything seems to be normal on free Comic book day until an absent minded professor sends the town into chaos. Things will never be the same, and trust me, if you touch the clay, you’re going to have a bad day!
 
ELLY
Director: Jeff Seemann
Country: USA, Running Time: 9:14min
Elly Albers, a shy college sophomore, decides to take part in a found-footage film. She quickly realizes that she has signed up for more than she can handle.
 

MENTAL STATE: REVELATION
Director: Chris Page
Country: USA, Running Time: 13min
A young girl is having nightmares about strange men cooking her into tea. Everything goes crazy when she finds out its real! This action packed thriller takes the viewer into the life of Sarah, a young teenager facing incredible horror and torture. The young girl is forced into action when her sister Jaden begins suffering the same fate.
 
SHADOW CREATURE
Director: Danny Kazee
Country: USA, Running Time: 2:53min
Strange knocks sound on a Man’s door. When he investigates he finds the unimaginable.
 

SILENT RING
Directors: Kent Meloy, Jeff Bentle
Country: USA, Running Time: 18:13min
A man who finally gives in and buys his first mobile phone finds himself haunted by a memory he can’t quite recall.
 
SKATE TILL YOU BREAK
Director: Diane Hoffman
Country: USA, Running Time: 8:40min
Julie embarks on a journey to prove to her husband she has what it takes to get a new toaster by entering a dance competition. Will she win, or will she be defeated by the vampire clone of Russian choreographer Vaslav Nijinsky?

Dorie Barton ‘s GIRL FLU Opens the Ohio-based Inside the Loop Film Festival; announces lineup for the fest’s debut in October