alison
Category: Narrative Feature - OFFICIAL SELECTION
Year: 2009
Run Time: 87:00
Director/Producer: Paul Schattel
Writers: Paul Schattel and the ALISON cast
Cast: Lauren Fortuna, Jessica Bachar, Tom Chalmers, Savanna James, David MacDonald, Bryan Marshall, Cody Magouirck, Jessica Tomasin
ALISON is a bracingly honest independent film about a 30-something pregnant woman who begins to sense that something is wrong – with her life, with her marriage, with herself. Told in a prismatic, non-linear style, the movie follows Alison as she tries to make sense of her impending condition: She abandons her husband and moves into a derelict motel hoping to find some sense of where she’s headed, and why she’s been where she been. In this way, she struggles to work out the all-too-slight difference between self-discovery and self-destruction. In the end, Alison is a touching and heart-breakingly honest homage to personal freedom at any cost.
Mostly improvised, and captured in a quick storm of spontaneity in and around the Asheville (North Carolina) area, the movie was realized without an actual shooting script, the filmmakers feeling their way through the collaborative process, trusting their instincts and allowing the story to sometimes shape itself.
“You can only use this risky method with terrific actors. Giving an actor that much room and trust means that that actor is making countless decisions on his own at any given moment. But if you’re lucky enough to find a Lauren Fortuna or a David MacDonald or a Bryan Marshall, actors who can literally run with a scene and create authentic human moments, you might capture something sort of incredible. I think we did.”
--Paul Schattel (director)
"... a thoughtful and darkly compelling portrait of a woman in crisis -- beautifully photographed, bravely acted, and told with a raw, unerring honesty."
--The Mountain Express
Awards: Best Director, Best Screenplay, and Best Actress, Los Angeles International Film Festival; Best Experimental Feature, The Indie Gathering and Jamfest Indie Film Festival
ARKANSAS PREMIERE!
