From:               STONY BROOK UNIVERSITY

 

Contact:           Dan Klores Communications                             Julie Rulon Greene       

Bruce Bobbins / Danielle Kimiatek                    Stony Brook Film Festival

                        (212) 981-5190 / (212) 981-5116                   (631) 632- 7233

 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

________________________________________________________________________

 

14th Annual Stony Brook Film Festival July 23 – August 1

Features 4 World Premieres, 3 U.S. Premieres Among 37 Films Selected

 

New York Premiere of The Answer Man with Jeff Daniels and

Lauren Graham to Open Festival

 

June 3, 2009, Stony Brook, NY –Four world premieres, three U.S. premieres, six East Coast premieres and 14 New York premieres will be among the 37 feature and short films from around the world presented during the 14th Annual Stony Brook Film Festival from Thursday, July 23 through Saturday, August 1 at the Staller Center for the Arts at Stony Brook University.

 

More than 15,000 filmgoers are expected to attend during the 10-day festival, which will open with the New York premiere of The Answer Man, starring Jeff Daniels and Lauren Graham.   Written and directed by John Hindman, the comedy from Magnolia Pictures features Daniels as Arlen Faber, a reclusive author of a best-selling spiritual book who is pursued for advice by a single mother and a man fresh out of rehab. Graham (TV’s Gilmore Girls and currently in Broadway’s Guys and Dolls) is the very protective mother, and Lou Taylor Pucci is a bookstore owner.

 

The festival closes with the New York Premiere of The Little Traitor, set in Palestine in 1947, just before Israel becomes a state. Alfred Molina (The DaVinci Code, Spider-Man 2) plays a British officer who finds a little boy out on the street after curfew. The film, from Regent Releasing and based on the novel Panther in the Basement by Amos Oz, explores the unlikely friendship that develops between them. 

 

Other festival highlights include:

 

  • The World Premiere of Tickling Leo, written and directed by Jeremy Davidson,  produced by his wife, the acclaimed actress Mary Stuart Masterson, and starring Eli Wallach, Lawrence Pressman, Daniel Sauli, Annie Parisse, Ronald Guttmann and Victoria Clark.

 

  • Dana Delany (Desperate Housewives), who attended the Stony Brook Film Festival in 2008 when she starred in  John Putch’s Route 30, stars this year in a short film dealing with autism, Flying Lessons. The short, making its New York Premiere, is by Janet Grillo and will be paired with the screening of Tickling Leo.

 

  • The East Coast Premiere of Rosencrantz & Guildenstern is Undead, a vampire comedy with an eccentric cast, and starring Jake Hoffman, son of Dustin, in a story featuring sexy vampires, the Holy Grail and Hamlet. Sean Lennon composed the score for the film, which also stars Devon Aoki, John Ventimiglia, Kris Lemche, Ralph Macchio, Jeremy Sisto, Joey Kern and Waris Ahuwalia.

 

  • The World Premiere of Blindness-Saramago in China, a documentary from China directed by Xilin CHEN that grapples with the concept of intellectual property rights. Blindness tells a story about the adaptation of Jose Saramago’s Nobel Prize winning book by the same name into a play. It vividly transports the viewer to Beijing, to rehearsals by a professional theatre company, and into the negotiations going on between the play’s producer and the writer’s representative.

 

  • The World Premiere of Life is a Banquet, which filmmaker Jonathan Gruber says is the first ever about actress and entertainment giant Rosalind Russell. Using words taken from Ms. Russell’s autobiography, the film’s narration is by acclaimed actress Kathleen Turner.

 

  • The World Premiere of Whales, from the U.S.

 

  • The U.S. Premieres of Adam’s Wall, from Canada; Family Rules, from Germany; and Country Wedding, from Iceland

 

  • The East Coast Premieres of The Anarchist’s Wife, from Germany/Spain/France, The Missing Person, from U.S. and starring Michael Shannon, Frank Wood, Amy Ryan, Linda Emond, and John Ventimiglia; Bowled Over, from The Netherlands; The Maiden and the Wolves, from France; The Friend, from Switzerland

 

  • The New York Premieres of Like Dandelion Dust, from the U.S., with Mira Sorvino and Barry Pepper; Interpretation, from the U.S.; True Beauty This Night, from the U.S.; Light Bulb, from the U.S., with Dallas Roberts, Jeremy Renner, and Ayelet Zurer; The Gold Lunch, from the U.S.; In the Dark, from the U.S.; Adopt a Sailor, from the U.S., with Bebe Neuwirth, Peter Coyote, and Ethan Peck; After the Storm, from the U.S.; The Painter of Skies, from Spain; The Fairy Princess, from the U.S.; and On the Road to Tel-Aviv, from Israel.

 

For a complete schedule, and film passes, visit www.stonybrookfilmfestival.com or call the Staller Center Box Office, 631-632- ARTS [2787]. Tickets to parties and receptions are also available. Individual movie tickets go on sale July 13. 

 

Presenting sponsors of the Stony Brook Film Festival are HBO, Suffolk County, Teachers Federal Credit Union, The Village Voice and WALK 97.5 Radio.

 

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