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Pour le lundi de Pâques,
À la demande générale P572 et 7981 représentent Lowlife le film de SETH SMITH au Sous Sol du Cercle le lundi 1e avril 2012 à 20h00. 5$
Poisson, drogue et nature.

LOWLIFE (V.O.A) 99 Minutes

Premier long métrage du chanteur du groupe DOGDAY d'Halifax. Le film explore l'idée d'une drogue vivante et de l’isolation de façon poétique et surréaliste en noir et blanc. Inspiré par le travaille de Cronenberg dans Naked Lunch ou David Lynch dans ses débuts.

SYNOPSIS
Asa est un « lowlife », un raté au tempérament anarchique qui écume ses jours à coups de drogues dures. Son existence n’est qu’une longue errance entre sa maison miteuse, la ville où il réside et le lieu où il déniche les substances illicites qui lui procurent un réconfort éphémère. Musicien à ses heures, sa route croise celle d’une tromboniste nommée Elle. N’ayant nulle part où aller, la jeune fille échoue chez Asa qui lui impose son rythme de vie. Ensemble, ils se défoncent à l’aide de substances aux propriétés hallucinogènes que sécrètent des étoiles de mer. La consommation accrue de ces stupéfiants altère sournoisement la réalité des deux amants. Bientôt, le quotidien morose d’Asa et Elle bascule vers un enfer peuplé de démons malfaisants et de créatures étranges. Observés par un chien qui prétend être un dieu, ils se voient malgré eux prisonniers d’un sinistre complot qui les mènera vers une île mystérieuse. Les choses deviennent alors de plus en plus bizarres, mais vous n’avez aucune idée à quel point…

"A shiver-inducing… mudsploitation flick" - Weird Canada
"Lowlife is the feel-bad hit of 2012" - Vice: Noisey
"A hefty dose of horrific imagery and surrealism" - Beyond Hollywood

www.lowlife-movie.com
www.facebook.com/lowlifemovie

www.p572.com
https://www.facebook.com/7981theatre


BACKGROUND
The concept for Lowlife arose in early 2010 when Seth Smith and Darcy Spidle dreamt up a short film called Mantrap. It had a simple plot: a drug addict's rehabilitation in the unforgiving northern wilds. After months of development, the film morphed into the feature Lowlife. Many elements remained the same, however. Spidle, Smith, and the latter’s partner Nancy Urich had all moved to the country in recent years, so much of the action would take place in the forest and around the sea. The natural world seemed like an ideal place to play out Smith’s surrealist visions of mud creatures, human deformation, slug drugs, and a godly dog. And yes, drugs would be a central theme. Instead of the typical junkie tale, however, Lowlife would explore strange new relationships between ‘living’ drugs and their users. Lowlife emerges as a darkly thoughtful, highly inventive creation, strikingly contemporary in its use of new 3D techniques and a non-linear timeline, but the film also remains aware of its indebtedness to key classics. noir are also utilized, and to create the alluring sense of mystery that provides Lowlife with its main hook, inspiration was drawn from Hitchcock and early Polanski films, especially for ideas concerning tension, plot development, and the use of lighting and camera angles. Of course, no one involved had any money or movie gear to get things started, so they had to beg and borrow. Mike Clattenburg would make the most significant contribution, lending the production the HDV camera he used to film Trailer Park Boys. This ended up being just enough to get filming underway. But with a crew of only a few people, the work was punishing. The crew hung from trees, buried cameras in animal dens, stole canoes, trespassed, ingested bizarre concoctions, scaled cliffs carrying bodies, and waded through icy bogs. Production would happen in three to four day intensive sessions where the crew would work 16-18 hours a day. Someone always went home bruised and ill. After one notorious session, Kate Hartigan (Elle) even suffered a broken nose and the onset of hypothermia. The production took on a vibrant life of its own, with the story developing as opportunities and ideas presented themselves. Elle and Asa would spend days in character, often covered in slime and soaked from the spring forest, allowing real emotion and discomfort to guide their performances on camera. All the while, Smith was spiraling deep into the fantasy world he had created, spending sleepless nights crafting creatures and painfully contorted costumes out of latex, foam, plaster, and wire. Although this guerrilla method of filming kept costs low and imbued Lowlife with a unique aesthetic, the production was physically, emotionally, and financially taxing. Every week the crew would scrape together their cash to pay for film equipment, props, tape, rentals, gas, and food. And of course, many unpaid months were spent in post-production editing and scoring the film. For the crew, Lowlife became life. The production turned into an obsession that often meant the sacrifice of family, friends, and other projects. However, this kind of dedication to a vision often leads to the most sincere and gripping works of art—the result of a rare, real world sensitivity often lost to the trappings of more commercial productions.

BIOGRAPHIES
SETH SMITH (DIRECTOR / PRODUCER / WRITER)
Seth Smith is the director, co-writer, editor, creature designer, and overall visionary of Lowlife. He also played a big role in creating the soundtrack, scoring parts of the film using sheet metal and a borrowed tuba. Be it for the gloomy pop sensibilities of his band DOG DAY or his otherworldly YORODEO 3D screenprints making the rounds at Canadian galleries these days, Smith has acquired a reputation for producing cutting-edge works of art that champion a weird-o vision of the universe. He began in film by working with cheap handheld cameras, cutting his teeth on short music videos, twisted skits and animations. Following the success of his kaleidoscopic 2009 video Happiness, he was awarded a grant to produce a fantasy short entitle ROME. Lowlife is his first feature film.

FILMOGRAPHY / VIDEOS
PART GIRL (2011)
ROME (2010)
STRAY (2010)
TRANSFORMER (2010)
HAPPINESS (2009)

NANCY URICH (ASSOCIATE PRODUCER)
Nancy, also known for her work in DOG DAY and as owner/operator of FUNDOG, is a producer and administrates the entire operation. She took care of essential tasks like getting waivers signed, securing locations, casting, and pouring hot slime on the talent just before action gets called. She has been involved in most of Smith's previous video and short film productions.

CHIK WHITE / DARCY SPIDLE (ASA / WRITER / ASSOCIATE PRODUCER)
Darcy Spidle (aka Chik White) is the film’s co-writer, dog poet, music supervisor, and plays the character of Asa. Although not usually open with his writing, Darcy has dabbled with prose and poetry for years, authoring manifestos in bathroom stalls and even writing an epic poem about surfing to be read in the event of his death at sea. He also runs DIVORCE, one of Canada’s most longstanding record labels. As for acting, Chik sees little difference between his real life and the story of Asa’s psychic voyage, so the role was a no-brainer.

KATE HARTIGAN (ELLE)
Kate Hartigan plays Elle, the heroine of the film. She was chosen after playing the small role of a ghoulish ghost town villager in Smith's 2010 video short ROME. She is a non-actor (real person) who was plucked from a government job to squirm around in the forest during the coldest Nova Scotian spring in recent memory. She consistently blew the crew away with her appetite for punishment and her passion for the role.

MITCHELL WIEBE (DAMON)
Mitchell plays the role of a deviant, new age slug breeder. His natural quirkiness made him a great fit for the part. He is most widely known for his surrealistic, abstract paintings and drawings. In and out of filming, he actually took up residency in the deepest levels of a military bunker to live as a hermit and hone his craft. A documentary on Mitchell by William Robinson called WIEBE is set for release this fall.
© 2012 fundog

Source :
www.le-cercle.ca/index.php?sectionid=2&page=04&direct=3399&detailclic

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Catégories : Cinéma | Film | Cinéma

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Lieu : Le Cercle
Adresse : 228 Rue Saint-Joseph Est Quebec, QC G1K3A9
Ville : Québec (La Cité-Limoilou)

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