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Independent horror movie Dark Forest, has a new trailer that spotlights both the good and bad comments the movie has received. It is a fun look at the whiplash many independent films see from reviewers and online commenters. The slasher movie is perfect for Halloween, it follows a weekend camping trip that turns into a fight for survival. It was directed by Roger Boyer and stars Stefanie Austin, Genevieve DeGraves, Jalin Desloges, Trevor Kristjanson, and Jesse Laing. Learn more about Dark Forest in our indie film spotlight.

A Legacy of Whining is an independent comedy produced by Maria Munro and written & directed by Ross Munro. Learn more about the movie in our spotlight article: The 5Ws and How: A Legacy of Whining. You can buy the movie over on Amazon or watch for free on Tubi TV.

Earlier this year we had the chance to chat with Laura Sheehy, the co-director/writer and producer of Chasing the Win, a documentary focusing on the world of horse racing.

Chasing The Win

Who?
Chasing the Win is a documentary feature film that follows Carl O’Callaghan, a rookie trainer, Patrick Sheehy, a physician and veteran race horse owner, and their beloved racehorse, Kinsale King. Myself (Laura Sheehy) and my co-collaborator, Chris Ghelfi made the film and Indie Rights released it.

Chasing The Win

What?
Chasing the Win follows the meteoric rise of a rookie trainer, a down on his luck owner, and their imperfect racehorse after an unprecedented victory thrusts them into the global spotlight of horse racing. Success and fame are followed by the hard-hitting reality of what it means to survive in the Sport of Kings.

Chasing The Win

Where?
It takes place at race tracks across America, Dubai and England.

Chasing The Win

When?
Beginning in 2010, we started filming, followed our characters for 1 year, culminating with a big event in the film. Then we edited for many years, all the while seeing if the story we were aiming for had changed or not. We struggled with our cuts and took a long time working on it. We then followed up with more filming 6 years later as we started to get into festivals. We felt there was some footage we needed to update. So we showed our film at 3 festivals, then shot some new footage and updated our ending for the remaining screenings we had. All of this was prior to it’s theatrical screening and release at the end of 2018.

Chasing The Win

Why?
I made this film because I’ve grown up around horse racing and found the world fascinating on so many levels. I had wanted to make a film within that world, but my father always said, “It’s not a good story unless you have a winning horse.” So when Kinsale King and Carl O’Callaghan came along, it was just something special and a friend of mine said, “We should film that.” (“That” being the unprecedented victory at the beginning of the film with Kinsale King in Dubai)

We started following the story after he won in Dubai. But really, at the end of the day my dad has not stopped pursuing his dream all his life and at the age of 71 years old, his dream came true when a beloved racehorse of his won a Grade 1 race in Dubai. This was a 2 million dollar purse. I found that incredibly inspiring. So I wanted to share this story to ultimately inspire others to pursue their dream- whatever it may be. One thing my co-director and I always hoped people got from this movie was that it was NOT about the win, but it is about the chase. Just like life. We really feel this story is a metaphor for life.

Chasing The Win

How?
Audiences can see this film on Amazon, Amazon Prime, Google Play, YouTube Movie Rentals, Roku, iTunes, and Vudu.

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Rows is an independent thriller by David W. Warfield that stars Hannah Bernal, Lauren Lakis, Kenneth Hughes, and Joe Basile. Learn more about the movie in our spotlight article: The 5Ws and How: Rows.

Posted on September 12th, 2018 by MHD | Leave a Comment
Filed Under Entertainment

 

We had the pleasure of talking to David Zellis, the producer and co-writer of the indie horror flick Dark Forest.

Dark Forest

Who?
In 2013 we entered a filmmaking competition in Canada called CineCoup (basically American Idol for filmmakers) we didn’t make it far, but decided to make the movie anyway. We are located in Winnipeg Canada, so we used local talent some who been active in the community for years. The story revolves around four girls going on a camping trip getting away form the group’s psychotic boyfriend.

Dark Forest

What?
It is about a group of friends that go on a camping trip and are terrorized/stalked by one of the group’s jealous and psychotic boyfriend.

Dark Forest

Where?
We never really specify where it takes place, but we filmed in Winnipeg and outside of the city as well. We were very fortunate to have a friend that let us use their property that has a forest directly behind it.

Dark Forest

When?
We made it over the summers of 2013 and 2014. It is not set at any specific time, but it has an atmosphere of feeling like it was made in the eighties. We did a theatrical release ourselves across Western/Central Canada which we are extremely proud of. It outgrossed some high profile government funded films and at the local theatre it played at it was held over for three weeks while outgrossing some of the high profile Hollywood films it was playing alongside. It hit the streaming services in 2016 and was finally released on Blu-Ray/DVD on February 13th.

Dark Forest

Why?
Good question. In Canada, the system is very much government funded which although seems and can sometimes be a good idea, it unfortunately causes more problems then it solves. So we wanted to make a feature on our own terms and this is the end result.

Dark Forest

How?
It is available on a number of streaming services (links below). For horror fans that prefer the physical medium, they can officially get a copy on Blu-Ray/DVD on Amazon.com and at independent retailers across Canada.

Buy or Rent:


Odd Brodsky is a quirky comedy about a woman who quits her job to break into Hollywood. Check out all all of our coverage on the feature here. Directed by Cindy Baer and starring Tegan Ashton Cohan, Ilana Klusky, Matthew Kevin Anderson, and Scotty Dickert. You can watch the flick for free on Amazon Prime.