Two recent articles in the New York Times caught my eye. Michelle Orange’s pieceabout Lynn Shelton’s film HUMPDAY,“She’s a Director Who’s Just another Dude” and “Action!” Manohla Dargis’s profile of Kathryn Bigelow and her film THE HURT LOCKER. Both articles made much of the fact that these female directors are working with male stories and male actors. Dargis describes how Bigelow “steered clear of the industry ghetto to which female directors are usually consigned, bypassing the dreaded chick flick for stories and archetypes traditionally if reductively seen as the province of men.” Orange quoted one of HUMPDAY’s actors Mark Duplass who described “…her greater affinity for men”: “You know those girls who are closer with dudes, in general? She’s got a little bit of that going on, so that obviously plays into it.”
Is it just me… or does this is all feel a bit grating that at this point in time when a female filmmaker makes a good film, the angle of the story still ends up being about how she’s not a guy?
Magnolia Pictures has spent mid-six figures for worldwide rights to Lynn Shelton’s HUMPDAY. The lo-fi buddy comedy attracted six offers and a protracted bidding war.
Film stars Mark Duplass and Joshua Leonard as two straight best friends who decide to film themselves having sex for an art project. Pic preemed Friday in the Sundance Film Festival’s competition section.
An unorthodox release plan will see Magnolia launch the pic on VOD before an August theatrical opening, much like their release of the crime pic “Flawless” starring Demi Moore.
The company plans to sell international rights.
The deal was negotiated by Josh Braun and Kevin Iwashina of Submarine on behalf of the filmmakers with Tom Quinn and Eamonn Bowles from Magnolia Pictures.
