Chicago – The 30th edition of the Chicago Underground Film Festival continues with the documentary “Sweetheart Deal,” co-directed by Elisa Levine and Gabriel Miller, which will screen on Friday, September 15th (9pm) and Sunday, September 17th (3pm) at Harper Theatre in the Hyde Park neighborhood of Chicago. For details and ticket info, click Deal.
Four sex workers in Seattle are caught in the spiral of addiction, and turn to a self-proclaimed healer who offers friendship, refuge and a path to salvation from the streets inside the headquarters of his roadside Rv. But just as they begin to rebuild their lives, a shocking betrayal comes to light that will change them all. Shot in vérité style over several years, “Sweetheart Deal” offers an intimate portrait of hope, heartbreak and resilience on the fringes of modern America.
’Sweetheart Deal,’ Directed by Elisa Levine and Gabriel Miller
Photo credit: CUFF30.org
A global champion of the underground scene,...
Four sex workers in Seattle are caught in the spiral of addiction, and turn to a self-proclaimed healer who offers friendship, refuge and a path to salvation from the streets inside the headquarters of his roadside Rv. But just as they begin to rebuild their lives, a shocking betrayal comes to light that will change them all. Shot in vérité style over several years, “Sweetheart Deal” offers an intimate portrait of hope, heartbreak and resilience on the fringes of modern America.
’Sweetheart Deal,’ Directed by Elisa Levine and Gabriel Miller
Photo credit: CUFF30.org
A global champion of the underground scene,...
- 9/14/2023
- by adam@hollywoodchicago.com (Adam Fendelman)
- HollywoodChicago.com
Sweetheart Deal
One of the standout documentaries at Slamdance 2023, Sweetheart Deal began life as an observational study of sex workers plying their trade on Aurora Avenue in Seattle, and also took in their interactions with Laughn ‘Elliot’ Doescher, a man living in an Rv on the avenue who offered them food, shelter and other forms of support. It turned into something very different when information emerged about Elliot which nobody was prepared for, leaving the filmmakers and their other participants in a state of shock. In the run-up to the screening, I arranged to speak with codirector Elisa Levine.
The film opens with a scene which shows Elliot feeding pigeons. All of a sudden, he scoops one of them up off the ground. “If you hold ‘em right they don’t usually struggle too much,” he says. It’s a scene which is a little creepy at the time, but which takes.
One of the standout documentaries at Slamdance 2023, Sweetheart Deal began life as an observational study of sex workers plying their trade on Aurora Avenue in Seattle, and also took in their interactions with Laughn ‘Elliot’ Doescher, a man living in an Rv on the avenue who offered them food, shelter and other forms of support. It turned into something very different when information emerged about Elliot which nobody was prepared for, leaving the filmmakers and their other participants in a state of shock. In the run-up to the screening, I arranged to speak with codirector Elisa Levine.
The film opens with a scene which shows Elliot feeding pigeons. All of a sudden, he scoops one of them up off the ground. “If you hold ‘em right they don’t usually struggle too much,” he says. It’s a scene which is a little creepy at the time, but which takes.
- 2/4/2023
- by Jennie Kermode
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
When we first meet Laughn Doescher – or Elliot, as he is known on the street – he’s feeding pigeons. Deftly, he slides his hands around one of them, scooping it up. “If you hold ‘em right they don’t usually struggle too much,” he says.
Elliot lives in his Rv. He says that he used to be a criminal investigator. Of course, a lot of men say things like that. Maybe it’s true, maybe it isn’t. What matters to the sex workers who visit him is that he treats them with kindness. They can talk with him and he really seems to listen. He feeds them. He lets them sleep there is they need to. He doesn’t think less of them because they use heroin. It’s a rare thing for women in that situation to encounter somebody they can trust.
Elisa Levine and Gabriel Miller’s documentary,...
Elliot lives in his Rv. He says that he used to be a criminal investigator. Of course, a lot of men say things like that. Maybe it’s true, maybe it isn’t. What matters to the sex workers who visit him is that he treats them with kindness. They can talk with him and he really seems to listen. He feeds them. He lets them sleep there is they need to. He doesn’t think less of them because they use heroin. It’s a rare thing for women in that situation to encounter somebody they can trust.
Elisa Levine and Gabriel Miller’s documentary,...
- 1/30/2023
- by Jennie Kermode
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
Fest unveils Narrative, Documentary, Breakouts, Spotlight, and Unstoppable programming line-ups.
Organisers at the hybrid 29th Slamdance Film Festival have announced that the word premiere of Dimitri Coats’ Free LSD will close the festival on January 20 2023 as they also unveiled Narrative, Documentary, Breakouts, Spotlight, and Unstoppable programming line-ups.
Free LSD follows an adult store owner who takes an experimental drug that provides a glimpse into a parallel universe where he is the leader of a band battling evil aliens over the future of human consciousness. Keith Morris, Coats, Autry Fulbright II, Dh Peligro, and Jack Black are among the cast.
The...
Organisers at the hybrid 29th Slamdance Film Festival have announced that the word premiere of Dimitri Coats’ Free LSD will close the festival on January 20 2023 as they also unveiled Narrative, Documentary, Breakouts, Spotlight, and Unstoppable programming line-ups.
Free LSD follows an adult store owner who takes an experimental drug that provides a glimpse into a parallel universe where he is the leader of a band battling evil aliens over the future of human consciousness. Keith Morris, Coats, Autry Fulbright II, Dh Peligro, and Jack Black are among the cast.
The...
- 12/5/2022
- by Jeremy Kay
- ScreenDaily
The Seattle International Film Festival closed its 48th edition on Sunday by announcing its top honors, presenting awards at a ceremony at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in downtown Seattle.
“Klondike,” a film following a family that lives on the tumultuous border of Russia and Ukraine in 2014, was awarded the grand jury prize within the festival’s official competition.
“For a work both tragically prophetic and universal in its impact, a ferocious and formalist vision of war that fuses humanism, black comedy and horror into a searing and original vision, we award the Grand Jury Prize to Maryna Er Gorbach’s ‘Klondike,'” said the jury, composed of Angel An, senior director of acquisitions at Roadside Attraction; David Ansen, lead programmer at the Palm Spring International Film Festival; and Matthew Campbell, artistic director of the Denver Film Society and the Denver Film Festival.
“Know Your Place,” a drama following two teenage...
“Klondike,” a film following a family that lives on the tumultuous border of Russia and Ukraine in 2014, was awarded the grand jury prize within the festival’s official competition.
“For a work both tragically prophetic and universal in its impact, a ferocious and formalist vision of war that fuses humanism, black comedy and horror into a searing and original vision, we award the Grand Jury Prize to Maryna Er Gorbach’s ‘Klondike,'” said the jury, composed of Angel An, senior director of acquisitions at Roadside Attraction; David Ansen, lead programmer at the Palm Spring International Film Festival; and Matthew Campbell, artistic director of the Denver Film Society and the Denver Film Festival.
“Know Your Place,” a drama following two teenage...
- 4/24/2022
- by J. Kim Murphy
- Variety Film + TV
Exclusive: The Film Sales Company, in Berlin screening Forum selection H., has come on to produce the documentary Sweetheart Deal with Peggy Case and Elisa Haradon.
Haradon and Gabriel Miller direct the film about three heroin addict prostitutes who seek help from a man who is not who he seems to be. The film goes into edit this spring.
Andrew Herwitz’s New York-based The Film Sales Company will also serve as executive producer on Nelson George and Leslie Norville’s documentary A Ballerina’s Tale.
That film is in post and chronicles the life of superstar black ballet dancer Misty Copeland.
Fsc holds world rights to Fourm entry and recent Sundance premiere H., directed by Rania Attieh and Daniel Garcia and set in the near future as two women undergo physical and psychological changes as disaster threatens their town.
Herwitz has reported strong buyer interest in Berlin on the documentary Ballet 422. Magnolia holds Us...
Haradon and Gabriel Miller direct the film about three heroin addict prostitutes who seek help from a man who is not who he seems to be. The film goes into edit this spring.
Andrew Herwitz’s New York-based The Film Sales Company will also serve as executive producer on Nelson George and Leslie Norville’s documentary A Ballerina’s Tale.
That film is in post and chronicles the life of superstar black ballet dancer Misty Copeland.
Fsc holds world rights to Fourm entry and recent Sundance premiere H., directed by Rania Attieh and Daniel Garcia and set in the near future as two women undergo physical and psychological changes as disaster threatens their town.
Herwitz has reported strong buyer interest in Berlin on the documentary Ballet 422. Magnolia holds Us...
- 2/11/2015
- by jeremykay67@gmail.com (Jeremy Kay)
- ScreenDaily
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